We describe how a modified version of an emergency survival strategy led our team in addressing problems of practice identified in two second grade classrooms. We attended to the urgent needs of students by enacting the curriculum with integrity, doing what was most important and effective, while accommodating their classroom context (LeMahieu,…

Ever-growing expectations exist for educators to use assessments to collect, analyze, and interpret data, but how, if at all, are these processes affecting instruction? This descriptive case study of one team of second grade teachers offers an analysis of the links between teachers' use of data within their collaborative team meetings and…

The New York State Department of Education (NYSED) has been supporting selected districts in the planning and implementation of PreK-3rd Grade systems. NYSED is supporting the use of the Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches developed by Kauerz and Coffman (2013). Recognizing the ultimate goal of PreK-3rd…

The purpose of this article is to describe the outcomes of a parallel curriculum project between life sciences and physical education. Throughout a 6-week period, students in grades two through five became members of teams that represented different animal species and biomes, and concurrently participated in a season of gymnastics skills and…

Part of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) research series titled "Teachers' Time: Collaborating for Learning, Teaching, and Leading," this case study looks at the Santa Monica Alternative School House (SMASH), a K-8 public school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD). It is a school of…

Collaborative teaching is an option worth exploring at the elementary school level. The problem is many teachers lack the knowledge to effectively make these co-teaching relationships work. The purpose of this study is to identify effective co-teaching strategies to enhance collaborative teaching relationships. The study documents 1st through 4th…

Closing the achievement gap in reading for struggling students is a goal that most urban schools are striving to achieve in this era of No Child Left Behind. Early intervention remains the best approach for successfully supporting those who struggle in the primary grades, but instruction must be targeted or matched to the assessed needs of the…

Understanding the concept of area is a challenge for children. In the past, instruction about area often focused more on learning procedures for measuring rather than on learning underlying concepts. To develop conceptual understanding, primary students need experiences with (1) partitioning a region with a two-dimensional unit of measure; (2)…

The authors conducted a quasi-experimental investigation of effects on achievement by grade-level teams focused on improving learning. For 2 years (Phase 1), principals-only training was provided. During the final 3 years (Phase 2), school-based training was provided for principals and teacher leaders on stabilizing team settings and using…

In Hilliard, OH, administrators, teachers, kids and parents make a school a "community." Visualize, if you will, a symphony orchestra. The violins play as one, led by the concertmaster in the first violin section, who is first among equals. As the music builds, the cellos add their glorious tone while the woodwinds may introduce the theme.…

This study was designed to supporting teachers on developing teaching norms based on classroom-learning community in which students are willing to engage in discourse. A collaborative team consisting of the researcher and four second-grade teachers were set up. The collaborative community intended to generate norms of acceptable or appropriate…