Too many schools are still being built today as warehouses with windows; they get the job done on some minimal level, but beyond that, they simply do not excite the children who spend a great deal of their lives within their walls. Creating an environmentally friendly building is important, but that's only part of the equation. The author and his…

This facilitator's guide is designed to assist professional learning communities (PLCs) in applying evidence-based strategies to help K-8 English learners acquire the language and literacy skills needed to succeed academically. Through this collaborative learning experience, educators will expand their knowledge base as they read, discuss, share,…

These handouts, which are meant to accompany the facilitator's guide, are designed to assist professional learning communities (PLCs) in applying evidence-based strategies to help K-8 English learners acquire the language and literacy skills needed to succeed academically. The facilitator's guide uses a five-step process for collaborative…

Public education in the United States is currently enveloped in an era of intense accountability. At the national level the "No Child Left Behind Act," demands accountability in any district or school receiving federal funds One of the goals of the No Child Left Behind legislation had its roots in the Texas education accountability…

This paper reports the results of a descriptive study on the use of a technology-enhanced formative assessment system called Accelerated Math (AM) for ELLs and their native-English-speaking (NES) peers. It was comprised of analyses of an extant database of 18,549 students, including 2,057 ELLs, from grades 1 through 8 across 30 U.S. states. These…

This study examines teacher efficacy within the context of professional development to understand the relationship between teacher efficacy and teacher collaboration. Two theoretical frameworks framed this teacher efficacy study based on "locus of control" and "social cognitive theory." A 29-item questionnaire was e-mailed to…

This paper presents a series of illustrative LEGO Mindstorms-based science and math activities, developed under an NSF GK-12 Fellows project, for elementary, middle, and high school grades. The activities, developed by engineering and science graduate Fellows in partnership with K-12 teachers, are grade appropriate, address pertinent learning…

The setting: the science classroom. The characters: you and your students. The scene: Your students acting out scientific discoveries, modeling a frog's life cycle, mimicking the transition from liquid to solid. This is "dramatic science", a teaching approach that uses acting techniques to explore and develop young children's ideas about…

In 2007, Georgia developed a comprehensive framework to define what students need to know. One component of this framework emphasizes the use of both formative and summative assessments as part of an integral and specific component of the teachers. performance evaluation. Georgia administers the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) to every…

Multiple studies have shown that kindergarten measures of phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are good predictors of reading achievement in the primary grades. However, less attention has been given to the early predictors of later reading achievement. This study used a modified best-subsets variable-selection technique to examine…

This study investigated average yearly reading growth norms of at-risk middle school students as a function of start of year reading grade level. Data for this study were collected from an urban school in the western United States over five years and tracked the yearly growth of 2,485 seventh- and eighth-grade students using a Lexile-linked…

This study examines the mediating role of homework in the daily practice of a middle-school mathematics teacher and her colleagues in Shanghai. It aims to explore how a system of homework activities mediates and engenders a cultural pedagogy characterized by transforming errors into resources for teaching and learning. The transformation itself…

Prioritization of school students with additional learning needs is a reality due to a finite resource base. Limited evidence exists regarding teachers' prioritization of primary and secondary school students with additional learning needs. The aim of the present article was to differentiate teachers' perceptions of the level of support required…

In 2006, the Indiana General Assembly considered Senate Bill (SB) 194 to allow school corporations to use three full student instructional days for professional development and parent-teacher conferences. This policy brief compares Indiana's current instructional time requirements and those proposed by SB 194 with the instructional time…

This study followed a cohort of students from Grade 1 to Grade 11 in one struggling school district that had Reading Recovery (RR) in the Grade 1. The RR program is an intervention given only to students in the Grade 1 who are reading below grade level on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Assessment. The researched district had a high poverty, high…