"This is the piece that's been missing." This reaction is common among educators engaged in AIW Iowa, an initiative that engages teachers and administrators in professional learning communities that are improving student achievement, increasing student engagement, and building a schoolwide professional culture focused on improving…

Guided by a new framework, the NAEP science assessment was updated in 2009 to keep the content current with key developments in science, curriculum standards, assessments, and research. The 2009 framework organizes science content into three broad content areas. Physical science includes concepts related to properties and changes of matter, forms…

Dr. Wangari Maathai--"environmentalist, human rights advocate, global peace worker, and community builder"--passed away in 2011. The first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Maathai left a legacy even greater than the 47 million trees that her organization, the Greenbelt Movement, has planted across Kenya since 1977. As…

Legislation passed during the 2001 Iowa legislative session established the Student Achievement and Teacher Quality Program, Iowa Code Section 284.12(1). This legislation requires the Iowa Department of Education (DE) to annually report the statewide progress on the following: student achievement scores in mathematics and reading at the fourth and…

This study investigated the perceptions of African American adult family members, their children, and teachers regarding how family members viewed their roles in assisting their elementary-aged children to become better readers. The study compared each of the subgroups' perceptions respectively regarding: (a) the child's reading level; (b) family…