Recent results from national and international assessments continue to show a need for improvement in math achievement among U.S. students. For example, 60 per-cent of grade 4 students scored below the proficient level on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress. In an era of increasingly rigorous state standards, teachers at all grade…

Two professional development (PD) models for teachers were compared on teacher and student outcomes. Special education teachers participated in Literacy Learning Cohorts (LLC), a PD innovation designed to improve content and pedagogical knowledge for providing reading instruction to upper elementary students with learning disabilities. The LLC,…

Learning how to give effective feedback can be a difficult task for teacher leaders. This is especially true for what is called "hard feedback"--that is, feedback that challenges the teacher's practice and therefore may cause some level of professional discomfort. Educators at the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Learning have…

This ethnographic study reports on one elementary literacy coach's response to high-stakes testing and her approach to support third- through fifth-grade teachers in a Title I school in Texas. Sources of data included field notes and observations of classes and meetings, audio/video recordings, and transcribed interviews. The findings illustrate…

Previous research demonstrates that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can experience social difficulties. Therefore, the current study examined the effects of cross-age peer coaching on social behaviors of first graders with significant symptoms of ADHD using a multiple baseline design. Four students who met criteria…

On the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, one-third of U.S. 4th graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading. That's the good news. But what about the two-thirds of students who "didn't" read proficiently in 4th grade? For students who enter school with below-average language development, a one-year gain…

"To whom do you turn in this school for advice or information about mathematics instruction?" (Spillane, Healey, and Parise 2009, p. 413). When teachers in forty-four schools were asked this question, they were more likely to indicate a teacher leader in their school, rather than the school's principal or any other administrator.…

Students with challenging behavior severe enough to warrant placement in a self-contained special education classroom statistically have poor school and post-school outcomes compared to typical peers. Teachers in these classrooms often lack sufficient training to meet student needs. This pilot study investigated the use of a telehealth…

Due to recent waivers and current expectations of teacher performance, schools have been tasked to close their student achievement gaps in mathematics by 2014. Yet students still have not performed well in mathematics, which may be a direct link to teachers' instructional practices. Identifying a coaching model to improve student achievement…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) and the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) asserted the need for American children to receive scientifically research-based instruction and interventions. A variety of quantitative studies have determined components of effective reading interventions (Edmonds et…

Elementary mathematics coaches are placed in schools to construct leadership roles and to provide on-site, collaborative professional development addressing mathematical content, pedagogy, and curriculum in an effort to enhance instruction and improve student achievement. This 3-year randomized control study found that over time coaches positively…

For their 61st annual conference, the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) met in St. Petersburg, Florida. This year's conference theme was "Engaging All Readers through Explorations of Literacy, Language, and Culture," which was also used as the title for this year's "Yearbook." This "Yearbook"…

Previous research had indicated that pre-service teachers (PTs) with coaching orientations reinforced sexism and masculine bias while employing the sport education (SE) model. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether or not and the degree to which SE delivered by PTs with teaching orientations served to combat or reinforce sexism…

Teacher-educators and policy-makers recognize that ongoing training and support for high quality implementation of curricula can be a vital component of systems that ensure the value of education experiences, particularly for students at-risk of school failure (Meisels, 2007; Pew Charitable Trusts, 2007; Pianta, 2005). In particular, there is…

This paper describes an intervention programme that was originally intended to support transition to English as language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in Grade 4 in a township school, using a pre- and post-test design. Because the pre-tests revealed very poor literacy levels in both Zulu home language and English, the intervention programme was…