The aim of the present study was to investigate children's achievement goal orientations and their relations to math achievement in the primary grades. The sample consisted of 179 children who were in the 2nd and 3rd grades during the first measurement and in the 3rd and 4th grades during the second measurement. Children's self-ratings were…

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal childhood resilience study which investigated the relationship between resilience-related beliefs and positive child development. Three waves of data collection (T1, T2, and T3) were completed in January 2005, July 2005, and January 2006 with a sample of 843 grade 4 pupils, drawn from six primary…

The author of this paper describes the responsibilities of the National Assessment Governing Board, of which she served as a member from November 1997 to September 2004. The Board is unlike any other board of which she has been a member. At the quarterly meetings, the Board not only discusses and makes major policy decisions but determines the…

Objective: To test Goodman's theoretical 5-factor model of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in an analysis of the Norwegian parent (P) and teacher (T) versions of the questionnaire. Method: The T-SDQ was analyzed for 8,999 (95.4% of all) children in primary school grades 2-4 in Bergen, Norway, whereas the P-SDQ was examined for…

This article reports comprehensive findings from a national study of the teaching and assessment of writing in classrooms across ten Canadian provinces and two of three territories. Through interviews with 216 grade 4-8 teachers and observations and interviews in 22 classrooms (1 to 3 classrooms in each province), we gathered information about…

A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the effects of a supplemental mathematics intervention that emphasized fluency building for computations and procedures. All fourth- and fifth-grade English-speaking students from a single school district who were participating in general education mathematics instruction and had a 2009 year-end…

Multiple-choice testing is an educational reality. Rather than complain about the negative impact these tests may have on teaching and learning, why not use them to better understand your students' true mathematical knowledge and comprehension? Maryann Wickett and Eunice Hendrix-Martin show teachers how to move beyond the student's answer--right…

The purpose of this mixed methods phenomenological study was to explore the data-driven instructional decisions that elementary teachers make in literacy. Educators have moved towards a culture of being data-driven, and have declared data use in schools to be significant to school improvement and accountability (Marsh, Pane, & Hamilton, 2006).…

The category of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) accounts for almost 50% of the students identified for special education services in America (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education, 2010). The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the participating school system's (PSS) Special Education Procedural Guide…

Background: The development of socially appropriate behaviour is increasingly seen as an important part of a student's education. Aim: To examine whether changes in a student's behaviour, as part of an ongoing social empathy intervention, can in part be explained by the difference between the student's self-perception of their behaviour and their…

This study was undertaken to explore how classroom management is currently being used by teachers in classrooms and to examine if classroom management practices have any effect on student academic success. The study took place in two Fresno County school districts. The study consisted of a 15 minute voluntary survey being sent out to fourth and…

This study examines trends in American students' growth trajectories in reading and math achievement over the past three decades. Drawing upon multiple sources of national assessment data, cohort analyses provide new evidence on the stability and change of national academic growth curves. The emerging trends imply a tripartite pattern where…

French students in grades 4 and 5 in schools around Paris wrote explanatory texts in L1 following a lesson in the Life Sciences, four times over the course of the school year. Each session included written correspondence with another student; half the students (Group G1) made suggestions about ways to improve the drafts of the other half of the…

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) is often used to benchmark growth in the fall, winter, and spring. CBM-R is also used to set goals and monitor student progress between benchmarking occasions. The results of previous research establish an expectation that weekly growth on CBM-R tasks is consistently linear throughout the…

This study examines the effects of two test modifications--resource guide and read-aloud--on the reading performance of students within the context of a large-scale statewide assessment in Georgia. Schools were both randomly selected and assigned to one of three possible test conditions: resource guide, read-aloud, or standard test condition.…