Scholars suggest that culturally responsive instructional supervision (CRIS) is an important component of equitable teaching practices in schools. This fictional case study details the experiences of a fifth-grade team who, along with their principal and their instructional coach, perform a discourse analysis of their own mathematics lessons to…

The IDEA requires schools to evaluate and provide services to students who have a mental health issue that is deemed an educational disability or a mental health issue that is comorbid with an educational disability. Etscheidt and colleagues (this issue) propose a six component approach to securing school-based mental health services for students…

This article briefly responds to the following question: Why aren't more students with severe disabilities being placed in general education classrooms? I offer five reasons why more students with severe disabilities are not included, because: (a) ableism persists, (b) schools continue to misapply the least restrictive environment provisions of…

The adoption of "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) across the U.S. requires that the field of science education develops high-quality instructional materials. This need is particularly urgent as schools and districts are expected to design or adapt instructional materials for an…

Relative to their middle and high school teacher counterparts, elementary science teachers are both uniquely situated and uniquely challenged for excellent science instruction. More than 90 percent of elementary teachers work in self-contained classrooms, meaning they have opportunities to connect their science instruction with English language…

Two decades ago, the New Jersey Supreme Court in "Abbott v. Burke" mandated that the state establish high quality preschool education in the 31 highest-poverty school districts. New Jersey created a pre-K program with high standards and a continuous improvement system that transformed a patchwork of private and public programs into a…

Language in education for children and youth from low-income communities of color, including those learning English as an additional language, has been fraught for decades with ideological entanglements, conceptual ambiguities, and empirical limitations. Meanwhile, the teacher learning challenge to implement equitable teaching practices remains…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides federal funds to improve elementary and secondary education in the nation's schools. ESSA requires states and Local Educational Agencies (i.e., school districts and charter schools) to take a variety of actions to ensure that all children, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, gender, disability…

School segregation and inequity are deep-rooted realities in U.S. society. Despite historical efforts at integration, too many schools are de facto segregated, and those serving mostly students of color are routinely under-resourced when compared to those servicing mostly white students. Teachers and students can struggle to talk about this…

Grow Your Own (GYO) educator programs are a potential strategy for districts and universities to employ to help recruit and retain teachers of color. When designed within an asset-based framework, they emphasize equitable approaches and critical perspectives that combine the powerful roles of "homegrown" teachers, culturally-relevant…

This paper has three goals. First, it describes the broader research on summer reading loss. Second, it discusses how research and development efforts informed the key components of Project READS (Reading Enhances Achievement During Summer), a scaffolded voluntary summer reading intervention for children in grades 3 to 5. The second part of the…

Jay, an African American male, was placed in the gifted class in fifth grade. He lined up with his new class on the first day of school, but refused to enter the classroom. He was angry that he had been placed in the class with "those kids" and wanted to be in the other class where his friends were. Each day thereafter, Jay struggled with being…

To spotlight effective practices, the Washington State Board of Education (SBE) is highlighting schools that are closing achievement gaps and performing at high levels. In 2009, SBE partnered with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to create the Washington Accountability Index. The Index is a new way to measure schools'…

This publication focuses on special education inclusion. Inclusion is a term that expresses commitment to providing specially designed instruction and support for students with special needs in the context of a general education classroom. All students in the school are full members of the community, participating equitably in the opportunities…

Richard Murnane observes that the American ideal of equality of educational opportunity has for years been more the rhetoric than the reality of the nation's political life. Children living in poverty, he notes, tend to be concentrated in low-performing schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. They are likely to leave school without the skills…