The FRIENDS Resilience programs provide cognitive-behavioral skills across the developmental spectrum and can be applied as a universal or selective prevention program. In the current study, we assessed whether, relative to the schools' existing counseling curriculum ("guidance"), FRIENDS improved social skills, problem behaviors, and…

This report examines how students are performing across the entire 2020-2021 school year in reading and mathematics during the pandemic. Based on insights from millions of student assessments, the report explores key questions effected by COVID-19 in education, including: (1) How much did students grow during the 2020-2021 school year compared…

Although Individual Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) has mandated states to collect and analyze data to determine if special education disproportionality is occurring within the local education agencies (LEAs), student of color continue to be disproportionately represented in special education programs. Historical trend data revealed that…

Aiming to provide better education facilities and improve the educational attainment of poor rural students, China's government has been merging remote rural primary schools into centralized village, town, or county schools since the late 1990s. To accompany the policy, boarding facilities have been constructed that allow (mandate) primary…

Amargosa Valley School in Nevada could be considered representative of almost any preK-8 school that serves a large proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and is focused on turning around persistently low achievement. Like other schools supported by federal School Improvement Grants, Amargosa is beginning to implement a reform plan…

Several social-emotional learning (SEL) or social-emotional and character development (SECD) programs have been shown to be effective at improving SEL/SECD skills, and some have also provided evidence of effectiveness in improving student behavior and academic achievement (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Very few SEL…

Story problems either bring students to a screeching halt or send them into a frenzied search for numbers and operations. They cause greater anxiety, still, in English language learners. These problems are often the nemesis of many a math teacher. This author grappled with this challenge in the context of teaching a series of lessons on integers…

One of the most difficult problems of modern school practice is how to prevent overcrowding the curriculum, breaking up the school day into small fragments of time devoted to disconnected tasks, and dissipating the energies of the children to such an extent that the process of education is hindered rather than helped by the attempts to enrich and…

Elementary education is that training which by common custom is deemed desirable and necessary for the duties and privileges of citizenship. It is usually made compulsory by law. Like all such definitions, the meaning of this statement becomes clear only through an examination of its interpretation as given in the curricula of the various school…