High-quality measures of instructional practice are essential for research and evaluation of innovative instructional policies and programs. However, existing measures have generally proven inadequate because of cost and validity issues. This paper addresses two potential drawbacks of survey self-report measures: variation in teachers'…

Additional research is needed on ways in which urban youth report their civic engagement. Existing research indicates that federal legislation has resulted in reduced instructional time and resources in social studies and civic education in many states, which has led to a civic education opportunity gap that resonates through many urban…

In 2013 Hedmark University College conducted a research project where students from a game development project/study program developed and tested a Pervasive Game for learning as part of a class in System Thinking. The overall game goal was to teach Sustainability through System Thinking, and to give the students a real world experience with their…

The motivation for this paper is the authors' recent work on several randomized control trials in which they found the primary result, which averaged across subgroups or sites, to be moderated by demographic or site characteristics. They are led to examine a distinction that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) makes between "confirmatory"…

The concept of "implementation fidelity" is broadly used to capture the extent to which an intervention is executed as intended by the designers of the intervention (Century, Rudnick, & Freeman, 2010; Huntley, 2005, McNaught, Tarr, & Sears, 2010, Munter, 2010). Though implementation fidelity instruments are often used to assess…

Twenty-four studies were included in this systematic review of vocabulary research literature. The review corroborates the findings of past studies that several strategies have emerged that increase students' vocabulary knowledge. Findings further reinforce the National Reading Panel's recommendations regarding the context and magnitude of studies…

State and municipal policymakers are increasingly addressing the practice of social promotion in schools--moving children along to the next grade whether or not they have mastered the curriculum--by mandating test-based grade promotion. This paper draws conclusions about the effects of a policy limiting social promotion. To do so, it employs a…

As part of an interview protocol investigating teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in statistics, 40 teachers were presented with a newspaper article reporting a phone-in survey about the legalisation of marijuana. The article and a question about the reliability of the sample had earlier been used in student surveys, and three student…

This issue brief focuses on one particular report, released in September 2009, that has been widely cited by charter school advocates because it appears to show remarkable results. In the report, "How New York City's Charter Schools Affect Achievement," Stanford University professor Caroline Hoxby and her colleagues Sonali Murarka and…

Victimization resulting from bullying affects millions of school children worldwide each year (e.g. Nansel et al., 2001; Sapouna, 2008; Smokowski & Kopasz, 2005). These children face the fear and humiliation of verbal, physical, and relational aggression and as a result, often suffer psychological ill effects (e.g. Kochenderfer-Ladd, & Skinner,…

The study of adolescent development rests on methodologically appropriate collection and interpretation of longitudinal data. While all longitudinal studies of adolescent development involve missing data, the methods to treat missingness that have been recommended most often focus on missing data from cross-sectional studies. The problems of…

The objective of this study was to examine the pattern of relations between missing weight and height (BMI) data and a range of demographic, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and academic measures in a young sample of elementary school children. A secondary analysis of a large cross-sectional study, PLAY-On, was conducted using self-reported…

Differences in reading comprehension were examined in students with disabilities after use of three reader modification types. Participants (n=10) conveniently selected from two school districts were students grades three through eight reading on a third grade level that received a reader as a modification in their Individualized Education…

The purpose of this article is to document the legacy and continuing influence of Michael Pressley's work in the field of reading research and instruction. Descriptions are provided to demonstrate how he translated his data from the cognitive sciences into highly effective pedagogy. A second component of this article discusses how Michael…

This report describes efforts by five states (Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Rhode Island) to improve adolescent literacy. Highlighting common challenges and lessons, the report examines how each state has engaged key stakeholders, set rigorous goals and standards, aligned resources to support adolescent literacy goals, built…