Accelerating the acquisition of reading skills in at-risk third- through sixth-grade students is critically important if educators expect to meet federal and state performance targets and also meet children's needs. In an attempt to rapidly advance learning in reading, a large urban school district provided a group of 2,227 students performing…

While parental involvement's effect on student achievement has been explored in current research, and the relationship among parent, teacher, and student is often discussed, no definite guidelines have been stipulated for successful engagement between the three. The purpose of this project was to examine parental involvement practices…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in how high and low performing elementary school districts use and analyze data to differentiate instruction, make changes to district/grade level curriculum, determine professional development needs, determine teacher effectiveness, and determine the use of school district…

Providing a meaningful and experiential learning environment for all students has long created a concern for alternate ways to teach students who are reportedly demonstrating non-mastery on state standardized assessments. As the benchmark for showing successful academic achievement increases, so does the need for discovering effective ways for…

Using data for school improvement is a key goal of Race to the Top, and now is the time to make data-driven school improvement a priority. However, many educators are drowning in data. Boost your professional learning community's ability to translate data into action with this new book from Pam Robbins and Robert T. Hess. "The Data Toolkit"…

Problem and purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate reading achievement levels of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade Central Valley students who participated in Reading Recovery in first grade and those students eligible that did not participate in Reading Recovery in first grade (1999, 2000, and 2001). The study also sought to…

Decision making is one of the essential skills advocated by the National Council for the Social Studies for effective citizenship in a democratic society. Leaders in any society make decisions that influence many lives. In a democratic society, we expect that deductive and inductive reasoning guide decisions made for the common good. However, what…

This playbook draws from the findings of "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades," the largest empirical study of this grade level conducted to date. The "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades" study was designed to find out what higher-performing schools do differently. The result is a compelling set of specific, actionable…

This article deals with a recurrent situation in congregational schools, in which parents lobby for a reduction in the number of days per week of instruction. Following two similar studies by Joseph Reimer, the article utilizes the theoretical construct of a "social drama" as a frame for the recounting and analysis of a recent occurrence…

The traditional roles of teachers and principals have changed and improved organizational teamwork is fostered by all members of the learning community assuming decision making roles. Toward this end, the purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between teachers' perceptions of the leadership behaviors of secondary…

If a principal's goal is to improve the overall quality of reading instruction in his school, this guide can help him identify the most critical changes that must be made. It describes the types of instruction and leadership activities necessary to help all children become proficient readers in elementary school. It does not contain all the…

This report presents findings from a study conducted by The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education (GW-CEEE) under the sponsorship of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze school-based decision-making practices relevant to the inclusion and…

This framework identifies the main ideas, major events, key individuals, and unifying themes of American history as a basis for preparing the 2010 assessment. The framework recognizes that U.S. history includes powerful ideas, common and diverse traditions, economic developments, technological and scientific innovations, philosophical debates,…

A number of research agendas including teaching games for understanding, invasion games tactics, cooperative learning, seeking solutions to ill-defined problems, and examining learner's use of domain specific knowledge share thoughtful decision making as a common denominator. For the most part, each of these research strands have been investigated…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 11th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2014), October 25-27, 2014, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and endorsed by the Japanese Society for Information and Systems in…