Assessing the achievement of students in elementary and secondary schools and the nation's educational progress is fundamental to informing education policy approaches. Congressional interest in this area includes and extends beyond the annual assessments administered by states to comply with the educational accountability requirements of Title…

Environmental education (EE) facilitates students' scientific and environmental literacy, and addresses content areas including sustainability, ecology, and civic responsibility. However, U.S. science content compartmentalization and EE's interdisciplinary nature historically made it a fragmented curriculum within U.S. schools. To gain a better…

This report provides a snapshot of the extent to which U.S. public school students are taught by certified and experienced teachers. The report uses two datasets available to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). SASS provides a…

Each year, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) updates its continuing, five-year comprehensive strategic plan for elementary and secondary education, per the Education Reform and Accountability Act of 2004. ISBE's Comprehensive Strategic Plan for Elementary and Secondary Education provides a comprehensive review of how the agency…

In 2013, the Arizona State University (ASU) Preparatory Academy (ASU Prep) was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant through the U.S. Department of Education. The district applied with an ambitious grant designed to innovate programming for a total of six schools: two elementary (one Kindergarten through grade 5; one Kindergarten through…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of students' reading literacy, measured by the PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) test, on their performance in the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) mathematics and science tests. The data on 4,125 Italian students from 199 schools were analyzed:…

Packed with ideas for both new and veteran teachers of K-8 students, this book touches on a variety of topics that are especially relevant to the first week of school. The author provides critical information that includes arranging and navigating the classroom, setting basic expectations, communicating routines, and understanding your students'…

In this article, the authors provide a synopsis of the 2014 Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) Workshop. The Workshop explored how fiction and nonfiction children's and young adult's literature create opportunities for in-depth learning in the content areas. Participants had the opportunity to hear the stories of authors and illustrators of…

This is an abridged version of the full assessment framework, written for a general audience. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), otherwise known as The Nation's Report Card, informs the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States. Report cards communicate the findings of…

The paper attempts to investigate the influence of textbooks on the results of international assessments such as TIMSS [Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study] and PIRLS [Progress in International Reading Literacy Study]. It tries to consider the role and impact of school textbooks on PIRLS and TIMSS performance across countries. As…

Findings from assessments of fourth-grade science have indicated that students in Korea scored higher than international averages. Research results have also shown that attitudes toward science were related to achievement outcomes for Korean students. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between confidence in science and…

Motivational constructs and students' engagements have great impacts on students' mathematics achievements, yet they have not been theoretically investigated using international large-scale assessment data. This study utilized the mathematics data of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 to conduct a comparative and…

The racial and ethnic makeup of the United States is in constant flux and is expected to experience substantial increases in racial and ethnic diversity over the next four decades. The problem the American educational system faces is attempting to problematize race/racism in its educational system and creating a system to counteract educational…

The "TIMSS 2019 Assessment Frameworks" provides the foundation for the four international assessments that comprise the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA's) TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2019: TIMSS Mathematics--Fourth Grade, TIMSS Mathematics--Eighth Grade, TIMSS…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only continuing and nationally representative measure of trends in academic achievement of U.S. elementary and secondary school students in various subjects. For more than four decades, NAEP assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S.…