For the last 40 years, business leaders, philanthropists, and a host of nonprofit advocacy groups have pushed for higher standards, academic rigor, standardized testing, and newer models of educating children. But, today, some of these reformers are feeling disillusioned and believe that the investments intended to transform education and provide…

Teaching basic personal financial concepts and principles even among young learners is beneficial not only for the child, but also for the family and the entire society. This study aimed to develop an integrated financial education program for kindergarten learners. The study employed developmental research following three stages (analysis,…

Context: The standards-based movement in U.S. public education has reached as far as kindergarten. Early primary teachers are increasingly required to teach academic standards in core subject areas, while engaging in increased levels of student assessment. In kindergarten, this growing emphasis on academic standards and student assessment is…

As part of a graduate student internship, an alignment study was completed for Ignite™ by Hatch®, in partnership between The University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Center for Educational Measurement and Evaluation and Hatch®. Ignite™ has 341 Core games amongst 7 domains to assist early childhood learners: Mathematics, Language and…

Prop boxes are a collection of materials for sociodramatic play in which children act out authentic roles and scenes of the real world. Teachers collect materials around a topic or theme that connects to students' interests and addresses academic standards across multiple subjects. In this article, the authors suggest that prop boxes can make more…

The Early Literacy Program focuses on the development of early literacy skills, with additional emphasis placed on intervention for students at risk of not meeting grade-based reading benchmarks. Resources available to aid these students include interventions and supports for students in grades kindergarten through third grade, standards and…

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades. The major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning outcome patterns for ELs. As a first step in identifying the potential impacts of these policy shifts, this report describes changes over time in…

Inclusive education as a curricular trend is implemented by countries as an action taken in response to the collective call of the Salamanca Statement. It carries the tenet that all learners should be educated alongside their peers regardless of physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and economic, language, cultural, and other perceived…

Many recent articles have focused on reading instruction in kindergarten, but few have solicited the beliefs of the experts--kindergarten teachers. This study examined California teachers' perceptions of teaching reading to kindergarten students. Kindergarten teachers from northern to southern California were surveyed (N = 103). Teachers reported…

The Louisiana English language arts student standards were created by over one hundred Louisiana educators with input by thousands of parents and teachers from across the state. Educators envisioned what proficient students should know and be able to do to compete in our society and focused their efforts on creating standards that would allow them…

Every student in Hawai'i's public school system -- regardless of their geographic location, background, economic standing or whether they are in English or Hawaiian language pathways -- must have the opportunity to discover and pursue their passions and see first-hand how their interests can translate into successful and meaningful careers that…

This book presents a validated observation instrument to support and further develop the pedagogic expertise of teachers of English Learners in US schools. Based on sociocultural and second language teaching and learning theories, the Observation Protocol for Academic Literacies (OPAL) has a variety of uses across teacher preparation programs,…

This study examined the perceptions of participants regarding the use of embedded video demonstration lessons during literacy professional development sessions. The videos were captured in an urban elementary classroom and modeled two new literacy strategies. Based on survey responses from 160 kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school…

We used multilevel analysis to examine the predictive validity of scores from the Framework for Teaching (FFT), the observation measure used most often to evaluate teachers' instruction. We investigated how well 81 kindergarten teachers' FFT scores for eight reading and eight mathematics lessons observed throughout the year predicted students'…

Over the last 2 decades, policymakers' standards-based accountability reforms in the United States, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, have fundamentally changed public schooling in general and kindergarten specifically. As this has occurred, little is known about how families make sense of these changes in schooling. By sharing findings from a…