The EdHub Library is an online teacher professional development platform that serves 250 school districts as part of the Network for Educator Effectiveness in Missouri. It has a collection of more than 300 online activities. This design case describes the efforts of re-developing EdHub due to technical and usability issues of the first generation…

Teachers can use expository texts to teach academic vocabulary, content knowledge, text structure, and text features. National associations' recommended book lists are often used to identify books for classrooms. Previously we identified expository texts on these lists from 2001-2002 and 2011-2012. The current study explored instructional…

This study explored the extent to which kindergarten and first grade teachers provided individualized reading instruction to struggling readers during a unique one-on-one reading instruction task. Three outcomes of teachers' instructional strategies were captured: code-focused strategies, meaning-focused strategies, and level of challenge. Child…

This case centers on a Black woman school administrator and efforts to disrupt Whiteness among an urban elementary school teaching staff. The case details the resistance she encounters while encouraging teachers to confront "White fragility" and consider how their fragile perspectives on race and racism shape how they educate Black…

This article reports on the findings of an empirical study that examined elementary school teachers' views about the English language learners' (ELLs) program placement assessment, and progress assessment. Specifically, the interviews in the study explored teachers' perspectives on the effectiveness of these assessments and the connection between…

Research Findings: This study of kindergarten monolingual and Dual Language Learners (DLLs) (N=263; mean age = 63.40 months) and their teachers (N=27) found significant mean differences in the observed quality of language interactions in classrooms with differing proportions of DLLs. Teachers instructing in classrooms with higher numbers of DLLs…

Purpose: English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers tend to demonstrate low literacy levels in instructional materials and feel unprepared to use materials effectively. To better prepare pre-service EFL teachers for real classrooms that they will teach upon graduation, current K-12 teachers can provide significant insights into the needed…

This study examined the relationship of teachers' ratings of students' 21st century skills (i.e., persistence, curiosity, externalizing and internalizing affect, and cognition) via the Human Behavior Rating Scale: Brief (HBRS: Brief; Eaves & Woods-Groves, 2011) with student performance. Midwestern K-11 teachers (n = 96) rated students (n =…

Teacher-child relationships have been linked to children's classroom engagement and to academic achievement. However, researchers have paid minimal attention to individual child factors that predict the development of these relationships. In the current study, we examined executive function (EF) prior to school entry as a predictor of…

Time spent in the outdoors has been proven to benefit individuals of all ages mentally and physically. For example, exposure to nature reduces stress levels, induces relaxation, and provides Vitamin D. Prior research has linked free play outdoors to helping elementary children focus better in the classroom, reducing symptoms of attention deficit…

Executive function (EF) describes a complex set of skills, including flexible attention, inhibitory control, and working memory, that coordinate to achieve behavioral regulation. Visuospatial skills (VS) describe the capacity to visually perceive and understand spatial relationships among objects. Emerging research suggests VS skills are…

This qualitative research study examined 13 preschool to third-grade teachers' experiences reading and discussing culturally relevant texts (CRTs) with their students. Teachers worked at four schools in a large urban school district and with child populations from different sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. We employed provisional and…

This study examined the impact of a commonly adopted elementary universal social-emotional learning program, Second Step, on student social-emotional and academic outcomes following 2 years of implementation. The cluster-randomized wait-list control trial included 61 schools, 321 teachers, and 8,941 early elementary students across 2 states, with…

Within the current accountability framework of public education, kindergarten teachers face the challenge of balancing traditional developmental programing and current academically oriented curriculum. Central to this challenge is teachers' uses of assessment to measure and communicate student learning in relation to their curricular stance.…

For children with the most serious and persistent academic and behavior problems, parent involvement in education, particularly teacher perceptions of involvement, is essential to avert their expected long-term negative outcomes. Despite the widespread interest in and perceived importance of parent involvement in education, however, few…