This article is drawn from a study conducted to explore how assessment conversations, a type of informal formative assessment, can support science learning in a technology-aided seventh-grade classroom in Northern California. The classroom setting where the study took place used interactive whiteboards in conjunction with the inquiry-based…

This paper offers a new way of understanding critical multicultural education through the lens of bi-directional assimilation (Alba & Nee, 2003), which better captures the connection between the pedagogical strategy of multiculturalism, and nation-building in a pluralist society. Bi-directional assimilation is a process of ethnic change…

Today's high school student faces several complex experiences that impact his or her decision to stay in school. These factors, often a culmination of school events beginning in the elementary years, are correlated to a student's likelihood of graduating from high school. Moreover, students with disabilities face additional factors that impact the…

In this research article, Myosha McAfee presents findings from her grounded theory and microethnographical study of math instruction in a racially and socioeconomically diverse public school. Her analysis puts forth a new theory-the kinesiology of race-which conceptualizes race as a verb rather than a noun. It centrally considers how racial…

The accelerated growth of 1:1 educational computing initiatives has challenged digital equity with a three-tiered, socioeconomic digital divide: (a) access, (b) higher order uses, and (c) user empowerment and personalization. As the access gap has been closing, the exponential increase of 1:1 devices threatens to widen the second and third digital…

Research in education and psychology contributes to an understanding of how educators create contexts for learning that encourage intrinsic motivation and increase academic achievement. In this article, the researcher investigated how teachers themselves define effectiveness and identified what factors influence their motivation, both positively…

Research discloses that principals' effectiveness influences student success (Stronge, 2008). This study examined the extent of congruence between the daily activities and espousals of four middle school principals, and the extent their daily activities were artifacts of their values and beliefs about leadership. Also, this study examined if…

Design-Based Implementation Research is the process of engaging "learning scientists, policy researchers, and practitioners in a model of collaborative, iterative, and systematic research and development" designed to address persistent problems of teaching and learning. Addressing persistent problems of teaching and learning requires…

In an experimental study (N = 209), the authors compared the effects of exposure to typical middle-school written science content when presented in the context of the scientific discovery narrative and when presented in a more traditional nonnarrative format on 7th and 8th grade students in the United States. The development of texts was…

In 2007-08 and 2008-09, 2,500 randomly-selected middle school students completed an annual survey on school climate and character development. In examining differences based upon grade, gender, race/ethnicity, school, and length of program participation, significant differences were found for all but length of program participation. Responses of…

This article summarizes the continuous latent trait IRT approach to skills diagnosis as particularized by a representative variety of continuous latent trait models using item response functions (IRFs). First, several basic IRT-based continuous latent trait approaches are presented in some detail. Then a brief summary of estimation, model…

Challenges vague, underconceptualized notions of teacher professional community. Findings from an exploration of two California middle-school teacher communities suggest that current models obscure significant differences in beliefs and practices. One community stresses teachers' individual rights and responsibilities; the other is driven by a…

This book addresses questions of language education in the United States, focusing on how to teach the 3.5 million students in American public schools who do not speak English as a native language. These students are at the center of a national debate about the right relationship among ESL, bilingual, and mainstream classes. Bilingual education…