Standards-based grading has been used in many Illinois public elementary schools for years, offering educators a different way of assessing and communicating to parents about their student achievement and performance on the grade level state standards. Educators faced many benefits and challenges using a standards-based grading system identified.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of Imagine Learning's MyPath program on student mathematics and reading achievement growth. This study examined achievement growth trajectories of kindergarten students in one suburban Midwestern district in the 2022-23 school year. NWEA MAP mathematics and reading scores served as the main…

In this research article, Haeny Yoon and Tran Nguyen Templeton explore the challenges of listening to children in both classrooms and research that purports to center young children. Through two stories from their respective studies, Yoon and Templeton highlight the complexities of following children's leads given the competing agendas situating…

This article discusses a project about babies undertaken by a class of children ranging in age from 2.9 years to 3.9 years old in a small Illinois town. Throughout this project, the children studied equipment and supplies needed to care for babies. They made dolls for the classroom, constructed a cradle, made observational drawings, created topic…

To inform long-term planning for early care and education and school readiness within Illinois, this study examined early care and education programs emphases on school readiness as perceived by early child care and kindergarten teachers. Of particular interest were successful strategies at the early childhood level to prepare children for school,…