School districts shape the conditions in which schools operate and as such can support or undermine school success and thus student success. All of which is to say that school districts matter. This article looks at the success of two districts whose low-income and minority students beat the odds in academic achievement. Lessons from these…

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the…

A wide variety of school-based physical activity contexts have been recently associated with various measures of academic performance. Of these studies, a small number employing objective measures of student fitness have identified a relationship with academic achievements. However, even among these studies, the fitness-academic link has not been…

This study examined the relationship between dimensions of wellness and academic performance for 634 third through fifth grade students in Title One schools in rural Mississippi, using composites of the Five Factor Wellness Inventory for Elementary Children and Reading, Language, and Math Scores of the Mississippi Curriculum Test (a state level…

This article presents four Idea-Sparkers that were submitted by Jason McKinney, a graduate student at Southern Mississippi University and a 1st-grade teacher at Pisgah Elementary in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. First is entitled, "Raceway in the Classroom." This activity can help increase children's fluency and ability to identify numerous…

Presents comparisons between the traditional curriculum and the essential learnings curriculum implemented at the Moss Point School District in Moss Point, Mississippi. Describes in detail the curriculum transformation process. Provides insight into the role of technology in the reading/language arts curriculum. (RS)