Promoting Adolescents' Comprehension of Text (PACT) is a text- and discourse-based set of instructional practices that engage students with disciplinary texts as a means of building content knowledge and improving reading comprehension. PACT)s "efficacy" has been the subject of extensive previous trials. The purpose of this study was to…

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S.…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events occurring in the household or community that hold painful or distressing outcomes for children immediately and in their future (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). School counselors work with children and young adolescents suffering from negative mental health…

Shifting to an inquiry-based practice can be challenging. How should teachers get started? How many times should teachers plan for inquiry? What do teachers do when students struggle with inquiry? How long does it take for students to buy in to the inquiry process? These kinds of questions, and the concerns that underlie them, can create an…

This special issue highlights biracial/multiracial/multiethnic early adolescents as a fast-growing demographic warranting greater inclusion in developmental research. We address several likely barriers to inclusion related to the conceptualization and measurement of biracial/multiracial/multiethnic status and offer recommendations for including…

This direct replication study compared the use of dichotomized likelihood ratios and interval likelihood ratios, derived using a prior sample of students, for predicting math risk in middle school. Data from the prior year state test and the Measures of Academic Progress were analyzed to evaluate differences in the efficiency and diagnostic…

Automatic assessment of the quality of classroom discourse can have a transformative effect on research and practice on improving teaching effectiveness. We improve on a previous automated method to measure teacher authentic questions -- open-ended questions without pre-scripted responses that predict student achievement growth -- using classroom…

The examination of belonging in schools, connecting school belonging to a plethora of academic and psychosocial outcomes, has been well established in the literature. Researchers have measured school belonging most frequently with the Psychological Sense of School Membership, but its psychometric properties have been called into question by…

This paper examines the experiences of 18 teachers in Wisconsin during the COVID-19 pandemic to address two questions: (1) What do teaching conditions look like during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How have educators adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic? This research offers a snapshot of the varied delivery models, safety and mitigation practices,…

Fidelity of implementation of school practices is crucial to student outcomes. Several types of tools, including self-assessments, are available for measuring fidelity, but little is known regarding the relation of self-assessments of fidelity to fidelity instruments completed with the support of external experts, specifically, during the first…

This technical report provides information about the sample, survey instrument, and resultant data for the American Instructional Resources Surveys (AIRS) that were administered to principals and teachers in spring 2019 via RAND's American Educator Panels. The AIRS focused on instructional resources used and supported in English language arts,…

Although many studies have documented developmental change in mathematics motivation, little is known about how these trends predict math performance. A sample of 288 participants from the United States reported their perceived math ability, math utility value and math interest in 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Latent growth curve models estimated…

Reading Apprenticeship is a model of academic literacy instruction designed by the Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) at WestEd to improve student literacy skills and academic achievement. Based on understandings of the close relationship between curricular reform and professional development, Reading Apprenticeship includes an instructional…

This study examines the relationship between the use of an iPad in one-to-one environments and reading achievement based on standardized test scores in a middle school setting. This study uses cognitive engagement theory to connect iPad engagement with reading achievement. This study involved 253 middle school students from Milton Middle School in…

This field report is the third in a series produced by the Center on Innovations in Learning's League of Innovators. The series describes, discusses, and analyzes policies and practices that enable personalization in education. Issues of the series will present either issue briefs or, like this one, field reports on lessons learned by…