For students, fifth grade is a time of increasing independence and responsibility. Yet fifth-graders vary widely in their reading and writing abilities--and they are still young enough to require considerable teacher support. Depicting an exemplary teacher in action, this indispensable book presents innovative, practical strategies for creating an…

With the advent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, virtually every school in America is expected to meet high academic standards in the face of declining resources. The requirements to meet these standards are rising as funding decreases, and little help is available to schools. "Strength-Based Teaching" is intended to fill that…

This book has helped thousands of math teachers envision what can happen if they implement the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards. It reveals that with the right teaching strategies and curricula, students can become confident, creative, and actively involved in the math process and can actually think like mathematicians.…

This book is a guide to staying focused on teaching and learning in the context of standards-based reforms. The aim is to make sense of the complex issues involved, explain the various perspectives, separate the useful from the harmful, and offer suggestions on how to proceed. The chapters are: (1) "What Gets in the Way of Important Learning:…

This book offers a comprehensive program of holistic accountability for educators, school board members, school leaders, and parents. Holistic accountability systems yield information about curriculum, assessment, and instruction that can lead to better practices, better decision making, and higher student achievement. The chapters are: (1) "What…

This guide provides the tools school leaders and educators need to make the vision of sensible mathematics a reality for all students. Closely aligned with the new National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards, it was written to help communicate why change must occur, what that change looks like, and what must be done…

This book draws on observations and interviews over a two-year period to show the capacity of one elementary school to understand and implement state-mandated reforms. The chapters are: (1) "Mission Elementary: An Introduction"; (2) "High Standards, Competing Priorities, and Complexity at Mission Elementary"; (3) "Managing…

While there are lots of books about education that propose to change what is done in classrooms and schools, here's one that promises to transform how educators think. Drawing from 35 years of taking on tough schools with disadvantaged kids and achieving the kind of progress that many thought "couldn't be done", Dennis Littky explains the…

This collection of essays focuses on educational testing, showing how testing encroaches on teacher freedom and how narrow standards can actually reduce student achievement. The chapters are: (1) Testing Is Not Teaching; (2) The Freedom Factor; (3) Sharing Power with Intelligent Expectation; (4) Everyone Has a Story To Tell; (5) Lets Change the…

This guide describes the 'eyes, yardsticks, and noses' that will help communities consider goals for mathematics education, evaluate curricula, and plan a successful adoption process. This guide focuses on the 13 programs supported by the K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center, though many of the ideas discussed are not specific to these particular…

This book describes and traces efforts to change teaching practice in response to current national reforms in mathematics education. It explores changing practice from the vantages of both teacher and researcher. Chapters include: (1) "Do You See Any Patterns?"; (2) "Learning to Comprehend Mathematical Ideas in Topics, Texts, Tasks, and Talk"; (3)…

This publication includes 17 of the best articles from recent additions of The Science Teacher, the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) journal for secondary educators. The articles are written by science educators who offer ideas and strategies for bringing multicultural education into the classroom and providing opportunities for all…

This book is intended for school principals at every level to help develop a plan for raising mathematics achievement in their schools. Chapter 1 explores the current state of mathematics achievement in the United States and suggests some of the reasons why students as a whole do not compare more favorably with their international counterparts.…

Urban school reformers for decades have tried to improve educational outcomes for underserved and disadvantaged students, with the assistance of constantly evolving federal and state policies. In recent years, education policies have shifted from targeting individual students to developing universal standards for teaching and learning, and…

This book sets out a constructivist, inquiry-based approach to instruction. The approach builds on clear understandings of children's current levels of knowledge, where their learning should progress to, and the means by which children learn early numeracy topics. The methods presented in this book have been used extensively by practitioners in…