In recent years, many states have adopted policies to ensure students are reading proficiently by third grade. This kind of policy transfer across states is not a unique phenomenon; researchers have documented analogous proliferations of similar policies both in and outside the field of education. However, there has been little attention paid to…

The purpose of this collective case study was to examine elementary music teachers' mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research questions were: 1) What factors influenced music teachers' mental health and well-being during COVID-19; 2) How did music teachers support their own mental health and well-being during…

Project SYNC (Systems, Yoked through Nuanced Collaboration) details perspectives of a community of stakeholders committed to the enhancement of early childhood (i.e., prekindergarten through grade 3) education. Although there is a growing number of public-school programs informed by the Montessori philosophy, Montessori educational experiences…

The purpose of this research was to report on a Child-Friendly School (CFS) initiative pilot project in Jordan, which aims at initiating the creation of CFS and to raise stakeholders' awareness of the importance of this project in promoting and implementing Child Rights Conviction (CRC) in Jordan. The study was conducted by a joint team selected…

Oral reading fluency is a critical feature and outcome of early literacy instruction and it has amassed great attention as a powerful predictor of success at all levels of schooling. We examined relationships between second grade oral reading fluency scores and third grade end-of-grade reading achievement scores for students (N = 9562) in a large…

Involving communities in the process of curriculum development may not be novel, but it seems lacking with regard to controversial issues such as lessons on diverse family structures, homosexuality, and other special situations. Disparity in values and convictions can lead one person to support a decision, while another person might hold an…