Poverty has always been a problem in the United States and no doubt the condition unfortunately will always prevail. Title One schools will always have children enrolled who come from the lower socioeconomic class. This article has to do with the devastating effect of poverty, including stories from a classroom teacher of students who lived in…

As a teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) for the past 16 years, the author has grown used to dismal budget cut news arriving each February. Although cuts are always frustrating and their results burdensome, the school has been able to "hang on" reasonably well. This year, however, the budget cuts were extreme. In this article,…

Although using the five-paragraph formula to teach essay writing is a ubiquitous practice--and many K-12 teachers defend it--Campbell argues that having students write according to this formula does more harm than good. The formula's tight structure stops the very critical thinking students need to do to strengthen their cognition and their…

In this article, I (1) argue for approaching processes, events-in-the-making, by means of process categories--to learn, to teach--not by means of categories that denote differences in state and (2) exemplify doing and writing research consistent with process philosophy. To understand process we must not think, research, and write them in terms of…

It is well-established that vocabulary is the strongest predictor of reading comprehension from grades 2 or 3 on. In this article, I argue (a) that English vocabulary is acquired in a similar sequence by native-English speakers and English-language learners; and (b) that it is possible to identify words that both lower-vocabulary English-speakers…

Whenever a major intelligence or achievement test is revised, there is always renewed interest in the underlying structure of the test as well as a renewed interest in the scoring, administration, and interpretation changes. In this interview, Amy Gabel discusses the most recent revision of the "Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth…

A recent NBER [National Bureau of Economic Research] working paper examines Florida's policy to retain many low-scoring third graders. The report concludes that third-grade retention has immediate positive effects on the following year's test results, but these effects fade over the next six years, with no effect on graduation. The regression…

As a result of his review of 52 sets of K-12 mathematics standards--for the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the Common Core State Standards Initiative--the author finds that the majority of U.S. states fail to focus on the mathematics that elementary school children need to learn to be successful in college math. Arithmetic is the…

This article is a response to criticism of my book "Big Ideas for Little Kids." The main topics addressed are: Who is the audience for the book? Can people without formal philosophical training can be good facilitators of elementary school philosophy discussions? Is it important to assess attempts to teach philosophy in elementary school? Should…

In the fall of 2010 the faculty of Baker Demonstration School began a yearlong exploration of the question "How do we know what children know?" At that time, three teacher colleagues already had entered upon a collaborative project integrating music and drama with a unit of study in the second and third grades. They decided to carefully…

The focus of the achievement gap seems to be less about racial and ethnic distinctions and more about disparities in socioeconomic status. Students from affluent and secure backgrounds have a running head start on students mired in poverty. Few young people in the United States live in more challenging conditions than the children of the eastern…

This essay employs the images and voices of children to describe how their learning about the world is supported as they engage in experiences that invoke creativity and imagination. The author states his belief that this "imagining," this giving body and substance to the nature of "imagination" is one of the foundations of knowing, a means of…

Using primary sources with students has untapped potential for expanding and deepening the reading experiences of elementary and middle grade students. Primary sources expands teachers' palette of reading materials, allows students to connect more closely to topics for learning, and deepens their understanding of the past. This article argues for…

This article is a response to Stephen Rowland's article, "Kindness," which appeared in "London Review of Education," November 2009. Much to my amazement, Stephen Rowland's article was the only one I found when I did a global database search on "kindness in education". I had thought that I would find reams of information in the databases on the…

Over the past few decades, reading assessment has been pushed to the forefront of the national discussion about education. The most recent reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1994, 2001) made assessment a priority as administrators and teachers are attempting to meet increasing accountability standards, but measuring…