In this webinar, Janice A. Dole, Professor and Director of the Reading and Literacy Program in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah, discussed different strategies for delivering literacy instruction to meet a range of student needs, including the ways in which teachers can collaborate with reading specialists to…

In this article, the author talks about the philosophical adventures of the characters in L. Frank Baum's Lands of Oz and Ev stories and discusses how such stories can stimulate reflections on philosophically interesting questions. Frank Baum is considered as the first American writer of philosophical fantasy for children for writing "The…

This paper critiques a 2008 Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) assessment initiative known as Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks, or QCATs. The rhetoric is that these centrally devised assessment tasks will provide information about how well students can apply what they know, understand and can do in different contexts (QSA, 2009). The QCATs…

For young bilingual students a feeling of connection to their background languages and cultures forms one important aspect of their developing identities. This paper addresses some of the findings from a larger study examining students' understandings of their identities as bilingual. The study involved students who are part of a bilingual program…

The stated mission of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) includes ''supporting the professional development and enhancing the expertise of those who work on behalf of children with challenging behavior and their families'' (http:// www.ccbd.net/About/OurMission). The stated goal of CCBD's journal "Behavioral…

This article is a response to "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): A Tool for Evaluating Student Learning?" by Kamii and Manning (2005). The intent of their study was to evaluate how DIBELS and a writing test predict reading achievement, which was measured by scores on the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT) as well…

This is a commentary on the article by E. L. Sportsman, J. S. Carlson, and K. M. Guthrie (2010/this issue) on the application and evaluation of a specific anger management group intervention called "Seeing Red." The author discusses issues of implementation and use, how practitioners choose and judge evidence-based interventions, and methods for…

Noted scholar, teacher educator, and IRA past-president Linda Gambrell answers readers' questions about motivating young and struggling readers.

This paper argues that making computer games as part of a classroom project can develop a range of new media storytelling, visual design and audience awareness skills. This claim is supported by data from the evaluation of a six week game making project in a state funded primary school in which 11-12 year old learners made their own computer games…

An emphasis on diversity is one of the greatest challenges in my teaching. Everyone, myself included, enters the course with a set of expectations for human behavior, and literature can be very disruptive of these expectations. International literature, for example, often disrupts the narrative expectations of readers who were trained by stories…

In his comment on our literature review of data on the performance of sub-Saharan Africans on Raven's Progressive Matrices, Lynn (this issue) criticized our selection of samples of primary and secondary school students. On the basis of the samples he deemed representative, Lynn concluded that the average IQ of sub-Saharan Africans stands at 67…

This article presents an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan by NAESP Executive Director Gail Connelly. In this interview, Secretary Duncan discusses the Obama administration's vision, initiatives, and goals for America's elementary and middle-level education and the impact on the nation's principals.

When institutional testing is done well, there are many potential benefits; however, it is not without its negatives. The Texas Youth Evaluation Project (TYEP) is an example of large scale institutional testing that yielded more than a few benefits. However, results reported some problems as well. Much has been learned from the TYEP, including…

When Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency, he seemed an unlikely candidate. Against all odds, he was able to defeat an apparently overwhelming opposition by relating to the electorate in a more horizontal, collaborative manner. What Obama did differently was to empower the new, digitally active, younger political class by involving…

Play therapists are increasingly being employed in schools, yet there is confusion among many health, education and social care practitioners about the role of play therapists. This paper explains how play therapists position themselves and what they do through an examination of the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and child. It…