In this commentary, I discuss how policy initiatives play out in two different contexts for elementary school teachers yet produce very similar outcomes regarding teachers' professional development and school science learning for elementary students. Ironically, the outcomes that we want see in elementary school science learning and professional…

The author has been working at the same elementary school in Hawai'i for nearly twenty years. Nearly ten years ago, he argued in his doctoral dissertation that philosophy for children and its pedagogy of the community of inquiry is good for kids. His thesis is this: In today's American educational climate, with its laser-sharp focus on…

The authors of the study "The Long-Term Impact of Teachers" claim that their study shows that increases in teacher value-added lead to significant and lasting increases in test scores and significant increases in income that will last throughout adulthood. Instead, I show that these claims are false because they are contradicted by the…

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…

This Summer 2013 issue of "Voices in Urban Education" presents an interview with Lucy Keaton, appointed in February 2013 as the first assistant superintendent for the English Language Learner program at the Clark County (Nevada) School District (CCSD), which includes Las Vegas and contains more than half of Nevada's public schools. The…

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,…

This article discusses how issues of diversity and equity are addressed in the preparation of science teachers who are charged with teaching diverse students in schools. Highlighting examples from my own teaching and research and other studies in education, I frame this article in terms of a broad application of theory in science teacher…

This paper argues that typography can be an affective re/presentational strategy when used as a medium within the research framework of arts-based inquiry. Grounded in a larger comparative case study exploring the experiences of two elementary teachers in south Texas, the purpose of this paper is to (1) situate typography within the field of…

This paper presents an argument for the development of an Irish Chartered Teacher initiative which would acknowledge and accredit the professionalism of experienced and accomplished teachers. It begins by examining the current position of teaching as a profession based on findings from Irish and international research studies. Issues surrounding…

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…

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…