Teacher praise is an evidence-based strategy shown to increase appropriate prosocial behavior and decrease disruptive behavior, particularly with elementary school age students. In this article, we provide direction and recommendations for using positive feedback with middle and high school students. A review of the research literature, guidelines…

Recently, the public outcry after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police revealed a disconnect among some Americans between historical events (slavery, the Civil Rights movement) and the present day. That is, many Americans--particularly White Americans--had believed racism to be a mostly historical construct and failed to…

The efficacy of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) as an educational and therapeutic asset in schools has been extensively studied, with many middle and high schools employing these games as extracurricular activities because of their positive impact around identity formation, empathy, and social skills. More recent iterations of tabletop RPGs are…

Fully articulating validation arguments in the context of classroom assessment requires connecting evidence from multiple sources and addressing multiple types of validity in a coherent chain of reasoning. This type of validation argument is particularly complex for assessments that function in close proximity to instruction, address the fine…

The middle school concept, aimed at creating a more developmentally responsive learning environment for young adolescents, gained a stronghold in the later part of the 20th century. Proponents of this concept have argued continually for the holistic implementation of its six key characteristics if its benefits are to be realized. These…

This paper provides an examination of the foundations, efficacy, and effectiveness of a set of practices associated with improved social studies and history learning and literacy outcomes for middle grade students, including students with varying learning needs (e.g., English learners, students with disabilities). This approach, Promoting…

Translanguaging pedagogies support multilingual students by activating prior knowledge, integrating home languages and cultures, and utilizing multimodal learning. However, as equity-oriented pedagogies, they redress long-standing practices of denying students access to their home languages or demanding a strict separation of their interwoven…

The adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) requires many teachers to drastically change their classroom instruction. Curricular materials offer a tool to support this transition, but there are questions about the degree to which available curricula truly reflect the shifts required by the NGSS. This study proposes a framework of…

Middle schools were designed to promote exploration in the curriculum in a way that is appropriate for young adolescents. However, this vision has not been fully embraced, and many middle schools still function as junior versions of high school. Gary Weilbacher explores the history of the middle school movement and describes how the…

This essay combines an ecological perspective with a mobility justice theoretical framework to reconceptualize the relationship between school transportation and educational access. Authors Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Jeremy Singer, Kimberly Stokes, James Bear Mahowald, and Sahar Khawaja document the problem of "getting to school" that is at…

This teaching case study aims at encouraging meaningful conversations about discipline. The case illustrates the increasing need for school leaders to adopt discipline approaches that foster support, equity, inclusion, and advocacy for cultural differences rather than punishment and the exclusion of marginalized students. This scenario takes place…

Given the rapid growth of research-practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations…

Given the rapid growth of research-practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations…

"Literacy Design Collaborative" aims to help teachers improve their effectiveness in the classroom with a focus on supporting their literacy instruction. "Literacy Design Collaborative" provides professional development, coaching, and resources to support teachers to work collaboratively in their schools to create and use…

Students' opportunities to persevere in making sense of mathematical ideas have long been considered significant to learning. Building on existing literature and a case study of video-based teacher collaborative sensemaking, we propose a conceptual framework for bridging perseverance and sensemaking. This framework synthesizes dispositional,…