Pacing guides are commonplace yet controversial in American public schools. For teachers who question their usefulness, one means to circumvent them is to exercise autonomy in pedagogical decision-making, though doing so comes with challenges. Through interviews, we examined how 87 gifted and general education 4th and 5th grade math and…

Student motivation to write is a pivotal factor influencing their writing achievement. However, individual motivation to write is not independent of the learning environment. It also is crucial for teachers to develop their own efficacy, knowledge, and ability in writing and writing instruction to help them utilize effective instructional methods…

This study explores whether teacher reports of executive functions predict change in reading performance (i.e., reading development) for elementary-aged students when controlling for direct assessments of executive functions and for teacher reports of students' literacy skills. Prior research has raised problems with the construct validity of…

This report summarizes the results of kindergarten through fifth grade students' academic achievement outcomes in mathematics and science following four years of campus-level participation in the Launching Elementary Academic Foundations (LEAF) to STEM program. The LEAF to STEM Program consists of three key components that were adapted for K-5…

Recent reviews of automated writing evaluation systems indicate lack of uniformity in the purpose, design, and assessment of such systems. Our work lies at the nexus of critical themes arising from these reviews. We describe our work on eRevise, an automated writing evaluation system focused on elementary students' text-based evidence-use. eRevise…

Writing teachers play an extraordinarily important role in their students' writing development. Teachers' motivational beliefs, such as attitudes toward writing, perceptions of their efficacy to teach writing, or preparation to use evidence-based instructional practices, impact their writing instruction, which directly affects the advancement of…

Student behavior problems in general-education classrooms present a major barrier to effective teaching. Behavior challenges, such as disruptions, noncompliance, and peer conflicts, reduce instructional time, whereas prosocial behaviors, such as paying attention, being ready to work, asking for help, participating in class, and completing…

Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) involves teaching cognitive writing strategies and apprenticing novices within collaborative writing communities. It is responsive to deaf students' diverse language experiences through embedded metalinguistic/linguistic components. A randomized controlled trial of SIWI was conducted with 15…

A central goal of upper elementary schools is improving students' skills to write persuasively using source materials. This study focused on three essential areas of writing at the upper elementary grade levels. First, children learned skills to read and use source materials through the web-based intelligent tutoring system for the text structure…

This study evaluated the feasibility of the Knowledge, Language, and Inquiry (K.L.I.) intervention, designed to support Grades 3-5 multilingual students classified as English learners (ML-ELs) in building content knowledge, language skills, and reading comprehension through inquiry-based small-group instruction. Feasibility was examined across…

Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) for teachers can improve classroom interactions, teacher mindfulness, and well-being, yet whether teacher focused MBIs also benefit children remains largely unexplored. This cluster randomized trial with 36 urban elementary schools, 224 K-5th grade teachers (M[subscript age] = 41.5) and 5200 children…

Thirty-seven deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students in grades four through six participated in a year of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction, an approach to writing instruction designed to be responsive to DHH students' unique language experiences and profiles. The current study investigated the transfer of writing skills between genres…

To advance the research examining the sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) construct, a key priority has been to develop assessment tools that are reliable and valid. The current study builds upon existing work by conducting the most thorough psychometric evaluation to date of the teacher-reported Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI) SCT and…

Guided by a theoretical framework emphasizing the importance of fidelity of implementation (FOI), this paper explores how teachers of grades 3, 4 and 5 implemented an early algebra intervention, and the relationship between FOI and student learning. The data shared in this paper come from a longitudinal experimental research project in which 3,208…

Teachers' efforts to manage classroom social dynamics are associated with students' social and academic adjustment, but the determinants of teachers' use of social dynamics management strategies have remained unexplored. Multiple potential determinants of strategy use were examined in a study of 164 teachers and their 2,986 students in 164 1st,…