Richard Allington reviews the nature of the reading achievement gap between students from low-income and high-income families, concluding that the limited access to children's books experienced by children from low-income families lies at the base of the problem. The fact that children from low-income families lose reading achievement every summer…

In 2020, Rick Hess and Pedro Noguera engaged in a long-running correspondence that tackled many of the biggest questions in education -- including topics like school choice, equity and diversity, testing, privatization, the achievement gap, social and emotional learning, and civics. They sought to unpack their disagreements, better understand one…

A persistent achievement gap for English learners (ELs) has prompted educators to search for contributing factors and pedagogical solutions. Research by Bruce Torff and Audrey Figueroa Murphy shows teachers' beliefs about rigor of curriculum may contribute to the problem; teachers supported less rigorous curriculum for ELs, evincing a "rigor…

States have invested heavily in improving early childhood education in hopes of improving student reading and math skills before they enter kindergarten. However, there is limited national data from later than 2010 on children's skills in these areas at kindergarten entry, so it is difficult for educators and policy makers to ascertain whether…

Arthur Reynolds describes the significance, development, and effects of preschool to 3rd grade approaches. This school reform strategy integrates services and supports transitions, thereby increasing achievement, sustaining gains, and realistically reducing achievement gaps. Evidence from the Child-Parent Center (CPC) program is reviewed to…

Despite the consistent policy focus on diversifying the teacher workforce, this workforce still fails to reflect the diversity of the student body in U.S. public schools. Dan Goldhaber, Roddy Theobald, and Christopher Tien examine the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence supporting the importance of teacher workforce diversity. They…

Surrounding students with messages that they have the ability to learn and teaching them how is at the core of closing the achievement gap. Teachers can engage in verbal behaviors that counteract the negative messages that children of color receive outside the classroom. Those verbal behaviors can embed these messages for students: What we're…

One high-leverage strategy rooted in a strong research base--the revitalized tutoring center--provides a wealth of opportunity to students who may be otherwise underserved. This embedded, open-all-day tutoring center supports collaborative teacher teams by using peer tutors and community volunteers. By centralizing resources and providing supports…

Interventions that affect children's vocabulary development focus on the quality of language as well as quantity. Children need opportunities to talk, use vocabulary words, and respond to adults' questions. Adults need to create opportunities to talk, provide quality feedback on children's language, and use a lot of new vocabulary repeatedly in…

The Mitchell Scarlett Teaching and Learning Collaborative (MSTLC) is a vigorous, six-year-old partnership between two Title I schools--Mitchell Elementary School and Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor, Mich.--and the teacher education program at the University of Michigan. MSTLC was formed between educators who had related but quite different…

Teacher perceptions of student abilities can affect crucial placement decisions that, in turn, affect student opportunities to learn. The author's research shows that this is particularly the case with black students who have earned high scores on math assessments but who, on the basis of teacher judgment, have not been recommended for placement…

This study finds that schools are poorly prepared to counsel students about community college certificate or associate degree programs. Instead the mantra of college for all continues to encourage youth to spend time and money on bachelor's degrees, for which many students are not prepared to do well. Teachers desire more information on college…

The first of two articles in consecutive months describes the origins and nature of growing income inequality, and some of its consequences for American children. It documents the increased family income inequality that's occurred over the past 40 years and shows that the increased income disparity has been more than matched by an expanding…

Lindsay Unified School District (California) exemplifies the promise of competency education (or performance-based education, as it is called locally). Since beginning its transition to the model in 2009, discipline problems have sharply dropped, the school climate has dramatically improved (as measured by the California Healthy Kids Survey), and…

The author is a middle school principal who has spent a decade working on improving literacy among his largely socio-economically disadvantaged student body. Experience and research have shown, the author says, that a successful effort to bridge the literacy gap between children who live in poverty and middle-class students requires a concerted…