Financial education is an important area of study due in part to the need for improved understanding of how to navigate an ever more complex financial decision-making environment, thus the need for effective classroom instruction. The purpose of this study is to examine a "teacher-as-learner" professional development program that is…

This quantitative comparative study investigated whether differences existed in teacher self-efficacy, including inclusive pedagogy, classroom management, and collaboration for general education and special education teachers in one southeastern Colorado rural school district. Federal mandates, such as ESSA, ensure that students with special needs…

Math underachievement is of grave concern with 42% of 4th grade and 36% of 8th grade students achieving at a proficient or advanced level in mathematics, and schools are continually searching for interventions to implement with struggling students. The problem addressed in this study is recently an elementary school purchased access to…

Giant maps offer a potentially useful pedagogical tool for teaching mathematics and map skills. In this pilot study, giant maps were distributed to elementary schools in Colorado and New Hampshire and teachers were provided with guided activities designed to integrate mathematics and geography skills. In an assessment of student skills, it was…

In this experimental study, music teachers from a large school district were randomly assigned to one of two hypothetical conditions reflecting different methods for measuring student growth under a merit pay compensation system. In Scenario A, half of a teacher's effectiveness rating was based on student standardized test scores in reading,…

Business Education is dynamic in nature and needs diverse information to deal with different business problems. To understand the peculiar situations and to manage them effectively, case studies are widely used. Researchers in education have already demonstrated that students' active participation in the educational process increases their…

This article describes the effects of an analysis-of-practice professional development (PD) program on elementary school students' (Grades 4-6) science outcomes. The study design was a cluster-randomized trial with an analysis sample of 77 schools, 144 teachers and 2,823 students. Forty-two schools were randomly assigned to treatment, (88.5 hours)…

Through the transformation of undergraduate STEM courses, the Colorado Learning Assistant Program recruits and prepares talented STEM majors for careers in teaching by providing them with early, sustained teaching experiences. The research reported here compares teaching practices of K-12 teachers who served as learning assistants (LAs) as…

In response to calls for reform in undergraduate biology education, we conducted research examining how varying active-learning strategies impacted students' conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in two sections of a large-lecture introductory cell and molecular biology course. Using a quasi-experimental design, we collected…

Two professional development (PD) models for teachers were compared on teacher and student outcomes. Special education teachers participated in Literacy Learning Cohorts (LLC), a PD innovation designed to improve content and pedagogical knowledge for providing reading instruction to upper elementary students with learning disabilities. The LLC,…

We posit that professional development (PD) models fall on a continuum from highly adaptive to highly specified, and that these constructs provide a productive way to characterize and distinguish among models. The study reported here examines the impact of an adaptive mathematics PD model on teachers' knowledge and instructional practices as well…

This paper describes the methodology and implementation of a case study introducing the scientific literature and creative experiment design to honors general chemistry laboratory students. The purpose of this study is to determine whether first-year chemistry students can develop information literacy skills while they engage with the primary…

Today, English language learners (ELLs)--students whose primary language is other than English--are the fastest-growing major school population in the United States. Between 2000-01 and 2010-11, the number of these students, whose level of English proficiency is not sufficient to support learning in a regular English language classroom, rose 18…

Over the last decade, the number of one-to-one laptop programs in U.S. schools has steadily increased. Though technology advocates believe that such programs can assist student writing, there has been little systematic evidence for this claim, and even less focused on technology use by at-risk learners. This study examined the effect of daily…

Math experts developed Formative Assessment Lessons that teachers can incorporate throughout the year's curriculum. Both tools target the "instructional core." A study by Research for Action (RFA) examining the first year of piloting the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and Math Design Collaborative (MDC) tools (2010-11) found…