Since "Brown v. Board of Education" and the subsequent desegregation of schools, an achievement gap has persisted between students of color and White students, specifically in urban schools. Education has sought to close this gap through a variety of school improvement efforts, yet this gap remains today. The classroom teacher has the…

This research investigated the teaching experiences of alternative route special education teachers working in urban Title I schools with a high population of students from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Five alternative route special education teachers along with five school-based administrators who supervise ARL special…

Scholars have documented the effects of accountability policies on student outcomes and, to a lesser extent, instruction. Beyond test preparation and curriculum narrowing, little empirical evidence has examined the relationship between policy and pedagogy. Guided by social cognitive and achievement goal theories, this study explored the…

Efforts to improve student learning in K-12 education in the US are not new; however, educational research has traditionally focused on individual components of schools (e.g., teacher professional development, leadership, social relationships, programs, curricula) targeting teachers to improve student learning. While these innovations provide hope…

This convergent mixed-methods study explored the relation between strategies fourth-grade students self-reported to navigate and interpret science texts and their performance on a comprehension posttest. Using Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA), results reveal a higher degree of metacognitive awareness and the ability to orally explain one's…

In the United States English learners have performed at lower academic levels than their non-English learner peers (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020) demonstrating the need for a system that supports the academic growth of English learners in the general education classrooms. At a local level, the researcher has observed the limited…

Based on self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, this study provided a serial multiple mediation model that examined how students' perceptions of teacher autonomy support (PTAS) relate to different achievement motivations (mastery and performance-approach goals), and further associate with students' intellectual risk-taking (IRT)…

A century on from the height of John Dewey's educational writings and the reputation of the Gary Schools Plan as a model of progressive education, the paper reappraises two key matters: the relationship between John Dewey and William Wirt, the first superintendent of the Gary Schools in Gary Indiana, and the coherence between John Dewey's…

This article takes as its starting-point four moments that occurred in the course of a year of teaching A-level English Literature in an inner-London sixth-form college. It argues that these moments represented forms of learning and experience that were valuable, but that fell outside the prevailing version of what (English) lessons are for. It…

We sought to understand how teachers' perspectives on standards-based instructional practices, classroom assessment, and external testing do or do not show coherence and alignment. Based on survey methods (n = 155) and interviews with a sample of secondary school teachers (n = 9) in a large urban district in the USA, we explored general trends and…

Research Findings: A substantial body of research has demonstrated social and academic benefits of sociodramatic play (SDP) for young children. However, substantially less research has explored the factors related to increased amounts of SDP occurring during free play, an activity time that comprises the greatest portion of the daily schedule in…

During the past three decades, growing attention has been paid to the idea of mind/brain-based teaching and learning--an exciting approach, rooted in neuroscience research, that proves the interrelatedness of the mind, brain, and body. The purpose of this report is multifold: (a) to explain why mind/brain-based teaching and learning is relevant to…

We examined the convergent validity of observer ratings of teachers' use of evidence-based instructional and behavior management practices using the Classroom Strategies Assessment System (CSAS; Reddy & Dudek, 2014) with student academic engagement as measured by the Cooperative Learning Observational Code for Kids (CLOCK; Volpe & DiPerna,…

The purpose of this study was to explore the paths by which word-problem intervention, with versus without embedded pre-algebraic reasoning instruction, improves word-problem performance. Students with mathematics difficulty (MD; n = 304) were randomly assigned to a business-as-usual condition or one of two variants of word-problem intervention.…

Out-of-school time (OST) programs can play an important role in fostering the development of literacy skills among children and youth. To investigate the variety of literacy skill-building strategies OST programs use, researchers from the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) examined the practices of 31 programs in Massachusetts. This…