This action research study aimed to explore the reasons for low course completion and retention rates for students who take developmental English courses at an open-enrollment private university in New England and develop support methods that address the reasons for these low rates. The problem of low course completion rates and retention rates…

Implementation of AB 705 in fall 2019 required California community colleges to use high school grade point average (HSGPA) as the main measure of placement and maximize the likelihood of students being placed into transfer-level English and math courses. Since that time, research has shown that with the vast increase in access to transfer-level…

The main National Reference Test (NRT) outcomes, reported in the 2021 National Reference Test Results Digest (ED627839), show overall performance on the NRT in English and mathematics over time indicating how the subjects may have been impacted as a whole. This study provides additional analysis of the NRT 2020 and 2021 data to explore whether…

In 2019, the United States incarcerated nearly 2.3 million citizens in correctional facilities across the country. One main issue with mass incarceration is the high recidivism rates of formerly incarcerated people. Correctional education has been proven to decrease recidivism rates for people who engage in this form of education while…

Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, this study was designed to acquire quantitative and qualitative data that expose community college student perceptions on multimodal compositions compared to traditional writing practices. As traditional writing continues to be privileged in college writing classrooms, a critical pedagogy…

The purpose of this study was to identify key instructional strategies and behaviors that support student motivation and learning in a high school STAAR English remedial program. Research was conducted within one summer school semester during 10-days of instruction and focused on high school students who "Did Not Meet Grade Level"…

In an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19 in Australia in 2020 state and territory governments mandated the closing of schools for all but vulnerable children and the children of frontline workers in various parts of Australia for various lengths of time. In what follows, five English teachers from across Australia reflect on the everyday…

What do we see when we observe an excellent English lesson? What's going on in the room? Perhaps what stands out is a collaborative making of meanings inspired by stimulating texts. Perhaps what's most important is an ever-deepening knowledge about, and facility with, the many ways that language works. Maybe what we're seeing is a carefully…

The English classroom is an indispensable site to critically engage the social complexity of the climate crisis and COVID-19. A question comes up, however, about how to plan for such critical engagement when teaching canonical literature that is seemingly removed from the specific concerns of the current moment. The focus of this article is on…

Background: Much of the research in literacy focuses on what learners fail to do, especially in the early grades, but it is equally important to research successful readers. In particular learners' experiences with literature contribute to our understanding of the possibilities literary texts offer. This article focused on learners' responses to…

To engage in critical readings of literary texts, in ways that are also ethical and compassionate, requires readers to enter emotionally and imaginatively into the complex, textual worlds of others as they are portrayed in stories. Such stories have the potential to create new worlds that make visible our collective being in ways that allow us to…

"The Teaching Archive" shows us a series of major literary thinkers in a place we seldom remember them inhabiting: the classroom. Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan open up "the teaching archive"--the syllabuses, course descriptions, lecture notes, and class assignments--of critics and scholars including T. S. Eliot,…

Education systems around the world have moved to develop literacy progressions that describe a sequence of development in oral language (talking and listening), reading/viewing and writing. In Australia, the National Literacy Learning Progression (ACARA, 2021) is designed to support students' literacy development across the years of primary and…

Previous research provides evidence that developing a growth mindset--believing that one's capabilities can improve--promotes academic achievement. Although this phenomenon has undergone prior study in a representative sample of ninth graders in the United States, it has not been studied in representative samples of other grade levels or with…

This report examines the evolving landscape of English language arts (ELA) curriculum and instructional support in Michigan elementary schools from the 2019-20 to the 2022-23 school years. Recognizing the pivotal role instruction plays in shaping students' literacy development, this report explores which curriculum resources teachers are using to…