The use of multimedia graphic organizer software and how it influenced the prewriting process for primary school children were evaluated. An analysis of writing samples generated by second-grade students with diverse writing abilities was carried out. Students were given two opportunities to participate in prewriting activities--one without and…

The purpose of the study was to examine the role of domain knowledge when retrieving and using information from the Internet as a resource for essay tasks, as well as to investigate the quality of Internet searches and its relation to essay performance. In two experiments, 100 undergraduates searched the Internet for 30 min and completed two…

The impetus of the present study was to scrutinize the impact of planning and proficiency on 172 EFL learners' written task performance regarding concept load, fluency, complexity and accuracy. Planning was operationalized at two levels: pretask planning (PTP) and online planning (OLP). Participants of this study were two groups, high and low…

A challenge for todays instructional leaders is identifying the most effective method of educating English Language Learners (ELLs) who participate in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program. The primary purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness of three programs used for ESL students in twelve elementary schools in a Urban…

This study explores the effects of a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) program on language majority and minority students. The fundamental hypothesis was that the process of receiving instruction in two languages (English and Spanish) throughout elementary school (i.e., attendance at a TWBI school) would help the native Spanish-speaking students…

This article develops the analogy of the "black box" in relation to different levels of a professional development project to understand the nature of learning that results in higher student achievement. Principles of formative assessment are used to frame the on-going, evidence-informed inquiry into learning that operated at each level…

The paper first traces the history of thinking about language from the Greek writers of the fifth century BC to the development of the first Greek grammar in about 100 BC. Since the glories of Ancient Greek literature predate the development of grammar, there is every reason to doubt the received wisdom that one must have an explicit knowledge of…

This article compares essays written in response to the ACT Essay prompt and a locally developed prompt used for placement. The two writing situations differ by time and genre: the ACT Essay is timed and argumentative; the locally developed is untimed and explanatory. The article analyzes the differences in student performance and predictive…

This report is a compilation of reprinted Executive Summaries from the reading, mathematics, and writing report cards based upon data collected in 2007. The reports provide national, state, and district-level results, as well as trends for different student groups such as gender, race/ethnicity, students with disabilities (SD), English language…

This study explored the extent to which graduate students enrolled in Higher Education courses were proficient at writing. A total sample size of 97 graduate students from programs of Higher Education served as the sample. To assess writing proficiency the SAT II: Writing Test, Part B was used. The graduate students in this sample did not score…

This study tries to answer some ever-existent questions in writing fields regarding approaching the most effective ways to give feedback to students' errors in writing by comparing the effect of error correction and error detection on the improvement of students' writing ability. In order to achieve this goal, 60 pre-intermediate English learners…

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…

Improvement-oriented feedback has been shown to be more effective at raising writing achievement than simple evaluative feedback. This study investigates whether teachers differ in the feedback they give to weak and strong writers as well as how feedback differs across grades. Interviews were conducted with 15 teachers about the feedback they gave…

This Information Capsule answers the most frequently asked questions about M-DCPS' academic performance during the 2009-10 school year. M-DCPS earned a performance grade of "B" in 2010 and was only four points short of an "A." Over half of the District's schools (57 percent) earned an "A." Overall, the District's…

Austin Independent School District used more than $31 million federal Title I, Part A funds in the 2009-2010 school year to support almost 45,000 students at 71 Title I schools. This report summarizes compliance and service data.