Background/Context: Many students in the United States need access to effective writing instruction, with some requiring intensive intervention. Results from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in writing over the past 25 years revealed that most students in the U.S. have yet to attain a proficient level of written expression…

The Focused Practice Instructional Approach (FPIA) was based on the Environmental Mode of instruction established by George Hillocks' 1986 meta-analysis for writing instruction. The purpose of this study was to clearly define the FPIA approach using the original studies and test if it was significantly effective in fourth grade classrooms using…

Since 1986, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has collected information from 11th-grade students about their employment activities. Out of the 29,000 students asked about work in the 1986 assessment, 54% reported working some amount of time each week, and over 28% reported working more than 15 hours per week. Thus, of 2.9…