In the past few years, certain labels for how we frame literacy teaching have become triggers for heated debates in various venues, such as media, social media, journal articles, blogs, and professional organization conference sessions. In this article, we aim to find common ground between proponents of balanced literacy and proponents of a…

High-quality teachers have been shown to be a foundational component in the success of students in k-12 education. High-quality teacher recruitment, selection, and retention become a cornerstone of a high quality school. The problem, of identifying, hiring, and retaining high quality teachers, is addressed in this dissertation. The school had to…

The term "balanced literacy" was popularized in the mid-1990s to describe a middle ground in terms of text selection, instruction, skills, and strategies. The intention was to merge the promising elements of whole language and phonics. Interactions with educators and literacy leaders across the country currently suggest that a term that…

The purpose of this study is to describe how school-based sexuality education (SBSE) in the context of health education frames and teaches sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Understanding how schools address sexuality and gender provides insight into how school systems might ostracize sexual and gender diverse (SGD) youth. This…

Introduction: A significant share of young adults lack the skills needed for the 21st-century workforce, contributing to persistent shortages of workers in middle-skill jobs--positions requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). In response, policymakers have increasingly…

This study presents a list of 2022 Bulgarian-Turkish cognate words that can be used to facilitate vocabulary acquisition and cross-linguistic awareness. The list was created manually through a multi-step process that involved scanning the database of an online dictionary to identify Bulgarian words that had the same or similar forms in Turkish.…

In the years since the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) placed a 1.0% cap for states on participation in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), states have worked hard to navigate the new restrictions on participation in…

Selection decisions have a major impact on our education, occupation, and quality of life, and the role of standardized tests in selection has always been a source of controversy. Here, I consider various definitions of fairness in measurement and selection--those emerging from within educational measurement and statistics, those from philosophy,…

California's school system is under tremendous long-run fiscal pressure; allocating resources efficiently is therefore paramount. Economic analysis--making sure districts and schools are spending their budgets wisely--is the method used to identify effectiveness and efficiency. This method responds to the question educational professionals face:…

The purpose of this study was to examine how K to 12 teachers defined the concept of text complexity within the context of materials selection. Using a tripartite definition of text complexity as our benchmark, we found that a majority of participants were unable to adequately define the concept of text complexity. Teachers who were able to define…

Children are spending an increasing amount of time in front of screens. However, little is known about the content of educational media, particularly in relation to vocabulary instruction. Since vocabulary is an important predictor of later reading comprehension, it warrants a thorough investigation on how it is taught in educational media. This…

Traditional and digital storytelling is a powerful literacy tool which engage students in making connections between pedagogy and academic content. Definitions of traditional and digital storytelling, pedagogical methods aligned with curriculum standards, and examples of literacy centers associated with storytelling in early childhood classrooms…

Despite the importance of motivation in understanding the development and practices of reading, problems persist in how motivation-related constructs are defined and investigated. This article reports a concept analysis of how 12 terms have been used in current reading research. Selection criteria resulted in the identification of 92 data-based…

One of the key requirements of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts is that students are able to read and access complex texts across all grade levels. The CCSS authors emphasize both the limitations and lack of accuracy in the current CCSS model of text complexity, calling for the development of new frameworks. In response…

This paper aims to propose a repository of pre-use evaluation criteria for language teachers who wish to introduce e-books or e-textbooks to their own teaching practices. By selectively using a set of such criteria, they will be able to evaluate to what extent a given e-book/e-textbook lends itself to utilisation within their own teaching context.…