Authors Casey Reason and Brandon J. Larson advocate for the strategic design and development of impactful activities and athletics to enhance school culture. Their Rally model provides strategies for aligning extracurricular programs with academic goals, fostering leadership, and boosting participation and engagement. The Rally approach improves…

The issue of unfinished learning and achievement gaps in schools has been a persistent concern in recent years, particularly among underrepresented and disadvantaged student populations. AVID Elementary is a promising solution for ensuring students have the necessary knowledge and skills to be college and career ready, as it is based on proven…

Schools in the United States are becoming more diverse with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, but many minority students experience disconnection from school for a variety of reasons. Longstanding research on the jigsaw method suggests that it has been an effective intervention for increasing interdependence among students and…

Even under ideal conditions, teaching is tough work. Facing unrelenting pressure from administrators and parents and caught in a race against time to improve student outcomes, educators can easily become discouraged (or worse, burn out completely) without a robust coaching system in place to support them. For more than 20 years, perfecting such a…

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have recently proliferated among schools. Although MBIs show much promise in alleviating mental distress, their increase in school settings may outpace the evidence base for such implementation. In the present literature review, we define the different types of MBIs implemented in school settings:…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) provide the best setting for building collective teacher efficacy (CTE). CTE has been identified as having the highest positive effect on student achievement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perceptions of teachers and administrators regarding the effectiveness of PLCs for building…

State testing programs regularly release previously administered test items to the public. We provide an open-source recipe for state, district, and school assessment coordinators to combine these items flexibly to produce scores linked to established state score scales. These would enable estimation of student score distributions and achievement…

This book offers a foundational guide for pre- and in-service teachers, examining the evolving, multifaceted role of educators in today's classrooms. Organized into three parts--Children, Teachers, and Parents--it explores child development, the emotional and social complexity of learners, and the vital influence of family dynamics on school…

Although previous studies have highlighted the positive effects of cooperative learning (CL) on academic achievement as well as the learning environment, they have not shown how this happens. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of CL in the field of nursing, as well as to identify students' perceptions of how these effects…

This popular book addresses literacy leaders' eternal quest to prepare all students for the demands of the 21st century. This updated Sixth Edition will help prospective and current literacy professionals understand how to organize and supervise literacy programs within the context of current state and federal mandates. With a focus on providing…

Teachers have an important influence on pupils' academic progress, yet the quality of teaching varies widely. Policymakers, school leaders, and teacher educators therefore face the challenge of designing and commissioning professional development (PD) to help all their teachers become as effective as the best teachers. In the last two decades, a…

Teachers' characteristics can significantly influence the quality of student functioning. Yet, there has been little exploration regarding which attributes matter to which outcomes, and for whom, and under what conditions. In this study, we considered four characteristics as perceived by students, namely competence, student-centered instruction,…

In inclusive classrooms teachers support students with various needs. Students with exceptionalities are included in general education which can provide various challenges for teachers. A common system used by teachers to support students is a token economy. Increase use of digital technology in education has make available the use of token…

Evidence-based practices are backed up by research evidence. This means there is broad consensus from rigorously conducted evaluations that they work. Teachers, educators and policymakers need to determine how applicable education evidence is to their context when considering adopting new evidence-based practices. Research conducted in different…

After-school programs (ASP) are a long-standing activity historically facilitated by organizations such as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, social service/community centers and, in the past decade, an increasing number of municipal park districts. Staffing usually consist of recreation professionals, social and youth workers, and volunteers. In…