The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to identify schools with low-performing student subgroups for Targeted Support and Improvement or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement. Random differences between students' true abilities and their test scores, also called measurement error, reduce the statistical reliability of the performance…

This Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that used Bayesian stabilization to improve the reliability (long-term stability) of subgroup proficiency measures that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) uses to identify schools for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). The…

The "Stabilizing Subgroup Proficiency Results to Improve the Identification of Low-Performing Schools" study used Bayesian stabilization to improve the reliability (long-term stability) of subgroup proficiency measures that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) uses to identify schools for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI)…

This practitioner inquiry study investigates learning from the stories of emergent bilingual students as they complete project based learning units. This method of instruction created the space to have one-on-one conversations, listen in culturally responsive ways, and develop asset-based literacy curriculum. I argue that relationships formed…

This paper presents new evidence on the benefits of decentralization in public education, focusing on a Chicago policy that granted school principals more control over budgeting and operations. Meta-analysis of similar policies shows a small average effect with significant variation across settings. To explain this heterogeneity, I adopt theories…

This document presents the proceedings of the 28th Annual Research Forum held June 27, 2024, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following eight action research papers: (1) College Athletics and the High School Athlete: Perspectives of High School Coaches (Michael Goehrig); (2) The Influence of Blogging on…

The author discusses the theoretical foundations for creative criticism, a term denoting the application of multimodal responses to literature for the construction of meaning. The author develops a theoretical framework from Bakhtin's principles of dialogical interpenetration, internally persuasive discourse, and utterance, as well as Dewey's…

This article explores the sharing of writing through a coffee house--style poetry reading. Although this article focuses on a workshop and share activity used in a preservice teacher language arts and literacy course, it contains tips and ideas for implementing poetry coffee houses with elementary and secondary school students and preservice and…

Music and reading domains require similar auditory processing skills. Students employ these skills when learning a new song through an oral/aural or rote-teaching approach. In this article, I review literature on the effectiveness of immersion and phrase-by-phrase approaches for teaching a song with or without words. Then, using an amusing…

In American high schools, the practice of poetry analysis as a study of language art has declined. Outworn methods have contributed to the trend away from close interactions with the text, to the unfortunate end that millennial high school students neither understand nor enjoy poetry. Digital technology coupled with principles of translation…

Although used in the corporate world for decades, using a multi-rater tool to evaluate school leaders began relatively recently. With states seeking flexibility from the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965" (reauthorized as the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001"), the requirement to develop and implement principal…

Guided and grounded by Eisner's 1982 "Model of Transactions Between the Individual and the Environment," this paper explores how students negotiate perceptions of meaning that are both internalized through the art of reading a text and experienced through individualized transactions of representational and conceptual comprehension.…

In this article, the author reflects on Frantz Fanon's "historico-racial schema" regarding the Black body and shares a personal teaching journey in English education from China to the United States. The author further builds upon Kevin Leander and Gail Boldt's critique of "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies" to examine the dimension…

This case examines the practical and philosophical dilemmas related to a qualitative, multi-state analysis of how secondary English Language Arts teachers reconciled their commitment to teaching for social justice with curricular standards and mandates. Topics addressed include the identification and narrowing of a research question; developing…

Both those inside and outside of the education community are becoming increasingly familiar with the STEM acronym and the extensive efforts underway nationally to develop integrated PK-12 STEM programs that promote critical thinking, problem solving, 21st Century skill development and authentic learning experiences (Ingram, 2019). However, for…