Prior work has shown that students' reports of their levels of social-emotional skills predict achievement levels and gains, but we have little evidence on whether within-student changes in student reports of social-emotional skills are predictive of changes in theoretically related academic and behavioral outcomes. We use large-scale data from…

This report examines and explains the most recent achievement results for New York City and New York State students in district and charter schools, and to put New York City's achievement levels in context. The New York City public school system is the largest in the country, with more than 1 million students in grades prekindergarten through 12…

"107 Awesome Elementary Teaching Ideas You Can Implement Tomorrow" contains a wide variety of effective, user-friendly strategies, tips, and activities for your elementary school classroom. Rich with anecdotes and examples, this resource features useful suggestions for creating a positive, cooperative classroom culture, improving…

This paper seeks to describe the importance of using the context of a candy shop and how focusing on discourse can deepen place value understanding in the base ten number system. Using the language of pieces (ones), rolls (tens), and boxes (hundreds) helps situate place value in a familiar context for K-2 students. Best practice in mathematics…

While it is important to recognize the economic background of students and home factors contributing to their achievement, the purpose of this study was to discover what best practices schools were implementing with low socioeconomic students to narrow the achievement gap in communication arts (Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009; Gorski, 2013;…

For some teachers, the call for more dialogic instruction and less monologic instruction has led to the belief that student-led discussions require complete teacher silence. That leads to questions about whether there is enough scaffolding for the students when the teacher does not speak; on the other hand, a teacher-centred classroom invokes the…

Co-authored by a college professor, a middle-school teacher, a college undergraduate, and a 7th grader, this article focuses on college and middle-school students' experiences of discovering their own and others' voices. The discovery unfolds through composing and reflecting on poems in the form of Jacqueline Woodson's "It'll be scary…

This work underscores how English Language Arts (ELA) faculty and school administrators in middle schools can partner with area colleges and universities to mine available data generated from high stakes writing assessments, and to answer teachers' questions about students' attitudes to writing. We first discuss the nature of the writing…

Research has shown that academic self-concepts (ASCs) are subject to contextual influences, in particular to the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). The BFLPE refers to the phenomenon whereby able students report more negative ASC when exposed to learning environments with relatively higher-achieving students. Although the BFLPE has been…

The rapid spread of information with the wide use of the printing press has gained momentum in the 21st century as digital texts have become widespread. Reading is among the major abilities educated individuals are expected to hold and Turkish language teachers are looked to in the acquisition of this ability. Besides, computer technologies…

Instructional time spent on elementary social studies has waned in the context of high stakes testing of math and English Language Arts. Integrating social studies within an English Language Arts instructional block creates learning opportunities that more closely align with recommendations from the National Council for the Social Studies (2009)…

In 2016, 20 states administered the ACT exam to all high school students. Of those 20 states, three use the ACT in their statewide testing program as an assessment for accountability at the high school level. States using the tests as part of an accountability system are required to submit results from an independent alignment study to the U.S.…

Concept mapping has long been used an assessment tool by educators to illustrate students' conceptual development of a topic over time. In this article, we chronicle the use of concept maps in a language arts environment. Focusing on a literacy tutoring program for struggling readers/writers centered on hands-on science experiments, we explain how…

When a teacher who fears writing poetry is forced to teach the skill, she discovers a new writing passion and a better way to reach her students.

Teaching financial literacy is important at all stages of life, but is often neglected with elementary students. In this article, the authors describe a strategy for teaching financial literacy using the books about Max and Ruby by Rosemary Wells. These books can help introduce the five key concepts of financial literacy: scarcity, exchange,…