Using migration as a springboard, students can begin to understand patterns of survival and interdependence that exist within nature, as well as humankind's role in modifying these patterns. This mini-unit involves a series of integrated activities designed to take middle school students (fifth through eighth grades) on a journey of the eastern…

Novice teachers often find themselves isolated; they are often assigned students with the most difficult challenges, with no mentor, and without professional learning to further develop the skills they began to acquire as student teachers. It is important to disrupt the institutionalized isolation of the novice teacher (Darling-Hammond and Sclan;…

The community colleges in the state of New Jersey went through a process of establishing statewide cut-off scores for English and mathematics placement tests. The colleges wanted to communicate to secondary schools a consistent preparation that would be necessary for enrolling in Freshman Composition and College Algebra at the community college…

Due to prevailing attitudes about the prison industrial complex and African American and Latino/Latina communities, the literary production of urban street fiction has been politely disregarded by our society. Through the use of critical praxis, utilizing urban street fiction in the classroom is a necessary and urgent act of social justice. Street…

Technology plays an integral role in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom today, yet teachers and teacher educators continue to develop understandings of how technology influences pedagogy. This qualitative study explored how and why two ELA teachers used different technologies in the secondary English classroom to plan for and deliver…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of professional development on teachers' knowledge of teaching science and sense of efficacy regarding the teaching of science. In addition, the study explores the association between knowledge of teaching science and efficacy regarding the teaching of science. Participants included 28 early…

It is well documented that youth with or at-risk for emotional and behavioraldisorders (E/BD) have severe deficits in their academic functioning. To beginto address these deficits, we focus on the need to close the opportunity gap by providing access to multi-tiered systems of academic prevention, maximizing academic learning time, and providing…

Test-based accountability as well as value-added asessments and much experimental and quasi-experimental research in education rely on achievement tests to measure student skills and knowledge. Yet, we know little regarding fundamental properties of these tests, an important example being the extent of measurement error and its implications for…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a key piece of current reform efforts to reshape the U.S. educational system. Critics contend that the related Revised Publishers' Criteria (RPC), coupled with the authoritative power of the CCSS, will de-professionalize teachers, directing their practice from a distance. The purpose of this qualitative…

This resource is part of a series produced by the Center for Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI) to assist teachers and those who support teachers to plan teaching and learning from College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) for all students, including students with disabilities, English learners, academically at-risk students, students…

This evaluation study provides information about the implementation and outcomes of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program in West Virginia, from September 2014 through May 2015. The report draws on information from online surveys of 23 directors of 21st CCLC programs and from school teachers for 929 of the 11,299…

The 2015 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report is our opportunity to share the Fordham Foundation's work as the sponsor of eleven schools serving approximately 3,200 students in five cities, and our related policy work in Ohio and nationally. Charter school policy took a giant leap forward in Ohio in 2015 with the passage of HB 2. The road to a…

This powerful book lays out an inspiring new vision for the teaching of English, building on themes central to Wilhelm's influential "You Gotta BE The Book." With this new work, Wilhelm and Novak challenge business as usual in the language arts. They call for nothing short of a revolution in our understanding of the aims and methods of the English…

Instructional time for social studies has been reduced nationwide, particularly in the elementary grades. Yet states continue to promote content standards in history, economics, civics, and geography for young learners. Purposeful integrative content that is appropriate for grades K-6, while sometimes difficult to find, seems to many elementary…

Educators have been paying attention to the teaching potential of the 3D virtual world browsing program Second Life, and they have been using the tool to teach subjects such as arts and mathematics in the past few years. In this article, the author focuses on how to teach language arts in Second Life. Advantages and disadvantages of two Second…