A joint study by Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has shed new light on the role of Hispanic parents in their child's education and shattered the myth that Latino parents have minimal educational aspirations for their children. Released in June, With Diploma in Hand: Hispanic High School Seniors Talk…

The shape and form of effective teacher-pupil talk has recently become the focus of attention within policy guidelines such as the National Numeracy and Literacy Strategies. Prior to this, research on classroom discourse has established that social context plays an important role in determining the quality of teacher-pupil talk since it directs…

Quantitative analyses using CLASS 3.0 software and qualitative discourse analyses were conducted of the instructional and institutional effects of tracking in high-and low-track American literature classes taught by the same teacher, a participant in a national study of the effects of dialogic classroom discourse patterns on student achievement.…

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the associations between maternal depressive symptoms and perceptions of children's problems. One hundred and nineteen mother-child dyads were followed from the third trimester of pregnancy for almost 10 years. Depressive symptoms and background factors of the mothers and the anticipated/perceived…

Teachers exert a potent influence over the achievement of all students, low-income culturally diverse students in particular. Although recent research has confirmed that teacher involvement is critical for promoting academic engagement of low-income and ethnically diverse students, other literature suggests that teachers have lower expectations…

Today, it has become fashionable to discuss "closing the achievement gap." People know that an achievement gap exists. The question is, what can be done to close it? In 2005, approximately 50 years after the first Brown vs. Board of Education court case, the authors issue the official call for others to join them in researching the mathematics and…

Historical research in the field of autism has suggested that judgements regarding the ability of students with autism should be made carefully, taking into consideration the person with autism's difficulty with communication, movement and performance in general. Although the historical literature has urged professionals to proceed with caution…

Increasingly diverse student populations in schools highlight the need for effective service delivery models to accommodate these students. One promising practice that is being utilized and becoming more commonplace in schools is coteaching (Reinhiller, 1996). Coteaching involves the deployment of a general education teacher and a special…

Even with all the external elements of school reform in place, educators can end up spinning their wheels. To make progress, schools must identify the nonnegotiable key elements of their reform plans and use the habits of highly effective schools to turn them into school practice. These habits are: (1) demonstrate high expectations and a vision…

This study used grounded theory methodology (B. G. Glaser & A. L. Strauss, 1967; A. Strauss & J. Corbin, 1990) to explore the help-seeking behaviors of a select group of White male adolescents to understand and identify the mental health stressors in their lives and the factors involved with their decisions to seek or not to seek help for those…

Teachers may be the most important element of an effective school, but does that mean that K-12 improvement must wait on the ability of schools or systems to recruit, nurture, and retain outstanding teachers? Such a strategy implies that widespread excellence hinges on the ability of publicly funded school systems to attract more than 3.3 million…

Drawing on current research and best practices, this second part of the three-part resource, "Supporting Positive Behaviour in Alberta Schools," provides information and strategies for systematically teaching, supporting and reinforcing positive behaviour in the classroom. A proactive approach to classroom management is designed to…

This study examined practices of teachers in Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) high school Algebra I classes. Regression analyses of standardized state testing results allowed for identification of the most effective and least effective Algebra I teachers and schools. The study used surveys, observations, and focus group interviews to compare and…

Educators Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Friedlaender share findings from their recent report highlighting five California high schools that have beaten the odds in supporting the success of low-income students of color. Animo Inglewood Charter High School, Stanley E. Foster Construction Tech Academy, June Jordan School for Equity, Leadership…

Background: This longitudinal study examines the long-term effects on the achievement of students at a diverse suburban high school after all students were given accelerated mathematics in a detracked middle school as well as ninth-grade "high-track" curriculum in all subjects in heterogeneously grouped classes. Despite considerable…