This article describes a pilot study conducted by teacher candidates (TCs) at an elementary level charter school in Buffalo, New York. The TCs, undergraduate and graduate level college students, enrolled in an English Language Arts/Social Studies methods course block, wrote bilingual English/Spanish information texts and used them in conjunction…

The trend and demand for virtual education has grown nationwide. With an increase in students choosing this type of education, inevitably the demand for schools of this type of educational instruction has increased in number. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of the relationship between virtual school size and student…

Students learn or progress at their own paces. Each needs different amounts of support, at different points in a school career and at different times of the school year. Some need very little help to stay on track, while others are facing serious challenges in learning, in their behavior, or at home, and need significant interventions. It would…

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a state-led consortium designed to create next-generation assessments that, compared to traditional K-12 assessments, more accurately measure student progress toward college and career readiness. The PARCC assessments are aligned to the Common Core State Standards…

California's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 established transitional kindergarten (TK), the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for students affected by the change in the birthdate cutoff for entry into kindergarten from December 2 to September 1. This brief, the sixth in a series highlighting findings from the "Study of…

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between virtual school size and student achievement in virtual schools in a southwestern state. Enrollment size and the following areas were studied in an attempt to determine student achievement: STAAR English Language Arts/Reading, STAAR Math, STAAR Science, and STAAR Social Studies…

This study reports on a critical review of the language demands contained in the Common Core State Standards for English language arts (CCSS-ELA) with the aim of deriving important implications for the instruction of English language learners. The language demands of the CCSS-ELA were compared with those of existing English language arts (ELA) and…

This report documents the development of assessments of content knowledge for teaching (CKT) as part of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The MET study was designed to develop a set of measures that together serve as an accurate indicator of teaching effectiveness. The study was…

The authors, pioneers in detracking and in shrinking achievement gaps, pose a question: Is it possible to have all students in a large high school successfully complete a challenging curriculum that gives them practice in the habits and skills necessary for success in college? The answer, they say, "is a resounding yes." This article…

A review of the literature pertaining to the effect and influence of commercially-prepared interim assessments in mathematics and language arts literacy reveals a lack of quantitative data to determine the value of these products for school reform. This study examined the ability of commercially-prepared interim pretest and posttest assessments in…

The mothers and fathers (n?=?43) of third- and sixth-grade children were asked to assess their child's academic potential in comparison with the child's earlier competence and with that of her/his peers. In the interpersonal domain, the mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their child's academic potential were related to each other, especially in…

In this article, I argue for the need to improve teacher preparation (TP) courses for elementary education student teachers to teach English-language arts (ELA). In particular, these TP programs need to support student teachers in delivering culturally responsive pedagogy within rural classrooms. Twenty-three student teachers participated in this…

What is "teaching to the test," and can one detect evidence of this practice in state test scores? This paper unpacks this concept and empirically investigates one variant of it by analyzing test item--level data from three states' mathematics and reading tests. We show that NCLB-era state tests predictably emphasized some state…

Students need more opportunities to learn how to respond to and counter forms of everyday racism. This qualitative study addresses that need by investigating how one peer-led group engaged in dialogue about issues of race in regards to an eleventh-grade Language Arts assignment. A racial literacy perspective framed our analysis of three small…

Later this school year, states that have adopted the voluntary Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are scheduled to begin testing students' progress in learning the content of the standards in mathematics and English language arts (ELA). Many of these states belong to one of two consortia--the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the…