Many predominantly White universities and colleges are seeking ways to both recruit and retain Black students (Simmons, J., Lowery-Hart, R., Wahl, S. T., & McBride, M. C. (2013). "Understanding the African-American student experience in higher education through a relational dialectics perspective." "Communication…

It is difficult to get a good grasp of the topic of kindergarten entry assessment because there are such great differences in the purpose for the instruments, how they are constructed, and how the data is used. Even so, in many states and communities, there is cause for concern. Until the paradigm of education moves from a preoccupation with…

Active engagement has become the focus of many early childhood science education curricula and standards. However, active engagement usually emphasizes getting children engaged with science solely through hands-on activities. Active engagement by way of hands, heads, and hearts are kept separate and rarely discussed in terms of getting all to work…

This standards-based science lesson introduces young learners to scientific inquiry and critical thinking by using activities to demonstrate three phases of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). By learning about the states of matter through a 5E instructional approach, students are encouraged to observe changes in the states of matter and to discuss…

This article describes the kinds of writing that could be introduced at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced course levels in the psychology major. We present exemplars of writing assignments across three institutions, including textual analysis, integrating intratext and intertext writing, and a capstone thesis project, where the skills…

What high expectations people place on their infants and toddlers who are just beginning to understand this great big world and all of its complexities! In an attempt to ensure that growth and learning occur, the fundamental needs of infants and toddlers are often pushed aside as people rush the young child to achieve the next developmental…

The purpose of the PreK Annual Report is to comply with statute and inform stakeholders regarding the Children, Youth and Families Department's (CYFD) and the Public Education Department's (PED) efforts and how these are connected to the State's current PreK initiatives. This funding was continued for the 2015-16 school year. In addition, CYFD…

The consequences of lack of reading and poor reading skills are problematic for all students, regardless of background; however, for middle grade striving readers with academic difficulties these problems can lead to lower self-efficacy and motivation to engage in literacy tasks. Using the perspectives of urban, middle grade special education…

While it is accepted that there are "sensitive" and "critical" periods of life during which certain human capabilities are more readily acquired, and where the multiplied returns on our investment in human capability building are more significant, it is also argued that there are place-based contexts (society, nature, culture,…

Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide school leadership for children from preschool to grade twelve instead of kindergarten to grade twelve. Illinois is the first state to make such a change and may well serve as a model for change in school leadership preparation on a national level. The…

To effectively help urban pre-service teachers to provide civic education opportunities in their future classrooms, teacher educators should know how urban pre-service teachers themselves conceptualize citizenship and civic engagement. Through the research question--how do urban K-6 pre-service teachers currently enrolled in an urban education…

Every student must be given the opportunity to participate in physical education and develop the skills and knowledge competencies to become skillful movers for a lifetime. Students with disabilities have unique needs that must be addressed in the least restrictive environment. With the adoption of the "National Standards and Grade-level…

Early Childhood Education in India derives its premise from its sociocultural context. In spite of policies in place for developmentally and contextually appropriate Early Childhood Education, the practices are largely detrimental for this age group. The ray of hope, amidst such a scenario are a few initiatives, one such being the rural preschool…

This article evaluates the extent to which pre-schoolers' picture books can be viewed as a form of enriched linguistic input. Twenty best-selling picture books were analysed in terms of syntactic constructions and compared with a sample of Child Directed Speech. The findings of the study demonstrate the prevalence of canonical utterances (i.e.…

This article presents developmentally appropriate applications of Motivational Interviewing (MI; Miller & Rollnick, 2002) for use in preparing group members for the working stages of group. Practical strategies are offered for using MI to facilitate an atmosphere of trust, recognize member readiness for change, identify and resolve members'…