This was an exploratory study that examined high school teachers' perspectives about their early experiences with the English language arts Common Core State Standards. The sources of data for the study included a survey and structured interviews. Twenty-three high school ELA teachers from one unified school district in Southern California…

One district, South Bay Union School District, devises and executes a comprehensive strategy that includes training for district staff, teachers and coaches, including using PLCs and professional development in the implementation of Common Core English language arts standards.

This paper presents results from an examination of the relationships between high school (HS) school day length and 2011 New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) Math and Language Arts Literacy test results. Variables found to have an influence on standardized test scores in the extant literature were evaluated and reported.…

Internationally, little evidence of supporting purposes of classroom assessment exists. In the present study, we investigate feedback practices in language arts classrooms. By comparing video observations from 184 recorded language arts lessons across 46 secondary classrooms in Norway, this study considers the quality of feedback given orally by…

The Learning School initiative completed its pilot testing in June 2016, with 28 schools, called catalyst schools, taking part. Catalyst schools were located in all eight regional education service agencies (RESAs) and were supported by RESA staff in implementing the Learning School approach. Five schools had been part of the program for 2 years…

This research describes language use by four first-grade students during mathematics and Language Arts instruction in a one-way 50/50 Mandarin immersion classroom. The urban public school was situated in the heart of an African-American community in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Participants were video- and audio-recorded…

The research featured in this paper is part of the CORE-PACE Research Partnership, which is focused on producing research that informs continuous improvement in the CORE districts as well as policy and practice in California and beyond. In this report, the authors used data from multiple interim assessments to examine how the rate of student…

The National Math + Science Initiative (NMSI) is a nonprofit organization committed to improving educational outcomes that traces its roots back to the early 1990s. NMSI's College Readiness Program (CRP) is a long-standing program with the goal of promoting STEM education in high schools to improve students' preparation for college. The three-year…

Although much deserved attention has been paid recently to the mentoring and development of beginning English and language arts (ELA) teachers in middle and secondary school settings, we know relatively little about effective approaches to mentoring beginning English teacher educators. As a community of professionals dedicated to the teaching and…

An integrated science curriculum assists pupils to retain learnings better than to separate academic disciplines. Too frequently, science teachers teach each academic discipline as separate entities. However, there is much correlating of science with language, for example which might well be implemented in teaching and learning situations. Thus,…

To address lingering pressures in the aftermath of the pandemic, California public schools received record funding, largely bolstered by nearly $60 billion in federal and state one-time stimulus funds. This report takes a comprehensive look at the allocation and uses of these federal and state educational recovery funds in California.

This study describes the phenomenon of how first-year teachers learn to evaluate students learning by (letter) grades. Grades seem simple enough; but in reality, each grade carries serious consequences with it--for either good or bad. For example, grades affect benefits/consequences at home; they affect placement in remedial or advanced courses;…

This article argues that the goal of an educator is to help students realize they can be effective writers by giving them the ability to demonstrate their skills. Scene writing can make writing seem less like a chore and more like an opportunity to express ideas. As students write scenes that include both dialogue and action, they gain a deeper…

Across the country, adolescents are writing and performing spoken word poetry. In this article, the author works with members of a spoken word poetry group to develop ways to integrate spoken word into classroom and school communities.

This paper draws on practitioner inquiry and participatory action research methodologies to recount how five K-12 educators, who inhabit a range of positionalities and levels of teaching experience, engage in a collaborative professional development program, called Teaching Out Loud as they draw upon critical literacy theory and practice to…