We often hear that a key purpose of schooling is to prepare students for informed and active citizenship. But what does this look like in practice? How do teachers pursue this goal amid other pressing priorities, including student mastery of both academic content and social-emotional competencies? "Students Taking Action Together," based…

From the beginning of American history, disparity and inequity have existed in American society. This applies especially in the realm of education. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced in America. Adding to the already existing history of systemic educational oppression, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the many underserved and…

Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit charter management organization that starts and manages public charter schools, primarily in traditionally underserved communities. As part of a 2016 grant awarded to Uncommon from the U.S. Department of Education's Charter Schools Program to support replication and expansion of its school model, we conducted a…

There is tension in the current curricular landscape, particularly for the field of English language arts (ELA). The majority of ELA teachers do not closely follow a district-adopted curriculum (Kaufman et al., 2020; Opfer et al., 2016). Further, recent studies by RAND found that nearly all teachers report supplementing with instructional…

Social media are some of the most used digital composition tools by both youth and adults yet authoring in digital spaces remains undervalued and digital literacy education remains misaligned with workplace needs and expectations. Using a multiple case study design (n=3) to explore the authorship of pre-service English/ELA teachers on social media…

Composing narrative text is complex, requiring development of knowledge of genre specific and general writing knowledge, and the ability to sequence and convey real or imagined experiences, reactions, and an effective ending. Teachers, however, typically do not receive adequate professional learning needed for effective instruction in narrative…

Purpose: This study aims to illustrate how one-sixth grade language arts teacher transforms the theory of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into practice, an effort made visible through classroom discourse. Design/methodology/approach: This classroom discourse inquiry is guided by tools of reconstructive discourse analysis which encourage a…

This study described the features of writing instruction in widely used kindergarten English Language Arts programs and examined their alignment with evidence-based, best-practice guidelines. Three popular curricula were selected for analyses: Reading Wonders, Journeys, and Reading Street. Our coding of teacher manuals focused on instructional…

Contemporary nonfiction for young people plays a crucial role in the reading and writing lives of K-12 students. It is a rich and compelling genre that supports students' development as critically, visually, and informationally literate 21st century thinkers and creators. Unlike many textbooks and materials written for online or print-based school…

The pandemic led many schools to invest in technology that remains in classrooms today. The abrupt changes did not leave much time for professional development or planning time on how to use these digital tools to support literacy development effectively. Educators continue to grapple with how to use this technology to support language arts,…

One of the categories of failing public schools is turnaround schools, which requires effective school leadership and teachers to improve student achievement scores. However, the impact of principals' self-efficacy beliefs in successfully turning around failing schools is unknown. The purpose of this research was to investigate principal…

This study was designed to examine whether there is a significant difference in the English Language Arts and mathematics achievement of third, fourth, and fifth-grade students enrolled in Priority Schools in South Carolina. In an effort to provide a quality education by way of improving state standardized assessments results, nation-wide many…

Elementary-aged Black girls in predominantly white schools often exist within the constructions of racist and sexist conditions. These conditions inform their school experiences and subject them to a magnitude of social, physical, mental, and psychological violence. Despite the harm that predominately white schools produce onto the bodies of…

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effects of the implementation of blended learning combined with a self-monitoring achievement system on students' self-regulated learning (SRL) skills and academic performance in an eighth-grade English language arts classroom. SRL has been linked to higher academic achievement and success in…

While numerous studies have been conducted to determine the impact of grade retention on future academic achievement and psychosocial development, few studies have targeted Florida-specific grade retention as mandated by Florida law. As it exists today, there is very little evidence that the practice of retaining students resulted in increased…