Teacher preparation evaluation has expanded rapidly since 1998, pushed by "failing" rhetoric adopted by many educational leaders, such as Michelle Rhee, founder of the Students First organization. Led by the ideas and arguments put forth by Diane Ravitch, others think that there is too much focus on red herrings and that there are, in…

Research shows that adolescent participation in organized out-of-school time (OST) programs (e.g., after-school programs) is linked to positive developmental outcomes. However, whether OST program practitioners use this research to inform their decision making is unclear. Therefore, a science-to-practice gap may exist in OST programs. To assess…

Improving the educational outcomes of economically disadvantaged children is a policy priority in the United States, and yet relatively little progress has been made in recent decades. Education reforms that aim to help economically disadvantaged students often focus on improving the quality with which grade-level material is taught, or the…

Despite increased inclusion of individuals with special needs in educational and leisure settings, people with disabilities continue to experience social isolation. Research indicates that negative attitudes play an important role in contributing to this marginalization. This study examined the impact of an inclusion program at a residential…

Research suggests that learning is situated, social, and constructed. Teachers, as well as their students, learn through collaborative participation in meaningful activity. This study investigates the impact of a Writing Project Institute on teachers' learning and instruction, considering characteristics of professional learning that influenced…

For more than 20 years, Advocates for Children of New Jersey has published the Newark Kids Count Data Book, a one-stop source for child well-being data on the state's largest city. Newark Kids Count includes the latest statistics, along with five-year trend data, in the following areas: demographics, family economic security, food insecurity,…

This article documents the patterns of White-Black and White-Hispanic enrollment gaps in Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment (DE) programs across thousands of school districts in the United States by merging several data sources. We show that the vast majority of districts have racial enrollment gaps in both programs, with wider gaps in AP…

Few studies in language teacher education programs provide insight on how knowledge of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is developed by teacher candidates to support their metalinguistic awareness and preparation to teach language. Building upon the contributions of Johnson and Byrnes, we combined Halliday's language-based theory of learning…

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher candidates must have a working knowledge of English linguistics in order to support their students' language development. This article reports on TESOL teacher candidates' reflective practice to highlight how interaction with non-native speakers can develop awareness of linguistic…

In light of COVID-19, school divisions across the country closed their doors and shifted to remote instruction. In Virginia, little guidance was provided to assist educators and teacher educators with making this transition, particularly for students with individualized education programs (IEPs). In May of 2020, researchers surveyed Virginia…

Measuring the quality of information and communication technology (ICT) tools and their impact on learning outcomes is not an easy task. Carol Chapelle, the leading authority on the evaluation of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) tools, wrote in 2008: 'Evaluation of innovation is perhaps the most significant challenge teachers and…

Many factors impact intervention implementation in everyday practice, including the social validity of these interventions. As a way of addressing social validity, this study aimed to understand the perspectives of multiple stakeholders of school-aged children and adolescents who use aided and unaided augmentative and alternative communication…

United States history classrooms have the potential to simultaneously foster an understanding of students' cultures and experiences today in relation to the nation's history and develop critical thinking and technology literacy. Yet classroom materials and instructors tend to avoid, ignore, or misrepresent controversial topics such as race and…

The Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducted research in New Mexico to provide state leaders and stakeholders a research perspective on the challenges facing education and to identify evidence- based ways that state policy can address them. This report complements the main report, "Improving Education the New Mexico Way: An Evidence-Based…

The COVID-19 crisis has made delivering early intervention services much more challenging and could exacerbate racial inequities in health and education. But we can only fix what we can measure--so it is vital that states collect and report better data. A survey of state coordinators of early intervention services in fall 2020 focused on Black and…