With many distractions competing for students' attention, student engagement and knowledge retention are more important than ever. "Where Learning Happens" explores the types of attention--sustained, selective, divided, and effective--in depth and provides research-suggested strategies to maximize student attention and engagement. By…

For more than 2 decades, Karin Hess has worked with the concept of depth of knowledge (DOK) and expanded applications of cognitive rigor across content areas and grade levels, proving that every student can experience deeper learning. This interactive book offers a self-guided journey beginning with the basics: what DOK is, what it is not, and…

By infusing lessons with content that is relevant to students' lives, inspires their curiosity, and fires up their intellect, teachers can use hip-hop education to help students better take in information and think critically about concepts, inside and outside the classroom. This must-have resource: (1) Presents the what, why, and how of using…

Learn how to keep the rigor and motivation alive in a remote learning or hybrid K-12 classroom. In this essential book, bestselling author Barbara R. Blackburn shares frameworks and tools to help you move online without compromising the rigor of your instruction. You'll learn: (1) how to create a remote culture of high expectations; (2) how to…

We share ideas for preparing for and enacting high-cognitive demand tasks in ways that support students in articulating and justifying their ideas. We offer strategies for developing and posing several types of purposeful questions: (1) eliciting thinking, (2) generating ideas, (3) clarifying explanations, and (4) justifying claims.

University educators work with preservice teachers who often feel overwhelmed when facing high school science classrooms full of reluctant readers. These struggling students often have various special-education modifications or are English language learners (ELLs) with different degrees of language proficiency. Teachers report that these students…

What does "rigor," a word that frequently pops up in conversations about education, really mean? More specifically, what does it mean for "literacy" instruction, and how does it relate to challenging standards-based assessments? In this informative and practical guide, literacy expert Nancy Boyles uses the framework from Webb's…

Goal setting has been shown to improve student performance, motivation, and task completion in academic settings. Although goal setting is utilized by many education professionals to help students set realistic and proper goals, physical educators may not be using goal setting effectively. Without incorporating all three types of goals and…

In clear and concise language, veteran education writer Robert Rothman identifies nine instructional "shifts" encouraged by the new Common Core State Standards and provides examples of how teachers and school districts are overcoming challenges in implementation. He presents the research and rationale behind each change and provides…

This resource is part of a series produced by the Center for Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI) to assist educators as they use College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) to plan instruction for diverse learners. Although the processes described in this resource use the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association…

Asking surface-level questions is a common practice among educators. Delva Daines's (1986) pilot study indicated that 93 percent of the questions asked during lessons were at the literal level of comprehension and that it was very common for the teachers to restate, rephrase, or answer their own questions before the student had an opportunity to…

The discussion about rigor is not new. Ever since the release of A Nation at Risk (1983) the debate about the quality of American schools has continued. Adoption of No Child Left Behind (2001) raised the debate to a new level. For the first time schools were held accountable for the achievement of every child, not just the most capable. Across the…

Since 1973, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has gathered information about student achievement in mathematics. Results of these periodic assessments, produced in print and web-based formats, provide valuable information to a wide variety of audiences. They inform citizens about the nature of students' comprehension of the…

In assessment, the ability to construct test items that measure a targeted skill is fundamental to validity and alignment. The ability to do the reverse is also important: determining what skill an existing test item measures. This paper presents a model for classifying test items that builds on procedures developed by others, including Bloom…

Behind Act of 2001 and its many facets, an area of major concern for most schools is how to make Adequate Yearly Progress. The definition for AYP has been written about in numerous articles. What very early research is indicating is that more elementary schools and middle schools are making AYP in both reading and math, than seems to be happening…