Recent research has identified interventions that improved achievement for students with low test scores in mathematics. The Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades practice guide, developed by the What Works Clearinghouse™ (WWC) in conjunction with an expert panel, distills this recent research into…

The goal of this practice guide is to offer educators specific, evidence-based recommendations that address the challenges of preventing dropout in secondary schools. This guide synthesizes the best publicly available research and shares practices that are supported by evidence. It is intended to be practical and easy for teachers and school…

Bestselling author and noted rigor expert Barbara Blackburn shares the secrets to getting started, maintaining momentum, and reaching your goals. Learn what rigor looks like in the classroom, understand what it means for your students, and get the keys to successful implementation. Learn how to use rigor to raise expectations, provide appropriate…

This article presents a number of carefully selected activities for the mathematics classroom in the early grades. The motivation for their selection is the development of concepts rather than the learning of the procedural skills of arithmetic. As the teacher is faced with a great heterogeneity of children starting school, the concrete learning…

Amargosa Valley School in Nevada could be considered representative of almost any preK-8 school that serves a large proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and is focused on turning around persistently low achievement. Like other schools supported by federal School Improvement Grants, Amargosa is beginning to implement a reform plan…

American schools are witnessing the increasing cultural heterogeneity of our nation's population. Educators are faced with the challenge of ensuring positive educational outcomes for all students, despite the lack of empirical understanding of how to effectively educate culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The purpose of this paper is…

First introduced in 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has evolved over nearly five decades, emphasizing education reform priorities that mirror the changing national education policy conversation. The most recent iteration of ESEA, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), was enacted in 2001. It emphasized improving…

Now in a fully updated second edition, "Unlocking Mathematics Teaching" is a comprehensive guide to teaching mathematics in the primary school. Combining theory and practice, selected experts outline the current context of mathematics education. They suggest strategies, activities and examples to help develop readers understanding and confidence…

The evidence is clear: America's boys are being left behind by current practices in the classroom. Boys are dropping out of high schools in significant numbers, failing to complete college degrees, and behaving more violently. The author states that teachers should pay close attention to statistics that track these trends, seriously regard the…

Drawing on perceptions, behaviors, and experiences of students at an urban high school--both high and low achievers--this timely book demonstrates how urban youth can be meaningfully engaged in learning mathematics. The author presents a "potential" model rather than a "deficit" model, complete with teaching strategies and best practices for…

The assessment of phonological awareness (PA) can serve several purposes, including providing a useful diagnostic function in the management of low-progress readers. This paper discusses various aspects of phonological awareness that have implications for literacy teaching at three different points in children's school career: the point of school…

NCLB and Reading First are negotiated in implementing beginning reading instruction. The article describes and analyzes how two critical conditions for creating opportunity--access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum--are met by examining the enactment and adaptation of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately…

Some young children show signs that they may not be learning in an expected manner, even during the prekindergarten (PreK) years. These children may exhibit learning challenges in areas such as developing language, counting objects, hearing differences in letter sounds, paying attention during story time, or learning how to write. Teachers,…

Social studies teachers assess their students in a number of ways. Among these are formative assessments, authentic assessments, and summative low-level multiple-choice tests. Working with two classrooms of low-achieving U.S. history students, the authors compared student experiences in traditional units to those in units that integrated an…

This paper offers facts which can help educators deal with children undergoing trauma. These include: (1) One out of every 4 children attending school has been exposed to a traumatic event that can affect learning and/or behavior; (2) Trauma can impact school performance; (3) Trauma can impair learning; (4) Traumatized children may experience…