Teachers in the United States are increasingly tasked with using data to inform their classroom instruction both through federal policies, such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2016), and state policies requiring the use of teacher-determined data-driven goals for performance evaluations (MA 603 CMR 35.07). Many teachers, however, report…

The majority of U.S fourth graders are not proficient in reading. With lawmakers in some U.S. states enacting "Read by Grade 3" laws, it is important for teachers to be well prepared to teach reading to their students. The purpose of this study was to explore novice kindergarten through second grade (K-2) teachers' perspectives of their…

Amid efforts to limit "divisive concepts" in educational settings, this article investigates the obstruction of a civic-focused early childhood curriculum. Joy Dangora Erickson and Winston Thompson analyze the challenges faced by a resourceful kindergarten teacher striving to uphold curriculum goals despite constraints imposed by the…

In Georgia, the recent "Protect Students First Act," or GA HB 1084, states that curricula and training programs should refrain from judging others based on race or advocate for divisive concepts such as "One race is inherently superior to another race," or that "the United States of America is fundamentally racist."…

Voting instruction typically provided to students is focused on educating for informed voting, but we believe it is essential that schools educate for informed and equitable voting. Indeed, in a well-functioning democratic society, participants need to be prepared to engage in critical, but civil, discourse with and about people who look and think…

This two-year study examined the impact of Spalding's The Writing Road to Reading literacy program on student achievement across grades K-5 in 14 Arizona schools. Using a quasi-experimental matched design, researchers compared 687 students from three Spalding schools with 1228 students from eleven comparison schools using Fundations. Data from…

Teacher agency has been a burgeoning topic of research in education and music education. In education research, professional agency has been associated with the influence of policy, teacher demographics, teacher beliefs, professional developments, and teaching environments. In music education, music teacher professional agency is a music teacher's…

Decades of federal and state education legislation enacted to increase student academic achievement and enhance school quality have pronounced impacts on teachers and their instructional practice. That impact is captured in the term intensification. Intensification is multifaceted and manifests as additional tasks accomplished simultaneously, with…

This phenomenological research study examined the educational experiences of educators who participated in Chapter 49 of Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code Culturally Relevant Sustaining Education professional development programming within an urban School District in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Semi-structured interviews were conducted…

Polarization in the United States and controversy over the teaching of content some deem "divisive" has resulted in the enactment of restrictive legislation in many states. Such constraints contribute to a fraught environment in schools today and significantly impact the work of teaching. Utilizing frameworks of "ambitious…

The purpose of the current qualitative study was to explore the characteristics of high-performing Title 1 schools that narrow the poverty-related achievement gap employing an extreme sampling case design. The study examined four case schools that were selected based on 2019 CAASPP data as published on the California School Dashboard with the…

English Learners (ELs) are one of the fastest-growing student populations in K-12 schools, and attention must be given to the academic achievement gap between ELs and their native English language speaking counterparts. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, required every state to adopt English proficiency standards aligned with…

The concept of serving students with disabilities in their least restrictive environment is a fundamental principle of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This mandate emphasizes that students with disabilities should receive their education alongside their non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible. This is often achieved in…

In light of recent political events in the United States, and with the urging to consider Noddings' care ethics in early childhood education, this conceptual piece considers an often-overlooked question in political discourse: what are the rights of the child, and how might these be centered in discussions of pedagogy, curricula, and legislation?…

This study examined the learning trajectory of five US humanities teachers when navigating learning to teach the difficult history of school desegregation within a context of a six-month inquiry-based professional development. The research questions were: What do teachers frame as problems when teaching difficult histories? How do they…