This study addresses measurement issues around a standards-based content analysis of mathematics textbooks' coverage of standards for use in large-scale monitoring of standards implementation as proposed in a 2013 report by the National Research Council. An earlier study produced an exhaustive content analysis of textbooks using the 2012 Common…

Purpose: As the federal government has retreated from taking a dominant role in encouraging implementation of common K-12 standards, states and districts have moved to fill this education policy vacuum. This study aims to understand how state and district leaders are navigating this new policy environment. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing upon…

Purpose: As the federal government has retreated from taking a dominant role in encouraging implementation of common K-12 standards, states and districts have moved to fill this education policy vacuum. This study aims to understand how state and district leaders are navigating this new policy environment. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing upon…

Rural students often face challenges in receiving high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without meaningful STEM educational opportunities, rural students might not develop the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a technology-driven workforce. The Learning by Making program (LbyM), an innovative…

In this paper, we describe an experience within mathematics teacher preparation that engages preservice teachers (PSTs) in Making and design practices that we hypothesized would inform their conceptual and pedagogical thinking. With a focus on the design of new tools to support mathematics teaching and learning, this Learning by Design experience…

We examined multimodality (the representation of information in multiple semiotic modes) in the context of international test comparisons. Using Program of International Student Assessment (PISA)-2009 data, we examined the correlation of the difficulty of science items and the complexity of their illustrations. We observed statistically…

Nationally an estimated 41% of traditional students who begin seeking an undergraduate degree do not persist through degree attainment. Guided by Tinto's theory of student departure and the theory of social integration, the purpose of this study was to identify the reasons students withdrew from college prior to degree completion. A qualitative…

In this content analysis of state U.S. History and Civics standards, we compared the treatment of immigration across three types of states with differing immigration demographics. Analyzing standards from 18 states from a critical race methodology perspective, our findings indicated three sets of tensions: a unified American story versus local…

This exploratory qualitative content analysis examined the edTPA portfolios of 36 randomly selected teacher candidates to address a national trend towards standardization and accountability in teacher education in relationship to the critical need for multicultural educators. Using multicultural education as a theoretical framework, this study…

Variations of the question, "How are you doing in school?" are among those most frequently posed by adults to students (Reeves, 2004). Grades represent the primary source of that information; indeed, Olson (1995) called grades "one of the most sacred traditions in American education" (p. 24). There is so much trust in the…

The goal of this study was to examine the professional development experiences of two contrastive participants while they were creating standards-based individualized education plan (IEP) goals using a virtual world called TeacherSim. Two specific focuses of the study were on how special educators engaged with the task of creating standards-based…

This exploratory study examined the frequency and content of text-based interactions between special education mentors (n = 22) and mentees (n = 50) within the Electronic Mentoring for Student Success Program (eMSS). Perceived outcomes of participants, based on an open ended survey question, were also analyzed. The Interstate Teacher Assessment…

Purpose: This paper aims to test the need in the Australian higher education (HE) sector for a national network for the peer review of assessment in response to the proposed HE standards framework and propose a sector-wide framework for calibrating and assuring achievement standards, both within and across disciplines, through the establishment of…

This document contains all of the Minnesota kindergarten academic standards in the content areas of Arts, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. For each content area there is a short overview followed by a coding diagram of how the standards are organized and displayed. This document is adapted from the official versions…

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to describe elementary level school teachers' experiences who worked with English Learners in a project-based learning model of instruction. The study focused on how teachers developed, planned, or utilized curriculum to support the language acquisition of their English Learners to meet state and…