The study addressed the gap in fifth-grade science proficiency between English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in two different science programs in a large school district in the Southeast United States. The Inspire program was implemented in 125 schools, while a combination of Inspire and Promoting Science among English Language Learners…

In many teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education in the United States, pre-service teachers receive mentoring and constructive feedback during their internship placement from an experienced supervising teacher and a university coordinator. Often the feedback loop is closed by asking interns, 'was this useful?' To better…

Over the course of six years, a diverse group of school districts and charter management organizations in California ran a substantial experiment in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades. WestEd led an extensive evaluation of that effort, the California K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative,…

Math in Common® (MiC) is a five-year initiative that supports a formal network of 10 California school districts as they implement the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M) across grades K-8. This research brief explores how best to select or develop and use classroom observation systems in order to document instructional shifts and…

In the 2015-2016 school year, Mesa Elementary School's student test scores reflected that 58% of students in the third-through-fifth grades were below English Language Arts State Standards, as measured by the California Assessment of Student Performance. In the primary grades, more than 24% of Transitional Kindergarten, kindergarten, first-grade…

This investigation examined teacher-directed, rather than program-directed, literacy instruction in elementary classrooms in a school where no comprehensive or core reading program was adopted or implemented. Observations, interviews, and artifacts were the data collected and analyzed over a six month period from four teachers during a single…

This article examines the ways neoliberal school culture mediates the schooling experiences of elementary emergent bilinguals. I draw upon narrative inquiry to privilege the voices and stories of the children who contributed to this work. With the exception of children in first grade, who were sheltered from the discourse of accountability,…

Several social processes guide and shape how school actors engage with high stakes state and district policies relative to mandated curriculum and instruction. In this article, we use rhetorical argumentation analysis to explore how stakeholders mobilize resources through argumentation and rhetorical appeals (logical, emotional, and…

This article describes an arts- and spatial thinking skill--integrated inquiry project applied to life science concepts from the Next Generation Science Standards for fourth grade students that focuses on two unifying or crosscutting themes: (1) structure (or "form") and function and (2) use of models. Students made observations and…

In early November 2013, the authors started talking about visiting the Hurley School, a dual-language school in Boston, Massachusetts. The Hurley School had spent considerable time transitioning to the Common Core State Standards on literacy, but little time addressing the shifts in math. They worried that math classes were no longer rigorous…

Federal law requires that all students, including students with disabilities, participate in state assessments used for accountability purposes. It also requires states to assess students in several content areas, including science. Most students with disabilities take the general science assessment with or without accommodations, but a few…

The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards and corresponding assessments brought about many changes for educators, their literacy instruction, and the literacy learning of their students. This study examined the day-to-day literacy instruction of two primary grade teachers during their first year of full CCSS implementation. Engestr?m's…

Approximately 30 states are now adopting teacher evaluation policies that include student learning objectives (SLOs), which are classroom-specific student test growth targets set by teachers and approved (and scored) by principals. Today state and district leaders are trying to determine the appropriate level of guidance and oversight to provide…

Given the vital importance of using a scientific approach for curriculum development, the authors employed a design experiment methodology (Brown, 1992; Shavelson et al., 2003) to develop and evaluate, FUSION, a first grade mathematics intervention intended for students with or at-risk for mathematics disabilities. FUSION, funded through IES…

Educational policies and initiatives continually influence the instruction in classrooms across the nation. At the time of this study, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was in its first full year of implementation in schools across the country. Using ethnographic methods (Foley, 1990; Heath, 1983; McLaren, 1986) and a critical theory…