Research suggests that current teachers' writing instruction does not prepare students for the demands of college and career writing, a problem that has persisted for decades. The purpose of this survey study of third- and fifth-grade teachers (N=159) across the U.S. was 1) to determine changes in teachers' frequency teaching writing using a set…

Purpose: This study explores physical education teaching quality and its effects on student psychomotor learning by bringing together generic and content-specific practices. Method: A sample of 51 elementary classroom teachers who taught physical education to third-, fourth-, or fifth-grade students (N = 944) was recruited. Student psychomotor…

Out-of-school, community demographic and family-level variables have an important influence on student achievement as measured by large-scale standardized tests. Studies described here demonstrated that about half of the test score is accounted for by variables outside the control of teachers and school administrators. The results from these…

The authors compared the performance of third-grade students testing on answer sheets with those testing on machine-scored test booklets. The 1,832 students in the nationally representative sample were assigned at the campus level to complete the Stanford Achievement Test Series, Tenth Edition in 1 of 4 conditions: (a) Form A answer sheet, (b)…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the length of superintendent tenure, longevity, and continuity relative to student achievement as evidenced by the 2008-2009 Grade 3 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) in Language Arts. The researcher focused on New Jersey school districts in the…

In this study, we use the US nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort to examine inequalities in opportunities to learn mathematics. Specifically, we examine the characteristics of US students' elementary school math teachers and the instruction they provide. While our findings are consistent with previous…

According to an extensive review of the literature, effective instructional delivery and "classroom management" practices are critical factors to elevate student achievement (Shindler, Jones, Williams, Taylor, & Cadenas, 2012). The purpose of this study was to analyze a comparison of classroom management practices on student…

This longitudinal quantitative study compared literacy achievement of students from second through sixth grade based on two organizational systems: graded (traditional) and nongraded (multiage) classrooms. The California Standards Test (CST) scaled and proficiency scores for English-Language Arts (ELA) were used as the study's independent variable…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether third-grade teachers' instructional actions during reading comprehension lessons contributed to their students' reading comprehension achievement. Our framework focused on teachers' emphasis on three dimensions of instruction (pedagogical structure, teacher-directed instruction, and support for…