In 2009, the Lumina Foundation published "A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Meet a 'Big Goal' for College Attainment," which projected a staggering shortfall of college-educated adults to meet labor market demand--16 million nationally by 2025. Like many states, the Illinois P-20 Council quickly…

Writings related to the meaning and value of music establish that experiences with music influence values and beliefs. The potential impact of this influence highlights the need for sensitivity as teachers orchestrate experiences with musical resources. In a time of increasing division in society, teachers responsibly exercise their influence over…

This paper explores the affordances of mobile learning in developing frameworks for discourse analysis. Specifically, this paper examines the commognitive analysis of classroom discourses in virtual learning environments (VLEs) and how it resolves the challenges of discourse analysis in face-to-face (F2F) settings. With the ongoing social turn of…

Nationally, there is a rise in students with multidimensional identities--as newcomers, emergent bilinguals, students of color, and/or those with disabled and neurodiverse identities--in schools who are disproportionately represented in intervention programs and lower-tracked mathematics pathways. This article leverages the incredible power that…

Borders are constructs that shape our understandings of our societies, communities, and the world. Geospatial borders draw distinctions between neighborhoods and schools that are deemed 'worthy' and 'unworthy' of economic, social, and political investment. This paper employs the theoretical framework of 'discriminate biopower' to argue that…

As schools seek to implement frameworks of education for sustainable development it is inevitable that they will encounter contradictions between their own aspirations and external demands. To analyse these contradictions through the lens of teachers-in-context, this research uses Cultural-historical Activity Theory that views schools as activity…

Two broad categories of instructional practices, (a) explicitly attending to concepts and (b) fostering students' opportunities to struggle, have been consistently linked to improving students' mathematical learning and achievement. In this article, we describe an effort to build these practices into a framework that is useful for a diverse set of…

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) is the overarching referent for frameworks designed to target behavioral and academic challenges with a focus on a tiered continuum of evidence-based practices within the context of prevention science and implementation research (Freeman, Sugai, Simonsen, & Everett, 2017). Extensive literature indicates…

This article explores the notion of connoisseurship as a framework for learning about adolescents' lives and literacies and developing relationships in literacy classrooms. Drawing upon data from a two-year qualitative study of the collaborative inquiries of a community of student English teachers, the author examines inquiry projects written for…

Although a growing body of research points to the critical need to foster reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills for students in order to ensure their success in college, careers, and life, these efforts have tended to focus more on developing literacy skills in the early years, often ignoring secondary students. The outcome has…

In today's Web 2.0 world, teachers are perpetually struggling with how to incorporate technology into the classroom effectively in order to meet the diverse literacy needs of 21st-century learners. Utilizing the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, 2008) Position Statement addressing these needs, the theoretical framework of Lankshear…

In this article, the author first reviews a range of concerns about middle schooling in America, most of which are shown to have salience in Australia, to provide a context for a more detailed examination of integrated curriculum as a significant issue in contemporary middle schooling. Two examples of integrated curriculum in the Australian…

Many students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing are eligible for a signing accommodation for state and other standardized tests. The signing accommodation, however, presents several challenges for testing programs that attempt to administer tests under standardized conditions. One potential solution for many of these challenges is the use of…

Science teachers seek to increase student learning within the area of science. Through the implementation of National Science Education Standards, teachers are provided insights into learning techniques, strategies, and other guidelines for effective learning instruction. Teachers agree science is a complex discipline, which can be seen in the…