Lesson study, especially when conducted with support from targeted resources, is often identified as a potentially effective means to support teacher learning. In this study, 80 school-based teams of educators, representing 80 classrooms of third- or fourth-grade students in the US, were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: lesson study…

The Boston Public Schools (BPS) district is the first large school system in the United States to design and implement a curriculum and professional model--called "Focus on Early Learning"--to align instruction across its well-known, high-quality public school pre-K program and early elementary school grades. Schools opt in and can…

Purpose: A growing trend in instructional improvement efforts is the use of formative assessment informed by research-based developmental trajectories of how students gain deeper understanding of subject matter content over time. This article reports the findings of a large-scale experimental study of an innovative mathematics professional…

Children in kindergarten and first grade are missing more school than at any other point during the elementary years. Some research has examined schoolwide policies and practices that might help reduce absences, but limited research has focused on the role of teachers. This is the first known study to examine the role teacher preparation programs…

Research-based instruction is necessary to support students' reading development, and professional development (PD) is a critical avenue to ensuring high-quality instructional practices. To date, there has been no comprehensive review focused on the effects of teacher PD on student reading achievement. As such, the purpose of the present…

Increasing interest in the digitization of education raises the question of the specifics of the use of digital devices in preschool education and the perception of these new practices by educators. The primary purpose of this study was to examine educators' beliefs about distance education for preschool children in Russia and India, given their…

In this report, we describe the results of a rigorous two-year study of the impacts of a mathematics initiative called Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) on teacher and student learning in grades 3-5 in two Philadelphia area school districts. OGAP is a mathematics program which combines teacher formative assessment practices with knowledge of…

The purpose of this efficacy study was to examine the impact of the Teacher Study Group (TSG) professional development program in vocabulary, on teacher knowledge, observed teaching practice, and student vocabulary achievement, when implemented with first grade teachers in Title 1 schools. This multi-site cluster randomized trial was implemented…

This article describes the use of "Teacher Impression Journals" during a larger study that examined the efficacy of an intervention program designed to promote kindergarteners' positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities (i.e., the "Special Friends" program). The journals were designed to gather information about…

The idea that it is important for teachers to have knowledge of the unique skills that individual children bring to the classroom is almost universally accepted. This notion is so widespread that school districts across the country continue to make substantial investments in programs designed to enhance teachers' knowledge of individual students'…

Recent efforts to attract and retain effective educators and to improve teaching practices have focused on reforming evaluation and compensation systems for teachers and principals. In 2006, Congress established the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), which provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in…

Recent federal, state, and district policies that have mainstreamed English language learner (ELL) students into general, English-only elementary school classrooms have raised questions among educational stakeholders about the widespread effects of these policies. Most research has focused on the outcomes of ELL students; almost nothing is known…

Project Linking Learning ("Link") was created to target the needs of gifted students in urban school districts with historically underserved populations. Project Linking Learning implemented a linking curriculum between in-class instruction and an afterschool enrichment program for selected students in second through fifth grade.…

Background/Context: A number of recent policies have specifically attacked immigrants and English Language Learners (ELLs), including Georgia's HB 87 (2011), Arizona's SB 1070 (2010), and Alabama's HB 56 (2011), among others. The policy focus of this study is Arizona's HB 2064 (2006), which added additional requirements that mandate tracking…

California's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 established transitional kindergarten (TK), the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for students affected by the change in the birthdate cutoff for entry into kindergarten from December 2 to September 1. This final report from the program's evaluation focuses on results from a five-year…