The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has created additional opportunities for school librarians to collaborate with classroom teachers, reading specialists, and other educators in support of schools' literacy goals. This potential for expanded collaboration suggests a need for increased focus on reading instruction as part of the school…

This study provides an in-depth analysis of whether students who take dual enrollment and/or AP classes have higher ACT test scores compared to a group of their peers that did not take dual enrollment or AP courses. The study also identified the demographic characteristics (ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status) of students with a 3.0 or…

Background/Context: Although there is substantial evidence that high-quality professional development can improve teacher practices, less evidence exists for the effects of teacher professional development on intermediate outcomes, such as teacher practices, and their ultimate effects on K-12 student achievement. This work links professional…

The department editors, joined by classroom teachers from Wisconsin and reading specialists from Tennessee, examine across geographical and school boundaries the current practices of teachers who are initiating Response to Intervention (RTI) instruction. They address three goals of RTI that focus on providing systematic instruction of student…

In order to systemically improve student achievement in elementary literacy, a large urban school district partnered with a local university to develop a model for high-quality professional development that hopefully would result in long-term changes in teachers' literacy instructional/practices. Schools were selected based on their Adequate…

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of a professional development effort that was part of a 2-year Reading Excellence Act grant in a high-poverty, rural elementary school in the southeastern United States. The authors analyzed data sources, including observations, semistructured interviews, focus-group interviews, school climate inventories,…

The mission of the Tennessee Reading Panel (TRP) is to promote lifelong literacy for all Tennessee citizens. The TRP provides literacy support through leadership, advocacy, teacher training, professional development, and the establishment of community and family partnerships. Recognizing that literacy is the basis for all learning, this document…

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

In 2002, the Tennessee Department of Education asked the Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) at Edvantia, Inc. to develop content for online professional development that would help meet the goals of the state's Reading First Program. In response, laboratory staff developed and subsequently delivered Assessment and Intervention in a…

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school principals' and teachers' perceptions of the current issues in middle school reading education and to identify the sources of information that these educators use and find helpful to keep informed reading issues. Participants were employed in the 14 middle schools of the Knox County School…