To address the seven guiding questions posed for authors of articles in this special issue, we begin by discussing the development (in the late 1970s-early 1980s) of Eccles' expectancy-value theory of achievement choice (EEVT), a theory developed to explain the cultural phenomenon of why girls were less likely to participate in STEM courses and…

The academic achievement of Black boys in the U.S. has been declining, and Black male mentorship can positively change these outcomes. Schools have tried many interventions to help Black boys receive the academic, social, and emotional support they need to close the performance gap. Some case studies have proven that Black male mentorship works.…

Undergraduate student retention is considered a critical issue in higher education, due to its impact on student success, degree completion, and the financial health of universities (Cataldi et al., 2018; Cornelius & Cavanaugh, 2016; Hermes, "Community College Journal," 82(4), 26, 2012; Tinto, "NACADA Journal," 19(2), 5-9,…

This article describes the development and implementation of the Clinical Literacy Coaching Framework (CLCF) as a promising practice that was implemented in a large elementary school in the Southeastern part of the United States. The framework was implemented when the school was improving literacy instruction and student achievement. This article…

School leaders Lydia Cochrane and Ayesha Hoda have struggled to meet the increasingly complex needs of the students in their schools. As students' needs increase, schools are asked to do more and more, while continuing to have strong academic results. Cochrane and Hoda believe the current system is untenable and needs to change. With Linda Nathan,…

Studies exploring homeschooling typically focus on comparing homeschoolers to conventionally schooled peers on a range of academic outcomes. Largely absent from the literature are within-group studies designed to identify experiences that facilitate (or hinder) homeschoolers' academic outcomes. The aim of this paper is to describe a heuristic…

The "Cognitive-Affective-Motivation Model of Learning" (CAMML) is a proposed framework for integrating contemporary motivation, affective (Big 5 personality) and cognitive (CHC theory) constructs in the practice of school psychologists (SPs). The central tenet of this article is that SPs need to integrate motivation alongside affective…

Co-teaching offers a unique opportunity space for literacy instruction; however, this opportunity is rarely optimized and the result on students' literacy growth is often unimpressive. We propose that co-teaching is only a structural intervention, but it can become a powerful pedagogical intervention if teachers approach co-teaching as an…

Federal law requires that state accountability systems include "another academic indicator" for elementary and middle schools in addition to academic achievement. Nearly all states use a measure of student longitudinal growth as their other academic indicator. But how should states decide which growth model to use? The Center for…

To prevent students from learning risks and improve teachers' teaching quality, it is of great significance to provide accurate early warning of learning performance to students by analyzing their interactions through an e-learning system. In existing research, the correlations between learning risks and students' changing cognitive abilities or…

Planning course study is critical to facilitate strategic intervention in education. As a significant basis of planning course study, student performance prediction aims to utilize students existing relevant information to predict their future learning performance including course grades, course failure, grade point average, etc. We target course…

To address teachers' difficulties in implementing effective self-regulated learning (SRL) for their professional knowledge and practice as well as for their students' learning, a conceptual framework and a practical model for professional development is proposed that can help bridge theory, practice, and research on teachers' SRL. Expanding on…

The MAP® Growth™ theory of action describes key features of MAP Growth and its position in a comprehensive assessment system. The basic premise of the theory of action is that all students learn when MAP Growth is situated in a comprehensive assessment system and used for its intended purposes to yield information about student learning and enable…

An expected national ban on the consideration of race in college admissions will threaten the racial and ethnic diversity of students at selective colleges unless these colleges fundamentally alter their admissions practices. This report finds that selective colleges barred from considering race and ethnicity in their admissions decisions may be…

In the context of rapid globalization and digitalization, the development of students' critical and analytical thinking skills is increasingly prioritized in education. This study aims to address the gap in instructional models by designing an eight-step instructional model that integrates collaborative and reflective learning strategies to…