For coaches, access to classrooms isn't straightforward and is far from guaranteed. Access is a prerequisite for coaching, yet there are many barriers beyond a coach's control, making their job difficult to impossible. In this article, the authors detail how five administrative and structural forces shaped coaches' access to teachers' classrooms.…

Since the 1980s, a number of reviews on the impact of inclusion on students with special needs have been published (Madden & Slavin, 1983; Ottenbacher & Cooper, 1982; Wang & Baker, 1985; Hegarty, 1993). Results are equivocal, and several reviews point to a number of methodological challenges and weaknesses of the study designs within…

"Seeing Teaching Through a Different Lens: The MyTeachingPartner-Secondary Coaching Model" highlights the voices of coaches and teachers to provide information about an instructional coaching program that is helping educators improve interactions with students in ways that increase student engagement and achievement. The…

To address a deteriorating classroom climate at the midpoint of a two-semester course sequence, we employed a novel intervention: reading a research manuscript together with students as an invitation to legitimate peripheral participation in scholarly reflection on teaching and learning. This intervention resolved many student complaints about the…

Clip charts have been a common classroom strategy for many years. Once considered an effective tool for displaying behavioral progress and adherence to classroom rules, they may not be as helpful as once thought. In this practice brief, we describe how such strategies are inconsistent with a PBIS [Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports]…

Helping teachers become more effective in the classroom is a high priority for school leaders and policymakers. This Study Highlights presents key findings from a study that examined a promising strategy for improving teachers' effectiveness: providing individualized coaching using videos of teachers' instruction for reflection, practice, and…

Online education was the exception rather than the norm of the English school system prior to March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in two periods of government-directed school closure from March to July 2020 and again from January to March 2021. These closures necessitated a transformation to online education almost overnight. Although much…

This article posits that the restorative practice of community circles offers middle school students a safe, empowering space where moments of social and emotional strife can be addressed and possibly prevented. It also recognizes that by creating a safe and empowering classroom community, students who have or are experiencing trauma can find…

Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is a widely adopted framework to support the social, emotional, and behavioral growth of all students. This article addresses two key questions related to supporting students with disabilities through PBIS: (a) Why focus on universal classroom PBIS practices?--without support, students with…

The 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth reported that only 24% of U.S. children and youth ages 6 to 17 meet the national recommendation of 60 minutes of daily physical activity, grading the nation at a D-. Schools can help students meet this national recommendation, as close to 60 million children and adolescents attend…

Georgia's Pre-K Longitudinal Study followed a statewide sample of 1,169 children who attended Georgia's Pre-K Program in 2013-14 through their 4th grade year in 2018-19. The study was conducted by researchers at the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following summary…

In order to provide students with demand-driven skills that will set them up for career success, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) and state businesses collaborated to create the Simulated Workplace--powerful learning environments that transform the traditional classroom into student led companies that replicate real-world work…

This report summarizes the first year of the prekindergarten partnership between AISD, United Way for Greater Austin, and participating child development centers that served 417 students. Classrooms and students displayed high quality of instruction and academic performance, and teacher professional development opportunities are summarized.

The primary purpose of the 2017-2018 NC Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) Evaluation was to examine the effectiveness of the NC Pre-K Program using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. Because children are randomly assigned to either receive NC Pre-K (treatment) or not (control) in an RCT, differences in outcomes can be causally attributed to…

This article suggests that the way in to sociology may not always be through the front door. The authors demonstrate how students in a three-day campus diversity program develop a sociological imagination despite not having a formal affiliation with the sociology department. In particular, students demonstrate a move from color blindness into…