In 2016, the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina, the nation's 15th-largest school district, confronted two dilemmas common in U.S. education. First, a quality review had revealed weaknesses in its literacy curriculum. Although curriculum can have profound effects on student learning, not all curricula are rigorous and engaging…

The authors drew upon Remillard and Bryans' categorization of curriculum use in observating two middle-grade teachers' integration of Standards-based curriculum materials produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Each teacher participated in a two-year professional development program focused on increasing content knowledge and…

We report on an extended effort to introduce and evaluate argumentation as a stand-alone component of the middle-school curriculum. The dialogic-focused curriculum continued over two school years and from a research perspective benefitted from the availability of a closely-matched comparison group who participated in a parallel but non-dialogic…

"Odyssey® Math" is a web-based program developed by Compass Learning® for mathematics instruction in grades K-8. The online program includes a mathematics curriculum and formative assessments designed to support differentiated and data-driven instruction. Based on assessment results, the program generates an individualized sequence of…

Baxter Magolda's Learning Partnerships model was used to create a program designed to foster student epistemological development. To assess its effectiveness, the Measure of Epistemological Reflection was administered to the experimental cohort and a comparable group in the traditional general education program. Results indicate that the model…

This article, written by one of the teachers in the Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project (1962-1967), critically examines the prevailing narrative about the preschool project's relationship to the High/Scope Educational Foundation. It describes what the author and other teachers actually did, the principles that informed their practice, and…

The inclusion of social and emotional learning (SEL) curricula in preschools may help prevent emotional and behavioral problems. This study evaluated the effects of a SEL curriculum, "Strong Start Pre-K," on the social and emotional competence of 52 preschool students using a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group design.…

Invertebrates perform many beneficial and essential ecological services for humans. Despite this, the general public tends to view them negatively. Preservice elementary teachers often find themselves in a tenuous position because they possess the same negativity toward invertebrates as the general public but have been commissioned by United…

The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) has undertaken three scientifically based research studies in an effort to determine whether the integration of career and technical education (CTE) courses with academic content can increase student achievement. These include the Math-in-CTE study, completed in 2005 (also…

The purpose of this study was to empirically test the posit that students who participated in a contextualized, mathematics-enhanced high school agricultural power and technology (APT) curriculum and aligned instructional approach would develop a deeper and more sustained understanding of selected mathematics concepts than those students who…

The purpose of this study was to empirically test the posit that students who participated in a contextualized, mathematics-enhanced high school agricultural power and technology (APT) curriculum and aligned instructional approach would not differ significantly (p less than 0.05) in their technical competence from students who participated in the…

Previous studies have reported the importance and benefits of situating students in a real-world learning environment with access to digital-world resources. At the same time, researchers have indicated the need to develop learning guidance mechanisms or tools for assisting students to learn in such a complex learning scenario. In this study, a…

Defining self assessment as the involvement of students in identifying standards and/or criteria to apply to their work and making judgements about the extent to which they have met these criteria and standards, this paper seeks to highlight the gestalt effect of self assessment. The total effect of self assessment on the learner is greater than…

This paper describes the background, methodology, preliminary findings, and anticipated future directions of a large-scale multi-year randomized field experiment addressing the efficacy of ST Math [Spatial-Temporal Math], a fully-developed math curriculum that uses interactive animated software. ST Math's unique approach minimizes the use of…

A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the effects of a supplemental mathematics intervention that emphasized fluency building for computations and procedures. All fourth- and fifth-grade English-speaking students from a single school district who were participating in general education mathematics instruction and had a 2009 year-end…