In this article, the authors unveil the Trade Book Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprint. Anchored in a compelling question inspired by a trade book, the new blueprint is broken into two instructional blocks: "Reading and Comprehension" and "Living Social Studies." The inquiry template is designed to be instructionally efficient…

The equitable and effective deployment of teachers is critical to achieving quality education for all. However, the uneven distribution of teachers -- both across and within schools -- contributes to significant disparities in class sizes and learning conditions. Recognizing the critical role that teachers play in learning, the Government of…

This issue of "Education Indicators in Focus" reports that Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries organise learning time for primary and secondary education in different ways: (1) The number and length of school holidays differs significantly across OECD countries, meaning the number of instructional days…

Common Core Reading Standard 10 not only prescribes the difficulty of texts students should become able to read, but also the difficulty diet of texts schools should ask their students to read across the school year. The use of quantitative text-assessment tools in the implementation of this standard warrants an examination into the validity of…

In the United States in 2011, more than one in four people were going to school. This included many types of people--children going to nursery school and elementary school, young adults attending high school and college, and adults taking classes to obtain a degree or diploma. What is known about these people--their age and sex, where they live,…

Explores teachers' conceptions about assessment and their actual assessment practices. Uses a chi-square to examine the relationships between grade level and teachers' conceptions and grade level and teachers' practices. Researchers found several significant differences, transcending an indication of relationship by chance. (Author/CCM)

This report is the third and final phase of a year and one-half study on the feasibility of reorganizing the currently splintered grade system in Providence, Rhode Island into a uniform K through 8 structure. The first volume of the report is an overview of the Providence School System and the goals of the feasibility study. A variety of policy…

For the past decade in Connecticut, public school students have been tested in the fall of grades 4, 6, and 8, and results have been attributed to the school in which students are tested. Some Connecticut elementary schools end at grade 5 (Type I) and some continue to grade 6 or 8 (Type II). Grade 6 results are reported for Type II schools but not…

This literature review concerns the concept of alternative grade configurations at the elementary level, in which elementary schools are subdivided into primary (K-2) and intermediate (3-5) units. Because of the paucity of literature on this concept, the major part of the report focuses on the reorganization of the elementary schools of the South…

A study involving 17,000 first, second, fourth, and sixth graders in Israel assessed the heterogeneity of school achievement profiles. Contributions of grade level and subject matter to within-school variation (WSV) of grade-by-subject school means were also addressed. Grade level contributes more than subject matter to WSV in achievement. (TJH)

"Elemiddle" schools serve the needs of young adolescents, aged 10 to 14, in any combination of grades 5 through 8, as part of an organizational structure that includes lower grades. Research has shown that middle schools with 6-8 grade spans and K-8 schools are most likely to implement child-centered programs, practices, and policies than schools…

A classroom observation technique that describes classroom events at the level of activity and analyzes the communicative features of verbal exchanges between students and teachers within each activity is described. Activity characteristics indentified include type, participant organization, content, student modality or skills used, and materials;…