Background: While advocates for integrating Computational Thinking (CT) into existing K12 classrooms have acknowledged and aimed to address various barriers to implementation, we contend that a more foundational issue -- tensions between the epistemology of computing and those of existing disciplines -- has largely been overlooked. Studies of…

Increasingly, national standards require K-12 students to develop digital literacy practices. In literacy, teachers' use of digital media platforms has unrecognized potential to impact students' literacy engagement. Moreover, students gain English Language Arts skills and knowledge of the writing process when completing digital literacy…

Teachers are the most important school-specific factor in student learning. Yet, little evidence exists linking teacher professional development programs and the strategies or activities that comprise them to student achievement. In this paper, we examine a fellowship model for professional development designed and implemented by Leading…

Continually shifting language policies have made it difficult to implement literacy practices that benefit multilingual and multicultural learners in the classroom (García, A., 2020; Schmid, 2021; Sikes & Villanueva, 2021). In order to address this, teacher preparation programs and in-service teachers need to consider practices they can…

Some governments require that educational leaders working in underperforming schools create school improvement plans (SIPs) to guide change efforts. Extant research describes two common approaches to SIPs: (a) a "traditional" approach where leaders create a single plan for an entire academic year, and (b) a "short-cycle"…

In the US, many immigrant languages have been maintained through the efforts of local communities in the form of community-based Heritage Language (HL) programs. Previous studies have discussed diverging linguistic practices and identities among students and teachers in HL programs. However, there is little research on how materials use affects…

In July 2023, Governor DeWine and the General Assembly enacted bold literacy reforms via his budget plan (House Bill 33) that require Ohio elementary schools to follow the Science of Reading starting in 2024-25. This approach to reading instruction emphasizes phonics to help students "decode" words, as well as knowledge- and…

Across the body of rich, ethnographic research in New Literacy Studies, there is a consistent and insistent call: for curriculum, pedagogy, and policy to substantiate the plurality and complexity of young people's everyday literacy practices and identities. As youth have shared access to their sociomaterial, digital, and transcultural worlds,…

Using survey data from the RAND American Educator Panels, the authors examine the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and products among teachers and principals in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) and the provision of school guidance on the use of AI during the 2023-2024 school year. The results indicate that 25 percent of surveyed…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Edpuzzle, an interactive media learning tool, in enhancing student achievement in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) among grades 3-11 students in a participating California school district during the 2023-2024 academic year. Employing a retrospective design, the evaluation analyzed Edpuzzle usage data…

This report, part of the Learning Renewal series, seeks to answer the following research question: How are Illinois districts and students recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic? It describes the trends in post-pandemic learning renewal for three key outcomes: standardized test scores, student enrollment and student attendance. The authors focus on…

Standards-based reform is a key feature of U.S. education policy. Several decades ago, scholars posited that if states set ambitious standards and then aligned curriculum, assessments, and professional development (PD) to those standards, teaching and learning would improve. However, the focus on establishing standards has often overshadowed the…

To comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and related U.S. Department of Education peer review guidance, state education agencies must provide evidence demonstrating clear alignment (technically referred to as correspondence) between their K-12 English language proficiency standards and their academic content standards. This technical…

The Core Knowledge curriculum is a K-8 curriculum focused on building students General Knowledge about the world they live in that is hypothesized to increase reading comprehension and Reading/English-LA achievement. This study utilizes an experimental design to evaluate the long term effects of attending Charter schools teaching the Core…

Nationwide, a growing percentage of kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) teachers report regularly using standards-aligned English language arts and math curriculum materials. Despite this uptick in the regular usage of standards-aligned materials across the United States, not all teachers use these materials for the majority of their…