School leaders serving a school identified as high-poverty often face unique stresses and pressures to increase gains in student achievement, often in a relatively short amount of time. Leaders will make decisions to change the instructional framework or design of a school in hopes of meeting such pressure. There is abundant research that has…

Emphasis on improving student learning has brought increased attention to the execution of schoolwide instructional reforms in general and the use of data by teacher teams in particular as an expected element of a school's instructional reform strategy. With this in mind, the purpose of this article is to focus important attention on the work…

In response to the recession that began in 2007, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed into law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Pub. Law 111-5). At an estimated cost of $831 billion, this economic stimulus package sought to save and create jobs, provide temporary relief to those adversely affected by the…

In response to the recession that began in 2007, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed into law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Pub. Law 111-5). At an estimated cost of $831 billion, this economic stimulus package sought to save and create jobs, provide temporary relief to those adversely affected by the…

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) represents a fundamental transformation of the way California allocates state funds to school districts and the ways the state expects districts to make decisions about (and report on) the use of these funds. This is the first in a series of short briefs that aims to capture some key themes emerging from…

This study reports on a large-scale implementation of Assessment for Learning (AfL) in a Swedish municipality. The implementation was founded on two principles: (1) teaching should be informed by educational research; (2) to be successful teachers' professional development needs to be based in everyday classroom practice. From these principles,…

Educators in today's classroom face increasing challenges which include the changing complexities of student needs, the intricacies of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the demands of high stakes standardized state assessments and the continuous and often widely publicized issues associated with budget constraints. With all of these challenges,…

McCarthy (1985) constructed the 4MAT teaching model, an eight step instrument developed in 1980, by synthesizing Dewey's experiential learning, Kolb's four learning styles, Jung's personality types, as well as Bogen's left mode and right mode of brain processing preferences. An important implication of this model is that learning retention is…

Measures of the implementation of an individualized curriculum in 52 classrooms at the second-grade level are presented. The study also uses the measures of classroom processes to help explain student achievement on standardized tests of reading and mathematics. The classroom process data are further analyzed to see if systematic differences occur…

This study examines courses in the marketing program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to compare the academic performance of students in traditional and learning community classroom settings. Two sections of students, a traditional 17-week course and a block scheduled 5-week course, served as the sample in the study. The block scheduling…

Description of the viewpoints of two experienced teachers who were implementing a novel computer program in grades five and six focuses on three main issues: learning to accommodate changes required by innovation; organizing new classroom routines; and indications of students' achievements. Curriculum content and computer literacy are also…

Unquantifiable changes affecting attitudes of teachers, administrators, and students who were involved with a four-year comprehensive staff development effort are discussed. A brief overview and analysis of the Napa-Vacaville Follow Through Research Project describes the program designed to improve student engaged rates and achievement at two…

Theories concerning the reasons teachers do or do not adopt recommended teaching practices are discussed. Recent classroom-based experiments are examined, and suggestions are made for additional research into the process of teacher behavior change in the classroom and for the promotion of teacher adoption of change proposals. (JN)

This booklet surveys the possibilities in instituting a 4-day school week, an approach which has gained favor in some small school districts. The history of the 4-day week and its characteristics are first described. Drawing on case studies of districts that have begun the 4-day schedule, the authors enumerate the steps in proposing and…

After reviewing the conceptual bases and practical application of precision teaching, this analysis traces its evolution as the Sacajawea Plan, reports on its implementation in central Oregon school districts, and details the costs and procedures of adoption. Developed by Ogden Lindsley from B. F. Skinner's work in operant conditioning and…