Elementary principals are increasingly responsible for the supervision, support, and evaluation of early childhood teachers and young children. Previous research demonstrated that principals may prefer to hire elementary-certified rather than early childhood-certified teachers and that principals without early childhood preparation may not…

A comparative lexicogrammatical and logicosemantic systemic functional analysis of two third-grade science curricular units on the topic of "matter" written in Spanish is presented. One of these curricular units, translated from an English textbook, or "mirror text," is used in dual language programs (Spanish-English) in the…

Studies illustrate that achievement gaps between poor and non-poor children already exist at kindergarten (Lee & Burkham, 2002). The larger the gap at the time children enter school, the harder it is to close the gap. This article reviews a case study of one Midwest school district and their attempt at reducing the achievement gap through the…

The transition from 2nd to 3rd grade has received little notice in education research--yet the authors' experience in elementary school counseling convinced them that most students undergo a seismic shift during this period. Third grade is not only the first year students will encounter standardized end-of-grade tests, but also a year in which…

The message that college matters is getting through to more and more young people. Young people understand that a middle-class lifestyle increasingly requires at least an associate degree. Yet the percentage of college students actually completing a two- or four-year degree has not increased significantly in more than 30 years. College completion…

The United States is as known for its high-quality universities as for its poor-quality public schools. Many states are taking steps to improve the likelihood that their children will succeed in grades K-12 by providing funding for pre-kindergarten (PK). More than $2.4 billion dollars is spent on these programs, and the number of children…