Many educational interventions seek to change teachers' instructional practice. Standards-based observation systems are a common and useful tool to understand these interventions' impact, but the process of measuring instructional change with observation systems is highly complex. This paper introduces a framework for examining and understanding…

Play-based learning has been proven to be an effective method of learning in early childhood education, particularly kindergarten; Nevertheless, increasing emphasis on academics and assessments has had a detrimental effect on students' social-emotional learning (SEL) and learning development (LD).The problem addressed in this study was that play…

While standards-based grading (SBG) has been implemented in school districts across the country, it faces two major challenges. As research on standards-based grading is limited, many practices under SBG are not substantiated by empirical evidence. Meanwhile, not all teachers are well prepared to implement SBG in the classroom. The lack of…

This report describes initial findings from a study conducted across three California school districts during the 2021-22 school year of science curriculum materials that were designed to promote learning as called for by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The study, led by WestEd, was an independent randomized controlled trial to…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts (ELA) called for several "key shifts" in classroom instructional practice. This study combined archived video data on classroom teaching collected in 2010 with new video data on classroom teaching collected in 2018 to conduct a pre-/postexamination of the extent to which…

Declining national assessment scores and continuous critiques of Common Core curricula have presented persistent challenges for stakeholders within the American education system. This study was an investigation of the existence of parallelism in five commonly used Common Core middle school mathematics curricula. An embedded mixed methods research…

Early writing skills are among the strongest predictors of later reading and writing achievement; however, these crucial skills are often neglected in early childhood classrooms. In this article, we present a systematic, quantitative content analysis of early learning standards (for ages 3-5) in states that were using the Common Core State…

This study investigates primary teachers' and elementary principals' perspectives on alternatives to the traditional model of student progression in school and whether these options may improve the acquisition of skills needed for advancing into upper grades. Primary mastery of basic skills is essential to learning; however, with rigorous federal…

The Common Core State Standards' focus on nonfiction texts has prompted middle schools to include more historical nonfiction, including books that focus on the United States' racialized past (and present) such as "We Are Not Yet Equal" by Carol Anderson (2018) and "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You" (2020) by Jason Reynolds…

The adoption of "College and Career Ready" standards--including Common Core State Standards--aims to raise academic expectations for students nationwide. Meeting these outcomes requires shifts in teaching, which, in turn, requires developing measures for the observation, assessment, and support of new kinds of instruction. This essay…

Argumentation skills are emphasized by the common core state standards (CCSS) and are viewed as essential for success in college, career, and life. Our project aims to develop formative assessment tasks measuring students' argumentative reading and writing skills. We used the framework of the "Discuss and Debate Ideas" key practice…

Curriculum mapping is a comparability method that facilitates comparisons of content within multiple settings (usually multiple jurisdictions or specifications) and enables claims to be made about those curriculums/jurisdictions. Although curriculum maps have been published, there is little academic literature about the process of constructing and…

As professional counselors learn more about neuroscience, they need guidance on how to integrate this new knowledge into counselor education and counseling practice with clients. The purpose of this updated edition is to provide a comprehensive resource for translating and applying neuroscientific concepts to the theory and practice of counseling.…

In this study, researchers examined the math-related expository books found in 23 first-grade classroom libraries to determine specific mathematical concepts related to counting and cardinality and operations and algebraic thinking addressed in each. In addition, they examined how these concepts aligned with the first-grade Common Core State…

Instruments designed to measure teachers' knowledge for teaching mathematics have been widely used to evaluate the impact of professional development and to investigate the role of teachers' knowledge in teaching and student learning. These instruments assess a mixture of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. However, little…