Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world, personally meaningful projects that allow conceptual transformation to occur within the educational process while fostering intellectual curiosity in a supportive learning environment. PBL supports students developing deep content…

Would-be citizens must complete a multistep process that includes answering--in person and orally--10 questions selected from 100. These 100 questions range across civics, American government, US history, a bit of geography, and even major holidays and symbols. The revealing 2018 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation survey shows that…

Examining the connections among teacher characteristics, instructional decision-making, and student learning in social studies education are both complicated and contentious. In the current study, we shed light on middle grades social studies teaching and learning--a black hole of research in the subject area. Using data from the National…

By aligning factors that most commonly influence the achievement of Black and Hispanic students with the type of resources inside the black box of schooling, this study differentiated the achievement effect of school resources from what was brought by students to schools. The hierarchical regression results showed that minority students'…

Officials of state education agencies are not known for hyperbole. Maintaining data systems, drafting rules and regulations, and monitoring compliance are not the stuff of breathless raves--especially in Louisiana, whose education system ranks near the bottom nationwide on measures of student achievement and high-school graduation rates. Yet in…

With the release of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results, concerns that reading scores of U.S. students have remained flat for the past decade have surfaced again along with suggestions about the source of this problem and how it might be remedied. The…

The purpose of this article is to assess areas of opportunity and access for students of color to participate in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine pipeline (STEMM). Using a Critical Race Theory framework, this position paper reviews occupational outcomes and stratification in STEMM fields, examines the pertinence of…

There has been a cry of alarm about the need for a new generation of thinkers, innovators, linguists, and creative problem solvers to meet the demands of the 21st century global economy and our national security needs. Thus far, the response to the clarion call has been underwhelming. The nation has not yet committed itself to changing K-12…

This article presents findings from a large-scale curriculum development, quasi-experimental study. Participating teachers implemented four U.S. history units in their diverse middle-grade classes; these units were developed to engage underachieving students in challenging history and democratic citizenship curriculum and instruction featuring…

In the past several decades, Boston has been a proving ground for new strategies such as mayoral control, charter schools, and expanded access to early childhood education. Located in a state known for rigorous standards and accountability, Boston Public Schools (BPS) has consistently ranked among the top-performing large public school districts…

This report examines how implementing rigorous and engaging curriculum aligned with college- and career-ready standards fosters positive school climates in which students are motivated to succeed, achievement gaps narrow, and learning and outcomes improve. It includes federal, state, and local recommendations for increasing access to high-quality,…

This report provides the historical background and interpretive analysis needed to understand controversies surrounding Common Core and its associated tests. In this report, Williamson M. Evers presents a revised and expanded version of his expert report for "Jindal v. United States Department of Education et al.," No. 14-CV- 534 (M.D.…

In this work, we explored the relationship of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) to student achievement. Building on techniques developed for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we found a very high degree of similarity between CCSSM and the standards of the highest-achieving nations on the 1995…

"Learning progressions" are one of the most important assessment design ideas to be introduced in the past decade. In the United States, several committees of the National Research Council (NRC) have argued for the use of learning progressions as a means to foster both deeper mastery of subject-matter content and higher level reasoning…

What do you do with the student who says she hates history, yet watches The History Channel every night? What do you do with the student who is underachieving in social science but has visited every battlefield in Virginia? Our curriculum frameworks and pacing guides suggest a chronological, fact-based approach to teaching and learning history,…