Ensemble directors have a special interest in helping students learn to practice effectively. Practice is also an essential component of musical development. Music educators need to both teach effective practice strategies and guide students toward meaningful, thoughtful practice. Metacognition strategies are one way to accomplish this. Current…

A number of studies have examined the impact of school accountability policies, including No Child Left Behind (NCLB), on student achievement. However, there is relatively little evidence on how school accountability reforms and NCLB, in particular, have influenced education policies and practices. This study examines the effects of NCLB on…

The 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources. A total of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United…

Equitable science education opportunities are shaped by factors originating inside and outside schools. Resources for science instruction--for example, laboratory equipment and course offerings--have historically been allocated unequally across schools serving different student communities. This paper addresses the equity of instructional resource…

Seven educational states or processes which are popularly deemed vices are discussed, and the argument is presented that, when properly qualified, they are valuable educational goods to be wisely promoted or exploited by the sensitive teacher. These seven are: ignorance, negativity, forgetting, guesswork, irrelevance, procrastination, and…

This homework study was undertaken to assess current homework practices in the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) and the extent to which homework is utilized as a tool for effective instruction. Twelve elementary schools, six middle schools, and six high schools divided among low, middle, and high achievement levels were…

Elementary, secondary, and adult students taking private piano lessons were on task for at least 85 percent of the lesson time. Teachers gave frequent reinforcement for academic behavior. While approval/disapproval ratios were not as high as the recommended 80 percent approvals, no evidence of effects on student attentiveness was apparent. (RM)

In 2001, a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in a landmark school funding case, Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Inc. v. State of New York, declared the current New York state funding system unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to replace it with a new cost-based system that ensures that every school district has sufficient…

Describes how five elementary and secondary schools have successfully altered the traditional school schedule in order to develop greater educational quality. These schools give examples of using time more flexibly, allowing teachers to help slower students, helping teachers polish their lessons and go deeper into their disciplines, and providing…

Improving student achievement hinges on adopting effective, research-based learning practices and activities. These include parent involvement, graded homework, direct teaching, aligned time on task, tutoring, cooperative learning, mastery learning, and teaching of learning strategies. Three high-achieving schools are profiled. (MLH)

The monograph provides an integrative review on the environmental and instructional factors that appear to be most conducive to the complex, interactive, and interdependent process of learning. Ten instructional strategies empirically documented to have a critical impact on a student's ability to learn are discussed in detail. They are: (1) The…

Data from observations of 129 elementary, 362 junior, and 525 high school classes were analyzed to raise questions about classroom environment and classroom practices. Results gathered from four instruments are discussed: (1) physical environment inventory, which recorded classroom architectural arrangement, seating and grouping patterns,…

The paper summarizes some educational research findings regarding effective schooling practices. Only those findings which have particular impact on educational program planners in the field of migrant education are discussed. These findings pertain to the following issues: class size, group size, ability grouping, parent participation in…

Commissioned papers to help the National Commission on Excellence in Education make the recommendations for educational improvement for its report "A Nation at Risk" are cited in this annotated listing. The report presents recommendations in five areas: content, standards and expectations, time, teaching, and leadership and fiscal…