"This We Believe" advocates the use of a curriculum that maximizes early adolescent learning by integrating multiple disciplines rather than teaching them in isolation. The development of an interdisciplinary curricular unit is a common assignment in middle grades teacher education programs that seek to prepare teacher candidates to…

Diagnostic assessments are intended to support teachers' instructional decision making by providing instructionally relevant information. In this article, we propose that using cognitive theories of learning to design diagnostic assessments can provide teachers with two diagnostic outcomes: (a) the location of a student's thinking within the…

Purpose: This study presents the development and evaluation of a Constructively Aligned Teaching Sequence (CATS) for teaching the organismal biology of Senior High School. It tried to explore teaching-learning activities and assessment tasks that may be designed to address students' conceptions and teachers' difficulties in teaching organ systems.…

Since 2011, Statway®, an alternative pathway to completing college-level developmental mathematics, has evolved from a two-semester sequence into a single-semester course. As of the 2016-2017 academic year, five institutions have offered an accelerated one-term version of Statway. This paper describes why these colleges chose to implement…

This article addresses the work of Jerome Bruner, a famed psychologist of education, who is considered to be very responsible for how education and learning are conceived today. In 1959, Bruner brought together scholars from many academic disciplines to focus on redesigning curriculum and thus redesigning the foundation of American schools. Bruner…

The Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducted research in New Mexico to provide state leaders and stakeholders a research perspective on the challenges facing education and to identify evidence- based ways that state policy can address them. This report complements the main report, "Improving Education the New Mexico Way: An Evidence-Based…

As the country continues to grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Career and Technical Education (CTE) stakeholders around the nation are thinking ahead to what education might look like in the future. Whether schools and postsecondary institutions will be able to open fully for the next school year using social distancing methods,…

Until the late 1990s, "vocational education" in traditional trades such as carpentry, cosmetology, and auto mechanics was often the presumptive high school placement for low-performing students considered ill-suited for college. However, in the past two decades, policymakers and educators have reconsidered what is now referred to as…

Interdisciplinary curriculum development is challenging in the sense that materials from more than one discipline have to be integrated in a seamless manner. A faculty member has to develop expertise in multiple disciplines in order to teach an interdisciplinary course, or the course has to be team-taught. Both approaches are difficult to…

The objective of this study was to investigate the importance of Agriculture Science course sequencing in high schools, as a preparatory factor for students enrolled in collegiate agriculture classes. With the variety of courses listed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Agriculture Science, it has been possible for counselors,…

One model that can help middle school educators provide an effective system of instruction and early intervention is response to intervention (RTI). RTI is a schoolwide process that integrates instruction, intervention, and assessment. The alignment of instruction, assessment, and interventions promotes a stronger, more cohesive program of…