Language teaching activism is a political movement for educational transformation where the role of teachers and languages, as a medium of instruction and literacy, are fundamental for equity and social justice. This paper analyzes the reflections from elementary school teachers from Austin (Texas, U.S.) and Oaxaca (Mexico) during a collaborative…

The Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR) strategy has been suggested to improve EFL students' reading comprehension. Nonetheless, disappointing outcomes when using the QAR instruction were noted. The current study seeks to: (1) add the Review (R) component to the instruction; and (2) assess the effectiveness of the developed…

The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and understand the impact of standardized testing on educational practice in an urban, Title I school community, and to determine solutions to improve the utility of standardized testing in supporting student learning and achievement. The specific areas of focus are diagnosing…

Panahi and Mohebbi review James Dean Brown's 50-years of research in language testing, curriculum development and research statistics with reference to an impressionistic framework for analysis containing two components with their subcomponents: Annotations (i.e., briefing and implications) and main concepts and themes (i.e., testing and teaching…

Research integrated into undergraduate education is important in order for medical students to understand and value research for later clinical practice. Therefore, attempts are being made to strengthen the integration of research into teaching from the first year onwards. First-year students may interpret attempts made to strengthen research…

Nursing student attrition is of ongoing concern to programs of nursing and healthcare employers given the persistent shortage of nurses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of ten graduates from two cohorts of a Pre-Licensure Program of Nursing regarding the impact of program-level and college-wide practices…

This article, an initial report on a section of a larger research study, examines the institutional logics that underpin teacher decision making in response to changes in Australian curriculum and assessment. The research analyses secondary school teachers' accounts of their work enacting the "Australian Curriculum: English" and the…

This report describes the alignment of the Common Core State Standards to the math curriculum at DC Bilingual Elementary Charter School in Washington, D.C., which educates all students in English and Spanish. The alignment of the curriculum has been a multiyear, iterative process. School administrators, as well as the school's instructional…

The term "standardized" tests is often heard along with "high-stakes." Standardized tests are administered, scored, and interpreted in a consistent way, so that the performances of large groups of students can be compared. They are not in themselves high-stakes, but they are often used for high-stakes purposes such as…

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to test the theory of using high frequency word list (HFWL)-based instruction when teaching beginning reading instruction. This study compared the reading fluency changes of eight classes across three different grades containing 115 students over 5 months as measured by the…

Counter to narratives of persistently failed school reform, we argue that reforms sometimes succeed and seek to understand why. Drawing on examples from the founding of public schools to the present, we find that successful system-wide reforms addressed problems that teachers thought they had by being consistent with prevailing norms and values,…

We examine edTPA (a teacher performance assessment) implementation at one private university during the first year that our state required this exam for initial teaching certification. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 19 teacher educators from 12 programs as well as public information on edTPA pass rates, we explore whether the…

This study explores how contextual factors affect the instructional reaction of teachers to the changes in the high-stake testing. The results obtained from an investigation of 11 teachers from five senior middle schools show that contextual factors can be categorized into three, namely, traditional exam culture, leadership at district and school…

"Educational Change: From Traditional Education to Learning Communities" outlines the transition of curriculum and instruction as well as classroom discipline historically. Various discipline approaches are described that vary in their applications in terms of the degree of teacher control and student self-direction. Various issues are…

Teaching social studies from a global perspective has been resisted by many since its inception (Kirkwood, 2009). Critics have labeled the theory anti-American and unpatriotic (Schlafly, 1986; Burack, 2001). Others are concerned with its shifting perspectives and apparent lack of core facts (Finn, 1988). Over time, some critics have changed their…