This article draws from situated learning theory, teacher education research, and the authors' collaborative self-study to propose a teacher education pedagogy that may help to bridge the theory-into-practice gap for preservice teachers. First, we review the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium standards to confirm the call for…

This article derives from a critical discourse analysis study that reports the characteristics of elementary school students' power and solidarity relations in English as a foreign language classroom in Bogotá, Colombia, while we were doing our teaching English as a foreign language practicum. The study was based on theories of power and…

Jump Into Action (JIA) is a school-based team-taught program to help fifth-grade students make healthy food choices and be more active. The JIA team (physical education teacher, classroom teacher, school nurse, and parent) work together to provide a supportive environment as students set goals to improve food choices and increase activity.…

The vision for science education set forth in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012) makes it clear that for today's students to become the scientifically literate citizens of tomorrow their educational experiences must help them become mathematically proficient. "The focus here is on important practices, such as modeling, developing…

This study is relevant to parents, private organizations, and the educational system interested in discovering whether charter school students perform better academically than traditional public elementary school students. The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment data were used to analyze and compare student performance in grades 3-5 from two…

Over the past decade, educational policy trends have shifted to a focus on examining students' growth from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). One way states can track students' growth is with a vertical scale. Presently, every state that uses a vertical scale bases the scale on a unidimensional IRT model. These models make a…

Teaching and learning tools such as Moodle and Web 2.0 tools are appearing in K-12 classrooms; however, there is a lack of scholarly research to guide the implementation of these tools. The WebQuest model, a widely adopted inquiry-based model for online instruction, has instructional inadequacies and does not make the most of emerging…

State and municipal policymakers are increasingly addressing the practice of social promotion in schools--moving children along to the next grade whether or not they have mastered the curriculum--by mandating test-based grade promotion. This paper draws conclusions about the effects of a policy limiting social promotion. To do so, it employs a…

For decades, African American students, nationwide, have consistently scored much lower on math and reading achievement tests than their European counterparts, creating what is known as the "White-Black Achievement Gap". The purpose of the research was to determine if self regulated learning and communal learning contexts, either…

Giftedness has often been equated with being academically talented or being a high achiever in school. However, there is often concern about the gifted students who could be described as unmotivated and underachieving in one or many academic areas. At the Jones Street School, a school for gifted elementary students, the location of this study,…

Educators have long recognized that parental and community supports are important underpinnings for children's success in school. With respect to the teaching of writing, however, little research has been conducted to provide evidence of effective practices teachers use to involve parents and communities. As part of a national Canadian study of…

The focus of this paper is on responses from fifth grade peer tutors who were trained to use child-centered play therapy language during tutoring sessions with kindergarteners. The focus of this project was to identify academic and social/emotional benefits of participating in the program. Results indicated that participation in the program…

Emotional intelligence (EI) theory provides a framework to study the role of emotion skills in social, personal, and academic functioning. Reporting data validating the importance of EI among youth have been limited due to a dearth of measurement instruments. In two studies, the authors examined the reliability and validity of the…

An accruing body of evidence supports associations between self-perceived gender typicality and peer relationship difficulties; however, researchers have yet to evaluate peers' perceptions of problem behaviors to gain insight into the social correlates of gender typicality. A short-term longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate associations…

Though environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) has been a focus of many studies in the field of environmental education, very few scales have been developed to assess children's ERB. In this regard, this article focuses on the development and validation of Children's Responsible Environmental Behavior Scale (CREBS) and also reports the…