Honors has specifically and historically done a commendable job of tailoring education to the special needs and challenges of the most intellectually and academically capable young people, the future leaders and innovators of society, but the introduction of an imperative to make money threatens to corrupt the whole enterprise. For this reason,…

"Floating" teachers, or teachers without their own classroom, experience unique affordances and constraints as they develop professionally. To increase the knowledge in this area, this study looks at how traveling to different classrooms affects beginning secondary science teachers' development and instruction. The participants in…

The idea of elementary school students working together on mathematical tasks is not new, but recent attention to creating purposeful discourse in mathematics classrooms prompts teachers to revisit discourse-promoting strategies for mathematics lessons. The Common Core's Standards for Mathematical Practice (CCSSI 2010) encourage teachers to…

There are many different job titles for this position around the country: school librarian, library media specialist, information technology specialist, research technology specialist, and library media coordinator. The position has changed from primarily a traditional librarian position to a balance of teaching and librarianship, and it's…

In this article we identify opportunities for students to use timelines and textbooks to meet standards. Through the use of timelines, textbooks, and selected activities, upper elementary and middle school students are able to (1) be engaged in content area reading and writings; (2) understand large themes in social studies including time,…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) of 2010 represent a new chapter in the 25-year history of standards-based reforms (SBR). The CCSS attempts to bring the system back to the principles of its founding--more rigorous, focused, academic content and performance expectations collectively embraced by the nation. The new standards depart…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association in 2010 as part of a widespread standards-based reform movement in the United States. The education marketplace has responded with CCSS-aligned products, including standardised tests, professional development…

Written for the general public, this article unpacks the "dialogue gap" in education and raises concerns about what can happen when groups dependent on one another are not talking. Part of the problem involves a matter of scale; policymakers rarely talk about children as individuals as opposed to as aggregates. The larger policy context…

The "National Standards for Financial Literacy" describe the knowledge, understanding, and skills that are important for students to learn about personal finance. They are designed to guide teachers, school administrators, and other educators in developing curriculum and educational materials for teaching financial literacy. In this…

In an effort to develop a virtual technology coach for K-12 educators, this article analyzed survey results from sixty teachers with regards to specific resources that a technology coach could provide within a virtual environment. A virtual technology coach was proposed as a possible solution to provide continual professional development for…

In a climate of high stakes testing in education in America physical education is an oft-overlooked content area. As physical educators, however, we know the value that we have in the educational lives of our students. Instruction in our content area is engaging and immediately applicable to the "real world." The skills and concepts that…

This article make a case for the importance of background knowledge in children's comprehension. It suggests that differences in background knowledge may account for differences in understanding text for low- and middle-income children. It then describes strategies for building background knowledge in the age of common core standards.

In 2011, OFSTED produced its triennial report, "Successful Science" (OFSTED, 2011), celebrating the successes of science in English schools over the previous three years and informing educators of what things still needed to be addressed. The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM, www.psqm.org.uk) was highlighted as helping to address many…

This article describes the Energy Transformation 4-H school enrichment curriculum. The curriculum addresses energy efficiency and conservation while meeting sixth-grade science essential standards requirements. Through experiential learning, including building and testing a model home, youth learn the relationship between various technologies and…

State and national standards, taken as is, can limit the potential of the curriculum and skilled teachers. The ideas presented here suggest ways in which we might better scrutinize standards for their potential richness and limitations in order to enrich our instruction.