Kingston and Nash (2011) recently presented a meta-analysis of studies showing that the effect of formative assessment on K-12 student achievement may not be as robust as widely believed. This investigation analyzes the methodology used in the Kingston and Nash meta-analysis and provides further analyses of the studies included in the study. These…

Research findings concerning verb-level influences on past-tense morphology carry implications for the careful selection of treatment targets. Using 6 of the broad criteria for "good verbs to choose" proposed by D. Crystal (1985) more than 25 years ago as a framework, this article summarizes some of the more recent research with a nod…

It has been shown that in certain situations losses exert a stronger effect on behavior than respective gains, and this has been commonly explained by the argument that losses are given more weight in people's decisions than respective gains. However, although much is understood about the effect of losses on cognitive processes and behavior, 2…

Today's teachers need up-to-the-minute information to help their students make sense of the multimodal texts they encounter daily in and out of school. "Reading the Visual" is an essential introduction that focuses on what teachers should "know" about multimodal literacy and how to "teach" it. This engaging book…

This paper analyzes a 2002 policy change in Florida allowing teachers to choose between a traditional defined benefit pension plan and a 401k-style defined contribution plan. The authors were able to track who chose which plan, what subject they taught, how effective they were in the classroom, how long they remained teaching, and whether the…

Early childhood instruction tends to focus heavily on literacy development, sometimes at the expense of rich concept development (CEP, 2007; Neuman, 2006; NRC, 2012; NSTA, 2014). Because of the emphasis on literacy instruction, many early childhood teachers integrate content areas, such as science, in literacy instruction through read alouds of…

This research aims at analysing technical specifications in a sample of Egyptian and French electronic storybooks (e-storybooks), to identify similarities and differences in technical specifications of children's e-storybooks and create a verified analysis list to be used for evaluation of e-storybooks. For this purpose, 32 e-storybooks in CD…

This article contests a racialised skills regime in Canada. Canadian studies of the labour market transitions of skilled immigrants are analysed through the lens of critical race theory. The analysis shows that knowledge and skills of recent immigrants in Canada are racialised and materialised on the basis of ethnic and national origins. Skin…

Great schools need great leaders! In fact, according to recent research by Seashore Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom and Anderson (2010), "To date we have not found a single case of a school improving its student achievement record in the absence of talented leadership (p.9)." As such, North Carolina's Race-to-the-Top (RttT) grant earmarked…

This article addresses 3 broad challenges of assessment in reading comprehension: (a) explicitly articulating the knowledge and skills students need to recognize and be able to use in comprehending complex texts; (b) understanding how knowledge and skills progress and successively deepen and develop over repeated opportunities to engage in tasks…

The current study uses social judgment theory to inform the design of processes to be used in selecting teachers for training programs. Developing a comprehensive selection process to identify individuals who are likely to succeed as teachers is a mechanism for improving teacher quality and raising the profile of the profession. The design of such…

Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), this paper exposes the neoliberal ideology of the knowledge-based economy embedded within university policies, specifically those that regulate faculty hiring, promotion, and remuneration in two national contexts: Turkey and Mexico. The paper follows four stages of CDA: (1) focus upon a social wrong in its…

The purpose of this study was to examine the approaches used by directors in divisions of student affairs to initiate and sustain change. Determining the common and most effective approaches to change used by directors was a second purpose. Additionally, the researcher was interested in common change initiatives taking place and other factors that…

This report summarizes and analyzes fall enrollment in Iowa's community colleges. Each year, Iowa's 15 community colleges submit data on enrollment on the 10th business day of the fall semester. Some highlights from this report include: (1) Fall 2015 enrollment was 93,074 students--a decline of 0.74 percent from last fall; (2) Compared to last…

Randomized experiments are commonly used to evaluate if particular interventions improve student achievement. While these experiments can establish that a treatment actually "causes" changes, typically the participants are not randomly selected from a well-defined population and therefore the results do not readily generalize. Three…