In recent years, there has been increased policy interest in the way young people spend their time out of school, and in promoting the availability of opportunities for them to spend this time in productive and developmentally supportive ways. Out-of-school opportunities (such as arts and music programs, sports teams, community service, youth …

This study examined differences at the classroom level between Kentucky schools with minimum versus large gaps in academic achievement between particular groups of students. Data were gathered via observations of 213 classrooms at 18 elementary, middle, and high schools. Although all the schools were identified as high-performing in terms of…

Culturally responsive teaching cannot be approached as a recipe or series of steps that teachers can follow to become effective with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. Instead, it relies on the development of certain dispositions toward learners and a holistic approach to curriculum and instruction. This digest draws on a…

Educational leadership for social justice is founded on the belief that schooling must be democratic and an understanding that schooling is not democratic unless its practices are excellent and equitable. Moreover, educational equity is a precondition for excellence. The failure to achieve universally effective education in U.S. society is known…

These exemplar units of work for National Strategy Key Stage 3 English show how medium and short-term planning can be based on the Key Stage 3 Framework objectives and support the implementation of Curriculum 2000. The Key Stage 3 English strand introduces pupils to more specialist study of language and literature and supports the study of…

This report is part of a series of surveys that reflect MetLife's continued efforts to bring insight and understanding to current issues in education that affect American public schools. MetLife's overall goal is to bring the opinions of teachers and students to the attention of educators, policymakers and the American public. The 1997 survey…

The Conference on Improving Minority and At-Risk Student Achievement was convened to help educators, parents, community, and business leaders in North Carolina focus in strategies and ideas that work to raise student achievement levels for low-performing students. This report summarizes the remarks of Michael Garrett, the keynote address of Asa…

This paper reports on a study that examined teachers' perceptions of their relationships with specific students, their experience of stress in relation to those students, and whether those perceptions and experiences translate into observable differences in actual teacher behavior toward those students in the classroom. Specifically, the project…

This study investigated the nature of preservice teachers' instructional actions during Directed Reading-Teaching Activities (DR-TA) to involve students in reading and enhance their understanding of text, noting scaffolding processes used to engage children in making sense of text. Twenty-eight preservice teachers who were first-semester K-8…

This paper describes the teaching practices of one Lakota teacher in a South Dakota reservation high school. The research was part of a larger study that compared and contrasted the classroom style of Indian and non-Indian teachers. This study examined the teacher's use of narrative as an instructional strategy and her efforts at encouraging…

This study documented middle school students' perceptions of their educational experiences, tracking how their perceptions evolved over 3 years and corresponding to the Philadelphia School District's implementation of its Children Achieving reform agenda. Fifty 6th graders were chosen from each of six urban schools and interviewed in the spring of…

A qualitative longitudinal study, intended to encourage graduate programs to reflect on how their programs are making a difference in their students' adult teaching practice, explored how practicing adult educators' beliefs about teaching were impacted by participating in a graduate program in adult education. Sixteen practicing adult educators…

The Georgia Prekindergarten Program was established in 1993 to provide the state's 4-year-olds with high-quality preschool experiences. Beginning in the 1996-1997 school year, a sample of 3,639 children enrolled in 1 of 203 randomly selected Georgia prekindergarten classes was selected for a 5-year longitudinal study. The study examined how…

This study determined the practices of secondary teachers in classroom situations related to gender equity. Researchers investigated: 1) whether teacher behaviors perpetuated sex stereotypes; 2) whether teachers gave more attention to either gender; 3) levels of student participation; 4) opportunities for student participation; and 5) gender…

A case study of the practices of a white teacher working in an urban elementary school with a large majority of African American students shows the problems caused by detached and unreflective teaching practice. The study emerges from a joint ethnographic research and classroom-based educational project at the school. The teacher worked with…