Recent work in middle and high school classrooms throughout the past year suggests two key roles in which students can use digital images in the language arts classroom: as readers and as writers. These emerging capabilities can allow students and teachers to envision, understand, and communicate meaning. Here we offer three brief illustrations…

This study has tackled the thorny problem of closing the Student Achievement Gap (SAG) in California's elementary schools. To address that problem, an "Integrated" form of educational leadership called Transformational Instructional Leadership (TIL), a form grounded in "best practices" of Transformational and Instructional…

The purpose of this study was to discover and compare perceptions of three different groups of Indiana elementary educators concerning the importance of areas of the principal's literacy knowledge base, as well as responsibility for and use of this knowledge by principals to adequately support effective research-based literacy instruction. The…

The standards in this document are for Hospitality and Tourism programs and are designed to clearly state what the student should know and be able to do upon completion of an advanced high-school program. Minimally, the student will complete a two-year program to achieve all standards. The Hospitality and Tourism Standards Writing Team followed…

The present study investigated Oral Reading Fluency and its ability to predict academic achievement in language arts and mathematics on 6,484 first through fourth grade students. Student, teacher, and school information from the 2006-2007 academic school year was collected from databases maintained by Salt Lake City School District. The…

The focus of this quantitative study was to identify third grade ISTEP+ data from the top 10 increasing and declining enrollment public school districts in the state of Indiana to determine if communities experiencing high percentages of increasing or declining enrollments have significantly different achievement in language arts. This data was…

Students entering school with little knowledge of English do not have the foundation in place to develop reading skills. This lack of foundation puts English Learners at a disadvantage that they struggle to overcome. The purpose of the quantitative study was twofold: (a) to determine whether measures of phonemic awareness are predictive of end of…

The K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent a major advance in standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts. They are grounded in evidence about what it takes for high school graduates to be ready for college and careers and build on the finest state and international standards. The Common Core State Standards offer an…

American education approached a possible turning point when the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released drafts of proposed new academic standards in English language arts and math for kindergarten through high school. Already the object of much interest--and some controversy--these are…

In 1997, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandated that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum. Access means more than being exposed to language arts, math, and science; access means academic progress. In addition, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires that all students have…

Traditional folktales constitute a social institution that reflects the value, customs, and lifestyles of the culture and are a natural way for students to explore the historical past, the belief systems of varied societies, and diverse factual information. A carefully selected folktale can be a powerful tool to bring culture to the foreign…

The integration of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) into the language arts classroom can greatly assist teachers meet the needs of diverse literacy learners. However, this new technology does not come without some concerns, including but not limited to ease of implementation, funding for new hardware and software, appropriate teacher support,…

This article offers three case studies of teachers who have been specially prepared to serve diverse students and examines their interpretations and instantiations of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)-driven language arts reform in "underperforming" schools, largely composed of Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs). Drawing on literature…

The authors have discovered that working in a writing center setting within the classroom provides pre-service teachers with an opportunity not only to work with student writers one-on-one but also to experience a model of best practice in teaching writing. In this article, the authors describe a program, focusing on the partnership they have…

One of the biggest present challenges for teachers, especially in primary classrooms, is the need to address the content standards in all subject areas with the same amount of instructional time. While curriculum integration continues to be a powerful strategy to meet this challenge, teachers often find it difficult to bridge the gap between…