Using an Around the World unit to introduce students to over 30 nations, Wilson proposes "trail mix" over "melting pot" as a metaphor for multiculturalism in this article. Students kept a travel journal as they explored different cultures, and a school-wide celebration of diversity included trying out the dress, music, and language of each.…

University educator P. L. Thomas recalls the significant figures in his professional life and, drawing from their example, exhorts us to "command the daily events of our own careers." He outlines specific actions that he believes English language arts teachers must take.

Aurora (Colorado) Public Schools responded to the Colorado State Model Content Standards for Reading and Writing and the accountability measures attached to the state assessments by implementing the Aurora Achievement Initiative in 2001. Originating from literature on best practices and large-scale school reform, the goal of the districtwide…

The authors argue that if the Conference on English Education (CEE) is to nurture and grow its membership in the coming years, we will need a more focused purpose related to the central mission of the organization: "the effective education and development of students and professionals in English language arts education." To that end, the authors…

The text samples presented in this document primarily serve to exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the Standards require all students in a given grade band to engage with. Additionally, they are suggestive of the breadth of texts that students should encounter in the text types required by the Standards. The choices should serve as…

The 4Rs Program (Reading, Writing, Respect and Resolution) is a "dual focus" whole school universal intervention designed to promote literacy development and social-emotional learning, that is currently being rigorously evaluated using a school-randomized trial of 18 elementary schools (9 intervention, 9 control) in New York City. The…

Recent studies of the relationship between teacher preparation pathways and student achievement have resulted in similar statistics but contradictory conclusions. These studies as a group have several limits: they sometimes focus on student-level indicators when many policy decisions are made with indicators at the school-level or above, are…

Objectives: To determine relationships between physical fitness and academic achievement in diverse, urban public school children. Methods: This cross-sectional study used public school data from 2004 to 2005. Academic achievement was assessed as a passing score on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) achievement tests in…

Although K-12 schools and community colleges share responsibility for the futures of a vast number of young Californians, and both are under pressure to improve student academic achievement, the groups operate under separate governance systems, pursue distinct missions, gauge success based on different measures, and are seldom looked at together.…

This report describes Michigan's school restructuring efforts under the No Child Left Behind Act, and includes findings from case studies of nine schools in four school districts: Detroit Public Schools, Flint Community Schools, Harrison Community Schools, and Willow Run Community Schools. Key findings from the report include: (1) more Michigan…

This review examines current research on teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) in four content area subjects: History, math, English, and science. The following topics are examined in each content area: The linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural features of academic literacy and how this literacy can be taught; general investigations of…

Seikatsu tsuzurikata is a grassroots movement in Japan that has many parallels to the whole language movement, but it developed completely independently, beginning in the late 1920s. Our research into this movement was conducted in 1984 and described in Kitagawa and Kitagawa (1987). We are now updating our earlier research. Seikatsu tsuzurikata is…

Mary Rooney, an eighth-grade English and language arts teacher at the K-8 John Welsh School in Philadelphia, spotted a problem. On one of the recent "mini" tests the school administers every six weeks to help students prepare for the state assessments, her classes averaged scores in the 80s, but in evaluating the results, Rooney noticed there were…

Stacey Brown energizes high school students with "brain-twisting" writing prompts, word games to hone vocabulary and spelling skills, and art to show complex ideas. Additionally, reading aloud to her class models fluent reading, expands students' vocabularies, builds community, and stimulates student-led discussions about the novel. (Contains 1…

The integration of nature studies within language arts instruction offers multiple possibilities for guiding students toward close readings of literature, their changing selves, natural phenomena, and the world around them. The authors document their own rediscovery of nature study and what happened when environmental observations were…