This article proposes the existence of an "Isadora Effect": the propositions that motor development plays a primal role in brain development, and the first understanding of symbolic meaning among young children occurs from an understanding of movement and gesture. Anecdotal evidence for the past few decades has demonstrated that dance…

The widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards in the US has prioritized rigorous reading of complex texts. The emphasis on text complexity has led to instructional and assessment materials that constrain critical literacy practices by emphasizing quantitative features of text, such as sentence length, and a static list of text…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSSI 2010) for Mathematical Practice have relevance even for those not in CCSS states because they describe the habits of mind that mathematicians--professionals as well as proficient school-age learners--use when doing mathematics. They provide a language to discuss aspects of mathematical practice that are of…

This paper aims to examine whether and how the US-based Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric-Design Standards for Online and Blended Courses apply to the Chinese higher education environment. Suitability and matchability of QM Standards are respectively examined through a questionnaire and course reviews at Fudan University, a leading…

The arrival of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) marks a new era in science education. However, like all education reform, the success of NGSS implementation lies with teachers. Effective and targeted professional development will play a key role in preparing teachers who work from the framework. This study sought to design and validate…

Student achievement in mathematics is correlated with factors related to student engagement. Improving engagement has the potential to improve student achievement at the middle school level. The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics explicate eight specific Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs) that clarify the types of skills and…

As standards in the United States change, many teachers are faced with negotiating multiple standards documents. This research examines how pre-service elementary teachers learn to plan for instruction using national standards documents (NGSS and C3 Framework, respectively) and the state content standards. This qualitative case study examines…

The purpose of the study was to explore a suburban school district with a homogenous staff and diverse student population that implemented a professional development program centered on the Cultural Proficiency Framework. Cultural Proficiency is a framework that guides the shifting of culture in schools from viewing diversity as problem to…

This study examined the content alignment between an English as a foreign language skills curriculum and a provincial language test in China. When there is misalignment in the content between the standards of a curriculum and a test, conclusions about student abilities and teaching effectiveness can be questioned. To examine this, three categories…

As the vision in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) takes hold in schools and classrooms, there is an urgent need for teacher professional development (PD) programs that align with NGSS-designed curriculum materials and address the unique strengths and needs of diverse student…

Successful word recognition requires that listeners attend to differences that are phonemic in the language while also remaining flexible to the variation introduced by different voices and accents. Previous work has demonstrated that American-English-learning 19-month-olds are able to balance these demands: although one-off one-feature…

This exploratory study surveyed school mental health providers across the United States to examine their perception of the facilitators and the barriers to evidence-based professional practice (EBPP) when offering mental health services to students in schools and to identify any group differences of these perceptions. A national sample of school…

Employee empowerment yields positive outcomes for employees, managers, and organizations. Yet, too many employees feel disempowered at work, and managers, while wanting to empower employees, often do not know how. Contributing to this state of affairs is the lack of published, high-fidelity exercises explicitly designed to instruct students on how…

Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which enrollment in a Title I, Part A school was related to the reading performance of Grade 4 students on the Texas state-mandated reading assessment. Specifically examined was the extent to which boys and girls enrolled in Title I, Part A schools and non-Title…

Following the murder of George Floyd and the wide-spread recognition of systemic discriminatory abuse of power by police, organizations across the country were jolted into reviewing their own policies and practices for evidence of prejudice and racial injustice. Teacher education programs were no exception. As teacher education grapples with this…