One component of the United States' public school curriculum core is social studies. Since the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), elementary social studies has been marginalized, and in some cases, eliminated from the school day in favor of increased time for literacy and mathematics instruction. Kentucky's adoption of the ELA Common Core standards…

Curriculum plays an important role in ensuring continuity and progression from early childhood education and care (ECEC) to primary education. The alignment of curricula and standards across these settings shapes children's early experiences with education systems, with implications for children's relationships and engagement in both ECEC and…

At a time when innovation and flexibility have been lauded and prioritized in federal education policy, the passage of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) presents a unique opportunity for state education and workforce leaders to explore innovative ways to transform postsecondary outcomes for…

Iheoma Iruka is founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and research professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her work focuses on supporting the optimal development of children from low-wealth and marginalized communities and ensuring excellence…

The authors of this report build on past studies by using survey data from a nationally representative sample to examine how middle and high school English language arts (ELA) and mathematics teachers use and perceive their instructional materials in terms of engagement, challenge, and usability. In addition, the authors use interview data to…

This qualitative study identified the language assessment practices in terms of purpose, type, and timing in four elementary language classes in the Philippines. It then evaluated the constructive alignment and content validity of the assessment and described how the constructive alignment reflects the quality of teaching and learning in these…

As a problem-solving approach, design thinking (DT) emphasizes iterative, user-focused designing. While DT is being readily adopted into education, little is known about how educators integrate DT across curricula. To address this question, we collaborated with a tech-ed industry partner and a focus group of experienced educators to assess…

This case study examines the policy significance of a partnership between two organizations committed to improving children's learning and well-being through the delivery of a forest and nature school (FNS) program offered in the context of a licensed childcare program in the province of Ontario, Canada. The notion of the Anthropocene is taken as…

This study synthesizes lessons learned about the promising role of "career navigators" at community colleges to aid students in the transitions through disjunctures in their careers. Career navigators are student support personnel who follow students from recruitment, through their studies or training programs, to job placement. Findings…

This research examines the factors that shape high school students' experiences with an action civics program--"Project Soapbox"--that fosters democratic and social-emotional learning. Drawing on pre- and postsurveys with 204 students, classroom observations, teacher interviews, student work samples, and student focus group interviews,…

Consensus is growing that high-quality early education is a critical support to all subsequent learning. In early childhood education quality is generally considered holistically in terms of the physical environment, programmatic structure (e.g., length of the school day), curriculum and instruction, and the nature of interactions between teachers…

In 2018, California Governor Gavin Newsom set an ambitious goal of reaching 500,000 active apprentices by 2029. He did so because apprenticeship is a proven model and clear strategy for connecting Californians to good jobs. It has a strong track record for workers and employers in the skilled trades and in firefighting, but apprenticeship…

Most children in the U.S. spend time in some form of early childhood education (ECE) program prior to entering kindergarten. In fact, children spend an average of 25 hours per week in nonparental care, including center-based care and informal family, friend and neighbor care. Children develop a foundation for learning during these early years, so…

With the increasing visibility of state school psychology consultants (SSPCs) across the nation, there is a pressing need to understand their roles and functions relative to serving their stakeholders. In addition, it is unclear whether current SSPC job responsibilities are aligned with the National Association of School Psychologists' (NASP)…

The higher education accountability efforts of the past decade have placed pressures on universities to more rigorously evaluate the quality and outcomes of their programs while the emergence of new methodologies, from big data approaches to business analytics platforms, have also expanded ways of measuring the quality and return on investment of…