Early math has been shown to predict not only longer-term math achievement, but also future reading achievement, high school completion, and college attendance. Yet effects from early math programs often fade out as children move into more varied instructional contexts in elementary school. This fade-out suggests the need for an alignment of math…

Third grade is a critical checkpoint in a child's educational journey. By the end of third grade, children need literacy skills that prepare them for increasing curriculum demands in fourth grade and beyond. Students who are not reading on grade level by this point are significantly more likely to drop out of high school or fail to graduate on…

The purpose of this quantitative descriptive comparative study was to investigate and explore the usage of multimedia instructional tools (MMITs) in an integrated business applications course to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in the gain scores between the pretest and posttest scores of high school students who used…

What does "rigor," a word that frequently pops up in conversations about education, really mean? More specifically, what does it mean for "literacy" instruction, and how does it relate to challenging standards-based assessments? In this informative and practical guide, literacy expert Nancy Boyles uses the framework from Webb's…

This paper discusses a model for structuring resources for automatic assessment in scientific education by means of textual descriptions. This study aims to support instructors in extending teaching strategies and expanding formative assessment in virtual communities of practice. The strategy to achieve these goals involves the implementation of a…

Little research has examined the capacity of ECE [early childhood education] leaders to build capacity for job-embedded professional development in local ECE centers. This study reports findings from a three-year evaluation of a job-embedded early childhood education professional development initiative in a major mid-western city. Results indicate…

Century Analytics, Inc. conducted a rigorous evaluation of Edmentum's Exact Path to estimate the impact of Exact Path use on student achievement in mathematics in kindergarten through Grade 8. Exact Path is an online educational tool designed to support individualized student instruction. This study's quasi-experimental design (QED), analyses, and…

Many young children come to school with prior experiences planting seeds in a garden or in a pot, watering them, and seeing them grow. These early scientific investigations are designed to help children understand that seeds need water, something to grow in (such as soil), and the right temperature to sprout--if these conditions are met, a seed…

Shadowing is a data collection method that involves following a person, as they carry out those everyday activities relevant to a research study. This article explores the use of shadowing in a formative evaluation of a professional development school (PDS). Specifically, this article discusses how shadowing was used to understand the role of a…

Every student in the Swedish compulsory school system is entitled to information regarding their progress in all school subjects given. In 2008, a mandatory assessment tool, called the individual development plan (IDP) with written assessment, was introduced by the Government. The statutory purpose was to provide teachers with a formative…

Many of the studies used to support the claim that student evaluations of teaching are reliable measures of teaching effectiveness have frequently calculated inappropriate reliability coefficients. This paper points to three coefficients that would be appropriate depending on if student evaluations were used for formative or summative purposes.…

We used surveys and classroom observations to examine student reactions to two-stage exams, where students first do the exam individually and then redo it collaboratively. Our results show why both students and instructors appreciate this examination format: Two-stage collaborative examinations are relatively easy to implement, have a high…

Homework has been a mysterious world to educators due to the fact that it is hard to collect data with regard to homework behaviors. Little is known about when a student works on homework, how long it takes him to complete the homework, how much time he spends on a problem and whether and where he has struggled, etc. Such information not only have…

This study aimed at developing a module in physics based on the assessment of the learning progression of students in physics and science teachers' formative assessment practices. The participants in this study were the Grade 11 students and Junior High School science teachers for the data gathering, science teachers for the design and development…

How do you become an effective primary school teacher? What do you need to be able to do? What do you need to know? Flexible, effective and creative primary school teachers require subject knowledge, an understanding of their pupils and how they learn, a range of strategies for managing behaviour and organising environments for learning, and the…