Textbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways mathematics textbook adoption practices…

Instructional discussion is a teaching method used in many classrooms across grade levels. In fact, the Common Core State Standards promote the use of instructional discussion in secondary classrooms (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2018a). Students, however, are not always taught best practices for engaging in a discussion and may feel…

Consistent with common core state standards and recent legislation such as the Every Student Succeeds Act, middle level teachers are establishing high expectations for all students. Middle level students are expected to make connections among topics, cite evidence from text, and engage in higher level thinking skills across subject areas. Often,…

This manuscript explores how the changing policy context of common standards may have influenced the provision of curriculum materials in the United States. Many educational reforms do little to change the nature of classroom instruction, and prior research has argued that this constancy is, at least in part, due to the common use of instructional…

In this paper, a learning progression for geometric transformations is developed based on research that demonstrates the importance of viewing transformations as functions of the plane. The 5 levels of the progression reflect a student's evolving understanding of transformations as functions and their evolving understanding of the domain of these…

Clovis Unified School District (USD) serves about 43,000 students in a city just northeast of Fresno. The district is diverse, serving sizeable groups of Latino/a and Hmong students, and 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The district's proportion of English learners is below the state average, but students are…

Do your students say that one object is "bigger" than another without attending more precisely to the attribute they are comparing? Do they have difficulty naming numbers from 11 to 19? Do some students still count all while their classmates are counting on or counting by tens? What tasks can you offer--what questions can you ask--to…

This paper focuses on the curriculum links between statistics and science that teachers need to understand and apply in order to be effective teachers of the two fields of study. Meaningful statistics does not exist without context and science is the context for this paper. Although curriculum documents differ from country to country, this paper…

This column includes activities inspired by children's literature. This month's issue has students experience nature by examining how seeds are transported from one location to another or consider what it takes for organisms to survive in an environment. Both activities allow elementary-age children to think about how outdoor spaces can be…

Automated text complexity measurement tools (also called readability metrics) have been proposed as a way to help teachers, textbook publishers, and assessment developers select texts that are closely aligned with the new, more demanding text complexity expectations specified in the Common Core State Standards. This article examines a critical…

As part of a larger study, we report findings on teachers' use of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and teacher resources (TR) that were included with teachers' published curriculum programs. We analyzed 147 lesson planning interviews with 20 middle school teachers to understand how teachers interpreted and enacted the CCSSM…

As part of the U.S. Department of Education's process for peer review of state assessment systems, states are required to submit documentation outlining the processes that they use to develop and administer state assessments in English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science. States must demonstrate that the assessments are aligned with the…

This report offers an analysis of the English language arts (ELA)/literacy and mathematics standards of the 24 states that have reviewed and revised these standards after initially adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The report found most states kept their standards rigorous and maintained college- and career-ready expectations for…

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiatives have placed pressure on teachers to bring technology tools into classroom, including three-dimensional (3D) printing. Yet, little research has examined what specific math skills are required for 3D printing technology. This article describes a follow-up analysis of…

In this paper, the author explores the importance of play at various stages of literacy development and contends that play is an essential element of learning. The author begins by defining play and literacy, using examples to theoretically explore the play and literacy interface throughout the life span. Finally, she moves into a policy…