In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Kindergarten Readiness Act into law. The law changed the kindergarten entry cutoff so that children must turn five by September 1 to enter kindergarten. The law also established a new grade level--Transitional Kindergarten (TK)--which is the first year of a two-year kindergarten experience for…

Educators are increasingly aware that the efficacy of social and emotional learning (SEL) is dependent on implementation factors, not just program content. These include the philosophy underpinning an intervention, the beliefs as well as the skills of facilitators, and the classroom/whole school context in which the intervention takes place. This…

This qualitative case study examines one faculty member's approach toward instilling culturally immersive experiences into graduate curriculum. Participants completed course assignments designed to enhance their multicultural understanding and competence. Course assignments culminated in an immersive experience where students embodied an…

Disparities in suspension rates for White, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian students are more often a result of inequitable disciplinary actions than differences in behavior. Exclusionary discipline undermines students' academic achievement by weakening their connection with school and removing them from the classroom. Students who experience…

Introduction: A growing body of literature suggest that the quality of teacher-child relationships is a determining factor in children's competence in social-emotional, behavioral functioning, and academic skills. Most of the research on student-teacher relationships has relied on these relationship perceptions. A well-known instrument to assess…

Parents are frequently positioned in policy as blameworthy and lacking responsibility for their children's well-being. However, little research has considered how the socio-emotional needs of children are being addressed whilst attempts are being made to improve parenting. Based on interviews with 15 educational practitioners employed in…

Employing the multiple-baseline across-subjects design, the authors examined the implementation and potential effect of a virtual-reality-based social interaction program on the interaction and communication performance of children with high functioning autism. The data were collected via behavior observation and analysis, questionnaires, and…

Background: Fathers have unique influences on children's development, and particularly in the development of social skills. Although father-child relationship influences on children's social competence have received increased attention in general, research on fathering in families of children with developmental delays (DD) is scant. This study…

Interactions between reactive and regulatory dimensions of temperament may be particularly relevant to children's adjustment but are examined infrequently. This study investigated these interactions by examining effortful control as a moderator of the relations of fear and frustration reactivity to children's social competence, internalizing, and…

This study highlights the connections between two facets of teachers' skills--those supporting teachers' mathematical instructional interactions and those underlying social interactions within the classroom. The impact of the Responsive Classroom (RC) approach and use of RC practices on the use of standards-based mathematics teaching practices was…

Scholars have distinguished conceptually between multiple forms of social withdrawal among children and adolescents, but this distinction has yet to be investigated fully during emerging adulthood. Therefore, the overarching goal of this study was to employ a person-oriented approach to examine differences between subtypes of withdrawal on…

Urban school districts throughout the United States are creating single gender classrooms or schools to improve student achievements for their lowest performing subgroups (Noguera, 2009). It is hoped that separating the sexes will improve domains such as discipline, attendance and academic performance, while decreasing the dropout rate. If single…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the use of online storytelling as a motivation for young learners to practice narrative skills, measured through active choice, persistence and mental effort (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Web analytics was used to track 24 home schooled participants of an online application to teach a 21st…

Through reflection on his years as an enrichment teacher in Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) programs, the author describes significant ways the social and emotional development of his students was shaped by their involvement in enriched teaching and learning. Through portraits of his students engaged in Type II and Type III enrichment, the…

In this paper, the authors consider early results from their ethnographic research in urban drama classrooms by parsing the aesthetic and social imperatives at play in the classroom. Moved by the observation that teachers and students alike seem to be pursuing elusive aesthetic and social ideals, the authors draw on Judith Butler's notion of…