Children with language deficiencies in grades two through four received instruction in listening comprehension. One-half of the children in each grade verbalized explicit strategies prior to applying them to questions. Strategy self-verbalization led to high self-efficacy across grades and promoted performance among third and fourth graders.…

The inspirational stories of young learners in this book discredit assumptions behind recent educational reforms, including high stakes testing and No Child Left Behind policies. The experiences of the American Indian children and the author, a kindergarten teacher, challenge the widely held assumption that minority children enter school "at…

The difference between the academic performance of poor students and wealthier students and between minority students and their non-minority peers is commonly known as the achievement gap. The current study examines the achievement gap using a large sample of students from a wide variety of school districts across the United States. It examines…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has the potential to improve many of America's schools, but this potential is currently undermined by serious flaws in how the program evaluates school performance. Because NCLB's measurement system compares only students' performance at a single point in time against state-determined standards, the information…

The handling of mistakes in the mathematics classroom is an area in which only little research is done so far. In mathematics education there are, in fact, several investigations about students' mistakes from a diagnostic perspective, but hardly any studies on the question how teachers react in concrete mathematics lessons. In this article…

In this paper, the authors use data from interviews and observations in four urban elementary schools, two high and two low performing, to examine how schools respond to high stakes accountability policies. The authors argue that school responses to high stakes accountability depend on school context. In low performing schools, responses focus…

This study focuses on elementary schools, where it is critical that students develop foundational knowledge and skills in preparation for later advanced coursework. For the study, McREL selected a sample of high-needs elementary (PreK/K?6) schools, defined as moderate- to high-poverty, with 50 percent or more of students eligible for free or…

Over the last 20 years, many districts and schools have begun to explore year-round education or a modified calendar in response to student under-achievement in low performing schools. Here, the authors detail their two-year study of Title I, year-round, or modified calendar schools that switched from a traditional to a modified schedule in order…

The Teaching Fellows program in New York City was designed to attract individuals interested in an alternative certification process. The present investigation is an exploratory study of Teaching Fellows in a public graduate elementary education program. The department of education placed these alternatively certified teachers in teaching…

Kentucky's goal of reaching academic "proficiency" by 2014 illuminated problematic findings in 2002 reading test scores: 44.30% of middle and 71.25% of high school students scored below "proficient." The research question was, "Do teaching practices in schools with high reading achievement scores differ from teaching…

Terry High School is one of three schools in the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, Texas, serving students in grades 9 through 12. Because of low student achievement on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), the faculty and administration selected PLATO Learning, Inc. computer assisted instruction programs as the primary…

This report presents information from a conference of leaders from districts and states that have been implementing policies to end social promotion. Discussions examined: goals for ending social promotion; promising intervention strategies (using comprehensive accountability systems, using multiple measures to determine grade placement, offering…

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Talent Development High School comprehensive reform model addresses low student achievement and poor school climate, blending a common core academic curriculum with career themes in the upper grades. It includes a separate Ninth Grade Success Academy with interdisciplinary teacher teams, ninth and tenth grade Career…

This paper focuses on how teachers in city schools are experiencing the labor process. It summarizes the concept of alienation, beginning with Hegel's metaphysical teleology, which was overturned by Feuerback and found its historical materialist expression in Marx's theory of alienated labor. The paper then revisits some of the work of critical…

This action research project evaluated an intervention to improve the organizational skills of middle school students with grade point averages below 2.0. Students' lack of organizational skills was documented by means of parent and student surveys, grade point averages, and progress and deficiency reports exhibiting frequently missing homework…