Curriculum materials can play a major role in shaping teachers' thinking about instruction and content as well as serve as a support for teachers' learning. With the inclusion of engineering in NGSS, many teachers may be turning to existing curriculum materials to help them infuse engineering into their science classroom, especially when they do…

Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist and her team, along with school-based leaders, have worked with the district's school leaders to implement a comprehensive strategy to improve instructional quality for all students in Tulsa. Grounded in a clear vision for instruction and starting with the introduction of new curricula aligned to…

State-level leaders face a difficult challenge of determining where to invest scarce professional learning dollars. To address this challenge, a team of researchers and state-level science educators surveyed teachers to learn more about their vision for science education and what kind of learning opportunities they preferred. The survey enabled…

Assessment leadership has often been associated with school leaders (SL), comprising principals and vice-principals. This study aimed to examine the under-researched assessment leadership role of Middle Leaders (ML) instead. Data was drawn from a larger, mixed-methods project that involved a self-report questionnaire administered to principals,…

Developing leadership in students is part of the remit of higher education institutions. In recent decades, student leadership development programs have proliferated at universities worldwide. However, the contested understanding of the term 'leadership' has resulted in lack of clarity regarding how this may be 'developed' in higher education.…

The South African Department of Education has attributed the poor pass rates in Grade 12 Physical Sciences to the learners' lack of practical work and the inability of learners to solve problems by integrating their knowledge from different topics in Physical Sciences. A possible reason for this could be a disjointed alignment between the…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies or standards derive from SEL frameworks. In this report, the terms "SEL competencies" and "standards" are used interchangeably to refer to statements about "what students should know and be able to do," recognizing that states may use different terms such as…

This is the first in a series of briefs the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) will release on long-term English learners (LTELs). The full study will examine LTELs in Texas, with particular focus on 10 Houston-area public school districts. Currently, there is no formal definition of LTEL in Texas. The purpose of this brief was to…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the program initiated by EdReports.org for analysing instructional materials, improving local decision making for selecting materials, and providing professional learning to support implementation of high-quality materials in schools. The Context Input Process Product model was used to evaluate…

This policy brief describes the Texas high school graduation requirements put into effect through the passage of House Bill 5 in 2013. The brief also contends the introduction of academic endorsements, similar to college majors and intended to help high school students develop subject-area knowledge, may create clearer paths to selective college…

This study examined the content alignment between an English as a foreign language skills curriculum and a provincial language test in China. When there is misalignment in the content between the standards of a curriculum and a test, conclusions about student abilities and teaching effectiveness can be questioned. To examine this, three categories…

The moment preservice teachers with an English as a Second Language endorsement complete an accredited teacher certification program, they are expected to be able to provide inclusive instruction to multilingual and multicultural students addressing both subject knowledge and English-language proficiency. Preservice teachers are expected to be…

This report is focused on what research and practice indicate about how assessment impacts the teaching and learning of STEM subject matter in K-12 classrooms. The intent is to take stock of what is currently known as well as what needs to be known to make classroom assessment in STEM maximally beneficial for the instructional practices of…

This is the executive summary for the full report, "Classroom-Based STEM Assessment: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives." This report is focused on what research and practice indicate about how assessment impacts the teaching and learning of STEM subject matter in K-12 classrooms. The intent is to take stock of what is currently known…

This article aims to uncover how alignment affects second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition by Chinese-speaking learners of English as they interact with various interaction loads (i.e. input text, peers and video). It also explores how tasks with varying interactional intensity in relation to the interaction loads influence the alignment…