It appears that schools and families are at a crossroads when it comes to testing. High-quality assessments generate rich data and can provide valuable information about student progress to teachers and parents, support accountability, promote high expectations, and encourage equity for students of color and low-income students. But it is…

This book presents the most effective instructional strategies for promoting vocabulary growth in the early grades, when the interdependence of word learning and oral language development is especially strong. The authors guide teachers in choosing the best materials and in fostering home-school connections, and share six key principles for…

This article interrogates some metaphors that Common Core State Standards (CCSS) proponents have used as arguments to characterize CCSS, and then checks the facts that others have amassed around the issue. The authors offer up considerations of metaphor as a rhetorical resistance strategy: Name, Frame, Fact (Check), and then Speak Up. Teachers…

The challenges of implementing the Common Core State Standards and Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) provide momentum for facilitating teacher learning far beyond the capacity of current formal and informal professional development in most school districts. The implementation of the curricula that substantially increase the learning…

Research suggests students with learning disabilities often have trouble connecting new and prior knowledge, distinguishing essential and nonessential information, and applying comprehension strategies (DiCecco & Gleason, 2002; Vaughn & Edmonds, 2006). Graphic organizers have been suggested as tools educators can use to facilitate critical…

When finding the decimal equivalent of a fraction with 12 in the denominator, will it terminate or repeat? This question came from a seventh grader in author Erica Burnison's class as the student was pondering a poster generated by one of her classmates. Not only was the question intriguing, but it also affirmed the belief in the power of…

Considerable discrepancies between the mean and median often occur in data sets that are skewed left, skewed right, or have other unusual features. In such cases, it is important to analyze the data and context carefully to decide how best to describe centers of distributions. The importance of this type of statistical thinking is acknowledged in…

The authors of this article collaborated with fourth-grade teachers from two schools to support implementation of a research-based fraction and decimal curriculum (Rational Number Project: Fraction Operations and Initial Decimal Ideas). Through this study, they identified five indicators of rich conceptual understanding of decimals, which are…

Every sector of the U.S. economy is working on ways to deliver services in a more customized manner. If all goes well, education is headed in the same direction. Personalized learning and globally benchmarked academic standards (a.k.a. Common Core) are the focus of most major school districts and charter school networks. Educators and parents know…

The number of English language learners (ELLs) mainstreamed into regular classrooms continues to increase. Curricular writing standards required by the Common Core State Standards require students to write essays analytically in response to text(s). Many English Language Arts (ELA) teachers may worry about effectively delivering essay writing…

This multiple case study investigated 143 teachers' responses to focus group questions about their experiences with the simultaneous implementation of three disruptive innovations as part of the U.S. Race-to-the-Top (RTTT) agenda: the Common Core Learning Standards, data-driven instruction, and annual professional performance reviews. We asked:…

In her new book, bestselling author and professional developer Carol Booth Olson and colleagues show teachers how to help young readers and writers construct meaning from and with texts. This practical resource offers a rich array of research-based teaching strategies, activities, and extended lessons focused on the "thinking tools"…

How do assessments for learning differ from assessments of learning? What is the purpose of grading? After nearly two decades of immersion in standards-based curriculua and instruction, our nation's educators are often still confounded by the (admittedly complex) landscape of standards, assessment, and reporting. In "Answers to Essential…

Frustrated with the restrictive nature of the Common Core Standards, the author calls on her teaching peers and colleagues to resist a system that denies them and their students access to what teaching and learning should be about.

The state of Massachusetts introduced a system of standardized testing in its public schools three years before the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandated such practices for all 50 states. Although the tests have evolved over time, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) has been in place ever since. After Massachusetts…