The competition for jobs in the 21st century is increasingly being driven by defining postsecondary learning in light of new and complex environments. To succeed, students must be prepared with knowledge to compete in these environments. Historically, higher education has defined these requirements in their own terms, often through learning…

The creators and supporters of the Common Core State Standards claim that the Standards require greater emphasis on higher-order thinking than previous state standards in mathematics and English language arts. We used a qualitative case study design with content analysis methods to test the claim. We compared the levels of thinking required by the…

While remaining cognizant of several aspects of current information literacy (IL) instruction methods, including threshold concepts, the author re-created experiences shared by students as she searched for, analyzed, and compiled resources pertaining to the Renaissance. Good IL instruction supports education of the whole person, develops new modes…

Recent research on the relationship between standards and teachers' practice suggests that teachers are unlikely to make changes to practice without extensive opportunities for learning about standards with colleagues. This article extends this line of research, using a comparative case study of three high-poverty urban schools to examine the…

Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) Science for use with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) assessments are available for the 2016-17 school year. These new assessments measure student growth toward understanding of the multidimensional NGSS performance expectations. This report presents MAP Science for use with NGSS by presenting and…

In this report, the authors present findings from their analysis of social studies state standards. The following questions guided their work: (1) To what extent do middle and high school (grades 8-12) history and civics state standards support teaching about political parties? For the states that do include language about political parties, what…

High school graduation is "not yet a reliable indicator of college readiness", (Gaertner & McClarty, 2015, p2). As such, researchers are investigating the use of non-cognitive factors as predictors of College and Career Readiness (CCR). The College and Career Readiness Mathematical Practice Scale (CCRMS) was designed to measure…

College attendance is a risky investment. But students may not recognize when they are at risk for failure, and financial aid introduces the possibility for moral hazard. Academic performance standards can serve three roles in this context: signaling expectations for success, providing incentives for increased student effort, and limiting…

In this research, I investigated teachers' interpretations of the goals of professional development and factors that contributed to enacted instructional practices. A multiple-case study design was used to examine the interpretations of four high school teachers participating in a year-long professional development program with a standards-based…

Several states have changed their statewide achievement tests over the past 5 years. These changes may pose difficulties for educators tasked with identifying students in need of additional support. This study evaluated the stability of decision-making accuracy estimates across changes to the statewide achievement test. We analyzed extant data…

Drawing on the concept of transformative expectations--that is, the instructional practices that demonstrate teachers' belief systems for the educational justice and empowerment of Chicanx/Latinx youth--this qualitative study explored the expectancy effects of nine classroom teachers with social justice commitments in a school district in…

This article draws from Stephen Ball's work on markets, managerialism, and performativity to frame a comparative study that examines the reconstitution of the teacher-subject across a pivotal decade in which neoliberal standards and accountability reforms effected significant changes in US education. It juxtaposes two qualitative studies conducted…

Third grade is a critical checkpoint in a child's educational journey. By the end of third grade, children need literacy skills that prepare them for increasing curriculum demands in fourth grade and beyond. Students who are not reading on grade level by this point are significantly more likely to drop out of high school or fail to graduate on…

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether there would be a difference in academic growth measured by gain scores when parents and students received a cumulative standards-based progress report. Participants included 116 fifth grade math students in a Dallas-Fort Worth Area school. Data from district assessments were used to produce…

In this study, the effects of teacher education on preservice secondary science and mathematics teacher readiness (defined as an understanding of how to implement current standards, how to teach English learners, and the belief teachers have about their abilities and skills as educators) and teacher performance assessment (edTPA) scores were…