Update your vocabulary practices to meet the Common Core and improve students' word knowledge! This new, clearly-structured guide shows you how. It's packed with engaging, research-based, classroom-ready strategies for teaching vocabulary. Topics include: (1) Selecting meaningful words for direct instruction; (2) Strategies for engaging students…

In August, IES worked with the National Science Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to convene a technical working group to discuss research objectives related to college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics. Forty people (including researchers,…

Never before in human history has it been more important for a person to be geographically literate. But the unsettling reality is that many teachers and most students are not yet geographically literate. Currently, American students are not even provided opportunities to learn enough geography to understand the very basic aspects of the world in…

As elementary educators across the country begin to interpret the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSI 2010) and put them into practice, this article takes a look at this latest set of mathematics standards from a historical viewpoint. The author discusses how educators might use a historical perspective to make the outcome of…

The easyCBM© CCSS Math tests were developed to help inform teachers' instructional decisions by providing relevant information on students' mathematical skills, relative to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This technical report describes a study to explore the validity of the easyCBM© CCSS Math tests by evaluating the relation between…

The purpose of this technical report is to document the piloting and scaling of new easyCBM mathematics test items aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and to describe the process used to revise and supplement the 2012 research version easyCBM CCSS math tests in Grades 6-8. For all operational 2012 research version test forms (10…

Within a response to intervention system of teaching and learning, important instructional decision-making (e.g., implementation of targeted intervention) is regularly tied to the results of formative assessments administered to students throughout the academic year. The validity of these instructional decisions depends to an extent on the…

Proponents of the recent and widely adopted Common Core State Standards argue that high quality curricular standards are critical to students' educational success. Little clear evidence exists, however, linking the quality of such standards to student achievement. I remedy this by connecting data on state-level student achievement from 1994-2011…

In 1999 the state of Montana included in its educational legal code a requirement that all Montanans learn about Montana's indigenous populations and that such knowledge be transmitted in a culturally sensitive manner. This law, called Indian Education for All (IEFA), has created challenges and rewards for educators. To learn to implement the law,…

This policy paper argues that short-term tertiary education is important to achieve policy goals as equity and increased access to tertiary eduction. The paper outlines the 3 major reference frameworks in use ISCED [International Standard Classification of Education], NQF [national qualifications frameworks] and the EHEA [European Higher Education…

Social moderation involves teachers gathering together to discuss their judgements of the quality of student work and to reach agreement regarding the standard awarded. This qualitative study conducted over a three-year period investigated the social practice of moderation and the influence on teachers' judgements of students' work. An initial…

New laws in California have set the state on a course for some potentially significant changes to the curriculum, including a measure that revisits the matter of teaching Algebra 1 in 8th grade and another that revamps the state's textbook-adoption process and hands districts greater leeway in choosing instructional materials. The algebra-related…

On June 24, 2010, the Virginia Board of Education unanimously adopted a statement expressing its continuing commitment to Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and opposition to making participation in federal grant and entitlement programs contingent on word-for-word adoption of the newly developed Common Core State Standards in reading and…

The Common Core State Standards' emphasis on informational text arose in part from research suggesting that employers and college instructors found students weak at comprehending technical manuals, scientific and historical journals, and other texts pivotal to work in those arenas. The common core's vision of informational text includes literary…

With new Common Core State Standards assessments in K12 mathematics due to be in use by the start of the 2014-2015 school year, many district administrators and teachers do not know what they should know about them now and are not taking steps they should be taking to prepare for them. While they are aware that the assessments are being developed,…