This design study tracks the development of student thinking about natural variation as late elementary grade students learned about distribution in the context of modeling plant growth at the population level. The data-modeling approach assisted children in coordinating their understanding of particular cases with an evolving notion of data as an…

This article explores the complex relation between employment and family involvement in children's elementary education for low-income women. Mixed-method analyses showed work as both an obstacle to and opportunity for involvement. Mothers who worked or attended school full time were less involved in their children's schooling than other mothers,…

Focusing on parental networks--a central dimension of social capital--this article uses ethnographic data to examine social-class differences in the relations between families and schools. We detail the characteristics of networks across different classes and then explore the ways that networks come into play when parents are confronted by…

Discusses current Chicago, Illinois, school reform in the context of economic restructuring, the drive to become a "global city," and the cultural politics of race. Focuses on high stakes testing and accountability. Suggests that education policies are part of a cultural politics of race aimed at the control and regulation of African American and…

Examined the class distributional properties of 200 elementary school classes in 2 school districts. Fifty-six classes were combination classes of students from 2 grades. Principals and teachers tended to assign higher ability and more independent students to such classes, and these assignments affected the class distributional properties.…

Using ethnographic techniques and formal interviews with 12 students, examined the racial messages and lessons students got from parents and teachers in one suburban elementary school community. Explicit color-blind "race talk" masked a reality of racialized practices and color-conscious understandings. Discusses this apparent paradox in the…

Classroom observations and interviews with 60 children, aged 6 to 12 years, in Northern Ireland and comparisons with previous U.S. research show the extent to which specific forms of historical representation shape understanding of change over time. As was consistent with differing historical representations, children in Northern Ireland are less…

Explored whether teachers and students were influenced by the size of the inner-city school to which they belonged. Data from almost 5,000 teachers and 23,000 sixth and eighth graders in Chicago show more positive attitudes of teachers in small schools and better learning for students. Suggests school size influences achievement through effects on…

Analyzed results from a 4-year large-scale randomized experiment on the effects of class size, project STAR in Tennessee. Analyses suggest class size effects that are large enough to be important for educational policy and that are quite consistent across schools. Small classes appear to benefit all kinds of students. (SLD)

Studied factors contributing to early Spanish literacy and later English reading for students from kindergarten through grade 7 (complete data for 91 students). Results suggest that early literacy experiences support subsequent literacy development regardless of language and that time spent on the native language is not time lost with respect to…

Used qualitative data from two schools using the Success for All (SFA) program to examine how teachers responded to SFA and how their beliefs, experiences, and programmatic adaptations influenced implementation. Forty-seven interviews with teachers, principals, and SFA facilitators and 49 classroom observations showed that teachers fell into four…

Studied the relative impact on student achievement when students were paired with one other student or a large group of peers and when they worked with a teacher or did not. Results for 109 elementary school students indicate that access to a teacher or a large group of peers were equally potent learning resources in computer supported…

Developed a model and an operational measure of collective teacher efficacy and tested the measure in a pilot study involving 70 teachers. Also used the instrument to study collective teacher efficacy and academic achievement in 47 urban elementary schools. Results show collective teacher efficacy to be positively associated with student-level…

Used data for students in grades 5 through 8 to evaluate the effects of the Comer School Development Program in 10 inner city Chicago, Illinois, schools over 4 years. Data suggest that the Comer program caused positive changes in standardized test scores and in the beliefs, feelings, and behaviors relative to disruptive and illegal student…

Examined the prevalence of delay of kindergarten entry (academic redshirting) by examining records of more than 8,000 Wisconsin students. Results show that 7% of the sample had delayed school entry and that these students were primarily boys with birth dates just before the entrance cutoff. Achievement of redshirted students was comparable to that…