Many technology features that were originally developed to help people with specific sensory impairments are now widely in use. Research is beginning to show the benefits of giving all students access to these capabilities. As such, educators should not hesitate to integrate technology features into instruction for students who struggle with…

Schools have recently begun to place increased emphasis on the use of rigorous research evidence in guiding instructional decisions. Turning education into an evidence-based field is easier to advocate than to achieve, particularly in an environment of competing claims about what works. In this article, the author discusses the factors which…

Saying a kind word to a classmate, acknowledging other students' feelings, sharing books and advice, defending a victim of bullying--these are just a few of the prosocial behaviors that can enhance students' social and academic lives at school. Because children do not develop social values in a vacuum, educators, policymakers, and researchers are…

Despite some encouraging signs that education reform efforts are raising achievement in one school here and another there, such piecemeal approaches have not yet yielded positive systemic results. To achieve districtwide improvement, a growing number of school systems are adopting a "portfolio approach" to district governance by replacing the…

Teachers use student performance data to continually evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and make more informed instructional decisions, which is a practice used in student progress monitoring. The teacher, in order to implement student progress monitoring, determines a student's current performance level, identifies achievement goals…

Culturally responsive education can strengthen student connectedness with schools. The different approaches that educators should follow to promote culturally responsive education are presented.

Many urban schools are providing high-quality education and are producing high-achieving students, despite facing high student poverty and mobility rates, large number of English language learners and unsafe neighborhood. Positive behavioral supports, caring connections, and social and emotional learning are very essential in creating positive…

A common problem faced by new teachers is lack of supervisory support and learning on the job through trial and error can often dishearten the rookie enough to abandon the job and often the profession. Suggestions are offered on how to redress this problem and a starting point could be the implementation of what the Alliance for Excellent…

The secondary school teachers can make a difference even if they do not have formal training in teaching reading in the content areas. Teachers can support improved reading comprehension by introducing model approaches that encourage interaction with text, which helps students gain insight into their own reading strategies and also increase their…

Research shows that adolescents in the US are not meeting literacy demands and there is significant disparity among racial and ethnic groups and among students from varied socioeconomic levels. A comprehensive approach is required to address the diverse literacy needs of adolescents and strategies that could be part of such an approach are…

In recent years, assessment data have assumed a more central role education policy and practice. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires states to implement standardized assessment-based systems to evaluate their schools. The NCLB approach rests on the assumption that assessment data can provide credible information to gauge how effectively schools…

The practices emphasizing learning, reasoning and achieving the solutions in mathematics helps the students to develop their own understanding of the content. The development and understanding concepts of learning mathematics in elementary and middle schools in United States are discussed.

The effectiveness of writing instruction and process writing are discussed. The process writing approach has a significant impact on the U.S. education and hence, the principles of process writing provide guidance to teachers on potentially effective instructional practices.

The authors state that one key to successfully working with English language learners (ELLs) is to view them as a resource in the classroom since these students can offer information and perspectives about other countries and cultures. Additionally, many researchers support the use of scaffolding strategies to help ELLs organize their thoughts in…