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…

Examined assumptions about access to technology and use by teachers in two high schools in California's Silicon Valley. Observations and interviews with 21 teachers and 26 students show that access to equipment and software seldom led to widespread teacher use and student use. When teachers did use technology, they were likely to sustain, rather…

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…

Used hierarchical linear modeling and longitudinal data from the first three waves of the National Education Longitudinal Study to examine achievement and growth rates in precollege science by racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups. Findings show socioeconomic status and previous grades to be strongly related to eighth-grade achievement across all…

Reviews the results of a meta analysis (E. Deci, R. Koestner, and R. Ryan, 1999) that shows that tangible extrinsic rewards do have a substantial undermining effect on intrinsic motivation. Discusses results, which support cognitive evaluation theory, in terms of their relevance for educational practice. (SLD)

Prior meta analyses by J. Cameron and other researchers suggested that the negative effects of extrinsic reward on intrinsic motivation were limited and avoidable. E. Deci and others (2001) suggested that the analyses were flawed. This commentary makes the case that there is no inherent negative property of reward. (SLD)

Replies to commentary by J. Cameron asserting that the negative results of extrinsic reward on intrinsic motivation are limited and avoidable. Suggests that the most recent meta analysis by Cameron and others shares methodological weaknesses with an earlier analysis, lacking ecological validity. (SLD)

Summarizes issues related to the provision of testing accommodations for examinees with disabling conditions, considering the history of such accommodations, the disabilities typically addressed, legal issues and precedents, and psychometric issues. Also considers social policy questions related to equity and fairness in testing. (SLD)

Shows how item response theory can be used to rescale ordinal data to an interval scale. Provides examples of rescaling using student performance data and makes the case that educational researchers should consider rescaling ordinal data using item response theory routinely. (SLD)

Explores the notion of meaning, especially as applied to acts of producing and reading texts. Grounds the analysis in principles of activity theory and cultural semiotics and focuses on the ways in which reading takes place among readers and texts in a culturally mediated, codified, experience characterized as the "transactional zone." (SLD)

Reviews research on reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities focusing on studies on instruction to improve comprehension of narrative text and expository text. Discusses emerging issues in the field, including use of socially mediated strategies, teaching multiple strategies to students, and teaching specific strategies as…

Studied the characteristics of instruction that accompany student achievement in reading, writing, and English. The study took place in 25 schools in 4 states and included 44 teachers of 88 classes. Analyses reveal six features that provide distinctions between higher and more typically performing schools and show the characteristics of a…

Used a national probability sample of 1,027 mathematics and science teachers to provide a large-scale empirical comparison of effects of different characteristics of professional development on teachers' learning. Results identify three core features of professional development that have significant positive effects on teachers' self-reported…

Uses National Educational Longitudinal Study data for approximately 25,000 students to show that information about higher education, guidance, and essential preparatory actions taken by secondary school students influences whether they will attend postsecondary education institutions within 2 years of high school graduation, and the types of…

This introduction sets the stage for the themed issue. It describes the ambiguities inherent in the interpretation of the literature on compositional and peer effects and the genesis of the project. The balance of the introduction then describes the approach adopted to search for peer effects. First, there is a brief outline of the Barr and…