Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, we seek to answer the question, How can prospective teachers (PTs) learn to read and use educative curriculum materials in ways that support them in acquiring the knowledge needed…

The dangers of a single story in current U.S. large-scale writing assessment are that assessment practice does not align with theory and this practice has negative effects on instruction and students. In this article, I analyze the connections or lack of connections among writing theory, writing assessment, and writing instruction, critique the…

Much ink has been spilled debating the role of the intellectual. William Tierney's article "Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating Poverty" in the August/September 2013 issue of "Educational Researcher" adds to this literature. In his article, Tierney presents recommendations to the education…

The author of this commentary argues that physical scientists are attempting to advance knowledge in the so-called hard sciences, whereas education researchers are laboring to increase knowledge and understanding in an "extremely hard" but softer domain. Drawing on the work of Popper and Dewey, this commentary highlights the relative…

The authors argue for a reconceptualization of rigor that requires sustained, direct, and systematic documentation of what takes place inside programs to document how students and teachers change and adapt interventions in interactions with each other in relation to their dynamic local contexts. Building on promising new programs at the Institute…

Grades are the fundamental currency of our educational system; they signal academic achievement and noncognitive skills to parents, employers, postsecondary gatekeepers, and students themselves. Grade inflation compromises the signaling value of grades and undermines their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. We challenge…

I argue that enrollment of a diverse student body is but a pragmatic first step toward the broader social goal of inclusion and ask whether motives for campus diversification are aligned with pedagogic goals. I address this question by focusing on inclusion, namely, organizational strategies and practices that promote meaningful social and…

The authors describe an emerging paradigm of educational research that pairs theories of embodied learning with a class of immersive technologies referred to as "mixed reality" (MR). MR environments merge the digital with the physical, where, for example, students can use their bodies to simulate an orbit around a virtual planet. Recent…

Over the last decade, teacher evaluation has moved onto center stage in efforts to strengthen schooling. In this article, we address the question of whether focusing on this administrative process is likely to accomplish what reformers hope. We answer that question by examining the available evidence, both direct and indirect. We deepen the…

The author argues that the role of a public intellectual involves a science of knowing as well as the knowledge gained by a researcher's work and life. Including both, the intellectual moves beyond educational organizations and finds ways to become more involved not only with larger issues of public policy but also with those with whom he or…

We describe an innovative automated test construction algorithm for building aligned achievement tests. By incorporating the algorithm into the test construction process, along with other test construction procedures for building reliable and unbiased assessments, the result is much more valid tests than result from current test construction…

Performance standards are a powerful way to communicate K-12 student achievement (e.g., proficiency) and are the cornerstone of standards-based reform. As education reform shifts the focus to college and career readiness, approaches for setting performance standards need to be revised. We argue that the focus on assessing student readiness can…

This article presents a set of recommendations that promote a more nuanced, meaningful accountability policy for English learners in the next authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The authors argue that the ESEA reauthorization must strengthen the law's capacity-building purpose so that federal, state, and local leaders…

Although previous authors have offered persuasive arguments about the salience of race in the scholastic enterprise, colorism remains a relatively underexplored concept. This article augments considerations of social forces by exploring how color classifications within racial arrangements frame pathways for communities of color and, therefore,…

The Common Core Standards for the English Language Arts (CCSS) provide explicit guidelines matching grade-level bands (e.g., 2-3, 4-5) with targeted text complexity levels. The CCSS staircase accelerates text expectations for students across Grades 2-12 in order to close a gap in the complexity of texts typically used in high school and those of…