Common Core Reading Standard 10 not only prescribes the difficulty of texts students should become able to read, but also the difficulty diet of texts schools should ask their students to read across the school year. The use of quantitative text-assessment tools in the implementation of this standard warrants an examination into the validity of…

Standards for literacy in the twenty-first century raise the bar on the complexity of texts and the tasks for which they are used. The strengths and limitations of contemporary approaches to text complexity are discussed with respect to major points raised in the six articles in this special issue. In addition, four features of text that are of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of aligning classroom core reading instruction with the supplementary reading instruction provided to 133 struggling grade 2 readers. A 2-group, pre-posttest true experimental design was employed in this study. In 11 elementary schools, 12 teachers taught both the aligned and unaligned core and…

The current article investigates the work of 20 Reading First coaches to determine how coaches distribute their time and the rationale they give for their work. Teachers' responses to coaches and the relationships between what coaches do and student achievement are also analyzed. There was great variability among coaches in how they allocated…

In order to better understand literacy coaches' impact on teachers, the authors analyzed interviews with 35 teachers who participated in a statewide professional development effort, the South Carolina Reading Initiative. For 3 years, literacy coaches facilitated bimonthly study groups for teachers and spent 4 days a week in teachers' classrooms…

In this article we present a model for evidence-based school counseling practice that involves using data to specify problems that need addressing, using multidisciplinary teams to identify and implement research-based interventions, and evaluating interventions and programs to demonstrate effects. Potential benefits of this approach for…

The purpose of this article is to review current models for curriculum and pedagogy used in elementary school physical education programs. Historically, physical educators have developed and used a multiactivity curriculum in order to educate students through physical movement. More recently, a variety of alternative curricular models have been…

This observational study involved literacy and mathematics instruction of 145 teachers in grades 3 through 5 in 20 low-income schools enrolled in the U.S. government's Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Demonstration program. Observed curriculum and instructional practices were primarily and coherently focused on acquisition of basic facts and…

This independent evaluation of 2 commonly used approaches for accelerating reading achievement and reducing inappropriate special education referrals, Success for All (SFA) and Open Court, was conducted in 12 Title I schools in a large urban district in northern California. To compare the effects of these approaches, we collected data on 936 grade…

Surveyed fifth-graders and school staff in 117 elementary schools regarding school processes and outputs. Found that the open systems and human relations models provided the best-fit statistics and explained the most variance in achievement progress, followed by the rational goal model. Explored implications for effective schools research and…

Compared traditional parent-teacher conferences with an alternative collaborative model that includes students (family-school conferences) in a suburban elementary school. Found that teachers and parents valued traditional conferences as opportunities for information exchange, but both groups reported anxiety that may interfere with communication.…

Achievement goal theory was used as a theoretical framework to identify motivational climates in second- and fourth-grade physical education classes. Findings indicated that the motivational climate was a blending of the mastery and performance approaches, with teachers providing a variety of meaningful activities, recognizing and evaluating…

Examines how what is known about academic help seeking can inform an understanding of children's response to peer harassment. Details: (1) What is adaptive help seeking?; (2) Which students are most likely to seek help?; and (3) Under what conditions are students likely to seek help? Presents directions for future research. (Author)

Argues that it is worthwhile for motivational theorists to consider the implications of social perspective theories and to explore the motivational implications of nuances within these theories. Explores the motivational implications of sociocultural assumptions about knowing and learning, as they have been defined by situative cognitive…

Explored differences in the understandings, beliefs, and decision making of first-year teachers from reading specialization, reading embedded, or general education teacher preparation programs. Found that graduates of International Reading Association-recognized programs tended to speak in clear and thoughtful ways about their instruction, focused…