This study examines the ability of a theoretical model of the parental involvement process to predict Latino parents' involvement in their children's schooling. A sample of Latino parents (N = 147) of grade 1 through 6 children in a large urban public school district in the southeastern United States responded to surveys assessing model-based…

Elementary mathematics coaches are placed in schools to construct leadership roles and to provide on-site, collaborative professional development addressing mathematical content, pedagogy, and curriculum in an effort to enhance instruction and improve student achievement. This 3-year randomized control study found that over time coaches positively…

This article draws on interview data to analyze how instructional program coherence in 7 elementary schools in 2 Michigan districts seemed to affect novice teachers' induction experiences. Of the 7 study participants, 4 were at schools that had adopted a common language arts framework and had opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and…

This article highlights the role of social networks in the elementary teacher job search. Using interviews with 27 teacher applicants, it explores how prospective elementary teachers used their social networks to identify job opportunities, obtain jobs, and gather information about schools. The findings suggest that teacher applicants assumed that…

Evidence suggests that it is possible to substantially reduce the number of children classified as learning disabled in literacy. The 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act opens opportunities to do so through Response to Intervention (RTI). This article argues that institutional histories, structures, and…

Models of Response to Intervention (RTI) include parameters of assessment and instruction. This study focuses on assessment with the purpose of developing a screening battery that validly and efficiently identifies first-grade children at risk for reading problems. In an RTI model, these children would be candidates for early intervention. We…

This article reflects on my 28-year tenure editing "The Elementary School Journal" ("ESJ"). During my tenure as editor, the educational system was in constant reform, from a Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind. Considerable evidence suggests that these various reforms, which consumed vast resources, were not successful in raising the…

The quality of classroom interactions has typically been studied using aggregates of ratings over time. However, within-day ratings may contain important variability. This study investigated within-day variability using the NICHD Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development's observational data during grades 3 and 5. The first question examined…

The shared and unique effects of teacher and student reports of teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) in second and third grade on academic self-views, behavioral engagement, and achievement the following year were investigated in a sample of 714 academically at-risk students. Teacher and student reports of teacher-student support and…

This article presents the results of a study that examined the relationship between the amount, type, and content of literacy coaching and K-3 student reading gains in a school district that received a Reading First grant. In addition, this study investigated the relationship between student reading gains and literacy coach certification. Findings…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a classroom-teacher-delivered reading intervention for struggling readers called the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), designed particularly for kindergarten and first-grade teachers and their struggling students in rural, low-wealth communities. The TRI was delivered via an innovative…

Much research has demonstrated that students are largely uncritical users of Web sites as sources of information. Research-tested frameworks are needed to increase elementary-age students' awareness of the need and ability to critically evaluate Web sites as sources of information. This study is a randomized field trial of such a framework called…

This article reports the findings from a year-long study of 6 writing teachers in an urban elementary school who also received intensive professional development in writing instruction from a nonprofit organization. Repeated observations demonstrated that the teachers displayed consistency in their use of the core instructional elements associated…

Using recently released data from the Long-Term Trend Assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, this study analyzed the mathematics performance of 9-year-old students between 1978 and 2004. The study goes beyond overall results by describing the assessment items and the change over time on each of those items. The data…

This longitudinal study investigated children's performance on several informal reading and spelling tasks. Students (n = 274) in a rural North Carolina county were assessed across grades 2 to 6 on the following measures: isolated word recognition (timed and untimed), oral reading accuracy, reading comprehension, reading rate, and spelling.…