This article contains four parts. It begins with a description of the Child Development Project, a research project aimed at discovering ways to integrate a focus on students' social and moral development in elementary schools. Then we describe the project's mixed results in helping teachers successfully apply its approach to classroom management,…

"Math Expressions" is a curriculum for students in prekindergarten through sixth grade that aims to build students' conceptual understanding of mathematics and to develop fluency in mathematical problem solving and computation. The curriculum encourages student learning of mathematics through real-world situations, visual supports such…

This study used an uncontrolled pre-post design in the context of a 16-week comprehensive school physical activity promotion (CSPAP) course to examine relationships between and changes in preservice classroom teachers' (PCTs; N = 103) efficacy beliefs about integrating movement in the academic classroom, willingness to integrate movement, and…

The attitudes of students in ungraded primary and fourth grade classes toward educational-reform changes implemented in their classrooms were studied in Kentucky, using a sample of 53 students from the primary grades and 47 students from the fourth grade. Multi-age, multi-ability grouping, as experienced by these primary students, is a feature of…

Background: An estimated 1 in 5 American children has a vision problem. Children living in poor urban environments have twice the normal rate of vision problems. Uncorrected vision problems can worsen over time and result in permanent vision loss. Early detection and treatment of vision problems is therefore essential in optimizing children's…

Creating community-based opportunities for youth to be physically active is challenging for many municipalities. A Lexington, Kentucky community coalition designed and piloted a physical activity program, "VERB[TM] summer scorecard (VSS)", leveraging the brand equity of the national VERB[TM]--It's What You Do! campaign. Key elements of…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of special education and general education teachers working together to develop and implement story-based lessons on the academic engaged time of students with moderate intellectual disability and autism. A multiple probe across participants' design was used to measure teacher implementation of…

The Multi-State Study of Pre-kindergarten by the National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL) offers a first glance at pre-K children, teachers, and classroom quality in six states. This Snapshot overviews three recent articles co-authored by FPG scientists that summarize findings of the study about children, pre-K teachers, and…

This is the fourth in a series of eight newsletters highlighting best practices presented at the 2009 HSTW Staff Development Conference in Atlanta. These newsletters contain information about successful actions schools across the nation are taking to join hands-on and heads-on learning in ways that increase student motivation and achievement. This…

In this article, the author describes her experience of teaching Mandarin Chinese at Stopher Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky. Through growing and learning with her students, the author has become a firm believer in the importance of early childhood language acquisition and a passionate advocate for world language education.

This report documents the progress that school districts in Kentucky have made in implementing provisions of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. This bill mandated that all elementary schools become non-graded, multi-age, multi-ability primary schools by the fall of 1993. During the spring of 1993, observations and teacher surveys were…

From 1990 to 2000, a qualitative study of the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) was conducted in four small rural school districts in Kentucky. KERA reflects key components of what would later be termed "systemic reform": a unifying set of goals that all students must attain, a coherent system of instructional…

This book offers a systematic examination of how teachers react--and how teaching and learning change--when computers come into the classroom. It describes a longitudinal study which took place in 13 elementary schools (8 public, 3 parochial, and 2 private) in Kentucky. Through a variety of data collection methods, the study explored and…

Multiage/multiability grouping is when more than one grade level of students is grouped in a classroom. This report summarizes the research on multiage/multiability grouping in the primary grades. The paper, which is intended for use in Kentucky's educational system, focuses on quantitatively based comparative research syntheses. The text…

This study investigated the effect of probation on individual performance motivation, organizational processes, and patterns of instruction in schools that were on probation for low achievement in Maryland and Kentucky. Findings are based on case studies of 11 schools on probation, 7 in Maryland and 4 in Kentucky, and all 11 schools had high…