In a collaborative partnership between a public school district in the northeast United States and university faculty, social-emotional/behavioral (SEB) screening was implemented across the district at three elementary schools serving students in kindergarten through second grade. Although both parents and teachers served as informants in SEB…

When implemented correctly, feedback from assessments can result in students reflecting and rethinking their mathematics, while increasing their effort and motivation. This article explores a formative assessment technique for use in the first few minutes of each class. Readers will find out how they can use the QuickQuiz (QQ) to drive…

As children of immigrants are increasing in number across the U.S. classrooms, schools need to develop strategies to engage with immigrant families. Structural and attitudinal issues in the school system create challenges in communicating with immigrant parents. Immigrant parents have high expectations for their children's academic achievement…

Communicating with parents may seem like one more task on top of an overwhelming workload, but creating a positive relationship with parents has many benefits for all involved. The author discusses the steps to creating these relationships and communicating with families.

Teachers are regularly tasked with planning for long-term academic and formative goals for entire classes and individual students. This planning involves designing and developing effective routines, creating detailed lesson plans, and tracking authentic assessment of students. Skilled teachers are accustomed to predictable expectations and…

Participation in athletics provides student-athletes a place to develop autonomy and grow socially through interactions with peers, parents, and coaches (Torres & Hager 2013). Coaches entrusted by parents to guide and nurture their child's sport experience fulfill the role of teacher, counselor, colleague, mentor, supervisor, and leader…

Pre-service teachers need to be prepared to teach in both rural and urban contexts. Preparation to teach multi-grade classes in rural schools is excellent preparation for teaching any class, including urban single-grade classes. Based on our previous research and experience, we designed a unit to prepare our pre-service teachers for the issues…

It is the responsibility of special educators to understand and interpret the results of high-stakes assessments for educational purposes and for communication to parents. To help teachers understand and accurately communicate high-stakes testing results, the authors describe a set of research-based strategies in the "RISC" process:…

Educators recognize that parental participation is a critical factor in the success of children within a school setting. This is particularly true for parents who have children with disabilities or who are from a culturally or linguistically diverse background. However, reaching out to these families can be a difficult task even for the most…

This paper describes a teacher in-service training program on teacher-parent communication in Cyprus and its impact on teacher trainees. Data were gathered through questionnaires completed by teachers prior to their training and after having tried, in real school settings, the communication skills and approaches taught during the course. The…

One of the most common questions the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) receives from parents is, "How should I advocate for my child in the classroom?" Dr. Joan Smutny first tackled this topic for "Parenting for High Potential" in 2002, but her practical, step-by-step approach is still very applicable today. Some…

As thousands of communities--especially in the South--became booming gateways for immigrant families during the 1990s and the early years of the new century, public schools struggled with the unfamiliar task of serving the large numbers of English-learners arriving in their classrooms. Instructional programs were built from scratch. Districts had…

To the more than 600 million members of Facebook and the expanding legions of Twitter users, one can add a growing number of schools and districts. Whether communicating with parents and the public, enhancing classroom instruction and staff development, or rallying school spirit, administrators and teachers are beginning to leverage the…

In the current global economy, skills in the informational text genres are increasingly important for communicating ideas among professionals. The Reading Framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress described informational text broadly as a major type of text that includes exposition, argumentation or persuasive text, and…

Classroom observation is a crucial aspect of any system of teacher evaluation. No matter how skilled a teacher is in other aspects of teaching--such as careful planning, working well with colleagues, and communicating with parents--if classroom practice is deficient, that individual cannot be considered a good teacher. Classroom observations can…