After 25 years with small to moderate gains in performance in mathematics, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) main assessment declined between 2013 and 2015 in Grades 4 and 8. Previous research has suggested the decline may be linked to the implementation of the "Common Core" state standards. In this…

This study explores disciplinary literacy instruction integrated within an elementary engineering unit in an urban classroom. A multidisciplinary team of university literacy and engineering educators and classroom teachers served as the research team for this case study. A social semiotic language theory (systemic functional linguistics) and a…

Historical fiction is a powerful genre for inviting children into meaningful conversations centered on the lived experiences of others. Historical inquiry immerses readers in interdisciplinary research experiences and complements language arts Common Core State Standards that call for a balance of fiction and non-fiction text. Antiracist lenses…

Leading school turnaround has been conceptualized as a school-level issue focused on immediate change. There has been little consideration about how district leaders change systems to sustain school turnaround successes. This case study research conducted through the lens of Change Theory explores the leadership struggles of one mid-sized urban…

Purpose: In the last 5 years, many states have introduced science of reading (SOR) reforms that require increased attention to foundational skills instruction in grades K-3. The fast spread of these policies raises questions about the mechanisms that facilitated their rapid adoption. The purpose of this article is to examine how SOR discourses…

Teachers, like the students they serve, never stop learning. In-service teacher professional development (PD) gives educators opportunities over the course of the year to learn more about pedagogy and improve their own instruction methods to boost students' academic and social and emotional outcomes. On average, teachers participate in ten days of…

Teachers, like the students they serve, never stop learning. In-service teacher professional development (PD) gives educators opportunities to learn more about pedagogy and improve their own instruction methods to boost students' academic and social and emotional outcomes. Districts make a significant financial investment to provide teacher PD,…

Background: In recent years, school districts have experienced a complex policy environment with myriad reforms aimed at addressing longstanding and historically entrenched disparities in opportunities and outcomes between racially minoritized students and White students. One such reform is standards-based accountability, with its emphasis on…

In this article, the author describes strategies to support students in conjecturing in ways that promote their agency. Conjecturing involves justifying (i.e., a practice that promotes epistemic agency and engages students in mathematical reasoning to defend their claims; Bieda & Staples, 2020) by which a conjecture becomes proven, modified,…

Can a school or district improve student achievement simply by switching to a higher-quality textbook or curriculum? We conducted the first multi-textbook, multi-state effort to estimate textbook efficacy following widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and associated changes in the textbook market. Pooling textbook adoption…

Can a school or district improve student achievement simply by switching to a higher quality textbook or curriculum? We conducted the first multi-textbook, multi-state effort to estimate textbook efficacy following widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and associated changes in the textbook market. Pooling textbook adoption…

Struggling math students often have difficulty developing a sense of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation to learn math, which has been found to predict future math achievement (Pitsia et al., 2017). Conventional methods of math instruction and assessment may provoke elevated levels of math anxiety for many students, which has been found to…

This article was adapted from the E. L. Thorndike Address that I delivered at the August, 2019 meeting of the American Psychological Association in Chicago. I trace my career as an educational psychologist in the context of the enormous changes, both theoretical and societal, that occurred during my years as an active researcher. Reading, the…

In this essay, authors Todd Reynolds, Leslie S. Rush, Jodi P. Lampi, and Jodi Patrick Holschuh provide a disciplinary heuristic that bridges literary and literacy theories. The secondary English language arts (ELA) classroom is situated at the intersection between literary theory and literacy theory, where too often literary theory does not…

This program focused on improving mathematics content and pedagogy for fifth-grade teachers, including regular classroom teachers and exceptional education teachers, as they implemented the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics. Concentrating work with a single grade allowed for tightening breadth while increasing depth of content.…