The student population in contemporary public middle schools is growing increasingly more diverse. While heterogeneously grouped classrooms are consistent with middle school philosophy as well as recommendations from leading middle school advocacy groups, many teachers in these settings seem to downplay the differences among the students and…

The "Quest for Less" is designed for teachers in grades K-8 to use as one of the many tools in the development of lesson plans. Activities and concepts in this resource can be incorporated into existing curricula, or teachers can create special week-long units on the environment and solid waste or use the activities to commemorate Earth Day. This…

To promote large-scale science education reform, developers must create innovations that teachers can use to learn and enact new practices. As part of an urban systemic reform effort, science materials were designed to reflect desired reforms and to support teacher thinking by addressing necessary content, pedagogy, and pedagogical content…

Maine was the first state to put laptops in the hands of an entire grade of students. This interpretive case study of two middle school science-math teachers was driven by the general question: Given ubiquitous computing, how do teachers use computers in constructing curriculum and delivering instruction? Specifically, the researchers sought to…

The 2009 edition of the "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) third annual review of state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession. This year's report is a comprehensive analysis of the full range of each state's teacher policies, measured against a realistic…

The Idaho edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the third annual look at state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers can make changes that will have a positive impact on teacher…

This report presents findings about teacher quality from two longitudinal studies, the National Longitudinal Study of "No Child Left Behind" (NLS-"NCLB"), and the Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under "No Child Left Behind" (SSI-"NCLB"). The research teams for these two…

The Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP), created by the Texas Legislature in 2003, was based on the assumption that the use of technology in Texas public schools could be achieved more effectively by "immersing" schools in technology rather than by introducing technology resources, such as hardware, software, digital content, and educator…

A study investigated the effects of instruction in indigenous Mexican culture on Chicana and Chicano adolescents' reading preferences. Subjects, 81 Mexican-American students in a Southwestern middle school, were administered a culture interest inventory as a pre- and post-test for identifying reading preferences. Students participated in 4 days of…

This book presents research undertaken as a two-year investigation of two sets of related questions about teacher understanding concerning rational numbers, quantity, and proportional reasoning and how this knowledge affects teachers' awareness of how students learn. Chapter 2 provides a conceptual framework. Chapter 3 presents detailed…

This paper describes a study of one middle school's experiences with a co-mentoring program for beginning teachers. The project involved teaming to develop a unit on tolerance in order to deal with racial tension among students. The team created a student learning week in which students would reflect upon their own cultural beliefs and views and…

This study examined the feelings of competency of 30 regular and special middle school teachers in one Suffolk County (New York) school district about educating children with special needs in a fully inclusive setting. A two-part questionnaire provided: (1) demographic and training background information for the teachers; and (2) the teachers'…

This report describes the development of indicators of classroom practice for monitoring and improving the quality of school reforms. The work entailed development of a rubric to rate key factors of classroom practice based on assignments and samples of student work. This approach was used to describe the intellectual challenge of class…

This study investigated practices, attitudes, and behaviors that experienced teachers used to motivate middle school students. Participants were 10 teachers from one Virginia middle school. The teachers' classroom behaviors and teacher-student interactions were observed. Teachers completed interviews that asked about: their definition of…

This book presents 19 real-life cases which paint a picture of middle school education. Many of the cases grew out of the Middle School Project, an experimental program for training middle school teachers. The book offers student teachers or inservice teachers the opportunity for detailed case analysis, allowing them to practice problem solving,…