The Focus of Practice (FoP) of this Participatory Action Research (PAR) project was to develop mentors' knowledge, skills, and dispositions to identify and implement equitable classroom practices through coaching conversations with beginning teachers. The study examined what happens when mentors shift from essential check-ins with beginning…

ASSISTments is a free online learning tool for improving students' mathematics achievement by providing immediate feedback and hints to students, detailed information on how students performed to teachers, and instructional suggestions for teachers to use. Researchers at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation conducted an intrinsic,…

Over the course of four meetings, the Hunt-Lee Commission engaged in comprehensive conversations around key education opportunities including transitions, structure and alignment, funding, and access. Each meeting included presentations from resource experts and opportunities for Q&A and small group discussions. The final report summarizes…

The personal and professional outcomes of experiential wilderness-based professional development programs for K-12 educators have not been adequately evaluated. This study used open-ended survey questions to identify a range of personal (i.e., self-awareness, new perspectives, self-confidence) and professional (i.e., changes in classroom…

The need to address teacher pipeline challenges has never been more urgent--and doing so will require bold, systemic changes to how teachers are recruited, prepared, compensated, supported, and respected. Teacher Preparation Partnerships are one promising strategy to help address the state's significant teacher pipeline challenges through…

Research suggests that academically gifted students are often underserved when it comes to the school setting. Academically gifted students require specialized instruction to challenge them. Several successful strategies exist for creating an educational environment that appropriately challenges and helps these students achieve academic growth;…

The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher instructional practices aligned with digital learning environments. The following four research questions guided this investigation: How do teachers demonstrate leadership in digital learning? How do teachers model and teach digital citizenship? How do teachers use digital content and resources…

Based on a 3-year ethnographic project at a public elementary school in North Carolina, this article discusses how the concept of racial realism can be useful to researchers trying to live up to the goals of critical race studies in school-based research. Racial realism maintains that racism is a permanent aspect of U.S. society and schools. A…

In a common approach for scaling up effective educational practice, schools adopt evidence-based programs to be implemented with fidelity. An alternative approach assumes that programs should be adapted to local contexts. In this randomized trial of a reading intervention, we study a scaffolded sequence of implementation in which schools first…

In a mixed-methods study, the authors investigate teacher typologies of elementary teachers (N = 132) in the United States based on their reformed science teaching beliefs. Additionally, the identified teacher typologies were compared with respect to their science content knowledge, self-efficacy and epistemic beliefs. Results revealed three…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which diverse schools engage in culturally responsive beliefs and practices within response to intervention (RTI). Eight diverse elementary schools participated, and 200 general and special education teachers in grades K-5 completed surveys. Areas surveyed included culturally responsive…

Recognizing that standardized instructional treatments may not be equally effective across contexts, a growing number of scholars are arguing that the strategy of adopting packaged programs and striving to implement them faithfully is neither realistic nor desirable. An alternative view is that scaling up educational treatments requires balancing…

The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge and inclusion practices of music educators in the Southeastern United States, specifically in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Participants (N = 10,666) included K-12 general music, band, orchestra, and choir teachers. Participants were asked…

Out-of-school, community demographic and family-level variables have an important influence on student achievement as measured by large-scale standardized tests. Studies described here demonstrated that about half of the test score is accounted for by variables outside the control of teachers and school administrators. The results from these…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the beliefs and practices teachers regularly employ within their classrooms that could lead to increased placement of minorities into alternative, special education settings. This qualitative study involves two elementary schools within a central North Carolina county, the administrative staff at both…