As increasing numbers of states move to end social promotion of 3rd graders, some are also including interventions to help students learn to read. Oklahoma is one of several states that recently adopted new reading policies that--with limited exceptions--call for 3rd graders to be held back if they flunk a state standardized test. Supporters say…

If it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, middle-class children are more likely than their lower-income peers to grow up learning how to make the gears of the education system turn smoothly. Working-class parents, meanwhile, tend to raise their children to avoid conflict and be self-sufficient in problem-solving, an Indiana University…

In a bid to help more students read proficiently in 3rd grade--a skill considered critical to their future educational success--new laws and initiatives springing up around the country require educators to step up their efforts to identify and help struggling readers even before they enter kindergarten. It's not unusual for states or school…

Through order and English immersion, a network of charter schools strives to turn Latino students into informed citizens and leaders inside and outside the community. Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization, or UNO, is a Latino advocacy group with a history of community organizing. The group recently received a $98 million grant from the…

This article reports that two programs for teaching mathematics in the early grades--Math Expressions and Saxon Math--emerged as winners in early findings released last week from a large-scale federal experiment that pits four popular, and philosophically distinct, math curricula against one another. But the results don't promise to end the…

Schools taking part in the federal Reading First program are showing significant progress in boosting students' reading fluency and comprehension, according to state-reported data compiled and released by the U.S. Department of Education last week. In releasing for the first time detailed, multiyear data on how Reading First schools are performing…