Boys and girls sit together in most classrooms, but do they interact? Based on 40-year-old evidence, coeducational classes may not be coeducational but instead segregated by gender, which may undermine student success. Our goal is to answer this question in today's classrooms. We used longitudinal data to assess gender segregation in 26 classes in…

Research indicates that sentence-combining instruction is effective for improving writing outcomes; however, no studies to date have examined the effects of sentence-combining instruction on the writing skills of Spanish-speaking language-minority (LM) students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of explicit…

The inclusion of the arts into science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) has recently gained much national attention. The purpose of this qualitative study was to conduct a thematic analysis of student STEAM survey open responses to provide the field with an examination of grades 3-5 elementary students' perceptions of…

Although visual complexity is increasing and graphics are essential to support readers' comprehension of disciplinary texts, visual literacy receives scant attention. Research suggests that effectively instructing students to interpret discipline-specific graphics would yield better comprehension. However, before this line of inquiry can be…

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between language variables and writing outcomes with linguistically diverse students in grades 3-5. The participants were 197 children from three schools in one district in the mid-Atlantic United States. We assessed students' vocabulary knowledge and morphological and syntactical skill as…

To determine whether formative writing assessments that are directly tied to everyday classroom teaching and learning enhance students' writing performance, we conducted a meta-analysis of true and quasi-experiments conducted with students in grades 1 to 8. We found that feedback to students about writing from adults, peers, self, and computers…

The authors investigated the differential effect of retention on the development of academic achievement from grades 1 to 5 on children retained in grade 1 over 6 years. Growth mixture model (GMM) analyses supported the existence of two distinct trajectory groups of retained children for both reading and math among 125 ethnically and…

In this participatory action research study, we answered the question, How can we improve attitudes toward science education of the African American girls at an elementary school? Girls in grades 3-6 completed the Modified Attitudes toward Science Inventory. A purposeful sample of 30 girls participated in several focus-group interviews throughout…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the types and occurrences of explicit instructional moves recommended for teaching five essentials of effective reading instruction in grades 1, 3, and 5 core reading program teachers' editions in five widely marketed core reading programs. Guided practice was the most frequently…

The cross-sectional study of factors predicting teacher self-efficacy involved surveys of 473 third- and fifth-grade, predominantly White female teachers in 196 schools. The schools served, on average, a relatively high proportion of students living in poverty and students of color. The findings indicate that the proportion of minority students in…

This study examined the effects of teacher self-efficacy, education, and years of experience on observed classroom practices across 2 dimensions--teacher support for student learning and time in academics--as they related to fifth-grade students' (n = 1,043) literacy skills. To address these issues, the study used longitudinal data from the…

Teaching fitness-related knowledge has become critical in developing children's healthful living behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a science-based, constructivist physical education curriculum on learning fitness knowledge critical to healthful living in elementary school students. The schools (N = 30) were randomly…

Elementary mathematics coaches are placed in schools to construct leadership roles and to provide on-site, collaborative professional development addressing mathematical content, pedagogy, and curriculum in an effort to enhance instruction and improve student achievement. This 3-year randomized control study found that over time coaches positively…

The quality of classroom interactions has typically been studied using aggregates of ratings over time. However, within-day ratings may contain important variability. This study investigated within-day variability using the NICHD Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development's observational data during grades 3 and 5. The first question examined…

This longitudinal study investigated children's performance on several informal reading and spelling tasks. Students (n = 274) in a rural North Carolina county were assessed across grades 2 to 6 on the following measures: isolated word recognition (timed and untimed), oral reading accuracy, reading comprehension, reading rate, and spelling.…