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Eric.ed.gov – Constructivists Online: Reimagining Progressive Practice. Occasional Paper Series 34

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this issue of the Occasional Paper Series, the authors reimagine progressive pedagogy within the framework of digital pedagogy and online practice. The issue begins with “Notes from the Special Issue Editors,” Helen Freidus, Mollie Welsh Kruger & Steven Goss. In the first set of essays, “Inside the Online Classroom,” the authors present the experiences of educators who have entered the square room but have refused to be limited by its constraints. These are teacher educators who have designed their courses for the online venue. Some enthusiastically chose to teach online; others were mandated to do so. Regardless of how their journey began, each author describes the work she or he is doing to bring constructivist practice online. To the surprise of each of these educators, they… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Educators Challenging Poverty and Latino Low Achievement: Extending and Enriching the School Day

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Latino students, as children of historically underachieving populations, often have their academic success in jeopardy. For many schools, after-school programs complement the regular school day, with more than half of the 49,700 U.S. elementary schools having one or more on-site programs. Such programs vary in intent, purposes, and resources and typically emphasize remediation rather than developing interests or competencies in curricular areas beyond language arts and math. This qualitative case study explores the practices of one dual language elementary school in a high poverty Latino community and its academic/enrichment extended day program. Wenger’s (1998) community of practice framework captures the mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire of practices tightly woven between the regular school day’s classroom teachers and the after-school instructional assistants. This investigation provides insight… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Understanding the Meaning of Rural within a Middle School Mathematics Professional Development and Research Project in Nebraska. Working Paper No. 40

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Improving teacher quality in P-12 mathematics is a national need, and many universities and schools are working to address it. With the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), twelve math and science institutes across the country are helping P-12 teachers strengthen their capacity to support students’ learning. These NSF Institutes operate under the leadership of STEM university faculty, representing colleges of arts and science as well as colleges of education. The strategy is to build capacity by improving teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogy, and leadership skills. One such venture is The Math in the Middle Institute Partnership (M2) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). As part of their efforts to understand the place of rural in M2, the research team systematically interviewed the 63 rural participants from… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Closing the Gap: An Overview of the Literature on College Persistence and Underrepresented Populations

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Access to and persistence through higher education can significantly impact occupational stability and mental wellness in the United States (U.S.), with higher levels of education contributing to increased employability and wellness. Empirical research suggests that college attendance improves verbal communication, moral reasoning, and critical thinking skills (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) and has been linked to lower unemployment rates, greater job satisfaction, lower reliance on public assistance programs, lower rates of obesity, and other health and wellness outcomes (Baum, Ma, & Payea, 2013). Furthermore, attaining a college degree is a key factor in improving one’s earnings and long-term financial stability. For example, recent research found that among full-time employed young adults between the ages of 25 and 34, those with a bachelor’s degree earned more, on average, than… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Sanger Unified School District: Positive Outliers Case Study. Positive Outliers Series

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Located just southeast of Fresno in California’s Central Valley, Sanger Unified School District (USD) serves approximately 12,000 students in 20 schools. Sanger USD students are predominately from low-income families (73%); most are Latino/a (70%), and about one in five (18%) are English learners. During the accountability era of No Child Left Behind, Sanger had earned the reputation of being a turnaround district based on district students’ steep and steady improvement on California’s Test of Basic Skills between 2004 and 2012. Its success hinged on developing an organizational culture of continuous improvement and an instructional regime of direct instruction for students’ basic skills mastery. This case study addresses the question of how Sanger USD managed to shift instruction and student support to achieve exemplary results on the new… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Catalyst Schools Research Study: Technical Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In January 2012, the West Virginia Governor’s Office released an influential report, “Education Efficiency Audit of West Virginia’s Primary and Secondary Education System,” written by Public Works (2012), a management consulting company headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Based largely on this report, the West Virginia Legislature passed education reform legislation, which was signed into law by the Governor in spring 2013. The Catalyst School Research Study examined the initial stage of an initiative that grew out of that reform. The Transforming Professional Learning initiative focused on changing the way the West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) defined professional learning and the ways major providers involved themselves in the professional learning of educators in the state, especially the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) and regional education service… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Implementing Cross-Sector Collaboration through the District-Charter Collaborative: A Case Study of Promising Practices

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: District-Charter Partnerships (DCP) is an initiative that is part of the Equity and Excellence for All agenda established by Mayor De Blasio. Its goal is to support meaningful collaboration between the district and charter sector in order to increase educator capacity and student learning in all New York City public schools. The District-Charter Collaborative (DCC) is one of the principal programs under the DCP umbrella. Spearheaded by the NYC Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of School Design and Charter Partnerships and Office of Leadership, the program brings quads of schools (2 district and 2 charter) together to engage in structured collaboration through the creation of professional learning communities (PLCs). These PLCs aim to improve practice in one of the following Learning Focus Areas (LFAs): math instruction, supporting… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Mathematics and Science Teacher Academy Evaluation. MSTA Final Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In a time of evolving Algebraic standards and expectations for Minnesota teachers and students, the establishment of quality professional development and technical assistance can help educators move more confidently toward greater mathematics understanding and, subsequently, successful teaching and learning. To this end, the Minnesota Department of Education has developed the Math and Science Teacher Academy (MSTA), a statewide infrastructure focused on the improvement of mathematics and science instruction. As external evaluators, Hezel Associates has supported Minnesota’s initiative through formative and summative research since the program’s inception during the summer of 2008. In this report of the MSTA evaluation’s activities, findings, commendations and recommendations, the evaluators focus on presenting new information that has not been presented elsewhere. They combine this new information with key points that were described… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Ready to Teach Program: A Federal Initiative in Support of Online Courses for Teachers

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The report, “The Ready to Teach Program: A Federal Initiative in Support of Online Courses for Teachers”, describes the history of the Ready to Teach Program and its role as one of the solutions to the national need to increase the performance of teachers through professional development. The report describes selected findings from the Eisenhower Professional Development Program and through it, the evolution of findings on effective professional development for teachers. These major efforts to improve teacher professional development by the U.S. Department of Education were supplemented by smaller efforts like the optional use of up to 10% of Title I monies for professional development, as determined by the principal of a Title I school or by the District, depending on the State Plan at that time.… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Quasi-Experimental Study on the Utility and Efficacy of Lead4ward in HISD toward Improving Instructional Planning and Student Achievement, 2018-2019. Research Educational Program Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This program evaluation assessed the utility and efficacy of lead4ward toward facilitating meaningful instructional planning, and improving STAAR reading, English language arts, and math performance of students whose teachers participated in lead4ward professional development. A web-based survey on HISD’s HUB yielded responses from 340 educators who had direct exposure to lead4ward. The highest percentages of respondents found that lead4ward was closely aligned to TEKS (87.1). In addition, 79.0% of respondents indicated that they used lead4ward in grade level, developmental planning, and PLCs meetings. Nearly 70.0% of respondents noted that the Field Guides were helpful in planning and implementing lessons well (69.8%). Respondents found that lead4ward resources improved proficiency among students “more than a little” in mathematics, English language arts/reading, science, social studies, teacher induction, and intervention/RTI. Instructional… Continue Reading