This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Anne Kraybill, Sekhar Pindiprolu, Lynn S. Fuchs, Peter Tiernan, Kevin Burke, Elizabeth Haydel, Stan Silverman, Mary Carla Curran, Kathleen Cramer, and Renee Clary.
(2015). Uniquely Precise: Importance of Conceptual Knowledge and Mathematical Language, Journal on School Educational Technology. The importance of mathematical concept development and language is recognized early in children's schooling as they mature through shape and counting experiences. The reader may recall instances of a youngster referring to a "corner" of a shape before the reader has the language of vertex. This language precision needs to continue to grow as the learner moves through arithmetic into algebra, geometry, and further mathematics. This precision is essential and is reinforced in the common core standards for mathematics (2010). If the primary goal is to facilitate proficiency in math for all students (including students with disabilities), there needs to be an emphasis on the deeper conceptual development and the uniquely precise nature of mathematics language both at the pre-service and in-service levels. This is essential as literature suggests that there is a significant relationship between teachers' mathematical knowledge and student achievement. The lack of teachers' mathematical knowledge prevents explicit instruction in the area of math concepts and/or a lack of focus on the mathematical language. This in turn causes barriers for k-12 students as they advance in the math curriculum. In this paper, the authors will discuss (a) the importance of mathematical concept development and language; (b) provide an example of a lack of precise conceptual understanding of prime number among pre-service teacher math educators; and (c) list explicit strategies that can be used to facilitate both the conceptual and language development at the pre-service level. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics, Concept Formation, Mathematical Concepts, Language
(2015). Using Personalization to Get at the Core of Student Learning. Conference Paper, National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools. With the study that has gone into personalizing education by the "National Center for Scaling Up Effective Schools" in recent years, there now must be the consideration as to how personalizing the actual curriculum should occur. In the current testing environment created by the implementation of Common Core, this will be a challenging endeavor. We know students can benefit from personal relationships throughout the school day; unfortunately, during actual instruction, the student often vanishes to test preparation in the form of common assessments, impersonal writing prompts, and other often-times frantic practices in which the primary goal is simply to manipulate test scores. The emphasis on data becomes the focus, rather than the quality of instruction. Many practitioners understand that the standards of Common Core, at their most basic level, can be applied to any lesson that has true value, and the skills themselves are often useful ones that will lead to preparing students for college. But even the skills lose authenticity in the current data-driven environment. The goals of this paper are to address the following areas: (1) Review the positive impact that Personalization of Academic and Social-Emotional Learning has had on schools in Florida; (2) Look at how the emphasis on testing data and learning gains hinders personalizing the curriculum; and (3) Discuss the ways in which teachers might implement Common Core with ease, authenticity, and in a way that connects with students. [More] Descriptors: Student Needs, Common Core State Standards, College School Cooperation, High Schools
(2015). Finding the CO[subscript 2] Culprit, Science Teacher. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fifth report, attributing 95% of "all" climate warming–from the 1950s through today–to humans. Not only did the report–like previous IPCC reports dating back to 1990–accredit global warming to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, but over time the vast majority of scientists have endorsed this view of human-caused climate change. Still, many students question whether climate change is real, whether it is part of a natural cycle, and whether other sources besides humans may be responsible. To compare the role of natural Earth processes in CO[subscript 2] emissions with humans' role, the authors designed a student research investigation described in this article. Students graph volcanic and human components in CO[subscript 2] emissions, analyze their results, and then can compare their results with those in peer-reviewed scientists' reports. [More] Descriptors: Climate, Change, Scientists, Student Attitudes
(2015). The Religion of American Public Schooling: Standards, Fidelity, and Cardinal Principles, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy. This article focuses on the possible ways in which the standards movement and the assessments and curricular interventions that come along with it, draw on inherently religious (Judeo-Christian) language and traditions. Contributing to a larger critical conversation about standards and impact on education, and building on an emerging scholarly engagement about the (both explicit and implicit) role of religion in public education, this article examines the language framing standards and its structures and makes the point that, while a given document need not reference religious texts explicitly, as in the case of standards, it may nevertheless be guided by undergirding theological histories and sensibilities as we explore the standards movement more broadly and the Common Core more specifically. We thus attend closely to the notion of Cardinal Principles and the concept of standards in American education, seeking to connect standardization as a program of learning, to long-standing notions about, for instance, testing and student possibility rooted firmly in religious–particularly Judeo-Christian–assumptions. We close by taking seriously a recent call to consider the resacralization of society and research, particularly education research. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, Intervention, Judaism, Christianity
(2015). We're Gonna Crush It! Sediment Creation through Destruction, Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas. Why are there only crumbs left at the bottom of the cereal box? Many factors, such as package handling, have caused the cereal pieces to break down into crumbs. This explanation is also related to the process of creating sediment from rocks. Sediment is created by weathering over millions of years, and it is deposited all over the world by erosion. The "We're Gonna Crush It!" activity serves as a brief introduction to sediment composition. Students learn how sediment is created by demonstrating weathering at a much quicker pace than what occurs under natural conditions. They see firsthand how weathering affects rocks by mirroring the process using cereal to make "sediment." The students learn how to calculate grain size percentages to determine the overall composition of the sediment while becoming more aware of the organisms and organic matter that are also present. In less than 60 min, students can experience a large-scale process that generally occurs over millions of years. Several Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core Math Standards, and Ocean Literacy Standards are addressed in this activity. [More] Descriptors: Science Activities, Geology, Secondary School Science, Middle School Students
(2015). Why Massachusetts Should Abandon the PARCC Tests and the 2011 Coleman et al English Language Arts Standards on Which the MCAS Tests Are Based. Testimony, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. In this testimony, the author first describes her qualifications, as well as the lack of relevant qualifications in Common Core's standards writers and in most of the members of Common Core's Validation Committee, on which she served in 2009-2010. The author then details some of the many problems in the 2011 Massachusetts ELA standards, written by David Coleman, Susan Pimentel, James Patterson, and Susan Wheltle (so the document indicates), in the tests based on Common Core's standards (PARCC), and in the two external reports–one issued in February 2015, the other yet to be completed–comparing the PARCC tests with MCAS tests. The author offers several recommendations for parents who want civically sound and academically rigorous standards and tests written and reviewed by English teachers and who want a form of accountability that does not penalize their children's teachers for results of tests based on the Coleman et al standards or Common Core's standards. The following are appended: (1) URLs for locating all MCAS ELA test items from 1998 to 2007, plus some URLs for later items; and (2) Letter from Superintendent William Lupini to the Brookline School Committee. [More] Descriptors: Common Core State Standards, Standardized Tests, Language Arts, English Instruction
(2015). 5 Indicators of Decimal Understandings, Teaching Children Mathematics. The authors of this article collaborated with fourth-grade teachers from two schools to support implementation of a research-based fraction and decimal curriculum (Rational Number Project: Fraction Operations and Initial Decimal Ideas). Through this study, they identified five indicators of rich conceptual understanding of decimals, which are described in this article. They then show how these indicators comprise a framework for monitoring student learning and guiding instruction. [More] Descriptors: Grade 4, Fractions, Arithmetic, Curriculum Implementation
(2015). Error Patterns in Ordering Fractions among At-Risk Fourth-Grade Students, Grantee Submission. The 3 purposes of this study were to: (a) describe fraction ordering errors among at-risk 4th-grade students; (b) assess the effect of part-whole understanding and accuracy of fraction magnitude estimation on the probability of committing errors; and (c) examine the effect of students' ability to explain comparing problems on the probability of committing errors. Students (n = 227) completed a 9-item ordering test. A high proportion (81%) of problems were completed incorrectly. Most (65% of) errors were due to students misapplying whole number logic to fractions. Fraction-magnitude estimation skill, but not part-whole understanding, significantly predicted the probability of committing this type of error. Implications for practice are discussed. [At time of submission to ERIC this article was in press with "Journal of Learning Disabilities."] Descriptors: Error Patterns, Fractions, At Risk Students, Grade 4
(2015). Resources Needed for Addressing Common Core Standards in Mathematics, Language Arts and Next Generation Science Standards, Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College. There is a vital need in the mathematics and science teaching and learning community at the secondary school level for assistance for teachers in adapting curricular materials to meet the many district, state, and national demands and to facilitate high-quality learning of students and their ability to transfer this learning and apply it as they move forward to careers. This paper describes a set of resources in the form of "Teacher Guides," which would teach educators how to keep up with the high tech, fast-paced world by allowing them to change existing teaching resources faster than new and updated curricula become commercially available. Teacher learning in the "Teacher Guides" would not be limited to a single educational practice. For example, "Teacher Guides" we anticipate creating would capitalize on the relationships and convergences found in CCSS-M practices, CCSS-LA student portraits, and NGSS science and engineering practices. [More] Descriptors: Common Core State Standards, Educational Resources, Language Arts, Teaching Guides
(2015). The Collective Black and "Principles to Actions", Journal of Urban Mathematics Education. In this commentary, Danny Martin describes five key take-aways and two sets of questions that arose from his reading of "Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematics Success for All (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2014). Martin begins by noting that "Principles to Actions" is clearly a political document that advances particular views and visions of mathematics teaching and learning and per the copyright page of the document, represents the "official position of the National Council of Mathematics Teachers as approved by the NCTM Board of Directors." Martin goes on to touch upon the tone of the document and notes that it reflects a deep and unequivocal commitment to the Common Core by NCTM even as it seems that elements of the Common Core movement are starting to unravel (see, e.g., Kirp, 2014; Ravitch, n.d.). Further, he states that reflected in the Common Core position statement and the essential elements of "Principles to Actions" is the continued focus on equity and the rhetoric of "Mathematics for All" (Martin, 2003, 2011) that was expressed in NCTM's 1989 "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" and 2000 "Principles and Standard for School Mathematics." Martin's final take-away from "Principles to Actions" focuses on NCTM's framing of the obstacles that could hinder their vision for mathematics teaching and learning. He states that these obstacles are framed in terms of unproductive beliefs on the part of stakeholders. Based on his reading of "Principles to Actions" as a political document and considering NCTM's equity advocacy, the following sets of questions emerged and are considered in the remainder of the commentary: Who is this document written for? Who are the primary audiences? Beyond any surface level considerations and possibilities, who is this document "really" written for? Secondly, what are the underlying appeals that are being made to these primary audiences? What are the politics associated with these appeals? [This commentary is a revised version of remarks made at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Research Conference plenary session "Turning the Common Core into Reality in Every Math Classroom," delivered on April 15, 2015 in Boston, MA.] [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Education, Success, Mathematics Instruction, Common Core State Standards
(2015). Standardization and Subjection: An Autonomist Critique of Neoliberal School Reform, Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies. Education under neoliberal reform has been targeted as an indispensable source of profit. Market-based reforms have commodified education and are transforming public school into a corporatized industry concerned not with democracy but with the smooth functioning of the capitalist economy. Targeting public schooling as a site in which to accumulate profit, neoliberal reformers also rely on standardized forms of education to secure the reproduction of the social order. Standards-based reforms seek to interpellate students as social beings who identify with neoliberal ideology, producing subjectivities of youth in schools through the degrading rituals and performances of standardized curricula and high-stakes standardized tests. Neoliberal schooling is at its core an ontological struggle over subjectivity–one's understanding of oneself, one's relationship to others, and the social, political, and ecological contexts into which one is cast. In this article, the authors argue that the durability of standards-based neoliberal school reform faces educators with the challenge of developing political tactics and critical pedagogies that are driven by the latent potentiality and transformative agency of students, teachers, and marginalized educational communities. By exposing the contradictory nature of collective potentiality in neoliberal schools, they seek to contribute to radical theorizations of ways educators can valorize the efforts of students, teachers, and communities to reclaim education as a transformative social project through which it is possible to produce forms of collective autonomy that not only oppose, but struggle for futures beyond, neoliberal domination. [More] Descriptors: Neoliberalism, Educational Change, Criticism, Public Education
(2015). Changing the English Classroom: When Large-Scale "Common" Testing Meets Secondary Curriculum and Instruction in the United States, Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education. This article explores the intersection of new, large-scale standards-based testing, teacher accountability policy, and secondary curriculum and instruction in the United States. Two federally funded consortia–the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Readiness of College and Careers–prove focal to this paper, as these two¬ organisations are creating new tests that will assess¬ 42-49% of the K-12 student population in the United States in 2014-2015. Because greater teacher accountability for student performance will be given for these tests, there is more reason to pay attention to what these tests measure and what they do not. Our analysis suggests that these new tests will hold secondary English teachers accountable for literacy and disciplinary knowledge outside the field of English and thus raise important questions about what English teachers should, can and will do, especially when their jobs are on the line. [More] Descriptors: Group Testing, English Instruction, Secondary School Curriculum, Accountability
(2015). Setting Academic Performance Standards: MCAS vs. PARCC. Policy Brief, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) high school test is administered to all Bay State students–both those intending to enroll in college and the many with no such intention. The MCAS high school test is a retrospectively focused standards-based achievement test, designed to measure how well students have mastered the material in the MCAS standards. A February 2015 report of the pro-Common Core Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE) claims that Common Core and PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) will raise standards from the allegedly low level where (MCAS) lay. In this policy brief, Phelps concentrates on the "Summary of Findings" table (p.5 of the report), which purports to answer the question, "Does the test identify students who are college- and career-ready? The MBAE report continues in its MCAS criticism: "More than one-third of Massachusetts high school graduates who enroll at one of the state's public colleges or universities place into one or more noncredit-bearing, remedial courses." Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, where only laudatory praise resides for PARCC: "Students receiving the PARCC college- and career-ready determination may be exempt from having to take and pass placement tests in two- and four-year public institutions of higher education." Here Phelps argues that If PARCC is successful, by the time it completes its studies "to ensure that students [with above-proficient PARCC scores] have a high probability of passing entry-level, credit-bearing English and mathematics courses" they may find that they actually do. But, the "high probability" will more likely be a result of lowered standards in entry-level college courses than raised standards at the high school level. Without placement tests and remedial courses, the standards of entry-level college courses will be forced down. Entry-level college courses will acquire the same content as today's remedial courses. The content of today's entry-level credit-bearing college courses will become the content for second- or third-year college courses. The MBAE (Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education) report suggests that the MCAS high school test scale is not robust enough at the high end of the scale to validly measure college readiness. More high-end content however could easily be added to the test. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, Educational Policy, Achievement Tests, College Readiness
(2015). Developing a Model for Technology-Based Museum School Partnerships, Journal of Museum Education. In 2012, The New York Institute of Technology and the Albany Institute of History & Art collaborated to increase the capacity of museum educators and classroom teachers to develop successful partnerships and deliver new programs through the use of web-based technologies. The project aligned the content expertise of museum educators from throughout the United States with the needs of New York State K-12 teachers to develop, test, and implement content rich classroom lessons that integrated Common Core Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics using three web-based distance learning tools: Safari Montage, BlackBoard Collaborate, and Moodle. This article addresses the successes as well as the challenges, from technical glitches to issues in pedagogical approach faced by participants, and suggests directions for the future of web-based museum program delivery. [More] Descriptors: Museums, Partnerships in Education, Common Core State Standards, Language Arts
(2015). Uncommonly Engaging? A Review of the EngageNY English Language Arts Common Core Curriculum, Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The need for standards-aligned curricula is the most cited Common Core challenge for states, districts, and schools. Yet five years into that implementation, teachers still report scrambling to find high-quality instructional materials. Despite publishers' claims, there is a dearth of programs that are truly aligned to the demands of the Common Core for content and rigor. Fixing America's curriculum problem is no small challenge. This report analyzes New York State's Common Core-aligned ELA curriculum, built from scratch and made available online for all to use for free. How solid is this product? Is it well aligned to the Common Core? Is it teachable? Findings include: (1) EngageNY's alignment to the Common Core is generally strong. (2) Selected texts are high-quality and appropriately rigorous, and the program allows educators greater flexibility than other scripted programs. (3) Because New York engaged multiple curriculum developers to create separate resources for different grade bands, each set of materials reflects a distinctive underlying approach to curriculum and literacy, meaning that the progression across grade bands is bumpy. (4) While content and foundational skills in the early grades appear thoughtfully developed, the sheer quantity of content across all grade bands can be overwhelming. (5) Additionally, EngageNY's high school curriculum (not yet complete) lacks a critical emphasis on literary content, a problem that is amplified by the fact that students read mostly excerpts of great books rather than full novels, biographies, and so on. While not perfect, the materials offer educators–both inside and outside New York State-an important alternative to traditional textbooks of questionable quality and alignment. This has been updated to reflect that at the high-school level, students mostly, not exclusively, read excerpts of great books rather than full novels and biographies. Appended are: (1) CCSS Implementation Rollout in New York; (2) Review Criteria of CCSS-Aligned Instructional Materials (English Language Arts) [Foreword by Kathleen Porter-Magee and Victoria Sears May.] [More] Descriptors: Language Arts, English Instruction, Common Core State Standards, State Programs