Categories for Education Resources
March 17, 2021
Research-Based Writing Practices and the Common Core: Meta-analysis and Meta-synthesis. To meet writing objectives specified in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), many teachers need to make significant changes in how writing is taught. While CCSS identified what students need to master, it did not provide guidance on how teachers are to meet these writing benchmarks. The current article presents research-supported practices that can be used to meet CCSS writing objectives in kindergarten to grade 8. This paper identified these practices by conducting a new meta- analysis of writing intervention studies, which included true and quasi-experiments, as well as single-subject design studies.
Citation: Graham, S., Harris, K. R., and (2015). Research-Based Writing Practices and the Common Core: Meta-analysis and Meta-synthesis. The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 115, No. 4 (June 2015), pp. 498-522.
Link: https://www.rcsdk12.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=56697&dataid=48555&FileName=Research%20Based%20Writing%20Practices%20and%20the%20Common%20Core.pdf
March 17, 2021
Teacher Outreach. Ensuring that qualified teachers are available to fill the nation’s classrooms begins with attracting a sufficient number of qualified candidates and matching aspiring teachers to enrollment needs. Until recently, aligning staffing to fluctuating enrollment has been complicated by a steady growth in population and the need to fill teaching vacancies produced by high turnover. This landscape is shifting as student enrollment declines and a sufficient supply of teachers is difficult to predict for the foreseeable future. With enough teachers, the spotlight can move from quantity to quality of candidates. Currently, the competence of teacher candidates in the United States compares poorly with that of candidates internationally. Nationally, lower entrance criteria and more lenient grading for pre-service students in teaching allow less capable students to graduate than is the case in other professions. Fortunately, this picture is changing as federal and state policies raise standards and increase academic abilities of new teachers. To maintain progress in attracting qualified candidates, working conditions and compensation should be improved to alter the perception that teaching is undervalued and to reverse past trends in which less-qualified people chose careers in teaching.
Citation: Cleaver, S., Detrich, R., States, J. & Keyworth, R. (2021). Teacher Outreach. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/quality-teachers-outreach.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/quality-teachers-outreach
March 11, 2021
Student teaching, field experience, and practicum experience are powerful methods for training new teachers. These methods all feature working with students in classrooms or in laboratory environments that bridge the gap between university instruction and the experience of teaching. Integrating theory, knowledge, and skills, student teaching generally occurs under the direction of a supervisor at the end of the preparation process.
Citation: Cleaver, S., Detrich, R., States, J. & Keyworth, R. (2020). Overview of Teacher Induction. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/pre-service-student.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/pre-service-student
February 10, 2021
Supporting Positive At-Home Behaviors Among Elementary Students. Parents and caregivers know their child better than anyone. They know what motivates them and causes them to shut down. However, when the role of a parent or caregiver changes to include the role of teacher, knowing and using the most effective behavior management strategies can help support this shift. The strategies listed in this piece offer a foundation for parents and caregivers, and their students, to build positive relationships, and offer students a better environment for progressing academically while learning at home.
Citation: Taylor, M. (2020). Supporting Positive At-Home Behaviors Among Elementary Students. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, What Works Clearinghouse.
Link: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/pacific/blogs/blog30_supporting-positive-at-home-behaviors-among-elementary-students.asp
February 10, 2021
Dropout Prevention in the Time of COVID-19. Students on the path toward dropping out of high school often exhibit signals that they are at risk well before they stop engaging in school. As school closures due to COVID-19 separate students from structured routines and educational supports, the number of disengaged students may continue to grow. Educators should be aware of and look for signs of disengagement and act to maximize engagement and supports for at-risk students during COVID-19 closures.
Citation: Kassner, L., Jonas, D., and Klein, S. (2020). Dropout Prevention in the Time of COVID-19. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, What Works Clearinghouse.
Link: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/appalachia/blogs/blog29_dropout-prevention-in-COVID-19.asp
February 9, 2021
Improving Attendance in a Remote Learning Environment. The purpose of this brief is to adapt the suggestions and strategies provided in Improving Attendance and Reducing Chronic Absenteeism to guide practice during remote instruction. Strategies from both briefs will be helpful during hybrid instructional models.
Citation: Freeman, J., Flannery, B., Sugai, G., Goodman, S., Simonsen, B., & Barrett, S. (Aug, 2020). Improving Attendance in a Remote Learning Environment. Eugene, OR: Center on PBIS, University of Oregon. www.pbis.org.
Link: https://assets-global.website-files.com/5d3725188825e071f1670246/5ff34f3363042168264ed6e3_Remote%20Attendance%20Brief%20Revised%2012.23.2020.pdf
February 9, 2021
Building From the Bottom Up: The Importance of Tier 1 Supports in the Context of Tier 2 Interventions. School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) relies on effective implementation of Tier 1 practices to ensure accurate identification of students in need of more intensive supports at Tier 2 or Tier 3. While measures of school-level fidelity are widely used, measures of classroom-level implementation of Tier 1 supports are less common. In the context the authors assessed whether a class-wide Tier 1 program, Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT), enhanced the effectiveness of the Tier 2 intervention.
Citation: Van Camp, A. M., Wehby, J. H., Copeland, B. A., & Bruhn, A. L. (2021). Building From the Bottom Up: The Importance of Tier 1 Supports in the Context of Tier 2 Interventions. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 23(1), 53-64.
Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1098300720916716
February 9, 2021
Gamification for Classroom Management: An Implementation Using ClassDojo. Research supports effective classroom management as an essential component of successful instruction. In order to promote learning and reduce negative behaviors and increase positive ones, this study intervention used gamification as the educational approach and ClassDojo as the online tool to track behavior to determine the effectiveness of both elements to achieve the goal. The study showed the benefit of this method and app regarding the improvement of desired behaviors as well as the decrease of the disruptive ones. The implementation engaged the students and activated their behavioral development in order to display a better performance.
Citation: Barahona Mora, A. (2020). Gamification for Classroom Management: An Implementation Using ClassDojo. Sustainability, 12(22), 9371.
Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9371/pdf
February 9, 2021
An Evaluation of the Caught Being Good Game With an Adolescent Student Population. This study investigated the Caught Being Good Game (CBGG), for use with an adolescent student population. The CBGG is a positive variation of the Good Behavior Game (GBG), a popular group contingency intervention in classroom management literature. The CBGG was effective in leading to increases in academically engaged behavior and decreases in disruptive behavior in the participating class group.
Citation: Bohan, C., Smyth, S., & McDowell, C. (2021). An Evaluation of the Caught Being Good Game With an Adolescent Student Population. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 23(1), 42-52.
Link: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/ws/files/78831798/JPBI_19_112.R3_Proof_hi.pdf
February 9, 2021
Effective classroom management is critical for student and teacher success. Current approaches to assess teachers’ classroom management are either (a) simple and efficient, but have unknown psychometric properties, or (b) psychometrically sound, but resource intensive.This article describes the development and validation of a four-item rating of teachers’ active supervision, opportunities to respond, specific praise, and positive to corrective ratio.
Citation: Simonsen, B., Freeman, J., Kooken, J., Dooley, K., Gambino, A. J., Wilkinson, S., … & Kern, L. (2020). Initial validation of the Classroom Management Observation Tool (CMOT). School Psychology, 35(3), 179. (https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-32849-001)
Link: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-32849-001
