Instructional Effectiveness

The present article discusses a theory of tolerance and seeks to identify the critical problems associated with the position taken in the NAS report and subsequent reform initiatives. Specifically, it is argued that brute force attempts to absorb, current special education functions into regular classrooms will necessarily fail. 

Three formative assessment techniques for the math classroom are discussed: observation and questioning, diagnostic interviews and problem-solving-based investigations.

The goal of this paper is to provide policymakers with recommendations for the design and implementation of strong principal development and evaluation systems. States and local school systems that pursue these ideas can use principal evaluation to drive a powerful vision of principal effectiveness and, by consequence, improve outcomes for all students.

Overview New Leaders has recently published a new principal evaluation model. It includes seven modules: (1) Overview of the New Leaders Principal Evaluation Model, (2) The Principal Evaluation Rubric, (3) Setting a Principal Practice Goal + Strategic Planning, (4) Identifying Evidence, (5) Direct Observation of Principal Practice, (6) Collecting and Mapping Evidence to the Principal Practice Rubric, and (7) Providing Actionable Feedback.

Overview New Leaders has recently published a new principal evaluation model. It includes seven modules: (1) Overview of the New Leaders Principal Evaluation Model, (2) The Principal Evaluation Rubric, (3) Setting a Principal Practice Goal + Strategic Planning, (4) Identifying Evidence, (5) Direct Observation of Principal Practice, (6) Collecting and Mapping Evidence to the Principal Practice Rubric, and (7) Providing Actionable Feedback.

This paper examines a number of promising principal preparation programs to identify lessons for improving the impact of principals on student perrmance.

This meta-analysis examined the effects of practice tests versus non-testing learning conditions on student performance. Research demonstrates that students who take practice tests often outperform students in non-testing learning conditions such as restudying, practice, filler activities, or no presentation of the material. Results reveal that practice tests are more beneficial for learning than restudying and all other comparison conditions.

Two experiments are reported which test the effect of increased three-term contingency trials on students' correct and incorrect math responses. The results warrant further research to test whether or not rates of presentation of three-term contingency trials are predictors of effective instruction.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a classroom-teacher-delivered reading intervention for struggling readers called the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), designed particularly for kindergarten and first-grade teachers and their struggling students in rural, low-wealth communities. 

This article discusses instructional coaching as well as the eight factors that can increase the likelihood that coaching will be a real fix for a school. Instructional coaching holds much potential for improving the way teachers teach and the way students learn, but that potential will only be realized if leaders plan their coaching program with care. 

Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented--and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This highly practical and accessible resource gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area.

This book gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area. The authors provide clear guidelines for identifying key concepts, skills, and routines to teach; designing and delivering effective lessons; and giving students opportunities to practice and master new material.

This meta-analysis synthesized research on the effects of interventions to improve mathematics achievement of students considered at risk for academic failure. It found that effective interventions included providing teachers and students with student performance data; using peer tutors; providing clear, specific feedback to parents on children's mathematics success; and using explicit instruction to teach math.

This article explores factors influencing the sustained use of Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) in math in one elementary school.

This study used within-program comparison of follow-up survey responses from two sets of program graduates from a university-based leadership preparation program to determine differences in program features and outcome measures.

Feedback is an essential construct for many theories of learning and instruction, and an understanding of the conditions for effective feedback should facilitate both theoretical development and instructional practice. 

This paper theorizes that variations in learning and the level of learning of students are determined by the students' learning histories and the quality of instruction they receive.

This systematic descriptive historical review was conducted to examine the status and trends in expository text structure instruction efficacy research for first through twelfth grade students. The analysis included sixty studies, which spanned the years 1978 to 2014.

This study was conducted to create a reliable and valid low- to medium-inference, multidimensional measure of instructor clarity from seminal work across several academic fields. The five factors were explored in regards to their ability to predict the outcomes. Implications for instructional communication researchers are discussed.

Over the past 10 years, the Southern Regional Education Board has helped states and public universities across the region evaluate their state policies for preparing school principals who are leaders of instruction. This benchmark report reviews the past decade and looks at 10 learning-centered leadership indicators to gauge how far states have come and how far they need to go in selecting, preparing and supporting leaders of change.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of 25 years of quantitative instructional leadership research, up through 2013, using a nationally generalizable data set.

This book provides practitioners with a complete guide to implementing response to intervention (RTI) in schools. 

This study examined principal preparation programs within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to ascertain whether their programs were structured in a way that would equip principal candidates with the leadership roles deemed essential for 21st century school leadership.

Meta-analytic procedures were used to analyze the link between skill proficiency and interventions categorized as addressing acquisition or fluency needs. Results suggest that the skill-by-treatment paradigm may be useful for matching skill levels in math to successful interventions and illustrate the need for additional research examining fluency interventions, particularly for students with instructional-level skills.

The study compared basic and elaborated corrections within the context of otherwise identical computer-assisted instruction (CAI) programs that taught reasoning skills. Twelve learning disabled and 16 remedial high school students were randomly assigned to either the basic-corrections or elaborated-corrections treatment. Criterion-referenced test scores were significantly higher for the elaborated-corrections treatment on both the post and maintenance tests and on the transfer test. Time to complete the program did not differ significantly for the two groups.

This manuscript reports on two district’s efforts to improve the instructional leadership of principals, and lead teacher coaches in collaboration with an external support provider.

This report consists of two parts: a survey of 67 public school systems district staff serving as principal supervisors and on-site analysis of six districts pre-service training and support systems for new principals.

This article describes what communication strategies are and provides an overview of the teachability issue, discussing the arguments for and against strategy instruction, and suggests three possible reasons for the existing controversy. 

The present study used the instructional hierarchy to compare the effects of three instructional interventions (listening passage preview, subject passage preview, and taped words) on subjects' oral reading performance on word lists and passages.

Examines the Instructional Hierarchy, a conceptual framework for refining the notion of academic responding according to a learning hierarchy and describing treatment components (e.g., modeling, drill, reinforcement, etc.) that correspond to different stages of the learning hierarchy. 

Brief experimental analyses of oral reading fluency were conducted with 4 participants who had been referred by teachers and parents for reading problems. The procedures involved the sequential application of reading interventions to improve students’ oral reading fluency.

Brief experimental analyses of academic performance are emerging as a new tool educators can use to link assessment to intervention. This approach involves testing treatments directly using single-case experimental design elements to select intervention strategies for oral reading fluency problems. The purpose of this investigation was to refine the methods reported in previous studies.

In the current study, constant time delay (CTD) was embedded in classroom activities and routines to teach counting to young children. In addition, nontarget information (the color of the object) was included in the task direction. A multiple-probe design across numbers replicated across children was used. 

This book provides insight into the streams that are driving leadership theory and practice today. The Nature of Leadership, Second Edition provides students with an updated and complete yet concise handbook that solidifies and integrates the vast and disparate leadership literature.

The monograph presents 15 papers on the provision of special education services within the regular classroom.

This article examines the effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction. Using a purposefully selected sample of about 207 teachers in 30 schools, in 10 districts in five states, we examine features of teachers’ professional development and its effects on changing teaching practice in mathematics and science from 1996–1999. We found that professional development focused on specific instructional practices increases teachers’ use of those practices in the classroom. Furthermore, we found that specific features, such as active learning opportunities, increase the effect of the professional development on teacher’s instruction.

Over the last fifty years, there have been many educational reform efforts, most of which have had a relatively short lifespan and failed to produce the promised results. One possible reason for this is for the most part these innovations have been poorly implemented. In this chapter, the author proposes a data-based decision making approach to assuring high quality implementation.

The purpose of this study was to determine principals' perceptions of how effective mentoring programs and university-based principal preparation programs are in developing the skills necessary to carry out the 13 critical success factors identified by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). A review of the literature addressed what it means to be an effective principal and what an effective mentoring program should look like.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently released a summary report of the impact of School Improvement Grants (SIG). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided states and school districts with $3 Billion for SIG. By accepting SIG grants states agreed to implement one of four interventions to improve the lowest performing schools: transformation, turnaround, restart, or closure. The goals of SIG were to improve practices in four main areas: (1) adopting comprehensive instructional reform strategies, (2) developing and increasing teacher and principal effectiveness, (3) increasing learning time and creating community-oriented schools, and (4) having operational flexibility and receiving support. The report finds minimal positive effects from the grants and no evidence that SIG had significant impacts on math and reading scores, graduation rates, or increased college enrollment.

New data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality finds significant progress on the science of reading instruction in teacher preparation. 

Of the five components of scientifically based reading instruction, traditional programs are
most likely to omit the first and most challenging instructional skill teachers need to teach
before children can learn to read: phonemic awareness.

Results from a metasynthesis of the relationships between 14 different types of preservice
teacher preparation practices and teaching quality, preschool to university student
performance, and university student and beginning teacher belief appraisals are reported.
Each type of preservice practice (eg, course-based student learning) included different kinds
of instructional methods (eg, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and project-
based learning).

A Learner Response System (LRS) is a classroom feedback tool that is becoming increasing popular. LRS is the practice of teachers and pupils using electronic handheld devices to provide immediate feedback during lessons. Given that feedback has been found to be a powerful tool in learning, it is not surprising that LRS are being adopted. The important question remains, do LRS increase student performance. This study tests a Learner Response System using Promethean handsets to assess whether it improves student outcomes. The study found no evidence that math and reading were improved using the system for 2 years.

Active learning instructional strategies can be created and used to engage students in (a) thinking critically or creatively, (b) speaking with a partner, in a small group, or with the entire class, (c) expressing ideas through writing, (d) exploring personal attitudes and values, (e) giving and receiving feedback, and (f) reflecting upon the learning process

In 2000, the National Reading Panel identified five practice elements with a sufficient evidence base to be deemed essential for mastery of reading (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). These elements consist of systematic teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, vocabulary, fluency, and exposure to reading comprehension strategies. This meta-analysis of 25 studies evaluates the impact of inference instruction in grades K-12. The study reported that inference instruction had an effect size d=0.58 on general comprehension and d= 0.68 on literal comprehension. These are “moderate to large” effects of instruction on general comprehension and to making inferences for both skilled and less skilled readers. The pattern differed for the literal measure, however, with skilled readers showing almost no gain but unskilled readers showing sizable gains. 

This study designed to discover which models were superior in teaching basic skills and which excelled in teaching higher-order thinking skills, also which models had kids with the strongest sense of personal responsibility and which kids had the highest self-images.

This book compares what actually occurred since publication of A System of Logic with some of the more probable scenarios of what could have happened if education had been framed as a science that resides on a logical-empirical base.

Thirty-one studies were located in each of which students and faculty specified the instructional characteristics they considered particularly important to good teaching and effective instruction. 

This research examines the impact of longer school days on student achievement. This study attempts to fill in gaps in the evidence-base on this topic. Although this study finds positive outcomes for additional reading instruction, it is important to note that for achieving maximum results it is important to pair evidence-based reading instruction practices with the additional instruction time in order to achieve maximum results.

The current investigation is part of an ongoing line of research designed to identify critical instructional components for training new staff members in the implementation of behavior-analytic procedures, with the goal of approximating the efficiency of
indirect instructional methods while retaining the effectiveness of more direct methods.

This meta-analysis examined the impact of lecturing as compared to active methods of instruction on learning and course performance. The effect sizes indicate that on average, student performance on examinations and concept inventories increased by 0.47 SDs under active learning (n = 158 studies), and that the odds ratio for failing was 1.95 under traditional lecturing (n = 67 studies).

This article examines the lecture as a pedagogical genre, as “a site where differences between media are negotiated” (Franzel) as these media coevolve. This examination shows the lecture as bridging oral communication with writing and newer media technologies, rather than as being superseded by newer electronic and digital forms.

In this report, the Southern Regional Education Board evaluates some 60 internship programs within its states and finds them lacking in a number of ways, including failing to provide real experiences in leadership. It urges policymakers, universities and school districts to create apprenticeships that better prepare aspiring principals for the demands they will face.

This report of 22 universities principal preparation programs identifies weaknesses in the training and offers recommendations for states to address the problems.

This study investigated the importance of instrumental use of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) to planning effective reading programs.

This article describes a research program conducted over the past 8 years to address how technology can be used to surmount these implementation difficulties. The research program focused on one variety of objective, ongoing assessments known as curriculum-based measurement, in the areas of reading, spelling, and math.

The purpose of this classroom-based experiment was to explore methods for helping students generate conceptual mathematical explanations during peer-mediated learning activities. 

The authors assessed the contribution of self-regulated learning strategies (SRL), when
combined with problem-solving transfer instruction (LS Fuchs et al., 2003), on 3rd-graders'
mathematical problem solving. SRL incorporated goal setting and self-evaluation.

This study examines the influence of administrator credential programs, on-the-job experiences, and the standards in the development of urban public school principals.

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) guide recommends practices to be in the repertoire of mathematics instructors for maximizing the effectiveness of mathematics instruction.

These papers provide up-to-date, informative summaries of current knowledge and a base from which further venture into the critical area of instructional intervention in special education can occur.

This article evaluates the extent to which quantity of instruction influences time spent on self‐
study and achievement. The results suggest that time spent on self‐study is primarily a function of the degree of time allocated to instruction. 

This report describes how Denver Public Schools hired personnel to coach and evaluate its principals.

FIFTY YEARS after the release of "Equality of Educational Opportunity"--widely known as the Coleman Report--much of what James Coleman and his colleagues reported holds up well to scrutiny. It is, in fact, remarkable to read through the 700-plus pages and see how little has changed about what the empirical evidence says matters. The report's conclusions about the importance of teacher quality, in particular, have stood the test of time, which is noteworthy, given that today's studies of the impacts of teachers use more-sophisticated statistical methods and employ far better data.

This study present results of a comprehensive review of principal leadership assessment practices in the United States. Using the learning-centered leadership framework, it focused on identifying the congruence (or lack thereof) between documented assessment practices and the research-based criteria for effective leadership that are associated with improved school performance.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing dialog of whether and how instructional leadership is distinguished conceptually from general leadership notions, such as charisma, and to continue the ongoing psychometric research on the The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) by examining its convergent and divergent validity. The authors hypothesize that the VAL-ED will be highly correlated with another measure of instructional leadership, but will be weakly correlated with more general measures of leadership that are rooted in personality theories.

With support from The Wallace Foundation, a Vanderbilt University team is developing a tool to monitor and assess the performance of school leaders. The Vanderbilt assessment will differ from existing tools by focusing 100 percent on instructional leadership and examining both principals and leadership teams. The paper, with two companion reports, presents the research behind and conceptual framework for the tool.

This study examines the implementation of Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) for struggling readers that had been proven to work in early grades. The findings highlight the importance of considering context and implementation, in addition to evidence of effectiveness, when choosing an intervention program. Not only do schools need to adopt programs supported by evidence, but equally educators need to implement them consistently and effectively if students are to truly benefit from an intervention.

This study examined teachers' relational approach to discipline as a predictor of high school students' behavior and their trust in teacher authority. 

This study draws on data combining survey responses from principals, assistant principals, teachers and parents with administrative data to identify which principal skills matter most for school outcomes.

To assess the effect of “metacognitive” instruction on reading comprehension, 20 studies, with a total student population of 1,553, were compiled and quantitatively synthesized. In this compilation of studies, metacognitive instruction was found particularly effective for junior high students (seventh and eighth grades). Among the metacognitive skills, awareness of textual inconsistency and the use of self-questioning as both a monitoring and a regulating strategy were most effective. Reinforcement was the most effective teaching strategy.

This paper ties together evidence drawn from several extensive reviews of the educational leadership literature that included instructional leadership as a key construct. 

This article seeks to provide a comprehensive and detailed picture of reliability results. More specifically, the authors present a meta-analysis of reliability results derived from 52 data sets derived from 43 independent empirical studies in which the PIMRS had been employed for data collection.

This study draws on a range of existing quantitative data resources, including Chicago Public Schools' personnel and test score data, and a biannual survey of teachers and principals to

Testing in the nation's schools is among the most debated issues in public education today.
Much of this discussion has centered on how much we are testing students and how we use
test results to evaluate teachers, inform instructional practice, and hold schools and
educators accountable.

Offering a concise introduction into the ‘Visible Learning Story’, the book provides busy teachers with a guide to why the Visible Learning research is so vital and the difference it can make to learning outcomes.

ASR [active student response] can be defined as an observable response made to an instructional antecedent / [compare ASR] to other measures of instructional time and student engagement / 3 benefits of increasing the frequency of ASR during instruction are discussed.

This article discusses 10 such notions that the author believes limit the effectiveness of special education by impeding the adoption of research-based instructional practices.

This study aimed to examine active instruction and engagement across elementary, middle, and high schools using a large database of direct classroom observations. 

This research examines mathematics instruction for learners of significant cognitive disabilities. This study builds on the previous meta-analysis by Browder et al. (2008) and has added an additional 29 studies. The purpose of this literature review was to identify research of teaching mathematics skills published since 2006 and to evaluate the evidence of instructional practices used in these studies. The review also attempts to examine if any progress has been made in implementing five strands of mathematics instruction identified in the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM; (2000) recommendations. The five strands for effective instruction of mathematics are: (1) Number and Operations, (2) Algebra, (3) Geometry, (4) Measurement, (5) Data Analysis and Probability. The criteria for quality of research developed by Horner and colleagues for single subject designed research was used to review the studies (Horner et al., 2005). These standards require that to be included in this review a minimum of five single-case studies must be conducted by a minimum of three different researchers across a minimum of three different geographical regions with no less than 20 participants be required for a practice to be considered evidence-based. The data from both reviews were combined as well as they were compared. The results show more studies since 2008 taught skills from Number and Operations, Geometry, and Algebra. Additionally, the study found that the teaching of Measurement decreased and Data Analysis and Probability remained unchanged. The systematic analysis conducted by the study of specific instructional practices found systematic instruction, in vivo instruction, system of least prompts strategy, constant time delay strategy, and task-analytic instruction met criteria for being considered evidence-based practices for teaching mathematics to learners with significant cognitive disabilities.

This report is a comprehensive and research-based framework outlining the conditions necessary for transformational school leaders to succeed. It offers a framework of conditions that can help districts enable great school leadership.

Collectively, IES-funded research should yield outcomes and products that are meaningful, inform stakeholders about the cost and practical benefits and effects of interventions (programs, policies, practices) on relevant outcomes for learners, and contribute to scientific knowledge and theory of teaching, learning, and organizing education systems. NCER expects researchers receiving funding through this program to disseminate evidence in a way that is useful to and accessible by educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public.

This paper describes “how” to effectively implement lasting school improvement initiatives that maximize leadership, develop talent, amplify instructional transformation, and shift the culture.

Managing Classroom Behavior summarizes principles of good instruction, the acting-out cycle, and how to work with students, other teachers, and parents.

The nature of effective instruction for students with specific learning disability is explored.

This report examines the issue of school principal candidate standards as evidenced by below-average verbal, quantitative, and analytic scores, as measured by standardized tests.

This report is designed to help principal preparation programs assess the quality of the training they offer.

this study presents and apply a framework for measuring the cost of coaching programs to 3 schools. Then the study discusses strategies for reducing the average cost of instructional coaching. 

Schools devote substantial resources to teacher professional development each year. Yet studies show much of this investment is directed toward ineffective short-term workshops that have little impact on instructional change or student outcomes. At the same time, more intensive job-embedded forms of professional learning, such as instructional coaching, require substantially more resources than traditional professional development.

This article discusses instructional coaching as well as the eight factors that can increase the likelihood that coaching will be a real fix for a school. 

Think-Pair-Share (TPS) is a classroom-based active learning strategy, in which students work on a problem posed by the instructor, first individually, then in pairs, and finally as a classwide discussion. This study investigate the quantity and quality of student engagement in a large CS1 class during the implementation of TPS activities.

This study review the empirical literature on teacher coaching and conduct meta-analyses to estimate the mean effect of coaching programs on teachers’ instructional practice and students’ academic achievement.

This study examined the effects of in-service plus follow-up coaching on first grade teachers’ accurate delivery of three research-based strategies during math instruction.

A meta‐analysis of the relationship between science instruction and student engagement was performed. The 16 studies represented a total of 4518 students and 376 teachers from the United States and Australia.

In this discussion, we examine the relationship between science and education and delineate four reasons for characterizing science as an uninvited guest in schools. 

New Leaders has recently published a new principal evaluation model. It includes seven modules: (1) Overview of the New Leaders Principal Evaluation Model, (2) The Principal Evaluation Rubric, (3) Setting a Principal Practice Goal + Strategic Planning, (4) Identifying Evidence, (5) Direct Observation of Principal Practice, (6) Collecting and Mapping Evidence to the Principal Practice Rubric, and (7) Providing Actionable Feedback.

In this study, the six aforementioned variables are added to one model focusing on both the direct effects instructional and distributed leadership have on teacher job satisfaction and self-efficacy, and the indirect effects through the mediation variables of supportive school culture and teacher collaboration. 

The authors examined the effects of pullout small-group and teacher-directed classroom-based social skills instruction on the social behaviors of five third- and fourth-grade students at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders.

This article identifies a number of conceptual and methodological issues that should be considered when conducting and interpreting reading intervention research.

The overall effects of cues, participation, and corrective feedback on classroom learning are estimated. The constancy of effects of these instructional qualities were explored across characteristics of students, and educational and contextual conditions. The results confirm the Dollard-Miller-Carroll-Bloom theory that has evolved during the past four decades. 

This study focused on preservice general education teachers who were prepared to use an evidence-based teaching practice and the effects the practice had on their pupils’ academic performance.

This paper presents an early field-based course and applied teaching project to examine teaching practices and pupil outcomes.

Using an alternating treatments design, the authors compared the effects of Response Cards, Numbered Heads Together, and Whole Group Question and Answer on 6th graders daily quiz scores and pretest-posttest performance in chemistry, and examined how each instructional intervention affected teacher questioning and student responding patterns in class. 

This paper investigates the long-term impact of teachers' value-added effects on student learning over multiple years and across subject areas. The study finds that the durable effects of English Language Arts (ELA) teachers are more likely to generalizable across subjects than the instructional effects of math teachers.

The Common Core. Just last year, according to a Gallup poll, most Americans had never heard of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, or "Common Core," new guidelines for what kids in grades K–12 should be able to accomplish in reading, writing, and math. Designed to raise student proficiencies so the United States can better compete in a global market, the standards were drafted in 2009 by a group of academics and assessment specialists at the request of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

This meta-analysis reports on the overall effectiveness of video analysis when used with special educators, as well as on moderator analyses related to participant and instructional characteristics.

This article presents findings from the authors' exploratory study of 12 instructionally effective
school districts (IESD) in California. 

Internships are central to teacher preparation, but many novice teachers do not feel such student teaching experiences prepared them for teaching realities. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to understand the effects of guiding teacher candidates through common video-recording and self-reflection activities during student teaching internships to determine whether such activities improve teacher candidates’ reflective abilities and instructional skills.

The National Center for Education Evaluation, a division of the Institute of Education Sciences has released a new research brief that evaluated two strategies for improving educator effectiveness as measured by improvements in student outcomes.  

This study is a meta-analysis to identify the subject matter practice elements required to effectively teach reading to children

This report provides an overview of NYCLA’s flagship principal preparation program. Intended to help others involved in principal preparation think through important elements of principal preparation, including candidate selection, developing experiential learning opportunities, and funding, staffing and sustaining the program, the guide shares NYCLA’s successes and lessons learned during the 11 years we have delivered the Aspiring Principals Program in New York City, as well as through our work with various state and district partners nationally to adapt the program.

The authors use data from a four-year experiment in which teachers and students were randomly assigned to classes to estimate teacher effects on student achievement. Teacher effects are estimated as between-teacher (but within-school) variance components of achievement status and residualized achievement gains.

Much of teaching is about helping students master new knowledge and skills and then helping students not to forget what they have learned. The recommendations in this practice guide are intended to provide teachers with specific strategies for organizing both instruction and students' studying of material to facilitate learning and remembering information, and to enable students to use what they have learned in new situations.

The partiality of the lecture format has been made visible by studies that compare it with a different style of instruction, called active learning. This approach provides increased structure, feedback and interaction, prompting students to become participants in constructing their own knowledge rather than passive recipients.

This report provides new information on the impact of teacher quality on student achievement and offers specific steps states should take to remedy the persistent practice of denying the best teachers to the children who need them the most.

The purpose of this paper is to identify common roles played by principals, how these roles differ across types of schools, and finally, how effectively are preparation programs training principals in these roles.

Reading fluency instruction: Moving beyond accuracy, automaticity, and prosody.

This paper describes Auburn University's story of developing an innovative field-based master's level principal preparation program. The program’s goal was to align the program's curriculum and internship experiences with state and other accrediting agency standards, current leadership preparation research, and local educational agency (LEA) partner input and support. 0

This book presents information and tools necessary to successfully evaluate all types of educational leaders and improve both individual and organizational performance.

Increasingly, states and teacher education programs are establishing minimum requirements for cooperating teachers’ (CTs’) years of experience or tenure. Undergirding these policies is an assumption that to effectively mentor preservice teachers (PSTs), CTs must themselves be instructional effective. The authors test this assumption using statewide administrative data on nearly 2,900 PSTs mentored by over 3,200 CTs.

This book examines the major themes of instruction and gives a step-by-step outline of the consultation process from referral to the final report.

For 40 years, researchers have been exploring the teacher-expectation phenomenon. Few have examined the possibility that teacher expectations may be class centered rather than individually centered. Implications for teacher practice are discussed

This descriptive summary is one of the first reviews to examine the number of days of “lost instruction” resulting from student suspensions. The study examines the total number of days lost nationwide, disparities among different student subgroups, and differences across individual states. The impact of loss of instruction due to suspensions has a lifelong impact on students, including: lower graduation rates (Rumberger and Losen, 2017), increased involvement in the juvenile justice system (Mowicki, 2018), and arrests as adults Rosenbaum (2018).

As school districts work out next year's instructional format and take stock of their teacher workforce, districts in a position to hire are also readying themselves for a potentially unprepared influx of novice teachers. School administrators have the difficult task of ensuring that new teachers are effective regardless of setting, while also having to bridge the learning loss exacerbated by last spring's dramatic turn of school.

In this report, the Southern Regional Education Board outlines critical actions that states, districts, universities and principals themselves should take as part of a systematic plan to address principal succession. The report makes the case for principal succession planning and describes six steps for succession planning that states and districts can implement to ensure they have the right principals for the job.

This study examines the influence of principal leadership in high schools on classroom instruction and student achievement through key organizational factors, including professional capacity, parent–community ties, and the school’s learning climate.

The purpose of this article was to describe the developmental effects of one elementary physical education teacher's proactive teaching of prosocial behavior. An ABA (B) design coupled with a control group comparison across six matched urban physical education classes was used to assess the teaching strategy.

In 2 experiments, each involving different mathematical operations, we compared 2 training procedures for teaching component math skills in terms of their effects on the learning and long-term maintenance of composite skills.  

A recent large-scale evaluation of Reading Recovery, a supplemental reading program for young struggling readers, supports previous research that found it to be effective.  In a 4 year, federally funded project, almost 3,500 students in 685 schools found that generally students benefitted from the intervention. Students receiving Reading Recovery receive supplemental services in a 1:1 instructional setting for 30 minutes 5 days a week from an instructor trained in Reading Recovery.  In the study reported here, students who received Reading Recovery had effect sizes of .35-.37 relative to a control group across a number of measures of reading.  These represent moderate effect sizes and account for about a 1.5 month increase in skill relative to the control group.  Even though the research supports the efficacy of the intervention, it also raises questions about its efficiency.  The schools that participated in the study served about 5 students and the estimated cost per student has ranged from $2,000-$5,000.  These data raise questions about the wisdom of spending this much money per student for growth of about a month and a half.

Summative assessment is an appraisal of learning at the end of an instructional unit or at a specific point in time. It compares student knowledge or skills against standards or benchmarks. Summative assessment includes midterm exams, final project, papers, teacher-designed tests, standardized tests, and high-stakes tests. 

This paper analyzed the results of research on the effects of ability grouping and acceleration on students' academic achievement. Nineteen meta-analyses were met criteria for inclusion for the review. Results were found for improved academic achievement within-class grouping, cross-grade grouping by subject, and grouping for the gifted. No positive effects were identified for between-class grouping. The results were consistent regardless of whether students were high, medium, or low achievers. The study found acceleration appeared to have a positive, moderate, and statistically significant impact on students’ academic achievement.

A soon to be published meta-analysis of Direct Instruction (DI) curricula that reviews research on DI curricula between 1966-2016 reports that DI curricula produced moderate to large effect sizes across the curriculum areas reading, math, language, and spelling.  The review is notable because it reviews a much larger body of DI research than has occurred in the past and covers a wide range of experimental designs (from single subject to randomized trials).  328 studies were reviewed and almost 4,000 effects were considered.  Given the variability in research designs and the breadth of the effects considered, it suggests that DI curricula produce robust results.  There was very little decline during maintenance phases of the study and greater exposure to the curricula resulted in greater effects.

The purpose of this article is to identify the components of various instructional models that best predicted effect sizes for adolescents with learning disabilities. Three important findings emerged.

The results of this study confirm that early literacy instruction is most effective when focused on print-to-sound relationships (phonics) rather than on meaning. The benefits of print-to-sound training were found to be superior to print-to-meaning training for these reasons: (a) Reading aloud trained words learned phonetically was faster and more accurate, (b) generalization in reading aloud untrained words was faster, and (c) comprehension of written words was more accurate earlier in learning.

This preliminary study compared brief (1 s) and extended (4 s) wait-time on response opportunities, academic responses, accuracy, and disruptive behavior of two children with challenging behavior during small group instruction

Five recent studies of methods to prevent reading difficulties were examined in light of the goal that every child should acquire adequate word reading skills during early elementary school. 

This article layout two sets of findings: (1) what we know about the kind of instruction that weak readers need in kindergarten through second grade to prevent them from ever entering the downward spiral, and (2) what we know about the effectiveness of interventions that make use of this knowledge.

Sixty children with severe reading disabilities were randomly assigned to two instructional
programs that incorporated principles of effective instruction but differed in depth and extent
of instruction in phonemic awareness and phonemic decoding skills

This experiment evaluated the effects of requiring overt answer construction in computer-based programmed instruction using an alternating treatments design.

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. When the class-wide Tier 1 program was layered on top of the Tier 2 intervention, the student’s academic engagement showed an increase in level and stability.

Two studies are reported that provide correlational and experimental evidence for causal relationships between linguistic coding deficits and reading disability.

This study evaluated whether the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), a classroom teacher professional development program delivered through webcam technology literacy coaching, could provide rural classroom teachers with the instructional skills to help struggling readers progress rapidly in early reading.

This literature review examines the impact of various instructional methods

In this study, the National Council on Teacher Quality makes a unique effort to learn what aspiring teachers are taught about reading instruction. 

This meta-analysis of single case designed studies examines the effect of academic interventions on student behavior. The academic interventions examined included modifying task difficulty, instruction in reading, mathematics, or writing and contingent reinforcement for academic performance. The study concluded that these interventions produced positive effects on student behavior issues observed in the classroom. The effects were observed to have a moderate effect size ranging from 0.42 to 0.64. The effects were stronger for increasing student time on task than for reducing disruptive behavior, but both showed positive impacts. This research strengthens the available evidence that well-designed instruction is effective component in creating an effective classroom climate.

This report represents the first systematic comparison of student outcomes in schools led by the Aspiring Principals Program (APP) graduates after three years to those in comparable schools led by other new principals.

Studies of the effectiveness of Direct Instruction programs with special education students 
were examined in a meta-analysis comparison. To be included, the outcomes had to be 
compared with outcomes for some other treatment to which students were assigned prior to 
any interventions. Not one of 25 studies showed results favoring the comparison groups. 
Fifty-three percent of the outcomes significantly favored DI with an average magnitude of 
effect of. 84 standard deviation units. The effects were not restricted to a particular handicapping condition, age group or skill area. 

Daniel Willingham and Gail Lovette's interpretation of the effect of comprehension instruction is that it signals to students the significance of inferential thinking. Willingham and Lovette conclude that practicing inferences does not lead to increases in general inferencing for the following reasons; inferencing depends on the particular text, and whatever cognitive processes contribute to inferencing are already well practiced in oral language as we are constantly drawing inferences in daily conversation.

This article describes a systematic process for finding and resolving problems with classroom-based behavioral interventions in schools. 

This study shows that gaps between opportunities to learn and students' appropriation of those opportunities are instructionally produced and socially distributed via mechanism that affect engagement and lead to alienation from instruction - the dissociation between students' physical presence in academic classes and their thoughts while in class. 

Peer-mediated instruction and intervention (PMII) is a systematic, evidence-based method for addressing the social-communication needs of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite existing research on this practice, gaps remain in the implementation of PMII. The purpose of this empirical review was to examine recent applications of this evidence-based practice and systematically assess the quality of the analytic approaches implemented.

This second edition includes an expanded set of classroom observation tools, moving from 23 to 40 and more linkages to the job-embedded nature of the informal classroom observations.