Elementary preservice teachers often struggle with their relationships with their students. Research suggests that they have internalized robust teaching scripts that limit their learning of progressive pedagogical methods. As a result of these scripts and relational patterns learned in their family of origin they become progressively more authoritarian and controlling under the situational pressures of traditional classrooms. From the perspective of narrative psychology our sense of self is constructed from meanings that we attach to critical early childhood events, the stories we tell about ourselves, and the way we habitually position ourselves towards others. This critical phenomenological study explored with preservice teachers the ways in which the meanings they attached to early childhood events influence who they become as teachers and how they relate to students. Fourteen preservice elementary school teachers selected from a teacher education program shared their life stories during an interview prior to a two-day orientation circle meeting at the beginning of their prepracticum semester. Participants met in two support circles meeting four times during the semester. The interviews and circle meetings were tape-recorded. The data were analyzed to identify their stories and the way they navigated the discourses of power in their narratives and any emerging cultural themes. The data from five of the participants were analyzed in detail using Stanton Wortham's tools to determine how they were positioning themselves within their narratives and in the storytelling event. All the participants identified critical early childhood events that influence how they construct themselves as students and teachers. They employed the same discipline practices that they experienced in early childhood. Binary opposites of culturally valued concepts were used in self-construction. Their narratives revealed multiple, interwoven, mutually supportive, conflicted and contradictory stories and clashing societal discourses as they struggled to become teachers in relation to students. Implications for teacher education included using circles along with written collaborative autobiographies and case studies of young students to identify and critically analyze the discourses that interpellate themselves and their students. Further research is required to follow students through two years of teaching. More diverse groups should be studied.

The current study examined the effect of Strong Start Grades K–2 (Merrell, Parisi, & Whitcomb, 2007), a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, among a sample of 24 kindergarten and first grade students identified by their teachers as needing additional support with behavioral and social skills in school. The current study used a quasi-experimental design with within-subjects and between-groups comparisons (Heppner, Kivlighan, & Wampold, 1992) to evaluate the effects of the Strong Start social and emotional learning curriculum. The intervention consisted of staggered curriculum implementation across four classrooms, whereby students were assigned by classroom to either the treatment or waitlist conditions. The classroom teachers implemented the 10 lessons of Strong Start as part of their classroom instruction. Results indicated that Strong Start was implemented with moderate integrity and there were significant within-subject effects for increases in students' emotion knowledge and decreases in students' problem behaviors associated with exposure to the curriculum. However, no significant effects were found between intervention and waitlist groups for increase in emotion knowledge and decreases in problem behaviors. Teachers and students indicated strong user satisfaction and social validity of the Strong Start curriculum. Limitations of this study as well as directions for future research are discussed.

As the demographics of the United States change, barriers persistently thwart efforts to ensure that all students, regardless of ethnicity, academic ability, or family circumstance, have equal opportunities to learn. Diminished retention rates of effective educators in Title 1 schools, elevated rates at which students from low-income families are taught by inexperienced or unqualified teachers and insufficient preparation of preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach in Title 1 schools are three such barriers. Policy reform organizations interested in improving the effectiveness of teacher education programs nationwide suggest forging strong clinical partnerships between universities and schools by relocating coursework to school-based settings that more closely resemble the reality of today's classrooms. PSTs, 27 in total, participated in a school-based teacher education intervention situated in a Title 1 school in central Florida to examine the influences of this intervention on PSTs efficacy for culturally responsive teaching and their sense of efficacy for teaching writing to students of diversity in a Title 1 school. Preliminary results indicated that while some PSTs tended to overestimate their efficacy for teaching students of diversity in Title 1 schools prior to the intervention, the school-based course disrupted that reality. Through weekly teaching experiences, PSTs' misconceptions about Title 1 schools, and their own pedagogical practices were challenged. Results yielded a purportedly more efficacious group of PSTs as measured by quantitative survey research and post qualitative responses in this mixed method study.

The goal of this study was to develop and validate an instrument to measure the task-specific self-efficacy beliefs of elementary literacy coaches. In order for this to happen, a synthesis of literature regarding literacy coaching tasks including the International Literacy Association's standards for literacy coaches were used to write several items on the survey. In addition, the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale and the researcher's experiences as an elementary literacy coach were used to write other items on the survey. Experts in the field of literacy coaching and self-efficacy provided content validity. Construct validity was established through correlation statistics with other established instruments that were previously determined as valid. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on the Elementary Literacy Coach Self-Efficacy (ELCSE) survey to determine the underlying constructs the instrument was intended to measure. Data analysis indicated that the ELCSE has a high level of internal reliability and correlated with areas it was intended to correlate with and with areas it was not intended to correlate with, it did not. Data from factor analysis confirmed that the ELCSE measures one construct as intended. Thus, construct validity was established. The results from this study provide opportunities to assess and understand the beliefs of elementary literacy coaches regarding tasks specific to their roles. Additionally, the ELCSE survey offers opportunities to provide training or professional development specific to the needs of elementary literacy coaches. The use of the ELCSE in a practical K-12 educational setting offers school districts and administrators the opportunity to identify tasks the elementary literacy coach feels they would need more support in performing.

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent, if any, organizational structures for instruction, non-departmentalized or departmentalized, had on student achievement for students in Grades 3 through 5. Three elementary schools were selected for this study based on organizational structures for instruction. One elementary school was non-departmentalized for the 2017-2018 school year and departmentalized for the 2018-2019 school year. Additionally, two elementary schools, one non-departmentalized and one departmentalized, were selected based on demographically- and achievement-matched variables. In this study, overall mean scale scores were analyzed from the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics using independent samples t-tests. Analyses were also conducted by student subgroups, including English learners, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and gender. Of the 67 independent samples t-tests conducted for this study, 54 were non-significant. Findings from the 13 significant results indicated that departmentalization as an organizational structure for instruction produced statistically significant results in Grade 4 for FSA ELA and Mathematics as well as for various student subgroups in Grade 4 including students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, and gender with small to moderate effect sizes. Moreover, significant results were also found for the Grade 3 English learner subgroup for both FSA ELA and Mathematics. Results for the English learner subgroup were mixed, however, demonstrating statistically significant results for departmentalization for FSA ELA and statistically significant results for non-departmentalization for FSA Mathematics with large effect sizes for both. The findings from this study contributed to the body of knowledge surrounding organizational structures for instruction and student achievement for Grades 3 through 5. The results of this study can used to help school district leaders and school-based leaders make decisions and create guidelines regarding organizational structure approaches in elementary school.

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of fourth grade teachers working in a large urban school district, where the achievement gap between English Language Learners (ELLs) and non-ELLs was smaller when compared to other schools within the district. The problem originated from the need to consider factors beyond teacher training that potentially influenced academic achievement. The research question guiding this study asked: What are the lived experiences of 4th grade teachers who have taught at identified elementary schools, where ELL students have demonstrated proficiency on the ELA portion of the state standards assessment? The framework in this study was based on previous research that utilized models rooted in social interactionist theory, sociocultural theory, and social constructivism. Participants in this study were selected from Title I schools with the most narrow achievement gap between ELL sub-groups and non-ELL sub-groups, compared to other schools in the district. Purposive sampling was used to identify 10 participants, including at least one teacher from each of the five identified schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to answer the research questions. Five themes emerged and included: (a) language as a barrier to traditional teaching methods; (b) student growth as a primary success; (c) using visuals and other non-verbal instruction; (d) small groups; and (e) building relationships with parents. The themes confirmed findings from previous research, aligned to the theoretical framework, and the themes were used to inform effective teaching practices and guide future research.

This study examined the usefulness of the California Music Educators Association Music Educating K-6 Scope and Sequence (K-4 sections) by assessing its alignment with the National Standards for Arts Education (K-4 section). The investigation (limited to K-4 because of the organization of the National Standards) asked California elementary music educators how effectively the CMEA K-6 S&S communicated concepts specified in the Standards. An analysis identified 32 differences in grades K-4 between the CMEA K-6 S&S and the National Standards. After content validation by a panel of experts, a 43-item researcher-designed survey solicited preferences and comments from a systematic random sample of 300 California elementary music teachers. The survey responses were quantitative evaluated to determine how important these 32 differences were to music educators and whether to revise the CMEA K-6 S&S. Data from the 129 surveys returned revealed that in 26 of the 32 conceptual differences between the two documents, 85% of the population favored revision; that 61% preferred the rigor demanded in the CMEA K-6 S&S in 5 out of 6 items in the reading and notating music content area; and that 41% preferred a revision of the CMEA K-6 S&S to align with the National Standards in format. Of the respondents, 84% felt that the revised CMEA K-6 S&S would be a useful document in justifying music education to administrators, parents and classroom teachers: 82% felt that it would be useful in designing assessment instruments. The respondents requested in-service sessions in improvisation, the composition and arrangement of music, and the understanding of relationships between music and the other arts and disciplines. It is recommended that grades K-4 of the CMEA K-6 S&S be revised according to the preferences of California elementary music educators as revealed in this study.

A study was initiated to determine the relationship between selected home experiences of Iranian preschool children and their levels of achievement in language skills and in the learning of basic concepts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of participation in a cross-age tutoring program on fourth and fifth grade English as a second language (ESL) students. The sixteen intermediate ESL students tutored first grade and kindergarten students in reading two days a week, for twenty minutes over a nineteen week period. It was hypothesized that tutors would improve their attitudes toward school and toward reading, that their perceptions of control would increase in the area of self control, and that they would make greater gains in reading achievement than other ESL students in their school. Tutors were interviewed to ascertain their attitudes toward school and toward school and toward reading. Classroom teachers completed surveys assessing their perceptions of the tutors' attitudes toward school and toward reading. These measures and The Multidimensional Measure of Children's Perceptions of Control were administered in both the fall and spring. The district annual achievement test was used to measure gains in reading achievement. The tutors in the study made gains in their perceptions of self control in the cognitive domain. Their attitudes toward reading improved, also. There was no change in the students' perceptions of control in the social domain. Their attitudes toward school improved, but the gain was not statistically significant. The students did not make greater gains in reading achievement than the control greater gains in reading achievement.

Despite current research evidence connecting family involvement to students' academic learning, non-mainstream families' funds of knowledge are insufficiently valued as relevant to public schools' curricula and academic genres, a practice that limits diverse families' inclusion as equal partners in their children's education. This two-year-long ethnography (2005-2007), grounded in sociocultural and sociohistorical theories, investigated the struggles and possibilities that two elementary teachers and their students' non-mainstream families faced while trying to reach common understandings about working collaboratively to develop home-classroom partnerships at a time of a national educational reform under the politics of high stakes accountability of the NCLB Law of 2001 and a state local policy of English-only education in Western Massachusetts. Focusing on a third grade teacher and her English Language Learners (ELL) Latino students and on a regular kindergarten teacher with half of the students of Latino origin, the study explored the evolution of participants' assumptions about non-mainstream students and their families, the participants' co-construction of social and literacy practices, and the dialogical practices conducive to partnerships for fostering home-school partnerships and improving diverse students' literacy development. Findings suggest that: (1) some specific social and literacy practices co-constructed through dialogical interactions between urban school teachers and Latino families positively influenced home-classroom partnerships that worked for nonmainstream families; and (2) the participant teachers' critical reflections on their own assumptions and ideologies brought them new understandings about Latino families' funds of knowledge and child socialization practices, helping them to know the whole child and to better provide academic support for ELL students. Implications for practitioners point at the importance of gaining an in-depth understanding of building relationships with non-mainstream families in urban schools to implement home-school partnerships that work for all families. Implications for state agencies, stakeholders, and administrators are: (1) a need to redefine the field of family involvement for a comprehensive action plan for involving non-mainstream families as equal partners in their children's education; and (2) the need for serious commitment towards supporting urban teachers by allocating time and funds for professional development.