News from WCER
New Directions for Mixed-Ability Instruction
January 20, 2010
How can teachers best organize students for instruction? After a century of research on tracking and ability grouping, one might expect a definitive answer to this question.
Evaluation Tools to Inform Foundation Education Reforms
January 18, 2010
Education foundations and their grantees are most effective when grantees fully understand the foundation’s priorities and when foundations correctly assess the impact of their diverse grant activities.
School Psychologists and Evidence-Based Practice
January 11, 2010
With the development of the evidence-based practice (EBP) movement, training psychologists to work in schools is critical, says Thomas R. Kratochwill.
Learning Sciences a Growing Field
January 5, 2010
The Learning Sciences are poised to make great strides in understanding complex human behavior.
CGI Math Encourages Ingenuity and Reasoning
June 15, 2007
Elementary age students bring lots of things to school with them—besides huge backpacks stuffed with supplies. They bring ingenuity, intuitive knowledge, and mathematical insight. They sometimes amaze their teachers with innovative ways to solve problems. When mathematics teachers link their classroom instruction to students’ intuitive knowledge, students can take classroom instruction a lot farther.
What Will Decrease Educational Inequality?
June 15, 2003
Student’s educational outcomes are boosted or hindered by their families’ socioeconomic background. Although certainly not fair to the student, such inequality is likely to persist throughout the 21st century, despite much rhetoric and a few policies directed against it.
The Pros and Cons of ‘Holding Out’
March 15, 2000
You often hear that statement. But the suggestion is unsubstantiated by research, according to UW-Madison Education Professor Elizabeth Graue and Lehigh University’s James DiPerna. Their recent study challenges conventional wisdom about the value of redshirting and early retention. In fact, some children who are “held out” miss receiving needed attention in areas of learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities, and emotional disabilities.