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Teachers, a population already vulnerable to high stress, experienced increased demands and threats to their coping resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic likely will continue to exact a toll on the mental health of the teaching workforce. A silver lining from COVID-19 could come from teacher stress research conducted during the pandemic, which provides directions for how to improve the occupational lives of teachers. To this end, Christopher McCarthy, Madison Blaydes, Caroline H. Weppner, & Richard G. Lambert briefly review how teacher stress is defined, how it was exacerbated by the pandemic, and what can be done to alleviate it and promote wellness going forward.

This study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the relationship between data from an internet-based mathematics formative assessment and data from a mathematics summative assessment for primary grade learners (ages 5-7). Results showed a positive relationship between formative assessment data related to the concepts of counting and decomposing numbers and summative data. This relationship was stronger in classrooms where students demonstrated lower average performance on the formative assessment data. The results suggest that formative assessment can be more beneficial to encourage low-achieving students in primary-grade mathematics classrooms. Therefore, we recommend teachers use formative assessment practices more frequently in low-achieved primary grade classrooms. The formative assessment process includes the cycle of data collection, data analysis, planning future instruction, and examining the impact of that instruction through cycling back to data collection. This study contributes to the field by providing more empirical data about the relationship between formative and summative assessment with primary grades’ learners.

There are few empirical studies of teacher performance evaluation systems. Teachers are rightfully concerned about the degree to which evaluators’ idiosyncratic biases might undermine the process. Training evaluators thoroughly and monitoring the reliability, validity, fairness, and cultural sensitivity of their ratings are essential steps towards promoting strong performance evaluation systems. This study examined the process of evaluating early childhood teachers to inform evaluator training. The researchers sought to determine the degree to which the expectations of those who develop training materials and conduct evaluator trainings differ from the typical performance ratings given by evaluators in the field. Researchers used several methods to prompt a systematic examination of the evaluator training process across four sequential phases of investigation: (a) quantitative panel ratings of item difficulty, (b) panel discussion and consensus building (a qualitative phase), (c) examining expected versus empirical item difficulty (a quantitative phase), and (d) presenting the empirical difficulty levels to the panel for discussion (a qualitative phase). In this last phase, researchers presented results of Rasch modeling to the panel, along with levels of agreement between the empirical and expected difficulty levels. Panel members reported that the process of discussing their perceptions of expected item difficulty levels was valuable. They also reported that such discussion prompted them to reevaluate the training materials, the resource manuals, and other professional development resources. The study methods presented can be used to investigate and to improve other personnel evaluation systems.

In this chapter, the authors describe the importance of the early educator support (EES) program by providing a historical context and description of the work being done through this program. They further elaborate on the actual work that mentors and evaluators conduct with NC Pre-K teachers utilizing evidence- and research-based coaching and mentoring practices. Connections between the EES work and teacher induction, correlation with stages of teacher development, and a robust framework for early childhood professional development have been explained in greater detail. The chapter concludes with describing the uniqueness of the program along with challenges confronted, future implications, and its corresponding benefits.

The authors of this study seek to provide practitioners with evidence to support the instructional value of Ignite by Hatch, a digital learning game designed for preschool children. Analyses were conducted using the entire population of three- and four-year-old children who used Ignite during the 2020-2021 academic year (n = 29,417) and included the use of descriptive statistics to explore patterns of growth and the Rasch measurement model to explore item difficulty. This chapter also features a preliminary crosswalk establishing the alignment between the domains, subdomains, and games presented within the Ignite game environment and the learning goals provided by the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development framework. Results suggest strong preliminary evidence in support of the instructional value of Ignite by Hatch. Further research is recommended to understand how knowledge and skill acquisition within the game environment translate to developmental growth outside of the gaming environment.

The Early Childhood Directors Leadership Institute (ECDLI) project addressed a need for effective professional development with a series of Institutes using the Program Administration Scale (PAS), ...

Using national data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2011–2012 Schools and Staffing Survey and Common Core of Data, we examined the relationship between K–12 practitioners’ risk for stress and the teacher-to-student racial/ethnic congruence. Analyses indicated significant variation in risk for stress by school racial composition and suggested that the likelihood of being categorized as most at-risk for stress is associated with the teacher-to-student racial/ethnic congruence. Findings point to substantial differences in how teachers appraise their environments depending on school context, which has implications for how education stakeholders recruit and prepare classroom practitioners.

Stress is increasingly being linked to teacher turnover. This study examined 1,750 first-year U.S. public school teachers’ classroom-specific appraisals of demands and resources as indices of risk ...

Research using the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) has consistently demonstrated that teachers' reported working conditions are related to both intentions to leave the profession and attrition (Tickle, Chang, and Kim, 2011). However, limited research evaluates teacher appraisals of job-related demands and resources as an antecedent to job dissatisfaction. We tested for differential item functioning (DIF) using a partial credit model approach within a Rasch modeling context to examine whether elementary and secondary teachers with similar overall stress levels respond to the NTPS Demands and Resources items in similar ways. For the Demands items, seven of the items displayed differences that were negligible, four were intermediate, and three items indicated large DIF contrasts. For the Resources items, 10 items displayed differences that were negligible, two were intermediate, and zero items indicated large DIF contrasts. These results indicate elementary and secondary teachers exhibit different appraisal patterns, suggesting implications for the development and use of survey data in public school settings in general, and for the use of the NTPS data in particular.

Understanding how teachers appraise their environments for potential demands and resources can inform education stakeholders interested in mitigating vocational stress. Using data from the United S...

The 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) was used to examine occupational stress, occupational commitment, and intention to remain in teaching in a nationally representative sample of U.S. kindergarten teachers (n = 744). Teachers who perceived classroom resources as sufficient to meet demands, tended to report they would become a teacher again (86.5%) and reported intentions to remain in the profession (87.6%). However, of teachers who perceived classroom resources as insufficient to meet classroom demands, only 50.2% reported they would become teachers again, and only 61.4% reported they intended to remain in the profession. Logistic regression was used to examine teacher responses to these items while controlling for school- and teacher-level covariates. Teachers perceiving sufficient resources were more likely to report they would become teachers again and intended to remain in teaching (odds ratios = 2.612, 1.863) while teachers perceiving insufficient resources were much less likely (odds ratios = 0.324, 0.327).

Background/Context It is widely understood that teachers are plagued by a myriad of challenges that ultimately affect their stress levels, job satisfaction, and effectiveness at work. Teacher stress can lead to burnout, lowered occupational commitment, and an eventual decision to leave the field. An important question for the field is how best to understand which teachers are most vulnerable to stress. This study used Lazarus and Folkman's transactional theory, which is the dominant model within the stress literature, to examine teachers’ stress vulnerability. Objective This study examined how elementary teacher appraisals of their classroom environment contribute to their risk for stress in the context of individual, classroom, and school characteristics, as well as state-level policy factors. Further, this study looked at how these factors are associated with teachers’ occupational stress, burnout, and commitment to teaching. Participants Participants were 11,850 full-time public school elementary teachers (Grades 1–5) who responded to the National Center for Education Statistics 2007/2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Research Design Secondary data from the SASS were employed. The Rasch rating scale model was used to form scores on the Appraisal Index (teachers’ ratio of experiencing resources versus demands), as well as the Classroom Control and Burnout scales. Data Collection and Analysis Multilevel modeling was used. Each model had two levels with teachers nested within the state where they work. Two types of models were estimated using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) software and restricted maximum likelihood procedures. The SASS teacher final sampling weight was then normalized and applied to all analyses within the HLM software. All results were reported with robust standard errors. Findings Teachers classified as at risk for stress based on SASS items about classroom demand and resources were found to be more likely to report lower job satisfaction and burnout symptoms, as well as reduced occupational commitment. Professional characteristics, school context, and the policy climate in which teachers work were also associated with teachers being at risk for stress. Conclusions/Recommendations Given these connections between occupational stressors, teacher appraisals of the classroom environment, and occupational outcomes, these results suggest that education stakeholders should be mindful of the climate and context in which public policies are enacted.

The measurement properties of any assessment system should be rigorously examined as long as the measure is in use. Authentic formative assessments are not immune to this process. Messick provided a comprehensive theory of test validation that conceptualized validity as a unitary construct. He identified six distinct types of evidence that can support the inferences made from assessment scores, all of which are applied to the process of validating authentic formative assessment measures. The validation argument for direct summative assessments is compared to the distinct aspects of a validity argument to support formative assessments for young children. Specific sources of construct irrelevant variance in the information provided by authentic formative assessments are also outlined. The complex constellation of purposes for which authentic formative assessments have been developed is unified by a single underlying principle: usefulness to teachers.

Research Findings: This study builds on prior work related to the assessment of young dual language learners (DLLs). The purposes of the study were to (a) determine whether latent subgroups of pres...

This randomized trial with repeated measures investigated the efficacy of a literacy intervention for low-performing readers in a juvenile corrections setting over a 31-month period. Students were ...

The study aimed (a) to estimate the overall average effect size of the relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing achievement for first language (L1) and second language (L2) writers in English; and (b) to examine how writing in English as a L1/L2 moderates the relationships based on a meta-analysis of published journal articles and dissertations/theses. Data included 565 effect sizes from 76 studies through a rigorous process of literature searches, screening, and data coding. A two-level meta-regression model was constructed to estimate the average effect size and to examine the moderating effects of the covariates. Results revealed a medium effect size (r = .29) with both L1 and L2 writers, which indicated approximately 9% of the variability in English writing achievement was associated with variability in students’ self-efficacy. Furthermore, writing in English as a L1/L2 was found to moderate the relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing achievement, with the effect size estimated with L2 learners (r = .441) being statistically significantly larger than that yielded with L1 learners (r = .233), after controlling for the covariates of sample size, gender, grade, statistical procedures, and publication type. Results also revealed that statistical procedure moderated effect size estimates. This meta-analysis has practical implications for heightening the awareness of English teachers in developing L2 students’ self-efficacy in the writing classroom setting. It also cautions researchers against the misinterpretation and misuse of effect sizes calculated by different statistical procedures.

The well-documented statistics regarding the academic struggles of incarcerated youth are disconcerting, and efforts to improve reading performance among this population are greatly needed. There is a dearth of research that provides rich and detailed accounts of reading intervention implementation in the juvenile corrections setting. The present study attempted to address this gap in the research base by developing a grounded theory of literacy intervention implementation in one juvenile correctional school. Qualitative methods were used for data collection (i.e., individual and focus group interviews) and analysis (i.e., grounded theory). Study participants included representatives from all facets of the facility, including education (both students and adults), security, and administration, to allow for a comprehensive examination of the context. The context affected the faculty, staff, and students in different ways and influenced the commitment to and implementation of the intervention. Additionally, teachers’ experience and background seemed to influence their perception of the program. Individual student characteristics affected their motivation for participation. There were many contextual factors, some that contributed to the success of the intervention, and others that impeded its success. It is important that interventions being considered for implementation in challenging or atypical settings account for the contextual variables that can affect outcomes. In the current study, influential factors identified were related to the physical environment, leadership, teachers, security personnel, and the students’ backgrounds.

Previous research has demonstrated associations between teacher stress and occupational burnout, but few studies have attempted to operationalize a central tenet of most stress theories, namely tha...

The Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands (CARD) was designed to evaluate teacher stress based on subjective evaluations of classroom demands and resources. However, the CARD has been mostly utilized in western countries. The aim of the current study was to provide aspects of the validity of responses to a Chinese version of the CARD that considers Chinese teachers’ unique vocational conditions in the classroom. A sample of 580 Chinese elementary school teachers (510 female teachers and 70 male teachers) were asked to respond to the Chinese version of the CARD. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the data fit the theoretical model very well (e.g., CFI: .982; NFI: .977; GFI: .968; SRMR: .028; RMSEA: .075; where CFI is comparative fit index, NFI is normed fit index, GFI is goodness of fit, SRMR is standardized root mean square residual, RMSEA is root mean square error of approximation), thus providing evidence of construct validity. Latent constructs of the Chinese version of the CARD were also found to be significantly associated with other measures that are related to teacher stress such as self-efficacy, job satisfaction, personal habits to deal with stress, and intention to leave their current job.

This study examined the influence of a professional development project about an internet-based mathematics formative assessment tool and related pedagogies on primary teachers’ instruction and student achievement. Teachers participated in 72 h of professional development during the year. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses of variance of the 300 teachers and data from 5300 students indicated that, in some of the participating districts, students whose teachers participated in professional development outperformed students in control classrooms. Multi-level analyses of student achievement indicated that teachers who used the formative assessment tool more had students who scored statistically significantly higher gain than students whose teachers did not use the tool as frequently. The findings call for subsequent studies that examine how teachers specifically use formative assessment data to make instructional decisions, and the influence of those decisions on student achievement.

This study illustrates why preschool children who are dual language learners (DLLs) are not a homogeneous group. An empirically developed model of preschool DLL subgroups, based on latent class ana...

Although dual language learners (DLLs) are linguistically, culturally, and socially diverse, researchers usually study them in aggregate and compare them to non-DLLs. The authors' purpose was to identify subgroups of preschool DLLs using latent class analysis. There were 7,361 DLLs and 69,457 non-DLLs. Results revealed three distinct classes. Children in class 1 (emergent bilingual children) tended to speak mostly their native language but some English at home and in the classroom. Children in class 2 (bilingual children) tended to speak English only in the classroom, but spoke both languages at home. Children in class 3 (heritage language speakers) tended to speak only their native language at home and in the classroom. Different demographic profiles and levels of development and learning were observed across classes. The DLL subgroups and their profiles provide important information about how educational programs may be tailored to meet the diverse needs of young DLLs.

This study examines the influence of a year-long mathematics professional development program on Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs, content knowledge, instructional practices, and their students’ achievement. The professional development program is grounded in the theoretical construct of learner-centered professional development and focuses on supporting teachers’ integration of standards-based pedagogies aligned with the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. Data analysis included examining 15 Kindergarten teachers’ mathematics content knowledge, their beliefs about mathematics, their enactment of student-centered pedagogies, and student achievement on curriculum-based assessments. Findings indicated that teachers adopted more student-centered pedagogies and embraced more student-centered beliefs about mathematics teaching during their time in the project. Further, Kindergarten teachers also demonstrated gains in their mathematical content knowledge, and those content knowledge gains were linked to gains in student achievement.

In order for professional development in the STEM fields to be effective, empirical studies point to opportunities for teachers to simultaneously develop their knowledge of related content, research-based pedagogies, and analysis of how students learn the content as well as common student misconceptions. In this chapter, the authors explicate the construct of learner-centered professional development and describe the implementation of mathematics professional development projects designed to support elementary school teachers' mathematics teaching. They include a synthesis of findings from their professional development research and provide implications for the design of learner-centered professional development programs in mathematics.

Stress research increasingly emphasizes the role of appraisal in determining which events are perceived as stressful. The Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands (CARD) was developed to measure teachers’ appraisals of their classroom demands and resources in order to assess their risk for experiencing occupational stress. The present purposes are to review the literature identifying appraisals as a key determinant of stress, to describe the development of the CARD, and to provide meta-analytic results from 18 studies comparing CARD scores to the following variables: teacher’s job satisfaction and occupational commitment, burnout symptoms, stress prevention resources, and challenging student demands. Results suggest moderate effects for associations between the CARD and these constructs, and implications for educational policy aimed at reducing turnover and increasing teacher and student welfare are discussed.

Formative assessment continues to be heralded as a high-leverage teaching practice that has empirical links to student achievement. This chapter describes the design and influences of a year-long professional development project focused on supporting primary grades teachers' with formative assessment skills in mathematics. The professional development was a blended format that included face-to-face workshops as well as classroom-based activities that were presented and facilitated through an online asynchronous format. Findings from the study indicated that teachers' enacted evidence of various aspects of TPACK, but there was variance in terms of how teachers implemented pedagogies. Implications for the design of professional development focused on formative assessment include the need to situate teachers' learning in their classroom, and provide ongoing multiple modes of support to help teachers enact formative assessment practices.

In order for professional development in the STEM fields to be effective, teachers need worthwhile experiences to simultaneously develop their knowledge of content, pedagogy, and understanding of how students' learn the content. In this chapter we provide an overarching framework of learner-centered professional development and describe the implementation of two mathematics professional development projects designed to support elementary school teachers' mathematics teaching. We follow our description by highlighting some of the findings from our line of professional development research and provide implications for the design of learner-centered professional development programs in mathematics.

Research funded by the Albert Shanker Institute found African-American teachers leaving teaching at higher rates than White counterparts even though the former are recruited in proportionally higher numbers. Thus, while recruitment efforts appear somewhat successful, schools and school systems fail to retain teachers of color. This “revolving door” of African-American teachers portends dire consequences for school communities, creating instability of staffing that potentially upend students’ opportunities for academic success. African-American female (AAF) teachers, considered a backbone of non-White communities, are particularly sensitive to teacher mobility and turnover. Studies, however, indicate that AAF teachers are more satisfied working in urban school contexts than other teachers, suggesting that they prefer racially congruent schools which share sociocultural attributes similar to their own, and view working conditions more favorably in such environments. Teachers’ perceptions of the workplace can be used to gauge risk for occupational stress. Commonly referred to as the transactional model, teachers’ risk for stress can be assessed by the appraising workplace resources vis-a-vis workplace demands. Stress-vulnerable teachers are associated with lower professional commitment and increased occupational burnout. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2007–2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), this chapter explored the intersections of risk for occupational stress, racial congruence, and professional commitment among AAF teachers. Findings from this chapter suggest interactions between racial congruence and AAF teachers’ perceptions of occupational stress and commitment to teaching. Implications for how these results might inform policy are discussed.

This study examines primary grades teachers’ instructional decisions in their mathematics classroom during their participation in a year-long professional development program on formative assessment. Teachers participated in 40 h of face-to-face workshops followed by 40 h of classroom-embedded activities that were facilitated in an asynchronous online format. Inductive analysis of teachers’ online discussion forum posts and their frequency of using an internet-based formative assessment system indicated significant variance in teachers’ use of the formative assessment tool. Some teachers used the assessment system regularly and reported modifying instruction based on the data collected through formative assessment. However, some teachers demonstrated difficulty determining how the assessments aligned to specific mathematics standards, and how the assessment should inform their use of curriculum. Implications for future research include the need to triangulate data from instructional plans, surveys, and classroom observations, while implications for practice include the need to more explicitly support teachers’ instructional planning process using specific curricular resources.

The Teaching Strategies GOLD ® assessment system ( GOLD ® ) is a teacher rating system (authentic performance assessment) child observation tool designed to measure the on-going development and learning progress of children birth through kindergarten across various domains: social–emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, mathematics, and English language acquisition. This article explores evidence for the reliability and validity of the information provided by GOLD ® using two national samples ( n 1 = 10,963, n 2 = 20,970). Support for the reliability and validity of scales scores based on teacher ratings is reported, including confirmatory factor analysis, classical and modern indexes of reliability, and inter-rater reliability statistics. In a separate study, concurrent validity was explored using a different sample of 3-and-4-year-olds ( n = 1241). Accounting for teacher ratings and clustering effects, moderate associations were found between GOLD ® scale scores and a direct assessment measure. Implications for teachers using the measure in the early childhood classroom and for future research are discussed.

Research is needed to examine the link between professional development on both teachers’ instruction and student achievement. This study examined the influence of three year-long cohorts of elementary school teachers’ participating in a learner-centered mathematics professional development program. Data sources include surveys on teachers’ instructional practices and beliefs as well as their students’ performance on curriculum-based assessments. Multi-level analyses indicated that teachers’ content knowledge and changes in teachers’ practices both had statistically significant effects on student achievement. This study advances the knowledge base on the influence of content knowledge and teachers’ beliefs on student achievement.

Background/ContextIn an era of accountability and standardization, elementary social studies is consistently losing its curricular foothold to English/language arts, math, and science instruction.PurposeThis article examines the relationship between elementary teachers’ perceptions of instructional autonomy, teaching context, state testing policy, and reported social studies instructional time.Research DesignEmploying secondary data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2007/2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), we analyzed the association between elementary (Grades 1–5) teachers’ perceived autonomy, classroom/school contexts, and state testing policies on reported time spent on social studies. We also analyzed the moderating effect of state-level testing policy on teachers’ sense of autonomy in relation to reported social studies instructional time.Data Collection and AnalysisWe conducted analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hierarchical liner modeling (HLM) to examine the association among multiple levels of teacher, classroom, school, and state policy levels as a function of reported social studies instructional time.Findings/ResultsResults indicate that elementary teachers’ working in states that require elementary social studies testing spend more time on social studies instruction. Moreover, teachers’ who report greater instructional autonomy and teach intermediate grades (4–5) spend more time on social studies. Finally, elementary teachers working in states with a required social studies test report less instructional autonomy than teachers without a test.RecommendationsFindings suggest recommendations for practitioners, school leaders, and educational policy. Social studies teacher educators and practitioners should continue to support ambitious teaching. School leaders who value social studies instruction should foster environments that offer less curricular restrictions, particularly in the later grades. From an organizational perspective, mandatory statewide testing improves the quantity of social studies at the elementary grades. However, policy makers and education advocates should weigh the costs and benefits of increased testing mandates and their possible impact on the quality of social studies teaching and learning.

How and to what extent students learn history content is a complicated process, drawing from the instructional opportunities they experience; the policy prioritization of history/social studies instruction in schools; and their own cultural perspectives toward the past. In an attempt to better understand the complex inter-play among these dimensions, we examined relationships among student sociocultural characteristics, instructional exposure, and school-level variables and US History content knowledge. Using data from the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress Test on US History (NAEP-USH), multilevel analyses indicated that while sociocultural indicators (such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status) correlate with achievement, students’ instructional exposure variables remain significant predictors of history content knowledge. Moreover, school context such as building-level demographics and state testing-policy predict between school variance in content knowledge and moderate the achievement gap. Results also suggest that, while a substantial achievement gap remains, exposure to text-based instructional practices is associated with increased knowledge. Findings from this study have policy implications for the development of a more inclusive social studies curriculum, the advocating of text-dependent instruction as a high-leverage practice among history teachers, and cautious consideration of tests as proxies for accountability in history education.

International research examining teacher stress and contextual factors, such as culture, government policies, professional autonomy, and school level factors, are reviewed in this chapter, as well as their impact on teachers’ occupational health. Research reviewed identifies important contextual and cultural factors impacting teacher stress and the occupational health factors of job satisfaction and workforce instability. While research examining teacher stress in different countries nation is robust, there is a dearth of research examining the role of culture within or between national borders. Further, while models of stress and occupational health are prevalent in existing research, theoretical models explaining the role of culture and other contextual factors in teacher stress are needed.

This study presents findings from the first cohort of teachers in a U.S. Department of Education Mathematics Science Partnership (MSP) grant designed to support the use of a standards-based elementary school mathematics curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space (Investigations). In line with the goals of the MSP program, the 84-hour professional development program focused on building teachers’ knowledge of mathematics content, examining how the mathematics content is embedded into curriculum, and supporting teachers’ enactment of reform-based pedagogies. Teacher participants had a positive gain in their content knowledge, but this increase did not have any statistically significant impact on student gains in the assessment of mathematics proficiency. Results about teacher beliefs were inconclusive, as more time is needed to change teacher beliefs. Teachers who changed their practices from teacher centered to student centered found their students with statistically more gains in their performa...

This study examines the vocational concerns of 185 elementary teachers. Participants were classified based on their perceptions of the magnitude of their classroom demands and resources. These groupings were then examined for differences in teachers' personal coping resources, job satisfaction, and occupational commitment. Results indicated that teachers classified as perceiving high classroom demand vis-a-vis classroom resources reported lower personal coping resources, less job satisfaction, and more plans to leave their current job.

Aims: In this research, we evaluated the effects of progress monitoring grounded in a commercially-available tool used to customize assignments and ke ep track of progress in mathematics for students in elementary school. Study Design: We used a randomized controlled trial and multilevel analysis to test the effect of the treatment on the outcome measures while nesting students within their classroom. Place and Duration of Study:Students in three elementary schools in the Midwestern region of the United States were in the study which took place across an academic year. Methodology: We used two-level hierarchical linear models for our analyses because of the nested nature of our data. We compared outcomes across high and lowimplementation fidelity treatment group classrooms as well as across treatment and control classrooms. Results:We found statistically significant treatment differences for monthly gr owth rate and elementary school fidelity of implementation effects were documented. Conclusion: Professionals engaged in progress monitoring use a variety of measures to track student performance and to assist in instructional decision making when data ind icate a need for change. We found that the use of a computer -based individualized mathematics assignment and progress monitoring program resulted in improvements in both curriculum

This study investigates the impacts of a year-long professional development program on Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and practices and the association of these changes with student achievement in mathematics measured by curriculum-based instruments. Although teacher content knowledge was not statistically significantly different before and after participation in the program, changes in teachers’ beliefs and practices were both noticed: a trend towards discovery/connectionist orientation and student-centered practices. Teachers’ gain scores on a measure of mathematics content knowledge was positively related to the linear growth rate of student achievement.