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Science often takes a back burner to English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. With ELA and Math being tested from early years and school funding relying on each, many teachers are pushed by administrators to spend as much time as possible on those two subjects. During the authors' years as classroom teachers and professional development providers, they have attempted to find creative ways to make sure that students experience the joy, wonder, and excitement of science "through" other content areas--for their sense of responsibility to their students and per their administrators' requests. Learners have to talk "about something," listen "about something," read "about something," and write "about something." The authors' thinking and practice centers around making "that something" be science. In this article, the authors share their process of cross-curricular design via a lesson about forces. They have implemented this lesson with their K-2 and 3-5 students and teacher-learners. The content is relatable and comprehensible to teachers across grade levels. This lesson serves as an example of the process the authors follow for all their science and ELA lessons.

Active-learning approaches have recently been broadly promoted on many campuses, but research is limited on how varying levels of interaction impact student success. The aim of this study was to compare student success between two sections of an introductory biology course that used classroom response systems (i.e., clickers), but were taught with different clicker frequencies: highly interactive with a high number of clicker questions and lecture-focused with low-clicker frequency. Students in the section with a high-clicker frequency had 15.2% greater learning gains (calculated based on pre- and post-assessment scores) than students in the low-clicker frequency section. Postsemester evaluations showed that students found the low-clicker frequency classroom more interesting, however both sections ranked similarly in how students believed the class helped them understand the material. A better understanding of how clicker frequency impacts student success will allow instructors to use this technology more efficiently in courses.

In assessing the teaching practice of preservice teacher candidates, observers, particularly trained observers, will readily identify those who are exceptionally effective or ineffective. The anticipation is that university supervisors and mentor teachers will agree on who demonstrates extraordinary performance for a preservice candidate and who needs additional preparation before taking on solo classroom teaching responsibilities. The assumption is that candidates who exhibit outstanding skills in student teaching will excel on a teaching performance assessment and that those who fail the assessment will be those who struggle in student teaching. Identifying weak candidates is particularly critical to ensuring that beginning teachers do not earn licenses until they are competent and ready to teach full time. Both university supervisors' observations and teaching performance assessments aim to evaluate the competency of preservice teacher candidates, and both approaches prompt concerns among teacher educators about their use for licensing decisions. In an earlier study, the extent to which university supervisors' perspectives about candidates' performance corresponded with outcomes from a summative performance assessment (Sandholtz & Shea, 2012) was explored. The study specifically examined the relationship between supervisors' predictions and teacher candidates' performance on a summative assessment based on a capstone teaching event, part of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT). In contrast to expectations, researchers found that university supervisors' predictions of their candidates' performance did not closely match the PACT scores and that inaccurate predictions were split between over- and under predictions (for complete findings, see Sandholtz & Shea, 2012). The findings in that study, combined with suggestions from other researchers, prompted the authors to examine high and low performance through an in-depth follow-up analysis. In this follow-up study, the authors focus on four specific subsets of teacher candidates: not only the groups of high and low performers but also the groups of predicted-high and predicted-low performers, which were not examined in the earlier research. Analysis of the predicted-low performers (and within that group, the predicted-to-fail candidates) is important because that group includes candidates whom supervisors do not think are ready to be licensed yet pass the assessment. This follow-up study also expands the data sources and includes not only PACT score data but also information from student transcripts and student teaching. In addition, this study includes additional analyses that, for example, examine specific areas in the PACT to determine where differences occurred. The following questions are addressed: (1) Do academic background factors correspond with high or low performance on the PACT; (2) In what specific areas on the PACT do high- and low-performing candidates excel and fail; (3) To what extent do university supervisors accurately predict high and low performance on the PACT; and (4) To what extent do candidates whom university supervisors predict will fail the PACT end up passing? Data were drawn from candidates' records and included: (1) demographic and student teaching placement information; (2) student transcripts; (3) predicted scores for the PACT teaching event; and (4) actual scores on the PACT teaching event. The findings of this study highlight four issues related to the assessment of preservice teacher candidates. First, findings suggest that student teaching grades may not serve as discriminating forms of evaluation, even for candidates who perform particularly well or poorly on a teaching performance assessment. Second, the results of this study prompt questions about the connection between candidates' academic strengths and classroom teaching performance. Third, the lack of agreement in identifying exceptional candidates at both ends of the continuum warrants further investigation. Finally, the findings of the earlier study and this follow-up study raise questions about relying on a single measure to evaluate teacher candidates for licensing decisions.

While there is growing research supporting the benefits of purpose development to adolescents and the communities of which they are a part, research about specific practices to support purpose development, specifically in high schools, remains scarce. Grounded in theories about teacher knowledge, the research team relied on a dimensional understanding of purpose and qualitatively analyzed interview data from nine high school teachers and open-response survey data from 26 high school students to generate several categories of practice that may support purpose development during adolescence. While several categories emerged, both teachers and students recognized the following as potentially supportive of purpose: connections to the real world; discussion of future orientation; positive teacher-student relationships; cultivating a willingness to try new things, perseverance, and a growth mindset; and prosocial, collaborative, and perspective-taking activities. These categories are discussed in terms of researcher and practitioner implications.

This study investigates the impact of a professional development program that included two distinct components: strategies for infusing student-talk into grade-level lessons in science and mathematics; and school-level learning communities focused on readings and discussions of student-talk research. This article reports the program's impact on longitudinal school-level outcomes in a high-minority, low-socioeconomic school district in the United States. Data include the English Language Arts and Mathematics California Standards Test scores for second-grade students before the professional development began and at the end of each program year. Based on linear regressions that cluster standard errors at the school level, the findings show greater increases in Test scores for English learners (and all students) in participating schools than in non-participating schools. The results suggest that professional development which integrates language with content and focuses on school-level collaboration is a potential model for addressing needs of English learners.

The study compared candidates in a 4-year undergraduate program for secondary mathematics and science teaching, based on the UTeach model, with candidates in a 1-year postbaccalaureate program at the same institution. Candidates in the undergraduate program participated in a partnership of university mathematics, science, and education departments and intensive field-based experiences in high-needs schools. We conjectured that this approach would better prepare prospective teachers to develop beginning teacher competencies. Analysis of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers Teaching Event identified few differences between candidates in both groups. Surveys revealed significant differences between candidates’ perceptions of their preparation for teaching. These findings suggest that different program models can offer differential support to prospective teachers but how the program features are enacted influences the impact that these programs have on teacher preparation.

English learners are faced with the dual challenge of acquiring English while learning academic content through the medium of the new language (Lee et al. in "J Res Sci Teach" 45(6):726-747, 2008; Stoddart et al. in "J Res Sci Teach" 39(8):664-687, 2002) and therefore need specific accommodations to achieve in both English and the content areas. Teachers require higher quality and new forms of professional development to learn and meet the needs of their students. This study examines the impact of one professional development model that explicitly embedded language learning strategies into science inquiry lessons. It also demonstrates how teachers involved in the PD program improve their self-efficacy about language instruction embedded in content and how they interpret and implement the methodology.

The implementation of teaching performance assessments has prompted a range of concerns. Some educators question whether these assessments provide information beyond what university supervisors gain through their formative evaluations and classroom observations of candidates. This research examines the relationship between supervisors' predictions and candidates' performance on a summative assessment based on a capstone teaching event, the Performance Assessment for California Teachers. The study, based on records for 337 teacher candidates over a 2-year period, specifically addresses the following questions: To what extent do university supervisors predict candidates' total scores? On which questions and categories of the assessment do supervisors most accurately predict their candidates' scores? Do supervisors predict scores more accurately for high- and low-performing candidates? The findings indicate that university supervisors' perspectives did not always correspond with outcomes on the performance assessment, particularly for high and low performers. (Contains 7 tables.)

This article discusses how to promote oral language development through science. The authors describe how they incorporate academic "talk strategies" into science lessons in a nonintrusive and meaningful manner. These talk strategies are adapted from the "Avenues" (2007) curriculum for English learners (ELs), which gives examples of cooperative learning strategies for students of varying language proficiencies in content-rich activities. Each strategy supports concept development while providing opportunities for relevant academic talk. With student goals of self-expression, interaction skills, proper use of language structures, and vocabulary development, the authors find that these strategies naturally integrate with 5E learning cycle lessons. Although their focus is on ELs, these strategies could be used for any population of elementary language learners. Because these strategies place students in dyads or trios, it is easy for teachers to check for understanding, assess progress, and appropriately adjust their level of instructional speech--something that might be difficult in a whole-class lesson. (Contains 1 figure.)

Cancer immunoediting, the process by which the immune system controls tumour outgrowth and shapes tumour immunogenicity, is comprised of three phases: elimination, equilibrium and escape (1-5). Although many immune components that participate in this process are known, its underlying mechanisms remain poorly defined. A central tenet of cancer immunoediting is that T-cell recognition of tumour antigens drives the immunological destruction or sculpting of a developing cancer. However, our current understanding of tumour antigens comes largely from analyses of cancers that develop in immunocompetent hosts and thus may have already been edited. Little is known about the antigens expressed in nascent tumour cells, whether they are sufficient to induce protective antitumour immune responses or whether their expression is modulated by the immune system. Here, using massively parallel sequencing, we characterize expressed mutations in highly immunogenic methylcholanthrene-induced sarcomas derived from immunodeficient [Rag2.sup.-/-] mice that phenotypically resemble nascent primary tumour cells (1,3,5). Using class I prediction algorithms, we identify mutant spectrin-β2 as a potential rejection antigen of the d42m1 sarcoma and validate this prediction by conventional antigen expression cloning and detection. We also demonstrate that cancer immunoediting of d42m1 occurs via a T-cell-dependent immunoselection process that promotes outgrowth of pre-existing tumour cell clones lacking highly antigenic mutant spectrin-β2 and other potential strong antigens. These results demonstrate that the strong immunogenicity of an unedited tumour can be ascribed to expression of highly antigenic mutant proteins and show that outgrowth of tumour cells that lack these strong antigens via a T-cell-dependent immunoselection process represents one mechanism of cancer immunoediting., For this study, we chose two representative, highly immunogenic, unedited methylcholanthrene (MCA)-induced sarcoma cell lines, d42m1 and H31m1, derived from immunodeficient [Rag2.sup.-/-] mice (1). Both grow progressively when transplanted orthotopically [...]