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The student check-up (SCU) is a brief school-based motivational interviewing intervention developed to promote academic-related behavioral changes and to increase accessibility to mental health services. Despite published randomized controlled trials demonstrating SCU's effectiveness in promoting student self-efficacy in academic efforts, the SCU's impact on student grade outcome has been inconsistent across studies. This study examines whether student participants' written statements that represent change talk and sustain talk predict differences in post-treatment grade outcomes and whether these effects are moderated by students' pre-treatment academic achievement. In addition, we examine whether change and sustain statements mediate the relationship between study sites and grade outcomes. A two-level linear regression controlling for pre-treatment grades indicated that as the frequency of change statements increases, students' post-treatment grades in English Language Arts decrease (B = -0.62, p = 0.03), suggesting that "the more" is not always "the merrier" when it comes to evoking change statements related to academic goals that require multiple behavioral changes for attainment.

Multitiered systems of support (MTSS) are composed of tiered prevention and intervention in multiple domains. MTSS is often referred to as an umbrella framework that includes both a multi-tiered approach to proactive school-wide behavior (e.g., Schoolwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) and academic supports in reading, writing, and/or mathematics (e.g., Response to Intervention). Integrating behavior and academic support systems can become complex, requiring significant coordination and implementation efforts within schools. However, efforts to measure implementation and study how such implementation across behavioral and academic domains relates are limited. In the current study, we used MTSS implementation data from 225 schools in a U.S. Midwestern state to examine a factor structure of schoolwide MTSS implementation measures in behavioral and academic domains (reading and mathematics). Results suggest (a) a hierarchical factor model for behavioral and academic MTSS measures fits well, indicating that integrated behavioral and academic supports are driven by an overall implementation factor, and (b) the overall factor had no relation to school-level achievement. Implications for practice and future directions for research are discussed.

Drawing on a larger year-long ethnography at a public, urban, comprehensive high school in the Midwestern United States, this article describes the texts students composed in a co-taught sophomore (grade 10) humanities course combining social studies and English language arts. Bringing together sociocultural perspectives on literacy and composition with queer theorizations of time, I argue for the utility of attending not only to time's multi"dimensionality" but also its multi"directionality." Doing so in writing instruction can help thaw binary polarization and foster more humanizing temporal and in turn ideological movements. To illustrate, I present an ethnographic case of students writing about the history of gendered clothing in 20th-century U.S. society. I examine how different temporal ideologies had consequences for students (not) reproducing antagonistic, polarized binaries with respect to oppressive values, in particular anti-LGBTQIA+ values as they intersect with class, race, and politics. Although my emphasis is how gender and sexuality intertwine with economics, race, and politics, this article suggests that attending to the multidimensionality and multidirectionality of time is a productive site for scholars and educators committed to praxes of justice in writing instruction.

Background: The prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescents warrants innovative school-based approaches that support students' mental health literacy (MHL). Purpose: In this qualitative case study, we interrogated the experiences of three eighth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and two of their school's social support staff as they conceptualized, developed, and delivered a novel MHL unit of study within their existing curricular framework. In doing so, we sought to better understand the experiences of these school professionals to inform future iterations of the unit. Methods: We explicated focus group data to identify themes that emerged regarding participant goals, experiences, and outcomes as they related to unit planning, delivery, and recommendations. Results: Generally, practitioners advocated for increased collaboration with each other to overcome professional apprehension and streamline efforts, a need for such a curriculum to enhance student wellbeing, and having access to more school-provided resources. Discussion: Themes are contextualized within the current landscape of school MHL programming, and suggestions are highlighted to advance this ELA curriculum-based work. Translation to Health Education Practice: Health Educators' expertise can supplement the ELA curriculum with targeted MHL lessons for students, alleviating teacher role confusion and advancing the goals of the unit by providing psychoeducation.

We compare the institutional standards and expectations for English language arts (ELA) educators from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the leading professional organization in this field, and the state of Georgia. By conducting a critical policy analysis of documents from NCTE and the Georgia Department of Education (GADoE) we sought to understand the tension between standards set for training English education students in institutions of higher education and the standards those teachers would be required to use in Georgia K-12 schools. We analyze these documents through Cooper et al.'s (2004) policy analysis framework, which questions the normative, structural, constituent, and technical dimensions of policy development. We found that the ideological beliefs and values embedded in the policies and documents from NCTE and GADoE have developed divergent sets of expectations for ELA teachers in Georgia, particularly around how teachers respond to oppression in our society; how we understand the overall purpose of ELA instruction; and the scope of responsibilities for educators. We end by presenting implications for educators working among these two sets of policies, in recognizing where these expectations may overlap as well as diverge.

The current study examined the reliability of The Reading League Curriculum-Evaluation Guidelines (CEGs), which were developed to help school-based teams rate the presence of red flags when considering adopting specific literacy curricula. Coders (n = 30) independently used the CEGs to evaluate a free online English language arts curriculum. The results indicated strong internal consistency ([alpha] = 0.96) and high interrater reliability (H[subscript M] = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.89 to 0.93, p < 0.01). Overall, the CEGs hold the potential as a psychometrically sound tool for evaluating reading curricula. Limitations and implications for practice and research are discussed.

Concerned with disinformation, fake news, and a posttruth era, literacy research on digital learning ecologies has focused on content of the texts that youth encounter but less explicitly on aesthetics--issues of form or the way a text is written. Drawing on critical sociocultural theories, this article examines youth aesthetic meaning-making with non-neutral digital texts. The data analyzed are part of a multiyear multimethod study of the aesthetic literacy practices of queer youth of color and allies. Data were collected during an online summer literary salon where youth discussed textual content alongside issues of aesthetic forms. Findings illustrate that youth drew on a broad range of aesthetic tools to achieve (1) a poetic function concerned with how aesthetic forms elicit figurative, connotative, and storied meanings; (2) a catalytic function concerned with how aesthetic forms persuade, manipulate, or encourage particular actions; and (3) an "ideological function" concerned with how aesthetic forms inscribe or contest social inequalities. These tools and functions, complicate previous understandings of disinformation, fake news, and critical reasoning in literacies research. This study suggests a critical sociocultural approach to aesthetics as territory for further scholarship across many areas of literacy research.

This critical content analysis draws on a dataset of contemporary young adult texts receiving awards between 2012 and 2023 to examine opportunities for religiously informed alterity for readers, which we argue can be a productive experience for building critical religious literacy in young adult readers. We argue that young adult literature can serve as models of critical religious literacies when authors, characters, and historical figures engage in conflicted meaning-making as they experience slippages between their lived experiences and their religious and secular beliefs. The study aims to develop a framework for developing religious literacy that draws specifically on identity-laden and critical theories of literacy common within the English language arts. Furthermore, this study provides literacy scholars and practitioners with a robust set of textual resources that can be employed to support critical religious literacies.

Integrating computer science (CS) content into existing STEM curricula emerges as a viable solution to broadening rural students' participation in CS, but rural students have a significant proficiency gap in science and mathematics. By focusing on an English language arts course as the context for CS integration, this exploratory study examined the impact of a robotics-based intervention integrated into a high school language arts class on rural students' CS self-efficacy. A convergent mixed methods design was applied to collect and analyze qualitative and qualitative data separately. Quantitative results confirmed that the integrated robotics-based intervention significantly improved rural students' CS self-efficacy. Qualitative findings provided insights on how embodied learning and mastery experience facilitated by the robotics-based intervention fostered rural students' CS self-efficacy. The findings from the two sources of data were integrated, shedding light on the potential of curricular integration in language arts classes for broadening rural student participation in CS education.

This grounded theory study explored how primary-grade teachers perceive and enact dialogic English Language Arts (ELA) comprehension pedagogy in the novel context of pandemic-induced digital learning. The study involved nine diverse rural primary teachers teaching digitally during the coronavirus disease pandemic. The researchers followed a constructivist, postmodern orientation to co-construct substantive theory with the knowledge of participating teachers. The researchers conducted two rounds of virtual interviews and collected digital artifacts of ELA comprehension instruction. Qualitative data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis to address teacher perceptions and enactments of digital dialogic comprehension instruction. The emergent substantive theory represents connected, iterative processes of teachers perceiving and enacting dialogic, digital instruction. First, teachers espoused a dialogic stance toward ELA instruction based on their beliefs in various comprehension paradigms, diverse funds of knowledge, and multiplicity of voices in discourse. Relatedly, teachers responded to particularities of virtual contexts, digital discourses, and pandemic times to enact dialogic ELA comprehension instruction through a reconstruction of literacy pedagogies. Implications for research and practice are discussed, including the need for ongoing negotiation of dialogic pedagogy in diverse instructional contexts, to cultivate teachers' dialogic literacy practices in locally and culturally responsive ways.

Youths' subjective well-being (SWB) is theorized to be an integral element of school success. However, little is known about the relative predictive power of different SWB indicators on educational outcomes. Thus, we investigated youths' global and school-specific SWB as predictors of multidimensional educational performance. Participants were adolescent students (N = 893) in Grades 9-12 within one district and one school in the United States. Regression models were run using adolescent self-reported survey data and school-reported student sociodemographics and outcomes. Global SWB predictors were self-reports of life satisfaction and positive affect; school-specific SWB predictors were self-reports of joy of learning, school connectedness, educational purpose, and academic efficacy. The educational outcomes of interests were end-of-term grades in English language arts, math, and overall coursework, as well absences and suspension. Our models accounted for several student sociodemographic covariates that might affect academic performance. Results showed that, when general SWB predictors were modeled alone, life satisfaction was a consistently meaningful predictor of all educational outcomes. However, when school-specific SWB predictors were added to the models, the predictive power of life satisfaction attenuated, and academic efficacy emerged as the strongest and most consistent predictor of all educational outcomes. Interestingly, joy of learning, school connectedness, and educational purpose did not show meaningful predictive power across educational outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This article examines the transformation of Australian EAL/D (English as an additional language/dialect) classrooms, transitioning from a monolingual focus on Standard Australian English (SAE) to embracing plurilingual and intercultural approaches in English language and literacy teaching and learning. Employing hermeneutic phenomenological and narrative analyses, the study reflects on the lived experiences of 16 English teachers who learned English as an additional language and migrated to Australia. The research highlights the significance of fluid affective processes, cultural responsiveness, plurilingualism, and intercultural identity development in language and literacy classrooms. Findings emphasise the central role of affect in EAL teaching and its implications for cultural responsiveness and linguistic diversity. The lived experiences of these teachers underscore the transformative potential of diverse teaching strategies that resonate with students on affective and cultural levels. Implications include fostering plurilingual literacy and identity development, promoting global identity, and cultivating intercultural capabilities among learners and educators. Ultimately, the article highlights the paradigm-shifting power of English language and literacy education when enriched with empathy, creativity, and a commitment to linguistic and cultural diversity. This approach not only enhances EAL/D education but also offers valuable insights and implications for other areas of the curriculum and pedagogical practices, promoting a more inclusive and responsive educational environment across disciplines.

Background: Learners' writing skills are critical to their academic and professional development. Previous studies have shown that learners' self-assessment during writing is essential for assessing their writing products and monitoring their writing processes. However, conducting practical self-assessments of writing remains challenging for learners without help, such as formative feedback. Objectives: To facilitate learners' self-assessment in writing, we developed a writing analytics toolkit and used data visualisation and cutting-edge machine learning technology that provides real-time and formative feedback to learners. Methods: To investigate whether our newly-developed tool affects the accuracy and process of learners' self-assessment, we conducted a lab study. We assigned 59 learners to complete writing (2 h) and revising (1 h) tasks. During the revision stage, we randomly assigned the learners to two groups: one group used the writing analytics toolkit while the second group was not granted access to the toolkit. Learners' self-assessment accuracy and process of self-assessment were compared between the two groups. Results: In our study, we found the toolkit helped learners in the experimental group improve the self-assessment accuracy of their writing products compared to the learners in the control group. In addition, we also found that the affordances of the toolkit affected the learners' self-assessment process, and poor design affordances may have prevented the learners from reflecting by themselves. Conclusions: Together, our empirical study shed light on the design of future writing analytics tools which aim at improving learners' self-assessment during formative writing processes.

This survey of US copy editors, proofreaders, and fact-checkers (N = 472) examines practitioners' perceptions of the skills and training required for the field. The participants recommended that new hires be skilled in grammar, sentence structure, working on deadline, time management, accuracy, fact-checking, and critical thinking; they disagreed about whether certain skills are innate or whether they can be taught. They also disagreed about whether such training should occur in universities or through on-the-job mentoring.

This pilot study investigates content-area preservice teacher perceptions of literacy practices as humanizing pedagogy. Findings from open-ended survey questions and a focal interview suggest preservice teachers see the connection between literacy learning and the teaching of their content area. They also have a budding understanding of how literacy practices and humanizing pedagogy can be linked. The research suggests preservice teachers and new teachers will need additional tools, training, and support to enact literacy practices and humanizing pedagogy. Educator preparation programs can be part of that work and support system for new teachers.

K-7 classrooms are diverse spaces where students and teachers navigate cultures, languages, and (racialized) identities as they engage in disciplinary teaching and learning. They are also spaces harmfully impacted by raciolinguistic ideologies and a persistent separation of language and content instruction. Consequently, critical teacher education scholarship advocates for more systematic integration of antiracism, multilingual pedagogies, and disciplinary content in preparation programs. Aligned with such calls, this critical action research project outlines four teacher educators' attempt to integrate these priorities across two mandatory courses focused on language arts and supporting multilingual learners at a large Canadian university. In turn, we ask: How did elementary teacher candidates (TCs) attempt to braid these priorities in designing read-aloud lessons? Along a continuum of learning, what characteristics distinguished more and less tightly braided attempts? Key lesson-design tasks included selecting read-aloud texts, establishing content and language objectives, planning content-language scaffolds, and reflecting on design choices. Thematic analysis of 30 small-group assignments and reflections by 122 TCs indicates that critical (disciplinary) consciousness and contextualized language supports were distinguishing features of more tightly braided lesson plans. We conclude with a discussion of these findings and their implications for teacher education knowledge, curriculum, and program design.

Project-based learning (PBL) grounds instruction in authentic learning experiences where students engage in real-world explorations that culminate in a final product or performance. We report on a mixed methods study with 43 ninth-grade English language arts (ELA) teachers (22 PBL and 21 comparison) and 1,671 students exploring the feasibility of enacting PBL in ELA classrooms and examining how teachers and students perceived this approach to learning. PBL teachers enacted PBL design principles significantly more than comparison teachers. The majority of PBL teachers perceived positive instructional shifts including more student-centered and authentic learning, more student choice, and greater student engagement. Many teachers also expressed a sense of renewal and passion. Students in PBL classrooms reported more meaningful learning experiences, opportunities for collaboration, and other aspects of social and emotional learning. We discuss tensions, including the challenge of covering required content and skills within a PBL-focused classroom.

Using statewide administrative data from a sample of children enrolled in public prekindergarten (pre-K) programs in Massachusetts, I examined heterogeneity in children's absenteeism patterns from pre-K to Grade 3 and linked these patterns to their Grade 3 academic outcomes. After latent class growth analysis, six absenteeism patterns emerged. The vast majority of children (85%) had consistently low absenteeism, and only a small percentage of children (1%) demonstrated consistently high absenteeism. Four patterns showed variation in absenteeism over time, with two characterized by high absenteeism in only the pre-K year, another with a peak during kindergarten, and a final one with rising absenteeism across grades. Children with always low absenteeism had higher average English language arts and math scores than did children in the other patterns, and children in the two high pre-K absenteeism patterns and peak in kindergarten pattern had higher math scores than those with rising and always high absenteeism patterns.

National interest is growing in Integrated Student Support (ISS) interventions, which offer schools systematic ways to reduce barriers to learning. The present study exploits the random component embedded within the school assignment system of a large urban school district to estimate the effect of schools providing ISS on student academic achievement at third, fourth, and fifth grade. The sample included students (N = 2,342) randomly assigned to schools--with or without ISS--via enrollment lottery. Students assigned to schools implementing ISS demonstrated higher achievement (from approximately 0.02% to more than 50% of a standard deviation) than those assigned to control schools. While we found some evidence for the efficacy of ISS by third grade, treatment effects were consistently largest and proved most robust across modeling strategies at fifth grade. The practical significance of these findings is discussed with attention to ongoing national efforts to improve the learning opportunities of economically disadvantaged students.

This study investigated the effects of the Leader in Me (LiM), a social-emotional learning program implemented in thousands of schools. A mixed-method design included (1) a collective case study in four diverse, high-implementing elementary schools and (2) a post hoc quasi-experiment using propensity score 1:3 matching of 117 LiM and 348 non-LiM schools to compare achievement and discipline incident rates. The case study indicated that participants perceived LiM as improving social-emotional competencies for both teachers and students. Teachers reported being more prosocial, feeling more camaraderie, using more effective discipline, developing better teacher-student relationships, and enjoying teaching more. Students were more prosocial, confident and motivated, and had fewer problem behaviors. School climate improved. Results replicated across four diverse schools. The quasi-experiment supported results of the collective case study. Schools implementing LiM had higher mathematics and ELA, but not science, scores on state proficiency exams and fewer discipline incidents.

Prior work has shown that students' self-reported levels on social-emotional measures predict achievement levels and gains, but we have little evidence on whether within-student changes in self-reports on social-emotional surveys are predictive of changes in theoretically related academic and behavioral outcomes. We use large-scale data from the California CORE districts to examine whether changes in individual reports on social-emotional measures from one school year to the next predict changes in state math and English language arts test scores and attendance. We show that changes in self-reported social-emotional measures predict changes in both achievement and attendance. These results are robust across model specifications. Moreover, the relationships between SEL and achievement and attendance outcomes are consistent across student subgroups.

This paper employs a mixed research methodology, integrating a questionnaire survey and sample interviews, to assess the current state of digital competence and identify the factors influencing it among international Chinese pre-service teachers. Building upon the authoritative model framework, this study developed a questionnaire on the digital competence of international Chinese pre-service teachers and collected data from 100 master candidates of international Chinese language education from leading domestic universities in China. Upon analysis of the data, it was determined that the digital competence of international Chinese pre-service teachers is currently satisfactory overall, although there is a notable discrepancy in development. In particular, competences related to digital teaching, research, and pedagogical innovation are less developed. The training experience of international Chinese pre-service teachers has a significant correlation with their digital competence. However, the experience of international Chinese teaching does not have a significant effect on their digital competence, nor does it have a significant effect on their digital teaching competence or digital pedagogical innovation competence. This study identifies the reasons for this and proposes to refine the training system for digital competence, develop and optimize shared digital resource repositories, and enhance the capacity for innovation in pedagogical practice.

Following the emergence of chatbots, especially ChatGPT, researchers have begun to examine their capabilities, credibility, and reliability in educational context. In this study, ChatGPT and Google Gemini are used as technological tools to create 7th-grade lesson plans for mathematics, science, literature, and social studies classes. Using prompts, these chatbots were asked to create lesson plans for the desired course, subject, and level. The data source of this study is the content produced by these chatbots. We analyzed 18 lesson plans to identify patterns and variations within the context of learning theories and models by using the Taguette qualitative analysis program. The results show that the lesson plans created by both chatbots are strongly resemblance to human-written educational content such as sentence structures, lesson activities, and assessments. Although the activities in all lesson plans defined teachers as facilitators and offered partially constructive lesson plans, it was found that the technology-integrated activities were very limited. The findings of this study provide a practical implication of chatbots for teachers and highlights educational considerations when integrating these tools into lessons.

This comparative case study explores the roles of reading-to-write and writing-only approaches on students' L2 writing skills. Six third-year English major students from a Thai university, with diverse proficiency levels, participated in the study. Data from students' writing samples, semi-structured interviews, and observations were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. The two approaches contributed differently to enhancing students' English writing skills. The writing-only approach significantly improved grammatical accuracy, while the reading-to-write approach fostered the use of more complex grammar structures, particularly in argumentative writing. In terms of coherence and cohesion, both approaches proved equally productive. Language proficiency, learning styles, task demands, essay types, topic familiarity, and time limitations also impacted the utilization of each approach. These insights suggest a blended approach to teaching writing at the university level, integrating both reading and writing elements. However, the findings also underscore the importance of explicit instruction in grammar and reading to support students in developing robust writing skills.

This study examined the perceptions of participants regarding the use of embedded video demonstration lessons during literacy professional development sessions. The videos were captured in an urban elementary classroom and modeled two new literacy strategies. Based on survey responses from 160 kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school teachers and 117 school or district administrators and instructional specialists, the findings revealed positive participant perceptions and effective instructional use of the videos that modeled the implementation of the strategies in a relevant classroom setting. The analysis of the use of videos during the professional development (PD) sessions was found to positively affect the instructional capacity of teachers to implement the strategies in their classroom settings. The findings also suggest that school administrators more positively understood the process of using the strategies to support the standards, resulting in increased leadership capacity. Implications of using specifically created videos to enhance clarity and credibility of PD for participants are discussed.

This study examines the impact of teachers' professional development on Canadian allophone students' learning and reading performance levels. We used the data from the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program 2016 involving Grade 8/Secondary II Canadian allophone students (N = 2,244) and teachers in French and English Language Arts (N = 598). Our correlation results show that Canadian allophone students' reading achievement was positively associated with teachers' professional development activities such as academic pursuits (e.g., university courses) and marking or scoring sessions. The correlations also demonstrate that teachers' professional practice of curriculum development had a positive influence on the learning levels of Canadian allophone students who were born in Canada, while teachers' participation in professional learning communities had a positive effect on Canadian allophone students who were not born in Canada.

The Science of Teaching Reading (STR) has received increasing attention as states continue to pass educational policy initiatives grounded in STR research. One major change resulting from STR policies is the heavy focus on the systematic instruction of phonics. Texas in particular has seen sweeping changes to their preservice teacher (PST) certification requirements, resulting in teacher education programs (TEPs) having to adjust their literacy preparation coursework in response to these changes. This shift leaves questions surrounding the potential displacement of other literacy practices in TEPs, such as the use of children's literature. Standalone children's literature courses have been a staple in TEPs historically; however, these courses have been slowly eliminated in other states as STR policies are adopted. Therefore, the present study uses content analysis methodology to understand how children's literature is positioned alongside the newly adopted STR policies in Texas. Through the examination of course descriptions and syllabi of literacy coursework, this content analysis seeks to determine the number of TEPs maintaining a standalone children's literature course and the primary focus of these courses. Additionally, the current study investigates how children's literature is being positioned in other literacy coursework to teach STR principles. The implications can provide TEPs as well as teacher educators insight on the repositioning of children's literature within coursework, as children's literature can serve a valuable role in the teaching of reading.

Scholars of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) advocate discussion as a promising instructional method yet rarely specify how such discussions should be conducted. Facilitating classroom discussions is highly challenging, particularly about emotions. Furthermore, the SEL literature contains contradictory discursive imperatives; it typically overlooks the gaps between students' and teachers' emotional codes and how these codes are shaped by culture, class, and gender. The current study explores different ways in which teachers facilitate classroom dialogue about emotions. We analyze data drawn from a two-year ethnographic study conducted as part of a design-based implementation research project aimed at fostering productive dialogue in primary language arts classrooms, looking in particular at two lessons centered around a story about crying. We found two different interactional genres for discussions about emotions: (1) inclusive emotional dialogue, in which students share emotions experienced in their everyday lives; (2) emotional inquiry, in which students explore emotions, their expressions, and their social meanings. Both types of discussion generated informative exchanges about students' emotions. Yet the discussions also put the teacher and students in challenging positions, often related to the need to navigate between contradictory discursive norms and emotional codes.

This systematic literature review presents a review of the effects of integrated language arts, science and technology (ILS&T) instruction, with an inquiry- or design-based pedagogy, in elementary schools on student achievement. To this end, an overview of the characteristics of the 19 included studies and their interventions is first presented. Second, the effects of interventions in relation to the study characteristics and outcome variables were examined, by comparing the mean effect sizes. The findings demonstrate positive effects of ILS&T instruction for all reported student learning outcome variables. Third, the relation between characteristics of the intervention and effect sizes was analysed. Interventions with higher levels of integration, a short duration, and teacher professional development activities produce higher effect sizes. These findings are relevant for the design of ILS&T interventions. The analysis was challenged by a lack of detailed information in study and intervention descriptions, which prompts a call for scholars to provide more comprehensive information in their intervention studies.

Not all 8th-grade students have an outspoken passion for reading; however, most of them do like choices. This action research study establishes a correlation between offering choices in the English Language Arts classroom and increased affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. The participants for this research were an 8th-grade class at a Midwest, urban public school. Providing students with reading choices, assignment options, opportunities to collaborate with peers, and multiple assessment forms to choose from demonstrated an increase of not only effective engagement but also cognitive and behavioral. From observations and student data, collaboration, the researcher determines that collaboration is a crucial aspect of student engagement.

Decades of federal and state education legislation enacted to increase student academic achievement and enhance school quality have pronounced impacts on teachers and their instructional practice. That impact is captured in the term intensification. Intensification is multifaceted and manifests as additional tasks accomplished simultaneously, with no monetary consideration, constricting the curriculum, losing voice about curriculum, restricting teachers' classroom autonomy, and de-professionalization. This research had the three-fold purpose of determining (a) teachers' perspectives about Florida's educational standards relative to curricular autonomy, instructional autonomy, and professional expertise, (b) the extent to which teachers' experiences meet the criteria of intensification of curricular autonomy, instructional autonomy, and professional expertise, and (c) the degree to which teachers experience pressure from increased accountability to years teaching English Language Arts, Mathematics, Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Technology. Four research questions were framed to guide the inquiry, and data were collected from 356 high school teachers. Data were analyzed using Pearson's chi-square (?2) test of independence and multinomial logistic regression. Results revealed that teachers' instructional experiences meet the criteria of intensification to instructional autonomy, curricular autonomy, and professional expertise.

Professional learning should be designed in a way that is responsive to the needs of teachers and intentionally planned with adult learning principles in mind. This article outlines one practitioner's professional journey to redefine how professional learning is designed with best practices in adult learning in mind. Strategies utilized during this professional journey are shared within the article, along with reflections and observations. The article underscores the importance of continuously refining and adapting current professional learning practices to meet the dynamic needs of adult learners in order to forge the future of professional learning.

Exploring the realm of literacy involves understanding how graphic novels shape students' reading and writing journeys. Through scholarly research, the authors delve into the significant impact of graphic novels on education while highlighting their appeal to students through visual features and engaging storytelling. Included is a discussion of lesson planning using eighth-grade English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) focused on exploring the role setting has on a character's motivations, values, and beliefs through the graphic novel "When Stars Are Scattered" by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. This approach empowers students to become proficient readers and writers in today's visual society.