This subject index provides links to recent articles on the following topics: cognitive science; curriculum; early childhood; early intervention; history, civics, and democracy; improving student behavior; math; reading; school-wide improvement; science; standards and accountability; and vocabulary. For access to all of American Educator's online articles, please see Previous Issues, Author's Index, or Search American Educator in the navigation pane on the right.

Ask the Cognitive Scientist

"Should Learning Be Its Own Reward?" Winter 2007-2008.

"The Usefulness of Brief Instruction in Reading Comprehension Strategies," Winter 2006-2007.

"'Brain-Based' Learning: More Fiction than Fact," Fall 2006.

"How Praise Can Motivate—or Stifle," Winter 2005-2006.

"Do Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners Need Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Instruction?" Summer 2005.

"Understanding ADHD," Winter 2004-2005.

"The Privileged Status of Story," Summer 2004.

"Practice Makes Perfect, But Only If You Practice Beyond the Point of Perfection," Spring 2004.

"Students Think They Understand—When They Don't," Winter 2003-2004.

"Students Remember ... What They Think About," Summer 2003.

"Inflexible Knowledge," Winter 2002.

"Allocating Student Study Time," Summer 2002.

Curriculum

Duke, Nell K., Bennett-Armistead, V. Susan, & Roberts, Ebony M., "Filling the Nonfiction Void," Spring 2003.

Feinberg, Barbara, "Reflections on the 'Problem Novel,'" Winter 2004-2005.

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., "You Can Always Look It Up ... Or Can You?" Spring 2000.

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., "Building Knowledge," Spring 2006.

Jago, Carol, "Don't Discard the Classics," Winter 1999-2000.

Kalkavage, Peter, "The Neglected Muse: Why Music Is an Essential Liberal Art," Fall 2006.

Schmidt, William, Houang, Richard, & Cogan, Leland, "A Coherent Curriculum," Summer 2002.

Schmidt, William, "The Role of Curriculum," Fall 2005.

Willingham, Daniel, "How Knowledge Helps," Spring 2006.

Willingham, Daniel, "Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach?" Summer 2007.

Early Childhood

Griffin, Darion & Lundy-Ponce, Giselle, "At the Starting Line," Summer 2003.

Hart, Betty & Risley, Todd R., "The Early Catastrophe," Spring 2003.

Lynch, Robert G., "Preschool Pays: High-Quality Early Education Would Save Billions," Winter 2004-2005.

Sethi, Anita & Allen, LaRue, "Bridging the Gap Between Poor and Privileged," Summer 2004.

Early Intervention

Hart, Betty & Risley, Todd R., "The Early Catastrophe," Spring 2003.

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., "Building Knowledge," Spring 2006.

Lynch, Robert G., "Preschool Pays: High-Quality Early Education Would Save Billions," Winter 2004-2005.

Paglin, Catherine, "Practicing Prevention: One District's Success," Fall 2004.

Sethi, Anita & Allen LaRue, "Bridging the Gap Between Poor and Privileged," Summer 2004.

Torgesen, Joseph K., "Catch Them Before They Fall," Spring/Summer 1998.

Walker, Hill M., Ramsey, Elizabeth, & Gresham, Frank M., "Heading Off Disruption," Winter 2003-2004.

History, Civics, and Democracy

Berns, Walter, "Mystic Chords of Memory," Spring 2002.

Gagnon, Paul, "In Pursuit of a Civic Core," Fall 2003.

Gagnon, Paul, "Finding Who and Where We Are," Summer 2005.

Gibbon, Peter H.,  "Heroes for Our Age," Winter 2002.

Kahlenberg, Richard D., "The Agenda That Saved Public Education," Fall 2007.  

Kimball, Roger, "Can Plutarch Regain Popularity?" Fall 2007.

McClay, Wilfred M., "American History," Fall 2002.

McPike, Elizabeth, "Education for Democracy," Fall 2003.

Molotsky, Irvin, "A National Anthem Is Born," Winter 2001.

Nafisi, Azar, "Women's Rights—Not Just for Westerners," Fall 2004.

Parker, David L., "Before Their Time: Child Labor Around the World," Spring 2008.

Puddington, Arch, "Freedom's Opposite," Fall 2003.

Ravitch, Diane, "Leaving Reality Out," Fall 2003.

Sewall, Gilbert T., "Plutarch for the Sound-Bite Generation," Fall 2007.

Sewall, Gilbert T., "Teaching Plutarch in the Age of Hollywood," Fall 2007.

Widmer, Ted, "Navigating the Age of Exploration," Winter 2007-2008.

Improving Student Behavior

Walker, Hill M., Ramsey, Elizabeth, & Gresham, Frank M., "Heading Off Disruption," Winter 2003-2004.

Walker, Hill M., Ramsey, Elizabeth, & Gresham, Frank M., "How Disruptive Students Escalate Hostility and Disorder—and How Teachers Can Avoid It," Winter 2003-2004.

Math

Aharoni, Ron, "What I Learned in Elementary School," Fall 2005.

Askey, Richard, "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics," Fall 1999.

Ball, Deborah Loewenberg, Hill, Heather C., & Bass, Hyman, "Knowing Mathematics for Teaching," Fall 2005.

Berlinski, David, "Inventing Numbers," Fall 2002.

Silverman, Steve, "Mayday at 41,000 Feet!" Winter 2003-2004.

Wu, H., "How To Prepare Students for Algebra," Summer 2001.

Reading

Biemiller, Andrew, "Research Round-Up: Oral Comprehension Sets the Ceiling on Reading Comprehension," Spring 2003.

Chall, Jeanne S. & Jacobs, Vicki A., "Research Round-Up: Poor Children's Fourth-Grade Slump," Spring 2003.

Hasbrouck, Jan, "Drop Everything and Read—But How?" Summer 2006.

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., "Overcoming the Language Gap: Make Better Use of the Literacy Time Block," Summer 2001.

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., "Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge—of Words and the World," Spring 2003.

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., "Building Knowledge," Spring 2006.

Moats, Louisa C., "Overcoming the Language Gap: Invest Generously in Teacher Professional Development," Summer 2001.

Moats, Louisa C., "How Spelling Supports Reading," Winter 2005/06.

Moats, Louisa C., "Teaching Decoding," Spring/Summer 1998.

Paglin, Catherine, "Practicing Prevention: One District's Success," Fall 2004.

Perrin, Noel, "A Child's Delight," Winter 2007-2008.

Rosenfeld, Neil S., "Nurturing Teacher Knowledge: How Union-Led Professional Development Is Raising Reading Achievement," Winter 2006-2007.

Stead, Tony, "Opening the Door to a World of Possibilities," Fall 2005.

Torgesen, Joseph K., "Preventing Early Reading Failure—and It's Devastating Downward Spiral," Fall 2004.

Walsh, Kate, "Lost Opportunity," Spring 2003.

Willingham, Daniel T., "The Usefulness of Brief Instuction in Reading Comprehension Strategies," Winter 2006-2007.

School-Wide Improvement

Chenoweth, Karin, "Inside Philadelphia's M. Hall Stanton Elementary School," Summer 2007.

Chenoweth, Karin, "Uncovering Academic Success," Summer 2007.

Cortese, Antonia, "Get Real: Here's the Boost that Poor Children, Their Teachers, and Their Schools Really Need," Spring 2007.

Jacobson, Jennifer, "In the Zone: How a Virtual District Provides Real Help for Really Struggling Schools," Spring 2007.

Koppich, Julia E., "Using Well-Qualified Teachers Well: The Right Teachers in the Right Places with the Right Support," Winter 2002.

Science

Ferris, Timothy, "The Whole Shebang," Fall 2002.

Hakim, Joy, "The Story of the Atom," Spring 2002.

Hakim, Joy, "Fantastic Journey: How Scientists Figured Out the Shape and Size of the Earth," Fall 2004.

Levin, Lisa, "Gas Promotes Mass: Methane Seeps," Winter 2007-2008.

Libbrecht, Kenneth, "Snowflake Science," Winter 2004-2005.

Nouvain, Claire, "4,000 Meters Below," Winter 2007-2008.

Sullivan, Megan and Steve Metz, "Science Careers for the 'Why Take Science?' Crowd," Winter 2006-2007.

Tudge, Colin, "Why Science Should Warm Our Hearts," Winter 2001.

Van Dover, Cindy Lee, "The Exploration of the Deep," Winter 2007-2008.

Widder, Edith, "Living Lights in the Sea," Winter 2007-2008.

Young, Craig M., "The Deep Seafloor: A Desert Devoid of Life?" Winter 2007-1008.

Standards and Accountability

American Diploma Project, "What Does It Mean To Be Prepared for College?" Spring 2004.

Cole, John, "Keeping Score: Why Standards and Accountability—Done Right—Are Good for Schools, Teachers, and Kids," Spring 2005.

Cronin, John; Dahlin, Michael; Adkins, Deborah; and Kingsbury, G. Gage, "The Proficiency Illusion," Winter 2007-2008.

Finn, Jr., Chester E. and Petrilli, Michael J., "Conjuring Cut Scores," Winter 2007-2008.

Gagnon, Paul, "In Pursuit of a Civic Core," Fall 2003.

Glidden, Heidi, "Common Ground: Clear, Specific Content Holds Teaching, Texts, and Tests Together," Spring 2008.

Glidden, Heidi and Hightower, Amy M., "Mismatch: When State Standards and Tests Don't Mesh, Schools Are Left Grinding Their Gears," Spring 2007.

Gross, Paul R., "No Contest: Up Close, Typical State Biology Standards Don't Have the Content or Coherence of the International Baccalaureate," Spring 2008.

Hirsch, Jr., E. D., "Plugging the Hole in State Standards: One Man's Modest Proposal for Infusing More Content into the Literacy Block and Making Reading Tests More Equitible," Spring 2008.

Resnick, Lauren and Chris Zurawsky, "Getting Back on Course: Fixing Standards-Based Reform and Accountability," Spring 2005.

Rothman, Robert, "A Test Worth Teaching To," Summer 2002.

Schmidt, William H., "What's Missing from Math Standards? Focus, Rigor, and Coherence," Spring 2008.

Shattuck, Roger, "Curriculum First: A Case History," Spring 2005.

Vocabulary

Beck, Isabel L., McKeown, Margaret G., and Kucan, Linda, "Taking Delight in Words," Spring 2003.

Biemiller, Andrew, "Teaching Vocabulary," Spring 2001.

Stahl, Steven, "Research Round-Up: Words Are Learned Incrementally Over Multiple Exposures," Spring 2003.