Research has highlighted the significant decline in teachers' implementation of newly acquired teaching practices following professional development (PD), primarily attributed to the absence of follow-up support. Even science teachers who have participated in intensive PD programs often encounter challenges in integrating new teaching practices…

Rural schools, especially smaller ones, offer enormous opportunities for teachers to get to know their students and to cultivate their academic talents. However, students with potential in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) face specific obstacles to having their talents fully realized in rural schools. Joni Lakin, Tamra…

Studies that distinguish parental monitoring (parent-driven behaviors) from parental knowledge often fail to find protective effects of monitoring on adolescent behavior problems. To answer whether parental monitoring is more strongly associated with adolescent behavior problems among adolescents who may need it most, this study applied…

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S.…

In this case study, Katie Eichhorn, Kathy Gilbert, Myra Hall, Gretchen Lawyer, and Jill Nunez from Johnson STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, share data showing improved reading results after their first year of implementation of Sounds-Write, including a successful partnership with a local middle school to use Sounds-Write with Grade 7 students…

Face-to-face cooking programs can positively impact food choices, fruit and vegetable intake, and cooking self-efficacy; however, little is known about virtual cooking programs. We studied the perceived acceptability of the virtual SWITCH Cooking School (SCS). Four monthly cooking classes were offered for each participating school. Classes…

Many middle-school students struggle with basic reading skills. One reason for this might be a lack of automaticity in word-level lexical processes. To investigate this, we used a novel backward masking paradigm, in which a written word is either covered with a mask or not. Participants (N = 444 [after exclusions]; n[subscript female] = 264,…

An emerging body of research suggests that incorporating randomization schemes in single-case research designs strengthens study internal validity and data evaluation. The purpose of this study was to test the utility and feasibility of a randomized alternating-treatment design in an investigation that compared the combined effects of vocabulary…

Nationwide, over seven million students are chronically absent from school each year, impacting academic success and future job earnings. Latinx high school students have among the highest absentee rates across all racial groups. Using critical sensemaking theory, this qualitative case study examines how school, district, and community leaders…

This mixed-methods study investigates the attitudes of middle and high school World Language (WL) teachers in Iowa regarding teaching students with disabilities (SWDs) as well as factors that relate to these attitudes. The study uses data from surveys of 41 Iowa WL teachers and semistructured interviews with eight. Survey data were analyzed using…

Research regarding the role of reading fluency for middle school-aged students with disabilities is limited, particularly for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study compares the roles--repeated silent reading (RSR), oral reading (OR), and repeated oral reading (ROR)--on grade-level comprehension for students…

Automaticity in word recognition has been hypothesized to be important in reading development (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Perfetti, 1985). However, when predicting educational outcomes, it is difficult to isolate the influence of automatic word recognition from factors such as processing speed or knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences.…

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a federal program designed to promote postsecondary readiness and success among low-income students. Some evidence suggests that this program promotes college enrollment and persistence, but GEAR UP may include a wide variety of services, and it is unclear which ones…

We examined the effects of a computer-based strategy to develop self-advocacy skills for 15 middle school students with mild and moderate disabilities. A pre- and posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment and wait-list control groups was employed to investigate changes in student participation and level of…

The tablet project was undertaken in 2013 to explore the creation of an assessment to reveal English language learners' (ELLs') language capabilities in content area classes such as science. Such assessments could ideally be useful in multiple phases of the instructional process by providing information to learners, teachers, and other…