Despite the pressure special educators are under to ensure that their students with significant cognitive disabilities learn the important skills necessary to live a productive life, the recent educational path in Ohio has been geared towards a standards-based curriculum to prepare them for the state assessment. The purpose of this qualitative…

Background: While journalists claim social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been central to the growth of the opt-out movement, there is a lack of empirical research that examines its use by participants. We address this gap by highlighting findings related to the usage of social media by opt-out participants in Ohio. Purpose: This…

In the United States, national and state standardized assessments have become a metric for measuring student learning and high-quality learning environments. As the COVID19 pandemic offered a multitude of learning modalities (e.g., hybrid, socially distanced face-to-face instruction, virtual environment), it becomes critical to examine how this…

Lower reading scores on standardized tests over the years are a great concern. Middle school students have negative reading attitudes due to less emphasis on reading. The problem addressed in this study was the relationship between middle school students' reading attitudes and their reading comprehension levels are not known and factors that may…

This study will utilize a quantitative method to the explore the association between third grade students' home computer access and their ability to attain a proficient score on the Fall 2019 English Language Arts standardized state assessment. The secondary focus will explore the association between third grade students' home computer access and…

Purpose: This study was designed to assess the utility of a tool for automated analysis of rare vocabulary use in the spoken narratives of a group of school-age children from low-income communities. Method: We evaluated personal and fictional narratives from 76 school-age children from low-income communities (M[subscript age] = 9;3…

The purpose of the study is to understand secondary science teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and implementation of inquiry to provide information for the improvement of science education in a Midwestern U.S. state that has not yet adopted NGSS. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was selected to capture both a broad perspective of…

An IEP is an Individualized Education Program. When a child is identified with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) a child has a right to a Free, Appropriate, Public Education (FAPE). For a child to receive FAPE there has to be an IEP developed in order for the child to progress in the general education…

This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

A growing number of states are interested in tracking the readiness of children entering kindergarten. In 2010, just seven states (Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, and Vermont) collected Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) data for the purposes of aggregating data at the state level. Since this time, most states report…

Construct-irrelevant cognitive complexity of some items in the statewide grade-level assessments may impose performance barriers for students with disabilities who are ineligible for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards. This has spurred research into whether items can be modified to reduce complexity without affecting…

This study reports findings from studies examining potential read-aloud accommodations on standardized reading comprehension assessments for students with decoding difficulties. Three types of accommodations were evaluated: question stems and answer options read aloud; question stems, answer options, and proper nouns read aloud; and full…

An IEP is an Individualized Education Program. When a child is identified with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) a child has a right to a Free, Appropriate, Public Education (FAPE). For a child to receive FAPE there has to be an IEP developed in order for the child to progress in the general education…

"Prentice Hall/Pearson Literature©" (2007-15) is an English language arts curriculum designed for students in grades 6-12 that focuses on building reading, vocabulary, literary analysis, and writing skills. It uses passages from fiction and nonfiction texts, poetry, and contemporary digital media. The curriculum is based on a textbook.…

When the nation shut down in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, states had to figure out what education would look like for the remainder of the academic year. These abrupt changes affected not only students' ability to learn but also their access to the support system that would help prepare them for steps beyond high school. This Policy…