The problem addressed in this study was that there is a lack of influence of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educational practices on the development and enhancement of STEM career interests for elementary-aged students who are enrolled in STEM programs. The purpose of this study was to explore how elementary school teachers…

Not all students have equal opportunities to learn from effective teachers, and students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers year after year. However, the cumulative experience of being taught by (in)effective teachers has received less attention. Utilizing data from…

This quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between the overall and sub-component scores (operations and algebraic thinking, measurement and data, and geometry) of the i-Ready and TNReady assessments for fourth-grade students in a Title 1 elementary school in Middle Tennessee. The study included 109 students with complete data…

Over the years, trauma-informed practices have been integrated into public schools. The purpose of these practices is to assist students dealing with trauma. Current literature supports the use of practices and reports various forms of success. There is a plethora of trauma-informed resources that school district leaders have access to. However,…

In the U.S., state guidance to schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was politicized. We used state-level political affiliation to explore whether access to curricular resources differed pre-pandemic or during pandemic remote teaching and teachers' reported control over curricular resources during pandemic teaching. We found that…

Reading fluency has been a tenacious problem in our schools. Studies have addressed the national decline in reading fluency in elementary schools. Tennessee's data outlines a similar pattern of findings. Approximately one third of Tennessee students complete third grade without becoming fluent readers (Tennessee Department of Education, 2023). New…

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of educators with respect to student experiences between March 2020 and February 2021 related to academics, social-emotional health, and safety and security. Data collection strategies included one-on-one interviews with 12 educators in one East Tennessee school district. To qualify for the…

The current brief provides an overview of the 2021-2022 school year student-to-school psychologist ratio for every United States territory, using the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) counts of school psychologists. In addition to this, data are presented on the percentage change in student-to-school psychologist ratio from the…

This mixed-methods study was conducted to identify the effects of participation in the Governor's Early Literacy Foundation (GELF) summer pilot reading program on students' academic performance and reading motivation over 2 years. Data from rising first through third-grade students and teachers in 37 public school districts across the state of…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to first determine whether literacy performance changed over time for third and fourth graders of a private school in Tennessee with the implementation of the Units of Study co-authored by Lucy Calkins and Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (UOS). The researchers utilized data from the school's…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to first determine whether literacy performance changed over time for third and fourth graders of a private school in Tennessee with the implementation of the Units of Study co-authored by Lucy Calkins and Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (UOS). The researchers utilized data from the school's…

In an effort to reduce viral transmission, many schools are planning to reduce class size if they have not reduced it already. Yet the effect of class size on transmission is unknown. To determine whether smaller classes reduce school absence, especially when community disease prevalence is high, we merge data from the Project STAR randomized…

There is a growing body of research documenting the impact of traumatic stress on child development, which has resulted in a call to action for trauma-informed practices as a priority, yet implementation within schools and training for educators is lacking (American Academy of Physicians,…

In recent years, a number of states in the United States have enacted educational policies, often referred to as "critical race theory" bans, that aim to restrict teaching about race and racism in schools. This study examines how current and future elementary literacy educators interpreted and intended to respond to one such law in…

The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to discover teachers' and administrators' perceptions on faculty trust and how faculty trust influenced teachers' job satisfaction and school morale in rural, East Tennessee elementary schools. The sample size of this study included 25 teachers and six administrators from two rural school…