The use of instructional technology resources in the teaching and learning process may influence student academic achievement. The problem addressed in this study is a lack of understanding of the effectiveness of instructional technology resources on elementary student academic achievement. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental…

This quantitative, nonexperimental study used Bronfenbrenner's process-person-context-time (PPCT) model to determine if mathematics scores of underprivileged, minority third- and fourth-grade students attending an inner-city school in a Central Oklahoma school district differed between their traditional 2018-2019 school year and post-lockdown…

The Gifted and Talented program in New York City is one of the largest and longest running programs for gifted students in the nation. Yet little is known about its effects on student outcomes. Using student-level administrative data of New York City public school students between the 2010--2011 and 2018-2019 academic years, we studied the effects…

Four-day school weeks are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., but their effect on achievement is not well-understood. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we conduct the most representative student-level analysis to date of the effects of four-day weeks on student achievement and within-year growth using NWEA MAP Growth data. We…

Virtual instruction and blended learning are two of the fastest growing learning modalities in K-12 education. Blended learning is a formal education program in which students learn at least in part through online learning with some element of student control over time, place, path or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick and mortar…

The purpose of this quantitative within-groups comparative study was to determine if there was a significant difference between the 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and the 2021 (post-COVID-19) third grade Standards of Learning (SOL) reading and math scores in urban Title I elementary schools in a southeastern state. The conceptual framework for this study was…

This quantitative and cross-sectional study investigated the relationships between college students' perceived satisfaction of three psychological needs and learning outcomes that were measured by perceived learning gains and online learning satisfaction, as well as the mediating effects of three types of engagement on the relationships. The study…

In the late 1990s, an extensive consolidation of schools in rural China led to the amalgamation of numerous primary and secondary schools into urban schools or their discontinuation. The study aimed to investigate whether China's school consolidation movement has influenced the educational attainment of rural students. The data are sourced from…

Pandemic-era disruptions to schooling resulted in academic setbacks for many students. To help students catch up, school districts nationwide are implementing a range of academic recovery interventions. In this paper, we use multiple data sources to evaluate the impact and implementation of academic recovery interventions in four school districts…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, quantitative study was to examine the effects of implementing a non-evaluative teacher goal setting process to determine if there was an impact on student achievement as measured by MAP growth scores and if there was an effect on teacher job satisfaction. For this study, teacher job satisfaction was measured…

Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability-minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty-first century? In…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide concrete examples of what leadership behaviors and strategies look like in high-poverty urban schools in Chicago that are successful at improving student outcomes. We compared the strategies used by principals who were rated by their teachers on annual surveys as being strong instructional leaders…

The current study aimed to explore the COVID-19 impact on reading achievement growth by Grade 3-5 students in a large urban school district in the U.S. and whether the impact differed by students' demographic characteristics and instructional modality. Specifically, using administrative data from the school district, we investigated to what extent…

The term nature deficit disorder describes the "human costs of alienation from nature" (Louv, 2019). While not meant to be a medical diagnosis, Louv argues that the condition has, "profound implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the health of the earth itself" (Louv, 2008). Children most at risk are…

We conducted an inductive analysis of 166 interviews from a longitudinal study of 26 Chicago Public School principals. Test-based accountability pressures played a visible role in principals' views of and relations with parents. Some principals reported banning parents from classrooms based on the need to protect instructional time to raise test…