As the rise in need for social emotional learning (SEL) becomes apparent in schools, the lack consistent implementation in schools is apparent. Information has been collected stating how districts, schools, and teachers implement their own SEL lessons into the classroom to promote student well-being. The purpose of this qualitative study was to…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant disruption to public school education particularly regarding the mode of instruction as it shifted from face-to-face to virtual. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of this rapid and major change on the socialization, academic achievement, and application of executive function skills of…

Recently, school districts have relied on professional learning (PL) to help teachers adopt curricula and implement practices aligned with the science of reading and to help students recover from learning interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Elementary English Language Arts teachers in Cecil County Public Schools are adopting Bookworms…

Elementary educators across the nation are utilizing educational technology (EdTech) in a variety of ways to transform teaching and learning in their classrooms. While once seen as an additional component to learning, EdTech is now widely believed to provide alternative pathways to success for many students. EdTech can provide access to content…

Educational technology plays a role in most classrooms. Online education has permeated elementary school programs, offering technology-rich instruction. The problem is a digital use divide has been created because teachers who have transitioned from a traditional setting to a virtual setting may implement and use more technology tools in the…

Green School Programs are an internationally recognized effort that transforms schools into environmentally friendly entities and engage school communities in environmentally impactful efforts. Such efforts may increase student awareness about their connection to the environment and have the potential to increase achievement through opportunities…

Teacher attrition is increasing (Torpey, 2018), and approximately 100,000 teachers will leave this field annually from 2016 to 2026. Addressing wellbeing constructs retain more employees and decrease presenteeism (Hemp, 2014). Teachers cite a lack of job satisfaction and burnout as their main reasons for attrition (Brasfield et al., 2019; Fisher,…

Children's early accuracy on place value (PV) tasks longitudinally predicts their later multidigit calculation skills. However, another window into children's emerging base-ten concepts is the pattern of errors -- "smart errors" -- they exhibit on these measures. Past research has speculated that these smart errors -- similar to invented…

The purpose of this study was to investigate Maryland music teacher education program completers' background and transition into the K-12 public school music teacher (N = 700). Using data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System between 2008 and 2020, I examined characteristics associated with music teacher employment in the public schools, the…

Creative thinking is an essential skill for success in the 21st century. The elementary general music classroom provides a fertile environment for creative thinking instruction. Although the national music standards emphasize the importance of creative thinking activities, many music classrooms focus on basic music skills and performance…

In 2016, the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights reported that Black girls were overrepresented among students who face discipline that excluded or criminalized them. Although Black girls constituted only 8% of K-12 students nationwide, 14% had received one or more out-of-school suspensions. Out-of-school suspensions…

Green School intend to increase student connection to the environment, and have the potential to increase achievement through opportunities for hands-on science learning. This study utilizes publicly available data on all public schools in Maryland to examine the extent to which the Green School designation relates to changes in science…

Background: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed across the United States. Given the impact of virtual learning and lost access to school resources, schools eventually reopened with COVID-19 mitigation protocols in place. This qualitative study sought to understand parental perceptions of school-based COVID-19 mitigation…

This research study examined how school leaders internalize new state-level reading policy aligned with the body of research known as the Science of Reading and how they make sense of district expectations to make decisions for their school community and its impact on students at-risk for reading difficulty. The Ready to Read Act is a Maryland…

This research uses the implementation of a school suspension ban in Maryland to test whether a top-down state-initiated ban on suspensions in early primary grades can influence school behavior regarding school discipline. Beginning in the fall of 2017, the State of Maryland banned the use of out-of-school suspensions for grades PK-2, unless a…