Purpose: This study compares responses of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) who use spoken language with responses of children who have typical hearing on a repeated word association task to evaluate lexical-semantic organization. Method: This study included 109 participants in early kindergarten or who had completed first grade. The…

Anyone who works in a school setting keenly feels the impact of COVID-19 on youth and families. They can remember the exhaustion and dysfunction that rippled out during the pandemic, and they can still see it today. The School Behavioral Health Academy (SBHA) responded to the youth mental health crisis by creating an online learning management…

To improve student literacy in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, a STEM program was established in an elementary school in a southeastern state. The problem addressed in this study was that it was unknown how teachers were implementing the STEM framework within their classrooms within a school district in South Carolina.…

In 2019, the State of South Carolina (USA) adopted new social studies standards with an emphasis on disciplinary skills in addition to content throughout the social studies areas of history, geography, civics, and economics. These skills were introduced for all grades, kindergarten through grade 12. Geography courses were added in grades 3 and 7.…

This article details the author's practitioner inquiry project focused on examining teachers' feelings about and uses of teaching with technology in a hybrid format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data suggests that the Collaborative Inquiry Group (CIG) and administrative support provided to teachers influenced teachers' positive views and…

An elementary school counseling department used data-informed practices in an effort to provide more effective school counseling services. This article provides a summary and evaluation of a girls' relational aggression small group in an elementary setting. Results indicated that integrating friendship, conflict resolution, and self-affirmation…

The goal of Smithsonian Science for North and South Carolina Classrooms was to provide teachers with ongoing, differentiated professional development and research-based curricular materials to improve elementary student achievement in science, mathematics, and reading. This work used an inquiry-based science curriculum, Smithsonian Science for the…

In this article, Jennifer, a PDS Liaison from the University of South Carolina, and Ashley, an art teacher at a PDS school, discuss a recent project that highlighted the exceptional instruction occurring at Pontiac Elementary School.

This quantitative study examines the self-reported level of self-efficacy in current practicing South Carolina elementary principals and what elements of their principal preparation programs and principal leadership professional development experiences contribute to the development of self-efficacy. The study was framed through the lens of…

When observing and consistently hearing about the obstacles our current public educational system faces, many are left wondering what can be done to produce genuine, significant, and continuous improvement. Upon deeper analysis of educational systems, one can see that many areas need system improvement. SOAR School (pseudonym) is a Pre-K-5 school…

Research consistently reflects novice teachers' feelings of inadequacy in effectively responding to students' disruptive classroom behaviors. Some teachers may quickly default to disciplinary write-ups or make behavior-related referrals to special education. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the perspectives of first-year…

Purpose: Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can create participatory cultures by removing barriers to access materials, encouraging student modes of expression, differentiating student interactions through digital environments and increasing learner autonomy. Participatory cultures require competencies or new media literacy (NML) skills to…

This action research study sought to examine ways to narrow the racial discipline gap in South Carolina's elementary schools. Employing both the Critical Race Theory and BlackCrit in schools as the theoretical frameworks, the research delved into the narratives of teachers in grades 3rd through 5th, exploring their encounters with school-based…

The problem addressed in this study was kindergarteners in public, rural schools struggle with phonemic awareness, causing their reading development to be delayed. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry study was to explore through the stories of kindergarten teachers whether students from a public, rural setting struggled with a lack…

This study evaluates aspects related to P12 principals' professional development needs in South Carolina regarding the three domains of school leadership: management, instructional leadership, and program administration. A survey to rate principals' current leadership knowledge, rank order their professional development needs, and provide a…