In this study, I surveyed 337 teachers representing 47 Wisconsin rural elementary schools with similar rates of economic disadvantage but exceeded expectations on the 2018-2019 Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WI DPI) Report Card. Participating teachers were asked to anonymously complete Wagner's (2006) school-culture-triage survey and…

In this study I sought to explore the current state of global citizenship education in rural Wisconsin schools, including perceived benefits, barriers, successes, supports, and visions for the future, as well as opportunities and ways to expand global citizenship education in rural Wisconsin schools. Pragmatic and transformative worldview…

As COVID-19 upended the lives of students around the state, schools across Wisconsin saw a troubling increase in chronic absences. This report discusses where chronic absenteeism grew more sharply in Wisconsin. The highest rates of absenteeism occurred in schools with greater numbers of students of color and from low-income households, thus posing…

Concerns over the teaching workforce have been rising across Wisconsin in recent years, particularly since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. A series of Forum reports have raised warning flags about declining graduates from schools of education, record turnover among state and local government employees, and the rising use of emergency K-12…

This paper examines the experiences of 18 teachers in Wisconsin during the COVID-19 pandemic to address two questions: (1) What do teaching conditions look like during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How have educators adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic? This research offers a snapshot of the varied delivery models, safety and mitigation practices,…

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy used for a series of American Educator Panels (AEP) Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2019. The Data Note series is intended to provide brief but incisive analyses of teacher and school leader survey results that may be of…

The examination of belonging in schools, connecting school belonging to a plethora of academic and psychosocial outcomes, has been well established in the literature. Researchers have measured school belonging most frequently with the Psychological Sense of School Membership, but its psychometric properties have been called into question by…

This study explored the practices rural schools in Wisconsin have in place to meet the needs of students at grades PK-3 with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities (EBD). The research question was as follows: What practices do rural elementary schools use as they strive to meet the Individual Education Plan (IEP) Objectives of PK-3 grade students…

A schoolwide class called Excursions helped a rural Wisconsin school create an environment where everyone could achieve whatever they were comfortable achieving without the restrictions of time. The purpose of an Excursion is to provide students the ability to take charge of their own learning, reflect on what they do, evaluate their work, make…

The research completed for this study focused on perceptions of selected regular education teachers from three school districts in northeastern Wisconsin on the topic of inclusion. The participants taught in regular education classrooms in grades pre-kindergarten through first grade in three different schools. Quantitative data were collected…

Across the United States, immigrant enrollments in the public schools have rapidly increased, particularly in locales with little tradition of immigration, known as "new immigrant destinations." Despite the widespread nature of this trend, there is much to be learned about how schools are responding to this influx of immigrant students.…

Although technology is common in our society, it has not universally become an expected practice in our schools. The problem that was addressed by the qualitative, case study design is that teachers and administrators do not share an understanding of educational technology leadership. School leaders that do not understand the needs of classroom…