The disruptions to schooling created by the COVID-19 pandemic prompted nationwide concern about negative impacts on academic proficiency, particularly for vulnerable student populations. Pennsylvania's 2021 statewide assessments offered the first opportunity since the pandemic began to assess how students across the Commonwealth were faring,…

This study explores the effect of in-person schooling on youth suicide. We document three key findings. First, using data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1990-2019, we document the historical association between teen suicides and the school calendar. We show that suicides among 12-to-18-year-olds are highest during months of the…

Retention of special education teachers is a widespread and chronic issue in the United States. In response to retention issues and other demands, alternative approaches to teacher preparation have developed and expanded. This study, which utilized semi-structured qualitative interviews, explored beginning special education teachers' intentions to…

This qualitative, exploratory, single-case study explored multiple teachers' perception while engaging their students in a blended learning classroom at one urban elementary and one urban middle school to improve teaching and learning. Specifically, the study included an exploration of a teacher's use of face-to-face engagement of their students…

Background: Information Communication Technology (ICT) holds the promise of enabling low-cost teacher professional development at scale. An expert coach, for example, could reach far more teachers virtually, thus reducing salary and transport costs. But the benefits of in-person interaction--such as developing relationships of trust and…

This mixed-methods phenomenological study explored teacher perception and the phenomenon of general education teachers' lived experiences regarding the intricacies involved with assigning homework to diagnosed dyslexic students. Seven third and fourth grade general education teachers gave their perceptions, strategies, and experiences of assigning…

Drawing on communities of practice and social cognitive learning theories, this paper explores language teachers' beliefs, knowledge and practices concerning the provision of high-quality education to learners with specific learning difficulties in various educational settings around the world. The data sample for this paper comprises qualitative…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on education systems in the U.S, prompting a variety of changes to school learning environments. This study investigates student/family choices of learning modality in one large school district in the U.S and examines how these choices differ by students' race/ethnicity and performance level. Results…

Background: As COVID-19 has spread around the world, "how and where students learn" has dramatically changed. Approximately 90% of the U.S schools shifted into virtual learning in April 2020. For the 2020-2021 school year, school districts in the U.S were given the autonomy to decide how they would educate their students. While many…

Sessions of our laboratory-based physics course have been "meeting" synchronously online instead of on campus due to the pandemic. Shifting to remote instruction prompted us to create online versions of the course. In the unit on global climate change, for example, we continued engaging students in documenting their initial and evolving…

The contact hypothesis, initially formulated in 1954 to delineate conditions conducive to addressing entrenched intergroup differences, has undergone continuous evolution. Originally based on face-to-face interactions, it began incorporating virtual contact from 2006 (Amichai-Hamburger & McKenna). The subsequent proliferation of blended…

This study aims to explore the educational potential of Minecraft as a learning environment that supports active teaching methods, especially in remote contexts. It presents the experience of remote laboratory teaching within the MineClass project conducted from 2018 to 2021, addressing the challenges posed by the reduction of in-person and online…

For the past two decades, there has been a shift in education to include students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusion classrooms. The problem addressed in this study was that the number of pupils with ASD attending mainstream schools is increasing; however, there is a lack of evidence to support whether their needs are being met in…

For the past three academic years, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning and the relationships between teachers, students, families, and communities that are at the heart of education. Even as school buildings reopened to in-person instruction, periodic quarantines, social distancing, and canceled events had a profound impact on students'…

In order to establish a more equitable grading system, the grading trends of the district must be examined. It is equally important to understand how students enrolled in HISD performed academically "pre-pandemic," during widespread school closures and remote learning, and in the current school year, and to compare the grading trends…