This research study examines the impact of teacher research on participants in a large-scale educational reform initiative in the United States, No Child Left Behind, and its strand for reading teachers, Reading First. Reading First supported professional development for teachers in order to increase student scores on standardized tests. The…

Public schools stress the need for students to become informed and engaged citizens, however social studies instruction is becoming marginalized in many elementary schools today, the very area where they learn citizenship and about the world around them. This study seeks to: understand the reason for the loss of instructional time for social…

The passage of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act has highlighted the importance of all students having access to the general education curriculum. Because students with disabilities are being included in the general education classroom in greater numbers, teachers need to implement…

After decades of attempting to identify effective reading programs within the United States, in recent years, the emphasis on identifying these programs has made a dramatic shift. The continuous increase in federal involvement began the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). One of the primary goals for NCLB is to drastically improve…

Closing the achievement gap in public education is a worthy goal that has been included as a top priority in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002). This study analyzed the most salient predictors at the student and school levels to identify their long-term impact on mathematics achievement from the elementary grades to high school. The…

Using a case study design, with a phenomenological perspective, this research focused on a sample of primary classroom teachers (grades K-3rd grade) in south central Pennsylvania who are currently using and have been using Responsive Classroom® (RC) strategies for an extended period of time. Their perspectives provide insight into their use of…

This study focused on the aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) that require the inclusion of all limited English proficient (LEP) students in testing situations, simultaneously making an effort to close the achievement gap. NCLB indicates that each state is to assess students in a language…

This qualitative study focused on how teachers in a small, urban elementary school in Pennsylvania negotiate their beliefs and instructional delivery the classroom. In the area of literacy instruction, there has been an increased reliance on Core-reading programs in elementary school. Classroom teachers, caught in the middle, are charged with the…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and public pressure to prepare students for the twenty-first century has put increasing demands on schools to improve student performance. This action research study examined the efforts of an elementary school principal and her third and fourth grade teachers to improve students' performance in math. The…

A recent law in a New England state allowed public schools to operate with increased flexibility and autonomy through the authorization of the creation of Innovation Schools. This project study, a program evaluation using a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, allowed for a comprehensive evaluation of the first Innovation School…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether William Deming's 8 Step Model would increase reading achievement in 3rd grade students. The study investigated how well the process based plan-do-check-act model when used as a treatment with fidelity, coupled with the principal as instructional leader would result in success in the age of federal…

We examined the progress of kindergarteners who entered the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in 2008-09 and in 2010-11 who were identified as limited in English proficiency (LEP). For the 2008-09 cohort, English proficiency increased steadily over time. Few were able to exit LEP status in their first three years in WCPSS (10.5%); this…

This report measures trends in performance among urban schools receiving federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) awards as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Council of the Great City Schools aims to document how member districts of the Council of the Great City Schools implemented SIG and specifically what…

The purpose of using a qualitative instrumental case study design for this research was to explore a school district and to gain an understanding about the academic obstacles that a school district may have regarding funding a gifted elementary school curriculum under NCLB mandates. The study elicited reliable and valid data from teachers and…

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted, school districts have felt forced to focus on testing. Almost every curriculum decision is based on raising test scores. Under pressure to raise test scores, teachers are encouraged to implement strategies in their classrooms to prepare their students for the PSSA. No Child Left Behind has left school…