Parents' beliefs about the nature of ability are communicated to their children through parent-child interactions. Parental mindsets are one of the parental beliefs that have received increasing attention over recent years. However, their role in children's motivation and achievement outcomes remains relatively underexplored. Moreover, most…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to examine how 3rd-8th grade teachers describe their use of educational technology for experiential learning in mathematics in the Southwestern United States. David Kolb et al. (2001) experiential learning theory guided the two research questions on the level of use and how teachers described…

Goal setting is utilized by adults regularly to foster success. It has also been shown to benefit academic achievement. This 8-week study sought to determine the effects of goal setting on motivation, self-efficacy, and math achievement in elementary students. The quasi-experimental study included 70 students in 3rd and 4th grade math classes.…

As military dependent students relocate, they enroll in multiple schools throughout their K-12 experience. Frequent mobility can create gaps in achievement. The challenge in the local setting is meeting the needs of military dependent students scoring below grade level standards in math. The purpose of the formative evaluation was to determine the…

Improving foundational academic skills for elementary level students continues to be a challenge for classroom teachers. This study implemented weekly progress monitoring procedures using curriculum-based measurement assessments in conjunction with weekly individual student-teacher graphing and goal-setting conferences to determine the effect the…

Background: Identifying lifestyle factors such as physical activity (PA) patterns and eating behaviors of children may be beneficial in implementing interventions in urban elementary schools. Purpose: To examine PA levels and self-efficacy (SE) in PA and health eating (HE) of third, fourth, and fifth graders in 3 low economic elementary schools in…

This study uses an existing evaluation model and previously established measurement tools to evaluate the quality and success of Urban Compass, a private non-profit after-school program for elementary school children in the Watts district of Los Angeles. This evaluation had two major objectives. The first objective was to assess program quality by…

Programs and reforms have come and gone in the educational arena with little impact on student performance. The problem at the school of study was the students' perception of their sense of belonging and the sense of the school as a community and the students' academic performance did not show adequate growth. The study took place in a mid-western…

Early aggression is a problem in its own right and a risk factor for further developmental problems. Although both effortful control and social information processing (SIP) skills are negatively associated with aggression and are targeted by aggression prevention programs, little is known about the relation between them or about their joint…

Since its publication in 2012, "The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students" has helped countless classroom teachers, special educators, and others implement an effective, new approach to teaching focused on skill-building, practical interventions, and purposeful, positive interactions…

The aim of the present study was to investigate children's achievement goal orientations and their relations to math achievement in the primary grades. The sample consisted of 179 children who were in the 2nd and 3rd grades during the first measurement and in the 3rd and 4th grades during the second measurement. Children's self-ratings were…

This study addressed the problem of chronic low student achievement in language arts at a Program Improvement 5+ school by implementing two cycles of facilitated lesson study. Using action research to facilitate and monitor change in instructional practices at a school that is currently undergoing a teacher-initiated turnaround reform effort, this…

Education leaders and much literature exhort teachers and school leaders to use data more often and more effectively to guide planning and decision making--called, "data driven decision making." This term is ubiquitous in literature and reform discourse, but "on the ground," so to speak, practitioners face significant challenges in analyzing,…

Using data for school improvement is a key goal of Race to the Top, and now is the time to make data-driven school improvement a priority. However, many educators are drowning in data. Boost your professional learning community's ability to translate data into action with this new book from Pam Robbins and Robert T. Hess. "The Data Toolkit"…

In this article, we argue that preparing and maintaining a cadre of culturally responsive teachers is critical to improving urban education and achieving educational equity. We discuss a collaborative, social-justice-oriented approach to teacher preparation committed to developing a stable and effective teaching force reflective of the student…