Accelerating the acquisition of reading skills in at-risk third- through sixth-grade students is critically important if educators expect to meet federal and state performance targets and also meet children's needs. In an attempt to rapidly advance learning in reading, a large urban school district provided a group of 2,227 students performing…

Nearly 90% of intermediate and middle school students from low-income families in the United States are not proficient in reading. This action research project used a quasi-experimental design to determine the effectiveness of a multi-component reading intervention program for students in grades four through eight at Mother of Sorrows Catholic…

Mentoring and support of beginning teachers is a key element of reducing teacher attrition. Most schools have implemented an induction program with assigned mentors for inexperienced teachers. However, the problem of attrition begins before the induction year of teaching, given that many certified teachers never enter a classroom. This…

This article presents a meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies in which intermediate and secondary students with learning disabilities were taught science content through the use of graphic organizers (GOs). Following an exhaustive search for studies meeting specified selection criteria, 23 standardized mean effect sizes were…

The purpose of this study is to examine how the 1:1 laptop initiative impacted student achievement for the students at a single intermediate school (grades 4-6) in Mooresville, North Carolina. Researchers Dunleavy, Dexter, & Heinecke, 2007; Mouza, 2008; O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell & Tucker-Seeley, 2005 have called for additional research…

It has been suggested that both internal (e.g., acceptability) and external (e.g., feasibility) factors should be taken under consideration in order to fully understand children's usage of interventions designed to improve their behavior. The purpose of this study was to initiate development of a student self-report measure (Children's Usage…

This article presents an instructional module that has been peer-reviewed, accepted, and sanctioned by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) as a significant contribution to the scholarship and practice of education administration. It is a simulation in which the superintendent of a small rural school district is…

The purpose of the study was to determine the reading, math, and language proficiency outcomes of 4th-grade through 7th-grade students with limited English proficiency following nearly two years or more of instruction in the English Language Learner Program (ELL) and concurrent general education studies. The maximum accrual for this study was…

The influence of orthography on children's online auditory word recognition was studied from the end of Grade 4 to the end of Grade 9 by examining the orthographic consistency effect in auditory lexical decision. Fourth-graders showed evidence of a widespread influence of orthography in their spoken word recognition system; words with rimes that…

In this article, the author shares how she develops a curriculum that allows many creative opportunities and builds on the art vocabulary of her fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. She calls this year-long curriculum "Art A to Z." At the start of the year, she gives a project packet to each student in each class. Each page represents a…

The purposes of this study were to see if the items from the Piers Harris Self Concept Scale and the Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory had construct and predictive validity. Items used in this study were 50 items from the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and 80 items from the Piers Harris Self-Concept Scale. Construct measures were obtained using…

Ethnic identity and acculturation are significant issues of English as Second Language students in the intermediate grades. Research has encompassed acculturation and ethnic identity as two distinct elements that differentiate particular ethnic groups. The present study investigates acculturation and ethnic identity and their correlation across…

Students (N = 221) in an intermediate school (grades 5-8) in a rural area of the Southwestern United States completed a survey regarding their familiarity with technology and their experiences with cyberbullying during the school year. Initial evidence of survey reliability is presented. In the sample, 1.5% of participants were classified as…

This study was conducted to ascertain if repeated reading or question generation was more effective at improving reading fluency and comprehension of fourth- through sixth-grade students with learning disabilities or reading problems. Adult tutors trained by the investigator conducted the interventions. Instructional components and training within…

Serious reading problems exist among middle school learners as evidenced by declining national reading scores and increased dropout rates. In response to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) expectations in reading, several experts have promoted a scripted repeated reading strategy such as readers' theater as a possible approach to improving student…