Background: Adolescents with overweight or obesity are at greater risk of having physical and psychosocial consequences. With increased disparities and inadequate literature on prevalence of adolescent weight status in rural Appalachia, there is potential for further complications. Unfortunately, adolescent obesity treatment options are often…

Attempting to balance all the aspects of teaching can be overwhelming and challenging without the appropriate measures for novice teachers. The purpose of the mixed-methods study was to examine the challenges and opportunities in teacher retention of K-12 novice teachers in a rural, south Mississippi school district. Novice teachers may struggle…

Background: Educators in rural schools are uniquely situated to address youth mental health disparities, yet often face challenges in delivering mental health supports. This paper describes the process of adapting the evidence-based Coping Power program, a small group prevention program for youth with aggressive behavior problems, to be a…

This study extends the community of inquiry (CoI) framework and empowerment theory by exploring the relationships between motivational variables, CoI variables, learning presence, and empowerment. We added motivational beliefs (growth mindset, self-efficacy, and task value) as associated variables and learning presence (online self-regulation) as…

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a framework that incorporates assessments and interventions to reduce behavior issues and increase student achievement. Schools utilize Response-to-Intervention (RTI), a multi-tiered approach, to support students with academic and behavioral needs. School and district leaders in rural contexts face…

Tennessee educational leaders initially implemented Response to Instruction and Intervention for the same reason other states across the nation adopted the framework; to identify students with specific learning disability. In 2014, Tennessee restructured the Response to Instruction and Intervention model to move from the traditional three-tiered…

Flipped learning maximizes class time and incorporates practices such as differentiation and cooperative learning to meet student's individual learning needs. Research showed this instructional model to be promising at increasing academic performance much quicker than traditional instruction. This non-equivalent groups, quasi-experimental study…

A problem exists for many rural and economically disadvantaged schools because teachers are not prepared to teach the students sitting in their classrooms. Each person has their own unique culture that helps them navigate the world around them, but what happens when the needs of the school do not meet the needs of the student? The use of…

The purpose of this study was to identify barriers preventing teachers from fully integrating technology into their daily instruction. This mixed-method research study identified some common barriers teachers faced daily. Sixteen middle school STEM teachers from a rural Title 1 school district in North Carolina participated in the study. The…

Many students in rural schools have negative school safety perceptions. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research study was to investigate the school safety perceptions of students in rural elementary, middle, and high schools in a public school district in South Carolina. The school safety perceptions of students in grades three…

The use of exclusionary discipline practices in schools has continued to increase since the advent of Zero Tolerance discipline policies in the 1990s. Research indicates that these practices are largely ineffective in addressing behavior, and result in detrimental outcomes for students and communities. This study focused on the use of Disciplinary…

Service learning has been established as a promising method of teaching and learning that engages youth as change agents in their schools and communities. But service learning has not been widely implemented or studied in rural K-12 schools. This study explores the case of a service learning curriculum, the Working Together Project (WTP), in a…

This study is a phenomenological analysis of the experiences of members of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team when an appreciative approach is taken during the IEP process in a middle school in rural New England. The specific phenomenon studied is individuals' experience when student strengths are discussed explicitly as an IEP is…

As students transition from elementary to middle school, they often perform at a reduced academic level than their elementary school academic performances. Middle school is the time when students experience changes developmentally, emotionally, physically, and socially. Students will experience personal and academic problems if the school or…

In this study, I explored the perception of school leaders and teachers in a rural middle school in Southern Italy. For my conceptual framework, I pulled on three bodies of scholarship: intercultural education, the overall importance of school leaders, and teachers' attitudes towards immigrant students. I conducted a basic qualitative study using…