Mental health challenges are on the rise among today's youth. Recent reports have noted an acute and significant need for school-based mental health education and supportive interventions for children and adolescents. Among these approaches, a growing focus has centered on improving students' mental health literacy (MHL) as a foundational…

Scholars from various disciplines have theorized a relationship between reading fiction and empathy. Research in cognitive studies suggests that understanding fiction requires Theory of Mind, or the cognitive ability to understand the feelings and motivations of others. Some studies build on this research to suggest reading fiction helps to…

This quantitative, causal comparative study analyzed the effect of participation in a blended learning program has on the STAAR Mathematics and Reading Language Arts assessments for fifth grade students in a large, urban school district in North Texas. The study evaluated the performance of fifth graders on the STAAR assessment in mathematics…

This paper provides evidence on the effect of local prescription opioid use on academic achievement of 3rd-8th graders between 2009 and 2018. Using county fixed effects models, I find that when counties have higher levels of prescription opioid use, students score lower on standardized assessments two to three years later, with variation by…

The purpose of this quantitative, ex post facto study was to determine to what extent, if any, there were differences in ELA achievement and OSS percentages among schools with grades 3, 4, and 5 that used literacy station instruction (LSI) with students who had individualized education plans (IEP) and schools that did not use literacy station…

Strategy interventions have been found to support students' text comprehension, but little is known about the sustainability of these effects. This study examined short- and long-term effects of a strategy intervention on students' vocabulary and text comprehension at the literal, inferential and evaluative levels. A pretest, posttest, and…

Literacy in the 21st century includes multiple modes of communication that include culturally and linguistic diverse representation. It also includes multimodal texts that use visual, audio, and technological elements to create meaning. The new changing technologies have expanded literacy to more than print and written forms. Literacy instruction…

Middle school students' ability to think critically and comprehend complex text is often challenging. Students often need additional academic support in this area. Close reading text is an instructional strategy that involves analyzing and looking at a text critically. The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study is to examine English…

State assessment test scores in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics had continued to decline in a southern state in the United States over the last few years. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the difference in middle school ELA and mathematics test scores between students receiving instruction in virtual and…

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine the extent to which a statistically significant difference existed in eighth-grade English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics achievement between groups of students of low socioeconomic status (SES) who participated in a Washington school district's one-to-one laptop…

The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive, comparative study was to investigate the effect of teacher retention on the academic assessment of 8th-grade middle school students. The South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Assessments (SC READY) examination measured students' English/Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics academic performance. This…

In this article, the author argues that living literacies--relational, embodied forms of literacy engagement--are an integral component of literacy engagement and hold the potential to disrupt and reconfigure the power structures embedded within schooled literacy. Drawing on affect theory and rhizomatic theory, the author analyzes youths' literacy…

Student learning is substantially impacted by the choice of curriculum, and a significant predictor of achievement gain is the level of implementation. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to explore implementation experiences of primary and middle school teachers of English Language Arts (ELAR) curriculum at a rural school…

Teacher retention and shortages have long been an issue with this profession. This is not a new topic, but after the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm in March of 2020, education has not been the same and our students are paying the price with the shortage of high-quality teachers in our nation's classrooms. Teachers have left the…

This paper presents research that examined teacher talk about moderation of English, mathematics and science assessment across Years 4, 6 and 8 as part of a broader inquiry into the use of scaled exemplars to support consistency of teacher judgement. The paper draws on Dorothy E Smith's sociological work, including the process of mapping textual…