Background: Integrating public health into science courses helps students grasp the links between health recommendations and scientific principles. During COVID-19, a team of 19 educators, scientists and clinicians designed 25 science inquiry lessons to enhance disease knowledge and prevention strategies among school-aged children. The efficacy of…

Classroom engagement is an excellent indicator of students' learning, grades, achievement, test scores, retention, and graduation. However, classroom engagement is heavily dependent on teacher-student interactions. Teachers' role in engaging students in the lesson learned is critical. Using a free and convenient tool, such as teachers' humor, can…

Student mobility -- that is, students changing schools -- can be detrimental for the academic outcomes of mobile students. Students who change schools tend to experience lower test scores than their nonmobile peers, be at higher risk of getting retained a grade, and have higher drop-out rates. Student mobility may not only affect the academic…

The Texas 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) program operates as the Texas Afterschool Centers on Education (Texas ACE). Texas ACE strives to improve student attendance, behavior, and academics, while providing a safe supplemental learning environment for students and families who otherwise would not have such opportunities.…

The achievement gap between African American students is growing larger compared to other racial groups. Despite being cognizant of the alarming African American learning gap, there continues to be minimal research that explains and determines the impact of the classroom teacher. Moreover, as Black children continue to underperform on standardized…

A qualitative multiple-case study explored the perceptions of science teachers, administrators, and specialists on instructional strategies used in urban STEM schools to decrease the science achievement gap among African American students. The problem addressed in this study was the science achievement gap for African American students in urban…

Research suggests that work environments are associated with turnover patterns for teachers of Color. This study investigates variation in work environments using longitudinal administrative data from 20 large urban and suburban K-12 school districts. Results indicate that teachers of Color are more often employed in "hard-to-staff" work…

This program evaluation observed distal educational outcomes, including reading and mathematics test performance, attendance, and disciplinary actions of students at eight elementary and six middle schools that implemented the To Educate All Children (TEACH) model in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) during the 2017-2018 academic…

Triangulation -- a combined use of different assessment methods or sources to evaluate psychological constructs -- is still a rarely used assessment approach in spite of its potential in overcoming inherent constraints of individual assessment methods. This paper uses field test data from a new OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills to examine…

The Improving Basic Programs effort in Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), is designed to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and achieve, at a minimum, proficiency…

The Office of Special Education Services (OSES) at Houston Independent School District (HISD) wanted to explore various approaches to professional development (PD) that would allow more teachers to access training to improve their efficacy supporting students with disabilities. Currently, the department uses traditional in-person approaches to PD…

The Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) Model is a systemic approach to science learning and teaching based on five infrastructure pillars: research-based curriculum, differentiated professional development, administrative and community support, materials support, and assessment. This model uses the Science and…

In August 2010, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) received a grant of more than $25 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program for a five-year study to validate its Leadership Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) model in three very diverse regions of the United States: rural North…

Online platforms that enable teachers to share knowledge and resources with other teachers are increasingly common mechanisms for supporting teachers' learning. Despite their growing presence, there remains limited understanding of how teachers engage with and utilise the resources and knowledge they gain online in their teaching practice. This…

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers two English as a second language (ESL) programs for students whose native language is not English and who need to develop and enhance their English language skills (English Learners, or ELs). The Content-Based ESL model (CB-ESL) consists of an intensive program of English instruction in all…