This study examined the perceived preparedness of educators working in Title 1 schools to address the mental health needs of students. Data were gathered from educators (defined as teachers and other school personnel; N = 299) employed by eight Title 1 public schools within one district in Florida, most of whom were K-5 teachers (n = 199).…

Women have historically demonstrated more anxiety related to mathematics than men (Van der Sandt & O'Brien, 2017). The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to explore and describe how female elementary mathematics teachers' lived experiences influenced their beliefs and attitudes toward their self-efficacy in…

Many STEM professional learning opportunities have been characterized as basic, disconnected, and ephemeral. This phenomenological mixed methods study addresses the growing demand for quality STEM educators by investigating the relationship between STEM professional development and teacher self-efficacy. While teacher efficacy has been identified…

Florida's Broward County Public Schools and the University of Chicago engaged in a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) to scale teacher practices that support students' critical thinking. As part of the RPP, Jeanne Century's research team conducted research to determine what barriers might limit the spread of these practices. The findings show…

With the number of Hispanic students increasing in public schools across the United States, especially in Florida, instructional leaders should recognize Hispanic students being identified for special education programs. The problem was that Hispanic students may be misclassified, inappropriately identified, or disproportionately represented in…

At-risk students are at risk of falling behind in contributing to tomorrow's 21st-century technological workforce unless educators address deficits early on. Scholars have indicated school librarians can raise at-risk students' self-efficacy levels and address inequity through access to technology and instruction. Nonetheless, there are…

We examined the effectiveness of the "Say Something Anonymous Reporting System" (SS-ARS) program in improving school safety in a cluster randomized control trial among over 700 students in 19 middle schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The SS-ARS is a program that emphasizes youth engagement and trains youth to recognize…

Only 3% of alternatively certified teachers in Florida are retained after receiving certification. When teachers' self-efficacy improves, so does their motivation, mental health, job satisfaction, and student performance. Teacher self-efficacy is unstable and often influenced by situational conditions. A gap in the literature exists regarding how…

We examined the effect of multiple school-related, resilience-promotive factors against exposure to violence (ETV) at school among an urban sample of 6th-grade students (n = 441, 57% female, mean age = 11.81), 90% identify as students of color. Using multilevel mixed-effects linear models, we analyzed two waves of data (baseline and 4-month…

When designing professional development for math teachers, teacher confidence, math anxiety, and student performance are factors to consider. St. Lucie Public Schools in Florida has seen a decline in performance in fifth-grade mathematics, where students are first asked to showcase their knowledge on operations for fractions. As a curriculum…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of technology support, teachers' confidence in using technology, their beliefs about using technology, and their perceived skills on the use of instructional and application software. The data we used were from 1335 K-12 teachers involved in the Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey (TUPS)…

Minority underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) perpetuates the income inequality that minorities experience and leads to a lack of diversity in STEM. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine the effect of student demographics, STEM, science technology, engineering, art, and…

Forty-four elementary grade teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students were surveyed about how they taught writing and their beliefs about writing. Beliefs about writing included their self-efficacy to teach writing, attitude toward writing, and epistemological beliefs about writing. These teachers from fifteen different states in the United…

Forty-four elementary grade teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students were surveyed about how they taught writing and their beliefs about writing. Beliefs about writing included their self-efficacy to teach writing, attitude towards writing, and epistemological beliefs about writing. These teachers from 15 different states in the United States…

The extent to which teachers' level of efficacy and quality of instructional performance changed after they received a professional development workshop on instructional alignment was unknown, Therefore, this researcher focused this inquiry on teachers in a Florida school district, investigating how professional development on standards and…