This paper examines the impact of high-fatality school shootings on the subsequent outcomes of the survivors of those events. We focus specifically on the shootings at Columbine High School (Littleton, CO), Sandy Hook Elementary (Newtown, CT), and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL). We assess the subsequent educational record,…

Teachers are responsible for providing opportunities to use learning strategies in the classroom. The students' engagement shows an observable reflection of the educator's teaching practice. This qualitative case study highlights teachers' perceptions of student engagement in the urban elementary classroom. The research questions asked about…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: This descriptive research aimed to explore third-grade reading laws in nine southeastern states. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 participants from the states included in this study and integrated both quantitative archival reading assessment data and qualitative interview data…

Children with disabilities are a marginalized group and current literature indicates that their parents are less likely to participate in their education. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the agency and advocacy experiences of parents of elementary school children with disabilities in a school district in a central Florida…

The purpose of this dissertation in practice was to understand how participation in a career exploration/introduction to career and technical education (CTE) course with embedded digital tools certification implemented for fifth-grade students influenced how students thought about and articulated their career aspirations. The setting for this…

Despite the surge in efficacy studies, the relative effectiveness of any two math interventions is largely unknown and replications are rare. To ensure that students benefit from high-quality learning experiences, the current conceptual replication of Wang and Woodworth, a randomized control trial, evaluated the relative impacts of two computer…

Richard Allington reviews the nature of the reading achievement gap between students from low-income and high-income families, concluding that the limited access to children's books experienced by children from low-income families lies at the base of the problem. The fact that children from low-income families lose reading achievement every summer…

The present study examines perceptions of relationship quality as antecedents of best friendship dissolution. Participants included 230 students in Florida (United States; 54.3% girls; ages = 8-13; 39.6% European American, 27.0% Hispanic American, 21.7% African American, and 2.6% Asian American) and 496 students in Lithuania (49.0% girls; ages =…

Out-of-school-time (OST) programs have long focused on children's social and emotional development as part of their mission of building a culture of connectedness and positive relationships between youth and adults. Research demonstrates that high-quality, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are associated with positive…

In 2012, Florida adopted the Academically Challenging Curriculum to Enhance Learning (ACCEL) statute establishing minimum requirements for local education agencies to provide access to accelerated learning options for eligible K-12 public school students. This study examined Florida public school district acceleration policies for elementary…

This mixed-methods study explored the impact of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) lessons on elementary students' STEAM knowledge, identities, and attitudes toward STEAM education. The study was conducted at an independent school in South Florida, United States, which employs arts integration pedagogy to serve at-risk…

The Literacy Footprints Digital Reader provides elementary grade students and teachers with online access to books and resources from the Literacy Footprints Complete System of Guided Reading. Teachers can create a bookshelf of appropriate books for students to read independently and can create assignments for individuals or groups of students.…

Research has established that reading and writing skills are closely linked for most individuals, which can be explained by the shared knowledge and functional relations theoretical perspectives. The current study used quantile regression to explore differences between and within Grades 3-5 in the United States in the associations between a…

Background/Context: In the early elementary grades, many students do not achieve literacy proficiency due to inadequate personalized literacy instruction (Taylor et al., 2010). Despite increasing evidence that differentiated instruction informed by assessments of students' reading abilities can improve learning more effectively than…

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational-predictive study was to assess if and to what extent second-grade student race (operationalized as minority status) and student socioeconomic status (operationalized as eligibility for Free and Reduced Lunch) predict second-grade student classification as gifted under two scenarios: using the current…