The overall purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the School Improvement Grant on student achievement in a rural elementary school in Mississippi. In an attempt to decrease the achievement gap that existed among socioeconomically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers, the United States Department of Education created…

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the…

Writing is an essential skill for participating in modern American society. Although it is crucial to careers and civic engagement, student writing falls far short of national expectations (College Board, 2004; NCES, 2012; Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003). The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) seek to increase the rigor of writing instruction…

The consequences of less than proficient reading skills are well documented. In educational settings, as children progress through the grades, the expectation that they acquire content knowledge through reading continually increases. However, many children lack the proficient reading skills that would enable them to acquire content knowledge…

The purpose of this study was to determine what impact a No Child Left Behind (NCLB)-related afterschool tutoring program had on reading achievement of elementary students in a Mississippi rural school setting. The research questions that guided this study were (1) Is there a significant difference between the 2008 and 2009 Mississippi Curriculum…