Students in the United States are no longer meeting the daily recommended 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and therefore are not becoming physically literate. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to examine the relationship between level of physical literacy and the amount of physical activity in…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore African American male teachers' factors why they remained in K-12 urban public education in Northern New Jersey. African American male teachers are absent in K-12 public education, comprising only two percent of the all-teacher population, according to the data reported by…

Leadership plays an important role in determining organizational culture and maintaining a commitment to the collective goal. Leaders not only play a critical role in developing and implementing policies to direct an organization toward a goal, but also serve as role models for those with whom they work. Research has shown that relationships…

Art Education is vital to rounded skill-growth in students and schools. The skills learned in art education are transferable to the academic subjects students work in, and to their lives outside the school. In the United States of America, resources and accessibility to in-depth art education vary widely. The experiences between students in…

Many recent critical reforms in state school finance systems have been catalyzed by the courthouse, not the statehouse. Advocates for equity-focused school finance reforms often consider legal action as the best path to significant policy changes. This brief discusses state-level lawsuits on adequacy and equity grounds and their outcomes.

Charter schools are public schools that operate free from some government regulations in return for a commitment to achieve a set of student outcomes specified in their charter. Nearly 8,000 public charter schools enrolled 3.7 million students in the U.S. in 2020-21. In major cities, charter schools receive less funding per pupil compared to…

School policies and interventions are implemented with the hope of increasing achievement, but that alone has not been found to support all students in accessing their potential (Savitz-Romer & Bouffard, 2013). The disparities that exist within the education systems provide unfair advantage to some students over others and this is seen across…

We tested 10 data-based strategies to better identify student homelessness in Camden City School District, which has a student body from minoritized backgrounds. We operationalized strategies through a research-practice partnership, following the federal homelessness definition. Data span 5 years (2014-15 through 2018-19), including integrated…

During the 2020 pandemic, global governments imposed COVID-19 restrictions. Among the restrictions were K-12 school closures, which caused an abrupt change from in-person to virtual learning. These circumstances damaged students' mental health even after constraints were lifted. The problem was the socio-emotional learning (SEL) deficiency…

The purpose of the qualitative exploratory case study was to explore third through fifth-grade teachers' perceptions of how being provided with curriculum-based professional development could influence instructional techniques and skills in the classroom. Two research questions guided the study. The questions focused on third to fifth-grade…

When students struggle with reading at the elementary level, their needs are typically met with interventions that focus on word recognition and decoding skills. This same intervention approach is often used to address students who struggle with reading at the middle-school level. The middle school struggling reader accumulates deficits from…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how kindergarten teachers describe their use, as well as the effectiveness and value, of developmentally appropriate practices for teaching kindergarten curriculum in a mid-size urban school district in New Jersey. It was not known how kindergarten teachers describe their use, as…

The study explores the implementation of teacher evaluation models and federal education policies, particularly AchieveNJ, in an urban public school district in New Jersey. It focuses on principals' experiences and perceptions, uncovering their challenges and thoughts on the policy's effectiveness in enhancing teacher performance and student…

Oftentimes, student engagement in the classroom is a challenge. Traditional instruction does not meet the learning needs of many urban at-risk students because they cannot relate to the teaching practices. Studies show instructional practices rich in culture can be implemented to improve engagement. The problem in this study was the lack of…

This study investigates the correlation between an educational leader's perception of the importance of providing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) professional development to the teaching staff and the depth of the professional development in K-8 school districts. The survey consisted of 34 multiple-choice questions and 26 questions on a…