The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of middle school math teachers, as captured by survey ratings, of the frequency and quality of professional development programs. The study further examined the relationship of these perceptions to the degree to which professional development increased self-efficacy and social connections.…

Principals' instructional leadership has been the focus of research for decades. Research shows that principals' impact on student achievement is second only to teachers (Grissom et al., 2021; Herman et al., 2017). Student literacy achievement concerns that continue trending nationwide, and specifically in North Carolina, indicate the need for…

Leader self-efficacy (LSE) is associated with leader emergence and effectiveness, and is a strong predictor of both individual and group performance. While some research exists related to the connection between LSE and adult leadership, more studies are required to better understand the details surrounding LSE as it relates to adolescents. This…

Background: Continuing education programs for teachers seek to enhance outcomes for participants and their students. Experiential wilderness-based programs offer outdoor-recreational activities and experiential teaching initiatives. Research needs to be conducted to reveal how they influence individual behaviors. Purpose: This research…

The practices of Project-Based Learning (PjBL) are known to be widespread and effective in both K-12 and higher education settings. There is still little research on how it can provide a community of engagement for middle school learners. This paper reports how engaging middle school learners in PjBL tasks influences the students' perceptions and…

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have been traditionally entered by men, often establishing women as underrepresented in many of these fields. This research study focuses on participants at a STEM camp for middle- and high-school girls designed to introduce them to technology. The camp was held 4 times over 3 years, with…

The sample of this study consisted of 1,077 eighth grade students and 442 eighth grade teachers from nine states--Alabama, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and North Carolina during the TIMSS 2011 study. The instrument used to measure student and teacher self-efficacy, student task value, and teacher…

Suicide is a leading cause of death of school-aged youth, with adolescent and young adult populations considered to be most at risk for suicide clusters and contagion effects. Suicide clusters have been documented in school districts across the United States, though the degree to which schools are prepared to provide postvention services in the…

This dissertation was designed to examine how experiences, education, and professional development informed culturally responsive pedagogy and influenced teacher beliefs in their ability to guide students to success when employing culturally responsive teaching practices. The research school district was located in the piedmont region of North…

Gifted and talented individuals (GT) are those who exhibit high levels of competency or potentiality in one or more domains. Academically gifted students make up roughly six to ten percent of the current total student body population in the United States and can be dated back as far as William Torrey Harris's efforts in 1868. The current state…

The Intervention Support Team possesses the vital components to ensure that students receive every opportunity to excel in the classroom before being referred to the special education program. The largest contributors to students referred for special education testing are teachers. The purpose of this quantitative, correlation predictive study was…

Mentoring is a life-long approach to building positive, supportive relationships, self-confidence and increasing academic performance. In this article, I present how a college-based summer camp, designed to engage youth in increasing interests in STEM, Healthcare, and Teacher education, by helping youth build self-confidence and career interests…

Sexual health text message services are becoming increasingly popular, but little is known about who uses such services and why. This project details the implementation of a campaign promoting a state-wide sexual health text message service that allows teens to text directly with a health educator and uses a mixed method design to assess who uses…

This study developed twelve instructional modules based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress for mathematics content and methods courses for preservice elementary and middle school teachers and examined their impact on PSTs' mathematical content knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs about teaching mathematics. The modules help…

This study examined the direct effects of beliefs about aggression and nonviolence on physical aggression and their role as protective factors that buffer adolescents from key risk factors in the peer, school, and parenting domains. Multilevel analyses were conducted on data from 5,581 adolescents representing two cohorts from 37 schools in four…