The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of explicit instructions on children's divergent and creative thinking. Fifty-two children were assigned to one of four groups. Two of the groups were presented a problem with a model and instructions for solving the problem first and then presented problems with no instructions/model. The…

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological research was to describe the experiences of students of alternative North Carolina high schools as they transitioned from traditional conventional high schools to an exclusively online curriculum at alternative high schools and to understand the impact of that educational format on…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a signature federal program that in FY2019 provided financial assistance to 35 million low-income Americans. SNAP is a focused program that increases food access, reduces hunger, and improves the nutrition and health of low-income American families. It is in the interest of the nation and…

The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the Direct Instruction programs, Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading, from SRA McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, which were being used as a school-wide reading intervention. These programs were implemented at a small elementary school in the Piedmont area of North Carolina beginning in the…

Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history in order to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives, according to the International Reading Association, which also notes, "Adolescents need high levels of literacy to…

Some students with intellectual disabilities require explicit instruction of language skills, including preposition use; however, little is known about effective ways to teach preposition use to this population. This study examined direct instruction (DI) to teach students to use and respond to prepositions. Results indicated that DI was an…

Rural, middle schools in North Carolina have struggled with the Students with Disabilities subgroup in making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in reading since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed. Consequences could be dire for a school and principal with a subgroup of these children who were unable to show growth each year toward total…

This paper illustrates an approach for Direct Instruction (DI) practitioners and researchers for enhancing the value of DI implementations beyond that obtained through student test performance alone. The importance of such enhancements is based on perspectives from scale-up research linking intervention value with sustainability. In this study,…

In a three-part study we explored implications for enhancing the role of "Corrective Reading" ("CR") in systemic school reform relating to teacher judgments of the high levels of student academic performance required by "CR" tasks in contrast to inappropriate instructional perspectives applied by teachers regarding…