This study employed a quantitative experimental correlational (action research) design utilizing Pearson's r correlation coefficient to determine whether or not there was a statistically significant relationship between students' socioeconomic status and having a diagnosed disability at one economically disadvantaged public, rural, co-educational…

Personalized Learning Environments (PLEs) are student experiences where the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each student. Standards-aligned learning objectives, instructional approaches, and instructional content (and their sequencing) may all vary based on learner needs and interests. Learning…

It is not known how school leaders describe their own technology leadership competencies at the upper elementary and middle school levels. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to describe what technology leadership competencies are present in assistant principals and principals of grades 4-8 in the state of Pennsylvania. This study…

Plate tectonics is the organizing paradigm of geosciences, but it is also conceptually complex, and students often struggle with developing a system level understanding of the earth. This article reports on research designed to create a characterization of the different levels of sophistication around plate tectonics in the form of a learning…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic affected the social and psychological well-being of early adolescent schoolchildren. Participants were 309 youth (51% female, average age = 12.38 years) enrolled in the sixth, seventh, or eighth grades of a single middle school located in…

The literature suggests that while the number of students attending virtual charter schools continues to grow in Pennsylvania, math student academic performance in 6th and 7th-grade math in students attending cyber charter schools falls well below the state average. Although it is tempting to assume that the concern of summer slide would be…

One obstacle to understanding abstract concepts such as the "control of variables" strategy (CVS) is the tendency for learners to focus on surface rather than deep features in instructional materials. However, in tasks such as learning CVS, these same surface features may also support understanding, provided learners realize the…

General education, middle school students' experience and outcomes related to their participation in adventure based counseling (ABC) were investigated through the use of qualitative research case study design. Research questions examine what students expect, experience, and perceive as the impact of an adventure based intervention. Analysis of…

The present study uses an ecological systems perspective to examine how parental involvement in school-related activities in sixth grade influences early adolescents' school bonding and academic achievement in eighth grade. Results of multilevel models of multiple data sources (i.e., adolescents, parents, and principals) suggested that parents'…

An innovative literacy/theater project implemented in two sixth-grade classrooms of a high-poverty, urban, western Pennsylvania middle school was designed to help urban teachers address aliteracy by engaging their students in the discovery of three young adult novels. The project was built on a partnership with a semiprofessional theater company…

The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of Choice-Based Art Education on supporting the needs of all learners in an inclusive classroom, while building confidence, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Over a seven-week period, data was collected through photographs, pre- and post- surveys, interviews, pre- and post-creativity…

Behavioral and emotional problems among children and adolescents can lead to numerous negative outcomes without intervention. From a prevention standpoint, screening for behavioral and emotional risk is an important step toward identifying such problems before the point of diagnosis or referral. The present study conducted a k-means cluster…

Research shows that multiple external representations can significantly enhance students' learning. Most of this research has focused on learning with text and 1 additional graphical representation. However, real instructional materials often employ multiple "graphical" representations (MGRs) in addition to text. An important open…

This study describes the process of defining a hypothetical learning progression (LP) for astronomy around the big idea of "Solar System formation." At the most sophisticated level, students can explain how the formation process led to the current Solar System by considering how the planets formed from the collapse of a rotating cloud of…

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a rapidly expanding network of public charter schools whose mission is to improve the education of low-income children. As of the 2012-2013 school year, 125 KIPP schools are in operation in 20 different states and the District of Columbia (DC). Ultimately, KIPP's goal is to prepare students to enroll and…