This study examined whether the intensive reading intervention affects annual reading level growth in middle school students to mitigate reading loss from the COVID19 school closures. Participants included struggling middle school readers (N = 101) from a rural district in east Texas. Student participant Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)…

Best practice suggests that curricular decisions be made on the evidence base of the content and the contextual fit of the curriculum to the school setting, and with coaching to help teachers effectively use curricula. Messages from the federal government encourage school administrators and researchers to consider the costs of a program. The…

The present study tested the learning avoidance model by examining the degree to which learning avoidance in various afterschool settings mediated the negative association between math anxiety and math achievement. Participants consisted of 207 third to sixth graders. Using a path model, findings showed that students' math anxiety was negatively…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has implemented a student accountability system that measures students' performance on State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness (STAAR) in several content areas. How students perform determines the accountability ratings that will be assigned to every school district in Texas. Therefore, teachers and…

Co-author and teacher Bill Wainscott found that his students lack simple state geography concepts. They have little sense of the historical, economic, and cultural influences that shape their state, and they are missing background knowledge that is needed to engage in grade-level curriculum concepts. This article describes the development of an…

An inferential comprehension intervention addressing reading comprehension difficulties of middle schoolers was tested. Method Students in Grades 6 to 8 (n = 145; 53.8% female; 71% White; 24% Black) who failed their state literacy test, were randomly assigned to tutor-led, computerized, or business-as-usual [BaU] interventions. Results The…

For many Black boys, poor academic performance and high rates of school discipline are often related to biases in how they are perceived and treated at school. These biases oftentimes misalign with how Black boys view themselves and how family members perceive them at home. Few studies examine how different stakeholders' perceptions of Black boys…

This is a qualitative case study framed by a sociosemiotic theoretical framework to explore science and language instruction with three Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) in sixth grade. The study details the modeling and explanatory processes used by EBs to mediate science learning through evidence-based argumentation. A thematic analysis of students'…

This study explores teachers' use of Spanish in sixth-grade bilingual science classrooms at an urban middle school in Texas. We used a case study approach to study how two Spanish-English bilingual teachers utilized Spanish during instruction in a unit on space exploration and their beliefs on Spanish use in English-dominant science classrooms.…

The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine the relationship between classroom climate and student achievement of middle school students. A purposeful sample of 428 middle school students (6th-8th grade) from a large southeastern Texas school district were administered the "Learning Environment Inventory" (LEI) to…

The unintended academic and social consequences for students experiencing the transition from elementary to middle school have been well documented. A mixed method study was conducted to examine the perceptions and attitudes of 6th grade students, parents, and teachers from four middle schools in a large suburban school district in Southeastern…

This study will examine factors that contribute to the decline in achievement scores in reading and mathematics when students transition from elementary to their first year in middle school or junior high school. It will test the hypothesis that motivation is not a function of mentors, academic support, teams, parental involvement, transition…

Reading depends on the integration of both cognitive and motivational factors, yet reading motivation has received little attention in the research literature. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Baylor Revision of the Motivation to Read Survey (B-MRS; Watkins & Browning, 2015) with a sample of…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the influence of participating in a STEM Academy (STEMA) on girls' mathematics, science, engineering, and technology self-efficacy and STEM attitudes. Twenty-eight sixth grade girls participating in a STEMA were individually matched with sixth grade girls not participating in a STEMA. Both…

Air Tutors is an online tutoring organization that provides one-on-one and small group tutoring for K-12 students. Air Tutors uses live, online tutoring and an online platform that incorporates video conferencing and interactive whiteboards; recruits high-quality paid tutors with tutoring experience and engaging online personalities; and engages…