In this article, the authors share a unique and unfolding story about a program in Virginia that allows districts to opt into a series of Inquiry Design Model (IDM) performance assessments in place of the state-developed multiple-choice test. In the Rockingham County School District, this initiative was piloted in ninth-grade World Geography…

Teacher self-efficacy, the belief teachers have that they can make a difference for their students or have a positive impact on their students' academic careers, has been studied for years. Very little is known about teacher self-efficacy in school librarians, however. The following study examined the difference in school librarians' teacher…

Dropout is a global crisis and an affliction in the United States. This study analyzes graduation rates based on prior academic achievement, attendance, and behavior at an urban American high school in Virginia over 4 years to identify who is (not) graduating and why. Using a correlational, nonexperimental design, four cohorts of graduates were…

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents findings on a curricular intervention aimed at integrating computer programming with reading and writing in early elementary school. The purpose of this research was to explore the relation between students' varying literacy levels and their level of success in mastering an introductory programming language.…

This study tested the authoritative school climate theory that schools characterized by high structure and student support have greater levels of student engagement and that these factors are associated with higher academic achievement, as indicated by school graduation rates and school performance on state-mandated testing. The model was tested…

In this study, we examine the extent to which the discrepancy between teacher-reported and student-reported self-regulatory behaviours during writing were associated with students' end-of-year writing grades after controlling for student writing ability and other demographic characteristics. Results of our study, conducted with a sample of 201…

Educators and researchers have long debated the best grade configuration grouping for middle grade students. This study examined school-level differences in reading and mathematics standardized test pass rates for students placed in middle schools versus alternative grade configurations. Latent growth modeling was conducted separately for 6th,…

This study examined the relations between the schoolwide prevalence of teasing and bullying (PTB) and schoolwide academic performance in a sample of 271 Virginia middle schools. In addition, the study examined the mediating effects of student engagement. A three-step sequence of path models investigated associations between schoolwide PTB and…

A growing body of research indicates that proactive outreach from high schools and college access organizations about college preparation tasks, and specifically focusing on completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), results in increased college enrollment. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the role of colleges…

Knowing what skills underlie college success can allow students, teachers, and universities to identify and to help at-risk students. One skill that may underlie success across a variety of subject areas is structure building, the ability to create mental representations of narratives (Gernsbacher, Varner, & Faust, 1990). We tested if…

Students hold many misconceptions as they transition from arithmetic to algebraic thinking, and these misconceptions can hinder their performance and learning in the subject. To identify the errors in Algebra I which are most persistent and pernicious in terms of predicting student difficulty on standardized test items, the present study assessed…

This study indicates that the state-mandated high-stakes social studies assessments in four states do not require students to demonstrate that they have met the cognitive demands articulated in the state-mandated learning standards. Further, the assessments do not allow students to demonstrate the critical thinking skills required by the…

The purpose of this research study was to ascertain whether there is a relationship between teachers' cognitive role taking aspect of empathy and the Virginia Standards of Learning (VSOL), English/Reading scores of their students. A correlational research design using hierarchical multiple regression was used to look for this relationship. In…

The 2012 presidential election and many state and local races are only a few weeks away, but schools are not doing much to promote student interest in the elections or provide civic education more broadly, new research suggests. A report last week from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), at Tufts…

The purpose of this study is to determine the validity of common assumptions about the rate at which school decline manifests. From a population of 981 elementary schools in the state of Virginia, the author uses three operational definitions of school decline to identify samples of declining schools: Absolute (n = 217), Relational (n = 510), and…