The authors examined middle level teachers' perceptions and experiences of leadership support during the sudden transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this qualitative case study, the research questions were: How did middle school teachers perceive their leaders' support for teaching online? What were…

People often view mathematics as abstract, cold, and irrelevant to real-life, and their school experiences influence such views. In this case study, we investigated the mathematics learning experiences of two women who participated in an afterschool girls STEM club 26 years ago. We explored their experiences in and out of school and how such…

Zero tolerance as an approach to school safety has been around for almost 3 decades. Despite widespread criticisms of zero tolerance policies, few empirical studies have investigated the relationship of zero tolerance with school safety. More generally, the Government Accountability Office report on school shootings noted the need for research on…

High-quality field-based experiences are at the core of teacher preparation programs; however, the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited access to such placements for pre-service teachers. This descriptive study examined how virtual tutoring in a summer-semester intermediate literacy course impacted both pre-service teachers and students served.…

To better understand the longitudinal relations between risk and relationship variables during early to middle adolescence, we employed latent variable cross-lagged panel models using data (N = 1,050) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study. Results showed self-reported individual risk behavior ([beta] = 0.77-0.88)…

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,…

Students in K-12 schools benefit from career counseling as a means to improve their readiness for academic and career success. This quantitative study explored the career counseling self-efficacy of 143 practicing middle school counselors using the Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale-Modified and a subscale of the School Counselor Self-Efficacy…

We present results of an evaluation of the first year of a multi-year comprehensive middle school reading program. Four public middle schools in rural Virginia with large populations of students with limited reading proficiency participated in a study to determine the reading program's impact. We evaluated 235 students with low reading achievement…

In this investigation, we examined how youth during learning conversations at an informal science education camp negotiated and authored identities as learners of science. Using identity theory as our analytical lens, we investigated by application of qualitative methodology the socially constructed nature of youth's identities. We focused on the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of using a motivation inventory with music students in upper-elementary, middle, and high school. We used the middle/high school version of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory to survey 93 students in the 5th to 12th grades in one school. Our analysis revealed…

The psychometric qualities of the six- and eight-item implicit theories of intelligence scales that Dweck suggested were compared using a confirmatory factor analysis with data from 239 gifted students (100 students in Grades 5-7, 139 students in Grades 8-11). The results indicate that the six-item scale fits the data better than the eight-item…

This paper examines the relation between children's summer activities before fourth through sixth grade and their vocabulary knowledge in fifth grade and at age fifteen using the NICHD SECCYD dataset (N = 1,009). We used OLS regression and propensity score analyses to understand how children's summer reading, library visits, participation in…

This study examined the effects of a learning game, [The Math App] on the mathematics proficiency of middle school students. For the study, researchers recruited 306 students, Grades 6-8, from two schools in rural southwest Virginia. Over a nine-week period, [The Math App] was deployed as an intervention for investigation. Students were assigned…

New analytical tools have facilitated the exploration of the trajectories of alcohol use; however, there are a limited number of studies that explore early adolescence. A sample of 5,903 youths followed from sixth through eighth grade was used to (1) examine the trajectories of alcohol use and (2) determine the degree to which common correlates…

Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) is committed to providing partners with useful tools to help make inferences from the Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) interim assessment scores. Recently, NWEA completed a concordance study to connect the scales of the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) reading and math tests with those of the MAP…