Though laws relating to including children on the autism spectrum and general education in public school settings are in place, inclusion of students is still not a widespread practice in all elementary classrooms. This study examines the social needs of children with autism and in an inclusive classroom. Children with autism are often placed in…

The classroom environment is an important aspect of classroom management that concerns many teachers. Properly engaging students in the classroom can foster a positive environment. This study examines social and emotional needs of students and its implications in developing a positive classroom. How can meeting social and emotional needs of…

Civil Rights legislation, now 50 years old, "de facto" segregation based on socioeconomic factors, such as poverty and ethnicity in urban areas translates into the surrounding schools, with a legacy of limited funding, reduced services, and teachers with limited training to successfully engage students in high poverty areas. This study…

Enabling distant individuals to assemble in one virtual environment, synchronous distance learning appeals to researchers and practitioners alike because of its unique educational opportunities. One of the vital components of successful synchronous distance learning is interactivity. In virtual environments, interactivity is limited by the…

The purpose of this dissertation was to compare and contrast the Leadership Styles of two Heads of Department who work at Carnelian Secondary School (anonymized). It augments a previous paper (Parascandalo 2011) which examined the role of the middle leader in secondary schools in educational literature. The investigation by means of two…

Non-English speaking students lack the confidence and preparation to be verbally actively engaged in the classroom. Students may frequently display hesitation in learning to speak English, and may also lack a teacher's guidance in becoming proficient English speakers. The purpose of this research is to examine how teachers build academic…

California has a large population of Latino/a students, and for most of them Spanish is their native language. The problem is the miscommunication between Latino/a families and educators in the school setting. Teachers often do not understand Spanish and are unable to communicate with parents or students. Latino/a families are not aware of the…

Our first generation children face a loss of heritage in today's public schools. Unfortunately, the assets that one's bilingual ability brings into the classroom are difficult for educators to fully understand. Often this may happen because professionals in the field of education lack the knowledge about the need for children to maintain their…

This research addresses lack of student teaching preparation. There is strong evidence that beginning teachers are not trained to adequately teach students due to their lack of preparation/content knowledge. The purpose of this study is to examine the experience of beginning teachers to try to understand why student teachers are not prepared for…

This case study describes a time period of 6 years in the history of a school, a period marked by crisis recovery and organizational response to a mandated large-scale reform. Despite its challenges, when speaking of this period a number of the staff reflected on it as a kind of magical moment in time. Twenty years later, I began to wonder what…

Super bookstores have entered into many communities across the United States, and they have caused library professionals to defend and debate the similarities and differences between the bookstores and libraries. Most of the literature on the topic consists of editorial or opinion articles focusing on the differences in services provided by the…

The purpose of this study was to compare library media programs located in Georgia Schools of Excellence, and determine how they contribute to the overall success of their schools' instructional program. The library media specialists surveyed worked in 195 schools that have been selected as Georgia Schools of Excellence from 1984 to 1991. A…

This report describes a method for increasing parental involvement in physical education and art in an elementary school in Illinois. The parents of second- and third-grade students in a well-developed, middle class community in Illinois participated in the study. The lack of parental involvement had been documented through data revealing the low…

A year-long qualitative study constructed a "thick" (rich, literal) description and interpretation of the social organization, interactions, and attitudes displayed within one self-contained second-grade classroom during its scholastic language arts activities and instruction to explain how a literacy learning environment can be seen as…

Visual thinking has been neglected with the increasing emphasis on verbal and analytical skills. There is a need to provide balance in curriculum content and instructional evaluation related to visual imagery skills. In order to draw upon students' diverse talents and thinking capacities, educators must honor and respect alternative thinking and…