We studied how the distal policy mechanisms of curricular aims and objectives articulated in official curriculum documents influenced classroom instruction, and the factors that were associated with the enactment of those curricular aims and objectives. The study was set in the U.S. context, where there is an ambitious effort to transform…

Collective leadership of teachers and administrators can be a vehicle for catalyzing school improvement. In chemistry, a catalyst is any substance that increases the rate of reaction without itself being consumed. Leadership that accelerates good work without using up the leader is increasingly necessary. We identified schools that demonstrated…

Teachers at a public middle school were given a questionnaire assessing the supports for student behavior and emotional needs in their school and district. Results show that teachers at this middle school perceive themselves as highly effective in forming individual relationships with students. Areas of growth include more clearly communicating…

Promoting Adolescents' Comprehension of Text (PACT) is a text- and discourse-based set of instructional practices that engage students with disciplinary texts as a means of building content knowledge and improving reading comprehension. PACT)s "efficacy" has been the subject of extensive previous trials. The purpose of this study was to…

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S.…

We evaluated a curriculum that focused on bolstering grit and locus of control in seventh grade students at a school in upstate New York. The intervention included lessons aimed at building a growth mindset and determination, along with writing projects and collaborative work. A pre-post design was utilized such that surveys measuring grit and…

This child-parent research is a student-led inquiry into three adolescent girls' experiences of learning during the age of COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandate. In this collaborative autoethnography, a research team of five (three adolescent researchers--two of whom are sisters--and their respective mothers) met via videoconference to engage in five…

This program evaluation outlines the process, challenges, and outcomes of decolonizing middle school curriculum through an interdisciplinary approach. A diverse team of educators conducted a curriculum audit and restructuring initiative in a Western New York independent school. Faced with data analysis challenges, the team devised an Environmental…

I examine the student-achievement implications of school-level budgetary autonomy in public schools. I propose a theoretical model of a principal's allocation decisions and empirically examine determinants of participation and the resulting impacts on student achievement. A principal's years of administrative experience positively impact program…

Since its development in 2010, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been adopted in over 40 states. While the literature discussing the implications of this initiative is robust, the research examining its effect on K-12 physical education (PE) is limited. Moreover, there is little empirical data on the effect of the CCSS on student…

There are currently mixed findings on the social and academic benefits of youth participation in school sponsored sports, such as football. While some research suggests positive outcomes through increased sense of school belongingness, other studies link participation in football to increased delinquent behavior. Social control theory informed the…

For years, policymakers, districts, and scholars have pushed for the inclusion of more Black male teachers in US public schools; however, their even smaller subset--Black male special education teachers--has been ignored, particularly by scholars. The results of this study provide insight into the recruitment and retention of Black male special…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among technology use, per pupil spending and school district-wide student achievement. The setting of this study was 94 school districts from New York State's Nassau and Suffolk counties, a suburban region adjacent to New York City. The results of this study showed that technology use had…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the design and user testing of GeoForge, a multiple-player digital learning experience for middle school that leverages virtual reality (VR) and individualized websites for learning concepts in planetary science. This paper investigates how specific instructional design choices and features of the technology…

Prior to the 2012-13 school year, New York and many other states underwent changes to their accountability systems as a result of applying for and being granted waivers from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A key component of these new accountability systems, under what is known as ESEA Flexibility or NCLB Waivers, was the…