Although School based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers have a variety of responsibilities within a comprehensive program, supervised agricultural experience (SAE) programs are considered an intracurricular component. Unfortunately, the ability for teachers to plan for and facilitate SAEs has been reported as lacking. The purpose of this…

This study seeks to share teachers' and principals' voices from middle schools in the Southeastern United States who are attempting to help their students achieve academic success. Obtaining a snapshot of middle schools in the Southeastern United States provides opportunities to recognize trends and identify challenges about the current…

This study investigated teachers' perception of their school administrators as consistent enforcers of school code-of-conduct rules, and if their rating of consistency was associated with an increase or decrease in risk ratio for African American students in middle schools in North Carolina. Findings suggest that teachers viewed their school…

The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) stipulates that states assess students during their K-12 educational experience at various points as a way of measuring student learning. In North Carolina (NC), the State has the NC Schools Report Card that documents to the public, parents and educators the state of education in the schools annually. A major…

For more than 100 years, education communities have debated how best to educate the young adolescent. Proponents of both the junior high school model and the current middle school model have advocated for a specialized approach to educating adolescents that emphasizes the developmental needs of students. To accomplish this, various organizational…

This study explored teachers' perceptions of their experiences participating in self-directed learning (Knowles, 1970, 1975). The teacher participants (n = 127) were guided through a self-directed learning framework for professional learning and reflected on their experiences. Findings indicate teachers reporting increased autonomy and…

Over the past three decades, children from low-income families have increasingly been attending different public schools than those from more affluent families. Though recent work has helped us understand patterns of income segregation between districts and schools within districts, we know little about segregation of students as they experience…

Since the standards-based assessment practices required by the No Child Left Behind legislation, almost all students in the United States are "labeled" according to their performance on educational achievement tests. In spite of their widespread use in reporting test results, research on how achievement level labels are perceived by…

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.…

The "defund the police" movement has recently called for the removal of police--or school resource officers (SROs)--from schools. This call is driven by concerns that SROs may heighten student contact with criminal justice or lead to disproportionately harsh disciplinary consequences. This study uses linked disciplinary, academic,…

Purpose: We assess whether school start times predict the engagement and achievement outcomes of middle grades students. Our focus on middle grades is important because biological changes in sleep often begin when adolescents are in middle school and because middle school is a time when more students struggle academically. Research…

With a focus on the American context, the study investigates a teacher accountability reform as an expanding assemblage of neoliberal governance by providing an account of physical education teachers who were experiencing an accountability reform that required them to document student learning growth for teacher evaluation. Through stratified…

Although research suggests that family dynamics likely play a role in shaping children's behaviors, few studies focus on environmental behaviors, and none to our knowledge investigate how parents shape climate change mitigation behaviors among their children. We begin to fill this gap through a quantitative case study using matched household-level…

Leader self-efficacy (LSE) is associated with leader emergence and effectiveness, and is a strong predictor of both individual and group performance. While some research exists related to the connection between LSE and adult leadership, more studies are required to better understand the details surrounding LSE as it relates to adolescents. This…

Decades of research have showcased the inequitable exclusion of Black students in urban middle schools via out-of-school suspensions. Black students exhibit the highest rates of suspensions when compared to their White peers according to the 2013-2014 Office of Civil Rights database. Urban middle school teachers are typically placed in high-stress…