Recent literature justifies the use of virtual learning in supporting middle-grades students' mathematical knowledge development and emphasizes the critical role of motivation in learning (Lo & Hew, 2020; Murphy et al., 2020; Spitzer & Musslick, 2021). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation both play a role in learning for middle-grades…

With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004, students with disabilities are expected to be educated in the least restrictive environment to the greatest extent possible. Through the practice of inclusive education, students with disabilities who are classified and possess IEPs can be…

This Brief Report presents an example of assessment validation using an argument-based approach. The instrument we developed is a Brief Assessment of Students' Mature Number Sense, which measures a central goal in mathematics education. We chose to develop this assessment to provide an efficient way to measure the effect of instructional practices…

Purpose: This study explored school administrators' perceptions and experiences in planning and implementing recess policies and practices in New Jersey middle schools. Method: A total of 168 surveys and 19 semistructured interviews were conducted on school administrators. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Semistructured…

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…

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…

Learning progressions (LPs) have seen a growing interest in recent years due to their potential benefits in the development of formative assessments for classroom use. Using an LP as the backbone of an assessment can yield diagnostic classifications of students that can guide instruction and remediation. In operationalizing an LP, assessment items…

Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit charter management organization that starts and manages public charter schools, primarily in traditionally underserved communities. As part of a 2016 grant awarded to Uncommon from the U.S. Department of Education's Charter Schools Program to support replication and expansion of its school model, we conducted a…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Uncommon Schools in a turnaround setting. Uncommon was awarded a 2016 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) to support TurnNJ, a project intended to support Uncommon's whole-school turnaround efforts in Camden and Newark, New Jersey. The study…

This study investigated the impact of a New Jersey middle school principal's length of service and a middle school's socioeconomic classification on teacher retention rates for the 2016-2017 school year. Surprisingly, the results of a two-way factorial ANOVA indicated that NJ middle schools with a socioeconomic status classification of middle to…

Schools in urban neighborhoods receive less funding, have less programming, and have poorer infrastructure. Such disparities may impede academic outcomes among youth. This study used publicly available data to examine the association between school characteristics and surrounding neighborhood environment on educational outcomes across three…

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…

Critical thinkers and proficient readers use a composite of similar cognitive skills that are challenging to assess and difficult to cultivate. Therefore, students and teachers require an instructional model that demonstrates the acuity involved in these proficiencies. This quasiexperimental study aimed to investigate the impact of Equalities as…

Health professions outreach programs are important avenues to increase interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One aspect of many of these programs is anatomy, which can be challenging to teach due to its scope. Creative teaching methods, such as the incorporation of examples from pop culture, can help…

The work of school principals is complex; however, little research has examined how they navigate this complexity outside of traditional settings and times. This specific line of inquiry is important, because principals' time allocation is related to various desirable student outcomes, and how many hours principals work (and when) is associated…