In an effort to provide intervention for struggling adolescent readers, schools are turning increasingly toward computer-assisted reading intervention programs. This case study analyzes the perceptions, and contradictions, that exist between students, teachers, and administrators of the intervention tools used at one urban middle school. The…

I contrast the lenses that Norman Mailer, Herbert Marcuse, and Karl Marx bring to their analyses of social life, exploring the contributions and limits of their respective approaches. I then propose what I call a "multilectical" theoretical lens that encompasses the strengths of all three and leans on the insights of post-Marxist…

This article is drawn from a study conducted to explore how assessment conversations, a type of informal formative assessment, can support science learning in a technology-aided seventh-grade classroom in Northern California. The classroom setting where the study took place used interactive whiteboards in conjunction with the inquiry-based…

This study examines whether disconnection between educational aspirations and expectations is associated with socioeconomic status, academic performance, academic risk-related behaviors and related psychosocial factors in an ethnically and economically diverse sample of early adolescents from a public middle school (N = 761). Results suggest that…

In this research article, Myosha McAfee presents findings from her grounded theory and microethnographical study of math instruction in a racially and socioeconomically diverse public school. Her analysis puts forth a new theory-the kinesiology of race-which conceptualizes race as a verb rather than a noun. It centrally considers how racial…

School systems often implement character education initiatives in reaction to a violent event. Following the school shootings that occurred in the 1990s, many school systems started to implement character education and violence prevention programs. Unfortunately, because the efforts were reactive, little thought was given to sustainability…

The authors of this study document one middle school classroom in an attempt to understand how inquiry learning, supported with technological tools, can provide students with opportunities to develop ownership of science content knowledge. Case study and collaborative teacher researcher methods were utilized to document the implementation of a…

Shows tests of social learning theory in a rural middle school setting in 1975 and 1979 determined that variables (i.e., social reinforcement, social/nonsocial reinforcements, differential associations, and supportive definitions) accounted for 34 percent variance level of marijuana use in 1975 and 52 percent variance in 1979. Suggests marijuana…

This study investigated the association between community violent crime rates and middle school students' (N=857) perceptions of school danger. Findings indicate that community crime rates are associated with male middle school students' reports of school danger but not female students' reports. Discusses community- and school-based prevention…

Examined three theories for predicting risk for delinquency during adolescence with sixth- and seventh-grade students: an individual difference perspective, social interactional model, and social contextual approach. Found that lack of nurturant and involved parenting indirectly predicted delinquency by increasing antisocial behavior and deviant…