South Carolina's Charter School Act of 1996 was passed for the primary reason of improving education for the state. A part of this improvement would come by way of charter schools providing innovative ways of teaching and learning. In 2017 WCSD was established, in hopes of answering the call of the 1996 Charter School Act by providing innovative…

The purpose of this causal-comparative, ex post facto quantitative study was to determine "What are the differences in third-grade reading at the college and career readiness level in charter schools compared to traditional public schools?" The study took place in North Carolina charter and traditional public schools. The sample…

This qualitative study explored the experience of third through fifth grade teachers that use kinesthetic learning strategies (KLS) in the classroom and their perception of the student learning process. Most studies on kinesthetic learning have been student-centered, and research to examine the perspective of teachers expands our understanding of…

Closing the achievement gap has been a continuous topic of conversation in the United States for decades. School leaders have explored many ways to address the academic achievement of their marginalized student population. One approach has been the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum. By implementing a curriculum in which…

This quantitative causal-comparative study, based on secondary data analysis, measured the differences between neighboring Title I traditional elementary schools and Title 1 charter elementary schools in Florida in terms of (a) ELA performance and (b) math performance. More specifically, the study examined the third grade ELA and math scores of 60…

The problem explored in this study was the low achievement of third grade students on the English Language Arts (ELA) Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Assessment (PARCC). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore teacher perceptions about third grade students in one charter school who were…

Despite the importance placed on reading in the classroom, an unacceptable number of students lack the literacy skills essential to succeed in today's knowledge-based economy, putting them at greater risk of persistent unemployment and other forms of economic hardship. The problem is that public charter elementary (K-4) school intervention…

For children and adolescents, developing key social-emotional skills is beneficial to how they grow and learn in their environment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the overall social-emotional skills of African American students in a general education setting using a social-emotional learning program, Strong Kids. This study…

This dissertation analyzes data in order to answer the research question, "Do eighth grade students who have participated regularly in their school band programs for four consecutive years achieve higher scores in New Jersey's Grade Eight PARCC Assessment than students of similar ability who do not play a musical instrument?" Data was…

This study utilized an action research design with qualitative methods to explore the transformative potential of a multicultural literature curriculum within a general education setting. Providing young students with opportunities to develop perspective taking and empathetic responses to others who are different, offers the critical potential for…

This dissertation examines the complexity involved in teachers' perceptions and experience of time on school-related activities. The Intensification Theory explains that test-based accountability has caused a time crunch for teachers, increasing their stress level and burnout rate. Research literature has shown that teachers experiencing high…

Throughout the past five to ten years in South Texas, there was a high demand for opening charter schools. Charter schools became the innovative educational reform that provided a plausible solution of schooling other than traditional public schools in South Texas. As of 2014-2015, there were 689 charter schools in Texas serving 238,091 students,…

This study is relevant to parents, private organizations, and the educational system interested in discovering whether charter school students perform better academically than traditional public elementary school students. The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment data were used to analyze and compare student performance in grades 3-5 from two…

The purpose of this study was to examine two types of school organizational structures: elementary open-enrollment charter schools and elementary traditional public schools. The study examined the degree to which attendance rates (based upon the prior school year's data), class size and average number of years of teaching experience were related…

Driven by Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory (1986), my study investigated the self-perceptions and interactions of seven underperforming, third-grade readers while using Technology-Actuated Reading Instruction (TARI). Partnered with same-age peer tutors, readers used digital tools to listen to, read/record, and playback oral reading passages.…