The study aimed to identify significant disparities in the reading growth of English learners (ELs) enrolled in either push-in or pull-out EL services, as measured by the ACCESS and MAP assessments. Conducted at a middle school in southwestern Illinois, the research focused on the impact of different EL programming types on the reading performance…

Educators rely on a conglomeration of assessment instruments to appraise, measure, monitor, and document evidence of students' academic readiness, learning progressions, acquisition of interdisciplinary knowledge, and extensive educational needs. The Mississippi Academic Assessment Program for Mathematics (MAAP-M) and the i-Ready Assessment…

Ever since the 1983 landmark study, "A Nation at Risk", was released, educators have been examining the effectiveness of instructional time in American schools (Pedersen, 2012). However, school calendars have remained stagnant and seemingly a product of society and economy, tied to agriculture, for over 100 years (Turner & Finch,…

This study investigates the relationship between mastery goal performance and achievement on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test. With policies like the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) placing increased importance on standardized-state assessments, schools are making efforts to improve scores, often by focusing…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of in-school suspension and out of school suspension on the academic performance of seventh-grade students, as measured by the ACT Aspire. This study was motivated by the assumption that out of classroom time and out of school time has an impact on student learning. It was further assumed…

The purpose of this ex-post facto quantitative study was to compare English Language Arts (ELA) and math Tennessee Compressive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores of students in grades four through eight who attended school virtually or in-person during the 2020-2021 school year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district in this study allowed…

This study examined whether the intensive reading intervention affects annual reading level growth in middle school students to mitigate reading loss from the COVID19 school closures. Participants included struggling middle school readers (N = 101) from a rural district in east Texas. Student participant Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has implemented a student accountability system that measures students' performance on State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness (STAAR) in several content areas. How students perform determines the accountability ratings that will be assigned to every school district in Texas. Therefore, teachers and…

The purpose of this study is to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the learning of students in public education through the analysis of standardized assessment performance before and during COVID-19. The study also compares virtual learning and face-to-face students' change in performance on the standardized assessments. To answer the…

The PISA assessment indicated that the United States performs at the bottom tier among OECD membership nations in secondary school math education. The dearth of math proficiency presented a significant problem for the United States to maintain its future leadership in global technology. The purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to…

School districts choose programs based on limited data, word of mouth, or cost-effectiveness. STEM-based schools often choose project-based learning (PBL) programs to deliver curricula through limited research and word of mouth effectiveness. This study evaluated one PBL program implementation in the context of a suburban Texas middle school by…

NWEA claimed their assessment results could accurately predict student performance in reading and mathematics on the ACT Aspire for students in Grades 7 through 10. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between students' scores on the NWEA MAP tests in reading and mathematics and the ACT Aspire for students in Grades 7…

This research study investigates the impact of the rapid transition from paper-based to online administration of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams on student performance in a South Texas school district. The transition, mandated by House Bill 3261, presented Texas public schools with a tight timeline for adapting…

The adoption and implementation of state science standards based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have posed significant challenges for the development and interpretation of science Large-Scale Assessments (LSA); specifically, the extent to which the assessment items align with the standards. Previous research has relied on large…

This study examined the impact of the levels of fidelity of teacher implementation of a research-based middle school mathematics program, implemented systemically across a district, on student achievement benchmarks. By examining the systemic implementation based on the level of fidelity to the written curriculum, this quantitative study sought to…