Districts and schools are under pressure to increase student academic outcomes while meeting their various social-behavioral needs. This pressure is compounded by the responsibility of creating climates that are safe and equitable for all students where teachers can teach, and all students can learn. However, far too often, negative, and…

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the effect of a robotics-based intervention on empathy for students enrolled in secondary English and literature courses. Empathy, as a concept, is an integral component of reading comprehension and student motivation. A decline in reported individual levels of empathy among young adults…

Recent standardized state tests have revealed a consistent decline in reading scores across grade levels, forcing conversation about intervention in place to combat this. Developed using Vygotsky's theory of Zone of proximal development, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Read 180 reading intervention program promises to close reading gaps of up to two…

In 2018, the elementary school where I serve as an instructional interventionist adopted a data-based multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Although our process has evolved over the years, I saw room for improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this action research study was to improve the MTSS process at my school, specifically by addressing…

Student stress and anxiety are at an all-time high. Following the pandemic, more research is needed to better understand what types of interventions can be supportive in helping students manage their emotional wellbeing. To better support them, the researcher worked with various English Language Arts middle school teachers to implement Calming…

There is a need for intervention programs that support teenagers' social and emotional development in American public schools. Education stakeholders have observed a disproportionate decline in social-emotional skills among minority and at-risk adolescents in low performing schools, increasing dropout rates and early exposure to the criminal…

The purpose of the present study was to compare the classification accuracy of a previous year's end-of-year state assessment, a computer-adaptive diagnostic assessment (i-Ready), and the combination of the previous year's end-of-year state assessment with the following year's "i-Ready" performance to predict the rate of students passing…

The purpose of this semester-long project was to redesign the ninth grade English language arts curriculum to include a literacy-based multicomponent intervention to meet the needs of developing readers, while simultaneously maintaining a rigorous curriculum challenging proficient readers in a general education classroom. I examined peer-reviewed…

This study investigated non-proficient middle school readers enrolled in a reading intervention who transitioned to distance learning during quarter four of the 2019-2020 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examined archival pre-and-post comparison data using i-Ready diagnostic reading and state English Language Arts (ELA)…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: The lack of student growth of students with disabilities as compared to students without disabilities in Mississippi continues to affect school districts in the effort to earn higher ratings on the Mississippi Accountability Model. This comparative quantitative study explored the relationship between the…

Most students with disabilities have reading difficulties and perform significantly lower than their peers without disabilities on low- and high-stakes reading achievement tests. Out of 23 studies on the supplemental Lexia Core5 Reading computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program intervention, 21 studies showed positive reading outcomes for…

Students with mild to moderate learning disabilities across the nation continue to show significant gaps in English Language Arts (ELA) across the country (Gilmour et al., 2019; Schulte et al., 2016). Data from multiple sources confirm ongoing performance discrepancies on statewide assessments when comparing the performance of students with…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference between student ELA growth scores among two intervention programs based on the delivery method. Multiple tools have been implemented in schools to improve student learning outcomes in reading. These include but are not limited to Reading Plus (RP) and Leveled Literacy…

The increasing number of children who struggle with reading and writing has become a significant challenge for the nation's public schools. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship between which intervention a student gets and ELA scores of the online reading program i-Ready compared to the Word Generation program in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a collaborative inquiry group of middle school ELA teachers who were utilizing the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework to create a virtual library of e-books, examine students' reading motivation data, and implement classroom practices intended to increase student reading value, motivation,…