This explanatory sequential mixed methods study examines what influences 7th and 8th grade rural middle school students to consider a potential career trajectory. Phase One of the study includes a demographic and career cluster interest survey of 38 participants. Phase Two of the study focused on 23 of the 38 Phase One participants, who were…

The leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States is tobacco product use. The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which was completed in 2022, showed that the e-cigarette epidemic among youth continues to remain a public health threat. The survey revealed that over 2.5 million middle and high school students…

Intervention research often investigates the curriculum or methods used to support learners, while less attention is given to the model of those interventions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of two models of reading intervention, and to better understand how they are serving middle school students. Working from a critical…

Social-emotional learning (SEL) of students has been the focus in K-12 for many years. Recently, the impact of SEL on teachers has become important to universities and educational systems across the world. Teachers spend significant time with students. Teachers must create a positive and caring relationship for students to be academically and…

This study used a mixed methods approach to examine student access and achievement differences based on the students' 7th-grade mathematics class placement. Additionally, this study investigated the difference between teachers' perceptions and pedagogical decisions based on their students' placement levels. Finally, this study asked for teacher…

Due to the unintended impacts of out-of-school suspension that may occur to Black boys in middle school, all stakeholders, specifically school counselors, must fully comprehend how this type of discipline affects this population to better support them with best practices. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain a deeper…

This study investigated how a self-regulated learning intervention, implemented within a personalized learning environment, affected students' self-regulation, self-efficacy, and academic achievement at a middle school. The personalized learning environment in this study was two self-paced units within middle school seventh grade math classrooms.…

This non-experimental correlational quantitative research study was conducted to examine the relationship between the percentage of voluntary live synchronous virtual lesson attendance (LVLA) and the reading comprehension skill growth of sixth through eighth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) students enrolled in a Pennsylvania full-time online…

Integers present a global challenge for students due to their abstract nature and complex operations. To delve into the challenge students encountered, error analysis served as an alternative method to investigate errors diagnostically. This study aimed to explore error patterns related to integer addition and subtraction among seventh-grade…

Both educators and researchers alike have a shared understanding that the mathematical identities, and perceptions of those identities, 6th and 7th grade students hold can influence their attitudes about their abilities as mathematics learners and doers. However, while identity work has gained popularity as a focus, researchers have yet to…

Addressing the social and emotional learning of students can lead to increased social and emotional functioning, improved classroom and school behavior, and increased academic performance. This study investigated the effectiveness of a social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention program in a middle school in central Georgia. The study…

The purpose of this study was to examine how to restore a child's social-emotional well being. As an administrator in a middle school, I have the opportunity to see the natural state that our children are in on a daily basis. I have observed over time, more specifically since COVID-19, that children are struggling to balance their emotions, their…

This study aimed to explore if there was a significant difference in student performance in ELA and Math in middle school grades six through eight, pre- and post-COVID-19. This study aimed to identify student performance deficiencies in grades six through eight relating to gender, socioeconomic status, and race. The significance of this study is…

Students struggling with reading in secondary school are between "learning to read" and "reading to learn." Struggling readers require metacognitive and cognitive reading skills to tackle the complexities of reading. Combining the research of worked-examples and think-aloud shaped the instructional intervention in this study.…

This study examined differences in middle school English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency between pre-pandemic (2019) and post-pandemic (2022) assessments to understand the COVID-19 impact on learning, particularly among vulnerable groups. Grounded in adaptive leadership theory, the research focused on free and reduced-price lunch (FRL) and English…