In an urban school district in a southwestern state, the problem investigated was that elementary educators are struggling to support the reading needs of Grade 3 through Grade 6 students from families having limited access to economic resources. Students with higher socioeconomic status (SES) outperform students with low SES backgrounds. Students…

Trauma-informed school practices are interventions intended to mitigate the effects of traumatic experiences that hinder students' abilities to learn and experience success in school settings. This quantitative comparative study aimed to examine archival data on the impact of trauma-informed school practices on middle school students' grade point…

In the United States, research on reading difficulties is predominantly carried out by scholars who project findings on L1 English reading difficulty to generalized difficulty in learning a second language (L2; e.g., Galuschka et al., 2020; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020; cf. Sparks, 2023). This research extrapolation creates a negative feedback…

Due to barriers to kindergarten readiness, many kindergarten students do not enter kindergarten with the prerequisite skills needed for reading. A number of students do not leave kindergarten with adequate reading skills needed for future success. As a result, students are ill-prepared for first grade and are at risk for future reading failure.…

This phenomenological study examined 11 Title I early childhood educators' perceptions of Black male students' reading development related to the availability and representation of Black male protagonists in classroom library picture books in upstate South Carolina. From the perspective of two reading coaches and nine early childhood classroom…

Literacy significantly impacts access to education, economic development, and life outcomes. However, far too many students pass through elementary school without acquiring the necessary literacy foundation to be successful readers. While students in general demonstrate difficulty in reaching reading proficiency, some groups of students struggle…

Research was conducted with 10 low literate and 10 medium to high literate students at the University of Baltimore to understand how traditional literacy impacts search habits for new college freshman. Five low literate, non-student participants were included in the research as a control group for the two student populations. It was hypothesized…

Statistical data analysis was used to test social cognitive theory's mediation model in the domain of reading. The mediation model asserts that reading self-efficacy fully mediates the relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance. This study tested the mediation model using measures of reading self-efficacy, reading…

This study examined the impact of knowledge-building curricula on raising reading achievement for students from high-poverty backgrounds. The overall purpose of the study was to contribute to our understanding of curricula that may be effective in closing achievement gaps for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds compared to…

The redundancy principle of multimedia learning indicates that people learn better from graphics and narration simultaneously than from graphics, narration, and printed text simultaneously. The current study investigated whether the redundancy principle may apply to multimedia instruction of correspondences between a second language (L2) and a…

Difficulties in writing can emerge as early as preschool, and often coincide with developing difficulties in reading (Berninger et al., 1997; Graham & Santangelo, 2014; Graham et al., 2020), as reading and writing are fundamentally connected skills (e.g., Fitzgerald & Shanahan, 2000). Writing instruction in general has had positive effects…

This mixed-method study explored teachers' perceptions of the Living Libraries (LL) professional development program. The study investigated the program's perceived effectiveness and impact on students' reading skills. Additionally, the researchers sought to understand how LL trained teachers perceived the program as aiding their reading…

The problem addressed in the study is the significant numbers of elementary school students who fail to demonstrate proficiency in reading/language arts as determined by the Georgia Milestones English Language Arts Test. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of effective research-based parental…

This design-based research study examines the pedagogical role of social, digital annotation (SDA) in teaching reading as rhetorical invention, particularly the kind of invention necessary for thoughtful democratic participation in the contemporary discursive era, often described as troubled. In this dissertation study, I deployed a…

Technology has become an integral part of everyday life. Mobile media devices, in particular, are now an essential component of mainstream lifestyle, whereby adults rely on mobile devices not only to communicate, but also to carry out daily tasks, such as shopping and banking. In fact, 91 percent of adults report that they have at least one mobile…