Adoption of new curriculum programs is a regular part of education. The problem was teachers lack adequate professional development (PD) and time to acclimate to the implementation of a new English language arts (ELA) curriculum in a school district in the Western United States. The identified gap in the research literature was determining the…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of secondary English language arts teachers implementing personalized learning in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Teachers who personalize learning must currently determine their own method of doing so without adequate research about the process to inform…

Virtual learning environments have increased in frequency in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. There are differences in the social learning structure between virtual learning environments and traditional learning environments. A growing body of scholarship has aimed to investigate the impacts of the virtual learning environment on student…

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 demographic and gender divide between the populations of teachers and students in K-12 schools has long been a source of concern for progressive academics and policymakers. Much research has been done to support the effort to recruit and retain a more diverse teaching force, yet the number of men and teachers of color is declining. In an…

This study examines the relationship between two secondary End of Course (EOC) exams, the Biology EOC and the English I EOC exams, and their impact on Emergent Bilingual (EB) students in a small district in South Texas. This study is a mixed methods study which uses both quantitative and qualitative data to answer three research questions: (a)…

In an effort to address the needs of the fastest growing population at my school, I asked Latinx students to share their experiences of being in a monolingual English 2 classroom. Students also shared opinions about friendships, Latinx culture in school, and alternative methods of educating non-English speakers. Through action research we can…

Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policymakers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, male students have had little opportunity to offer their…

The purpose of this quantitative observational study was to identify the differences in high school student test scores on the ACT ELA composite tests and ACT math test for students attending school in union and unified districts in Arizona. Arizona has two options for public high school districts, 9-12 (union) and K-12 (unified). The researcher…

This qualitative research study adopted an ethnographic approach with a realistic design to conduct this inquiry. This method was used because the inquiry focused on the documentation and interpretation of students' beliefs and experiences with the SBA within a school culture. The inquiry also entailed exploring whether their self-efficacy was in…

In schools, literacy is often positioned as a fixed set of reading and writing skills. This can limit what counts as an academically acceptable literacy practice despite the complex and nuanced ways people communicate in their personal and social contexts. With this tension around conceptions of literacy in mind, I wondered how teachers thought…

The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive, comparative study was to investigate the effect of teacher retention on the academic assessment of 8th-grade middle school students. The South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Assessments (SC READY) examination measured students' English/Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics academic performance. This…

Research that looks at the nuances of teaching English language arts in rural secondary classrooms is a growing field. Yet, there are limited studies focusing on rural secondary classrooms in the Southeastern United States, Georgia specifically. The primary goal of this project is to understand what it looks like to teach English in rural…

This study aimed to investigate the impact of implementing Open Educational Resources (OER) course materials on student engagement and achievement in a 10th grade English Language Arts (ELA) classroom at a high-poverty, rural school district. Research suggests that the implementation of OER materials in a K-12 setting can positively impact student…

The many manifestations of social justice education center the experiences of the marginalized and oppressed to create a more democratic society. In recent years, scholars have begun to argue that privileged students, not the marginalized, should be the target of social justice education, advocating for a pedagogy that puts the onus on the…