Limited professional training regarding elementary social studies content and pedagogy contributes to the reduction of elementary social studies instruction. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore how the experiences of elementary educators during the 2018 Alabama Bicentennial Summer Institutes held in Mobile,…

The focus of this study was to explore my leadership practices to improve teachers' acumen and use of research-based Tier 1 strategies to propel student engagement, thereby increasing student achievement. More specifically, the problem addressed was the decline of student performance for students with disabilities in English Language Arts and the…

This action research study aimed to determine the effects of culturally relevant art integrated math lessons on African American students' engagement. The study took place in a fourth grade classroom at an urban elementary school in Northern California. In response to the study's research question: What impact does culturally relevant…

School psychologists can impact student outcomes by consulting with teams around data. The current study investigated the effects of consultation with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) teacher teams. The study included four teacher teams, observing their PLC practices and providing consultation. Each team was observed with a…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the conditions and challenges that facilitate teacher professional learning through the implementation of pedagogical mentoring (PM) within the Chilean school context. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a qualitative methods approach, utilizing an instrumental case study. As the…

We study an early effort amid the COVID-19 pandemic to develop new approaches to virtually serving students, supporting teachers, and promoting equity. This five-week, largely synchronous, summer program served 11,769 rising 4th-9th graders. "Mentor teachers" provided PD and videos of themselves teaching daily lessons to "partner…

California's shift towards continuous improvement in education makes understanding how districts and schools can learn to improve a more pressing question than ever. The CORE Improvement Community (CIC), a network of California school districts engaged in learning about improvement together, is an important testing ground to learn about what this…

The intent of this applied dissertation was to determine whether a reading intervention of a computer-based program would increase the reading comprehension and vocabulary skills of students in fourth grade in a Title I elementary school. Although the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) covers various federal education programs, the law's requirements…

Inclusion classrooms were introduced in the United States in 1990 when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act required that special education students be instructed in a general education setting. Ensuing changes in instructional formats have caused role confusion for special and general education teachers, resulted in mixed attitudes…

Over a decade ago, Borko (2004) raised the awareness of the education research community to the critical need for studies of teacher professional development (PD) programs. She states on page 13: "My challenge to the educational research community is this: We have much work to do and many questions to answer in order to provide high-quality…

In response to the low passing rate of its students with disabilities, administrators at a small urban elementary school in south Texas implemented coteaching. Guided by Nonaka and Takeuchi's collaborative learning framework, this qualitative instrumental case study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of collaborative teaching in the…

This article examines the effects of one year of exposure to "Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom" (LRHC) on the reading and math skills of second- to fourth-grade children in the low-income and conflict-affected Democratic Republic of the Congo. LRHC consists of two primary components: teacher resource materials that infuse…

This study addressed the problem of chronic low student achievement in language arts at a Program Improvement 5+ school by implementing two cycles of facilitated lesson study. Using action research to facilitate and monitor change in instructional practices at a school that is currently undergoing a teacher-initiated turnaround reform effort, this…

The purpose of this study was to determine if implementing a specific collaborative structure would create effective teacher teams that in turn would lead to improved student achievement. An effective team can be viewed as one that uses collaboration to increase its knowledge and improve its practices. The structure that was implemented during…

Dr. Stephen R. Pickard is currently serving as an adjunct professor at Gardner-Webb University located in Boiling Springs North Carolina. He is a retired educator having served 21 years as a classroom teacher at both the middle and elementary levels. In addition to his service as a classroom teacher, Dr. Pickard served as a public school…