The current mixed methods study uses historical quantitative data collected from Qualtrics surveys with some qualitative data collected from seven elementary principals and two key informants to expand upon the quantitative data. The study was conducted in a large suburban school district in North Texas. The researcher used Qualtrics surveys from…

Spelling instruction is often overlooked by many teachers during reading and language arts. The purpose of this study was to implement a manageable differentiated word study instruction curriculum, drawn from the "Words Their Way (WTW)" curriculum, to determine how it affected students' spelling accuracy and how the participants…

This study examined the impact of action research conducted by five science teaching methods course instructors on their students' perceptions of the classroom learning environments at a large public university in Texas. The study analyzed the results from 133 students who completed two administrations of the What is Happening in this Class…

The fifth-grade boys at an elementary school in Texas consistently perform lower than girls on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading portion. The gender gap in reading is not exclusive to this school. Boys score lower than girls on state-administered reading assessments each year in the United States (U.S.) and have…

This article examines a culturally sustaining approach to learning about and enacting multimodal literacy instruction that was developed during a field-based reading methods course for elementary preservice teachers. Despite a large body of work exploring preservice teachers' learning about multimodal literacies, few studies have explored their…

This mixed methods study examined the significance of parental involvement and its influence on student productivity in writing. A total of 25 fourth grade students from one Texas suburban school, their parents, and three teachers participated in this study. Data collection instruments used for the collection of quantitative data were The Knudson…

A problem influencing mathematics performance and student's perceptions of their ability to learn mathematics is mathematics anxiety. This mixed method study examined the perceptions, correlations, and mathematical conversations of Hispanic fourth and fifth grade low-performing students and their parents. A psychological approach provided the…

Mathematics teacher quality has become a major focus in national education reform efforts. In addition, there is an increasing interest in the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and the undergraduate preparation of elementary mathematics teachers. Empirical evidence suggests that teacher attitudes, behaviors and values, or dispositions,…

The ability to communicate well through writing has never been more critical. Writing is a necessary skill to make a living and a "life." Even before beginning school, children try to make themselves known by writing. Graves (1983) writes that a child's marks on paper-or a wall-say to the world, "I am" (p. 3). Children are…

A service-learning mentoring project was designed to impact two groups of participants. Five cohorts of pre-service teachers in an elementary preparation program provided weekly mentoring to elementary students identified as needing additional support. During this longitudinal study, thirteen elementary students were randomly paired with a…

English Language Learners (ELLs) are at an academic disadvantage with the rest of general education because they are linguistically challenged, especially in reading. Educators are recommended to use best practices to provide a good quality education to ELLs through the use of instructional tools. One instructional tool that is recommended to use…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reading experiences of Black boys in grades three through five, gain insight into what they felt contributed to their reading success, explore the relationships that influenced their reading lives, the challenges they faced, and their perspectives of the relationship they had with their reading teacher.…

This study examined the contribution of three writing enabling skills (i.e., feedback perception, self-efficacy, and self-regulation) on writing performance among Hispanic students. Participants were 261 students in grades 3-5. Approximately 60% of students were Emerging Bilingual (EB) enrolled in dual language programming. Students completed…

This qualitative case study explored the use of Readers Theater through the experiences of emergent bilingual students in a first-grade bilingual classroom. Readers Theater is a strategy that has produced great results in helping the development of literacy in reading fluency, motivation, and comprehension. The research regarding the use of…

This study involved the attitudes towards science of elementary preservice teachers at a large public university in Texas. A version of the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) was used to assess teachers' attitudes before and after completing a teaching methods course. The coursework involved an integrated science curriculum and centered on…