The history of grading practices is riddled with inequities, dating to the inception of the traditional grading system, which was designed to rank and sort. Despite expanding public education to include all members of society, traditional grading practices have yet to evolve in response to the growing demand for equitable and student-centered…

A systematically disproportionate amount of Black and Brown students have struggled in their high school (HS) math courses, particularly with inclusion, identity, and academic success. This study came from a humbling journey of what it meant for a math educator to shift toward student-centered pedagogies within a deficit-oriented system of…

Students in high-performing high schools often suffer from a constellation of stressors related to expectations such as good grades, number of Advanced Placement and honors classes, and successful admission to college. Critics have cast this method of educating students as outdated and more akin to a factory model. As a result, some educators have…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of secondary school teachers who have transitioned from teacher-centered to implementing more student-centered learning approaches as they prepare students for colleges and careers in the 21st Century. This study tells the stories of 10…

The purpose of this study was to explore several Midwestern middle and high school music educators' perceptions of student-centered teaching approaches, including their perceived suitability for regular use in their ensembles, and the factors thought to influence that suitability. Each case was analyzed individually but only the emergent themes…

As students and teachers embrace more forms of multimodal composing, classroom power structures move from the more linear, hierarchical structures typically seen in education to more open, student-centered forms. However, these transitions are not always seamless. Using a multiliteracies framework, this article focuses on how a classroom teacher…

Background: Despite large amounts of research documenting, the transition to student-centered learning from the perspective of the student, minimal literature exists describing the lived experience, and perceptions of Idaho teachers and principals when transitioning from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. Aim: The purpose of this study…

The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act prompted schools to explore better methods of educating all students. Collaborative teaching was presented as a solution where a general education teacher and a special education teacher work together with a group of diverse learners. The problem was the perceptions…

In today's education context, not all young people are able to complete their high school education. In fact, in 2016, the number of low-income young people ages 16 to 24 years who did not complete high school or were not enrolled in high school was 3.7 times higher than those of high-income families (McFarland et al., 2018). This may be due to…

Math instructors teaching alternative 12th-grade courses outside the "traditional" high school math curriculum were overwhelmingly positive in interviews about the effectiveness of the classes, particularly for students who are planning to attend college but have struggled with math prior to this class. Teachers said that the courses'…

This mixed methods experimental study examined the impacts of the Early College High School model on students' college readiness in mathematics measured by their success in college preparatory mathematics courses in the 9th through 11th grades, and disaggregated for academically prepared and underprepared students. This study looked at the…

Educational researchers have been interested in studying teachers' professional identity to understand this dynamic and multifaceted construct within personal and professional processes through different experiences. In this study, we designed a qualitative case study with Cultural--Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to examine physics teachers'…

This is a study of teachers transition after a professional development (PD). The purpose was to document and characterize the teachers' experiences as they transitioned toward use of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and more learner-centered teacher practices. The teachers participated in a PD workshop that provided information on the…

Researchers have indicated special education students tend to be motivated by working with interactive whiteboard (IWB) technology; however, few researchers have examined how this technology is used in adaptive classrooms. Many high school teachers have not been able to use IWB technology to create student-centered learning experiences for special…

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine how teachers' beliefs affect their use of formative assessment practices. I studied the teachers' values of formative assessments, as well as how they used formative assessments in the classroom. Additionally, I examined how the teachers used the formative assessment results to not only modify their…