States that parent involvement appears to hold great potential for the improvement of literacy education. Interviews over 60 teachers about their attitudes toward parent involvement in reading. Indicates that teacher perceptions of what constitutes parent involvement differed by grade level, and teacher perceptions of parent role appeared to…

Reports case studies of 10 partnerships in middle school level professional development schools that either moved apart or reconfigured their relationships over time. Written materials from, interviews with, and observations of partners indicated that though most succeeded, they needed better communication between partners to maximize their…

Discusses the use of autobiographical writing in middle level teacher education courses to demonstrate the unique differences among young adolescents and the way normalizing tendencies of middle schools can be detrimental to students. Advocates a complex view of adolescence. (JPB)

The reform documents of the 1990s stressed that science is not practiced by a rigid scientific method, but science texts continue to describe the process as if it were rigid and linear. The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) to explore middle school in-service teachers' perceptions of scientific methodology and (b) to explore ways in…

Two exploratory studies were conducted to investigate U.S. teachers' attitudes and beliefs about bullying. Although most teachers believed they were doing a good job at preventing bullying, results indicate that some teachers hold beliefs that are at odds with current best practices in bullying prevention and intervention. First-year teachers…

The student population in contemporary public middle schools is growing increasingly more diverse. While heterogeneously grouped classrooms are consistent with middle school philosophy as well as recommendations from leading middle school advocacy groups, many teachers in these settings seem to downplay the differences among the students and…

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is thought by some to be the nation's premier program in providing high schools and middle schools with pre-engineering curriculum and linkage to college-level engineering and engineering technology programs. This study examined the infusion of the PLTW pre-engineering curriculum into the well-established technology…

A focus group of 5 general education schoolteachers from one rural middle school in Hawaii was conducted to investigate their perspectives on the unintended effects of including students with learning disabilities. The general education teachers were asked how the inclusion of students with learning disabilities had impacted (a) their professional…

Teachers' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of ADHD interventions were investigated. The different forms of interventions that were focused on included: stimulant medication, classroom/parent environmental interventions, a combination of stimulant medication and classroom/parent environmental interventions, and counseling. Elementary and…

Inverness Research studied the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Seminars on Science program for eight years, from its inception in 1998 to 2006. In 2009, Inverness Research conducted additional studies of the AMNH's new online course, The Solar System. This paper presents teacher survey ratings for The Solar System, along with profiles of…

The objective of this study was to gather information about and assess the accessibility, use, and perceived needs toward computing technologies of elementary, middle school and high school science teachers in two large rural school districts. A questionnaire of over 500 items, Survey of Usages of Computing Technologies in Science and Mathematics…

A study identified major goals of middle-grade education as perceived by scholars of early adolescent education and those activities and learning experiences in career-oriented education program areas experts perceived as promoting achievement of the goals. Thirty-nine scholars indicated on a Likert-type scale their level of agreement regarding…

Over the past 15 years a number of studies and official statements have considered characteristics and competencies of effective middle/junior high school teachers. Thirty-eight items found to be present in several studies were used to form a questionnaire, sent to 500 members of the National Middle School Association, about the importance of…

Based on the contention that openness to experience and security with risk-taking situations underlie reform, this study was designed to determine the degrees of dogmatism and openness to new experiences of middle grade teachers. Two openness measurements were administered in five schools to 166 teachers from two localities that differ…

The purpose of this study was to develop and test written and observational instruments and to investigate the relationship between the attitudes and behaviors toward gifted children among teachers of the gifted and those among teachers of regular classes. The subjects consisted of 13 teachers of the gifted and 25 preservice and inservice teachers…