Feelings of empowerment among students are crucial prerequisites to their participation in change agency in both educational and non-educational settings. Educators notice a compelling correlation between student empowerment and academic achievement and other positive outcomes in K-12 educational environments. School counselors are optimally…

Given rising levels of social isolation, disconnection, and concerns about mental health, the learning needs of many students today must also address their minds and hearts. Online learning environments particularly need to use technology to skillfully bridge gaps in connection. Mindfulness practices that involve focusing awareness on oneself in…

Background and context: Researchers have been investigating ways to demystify machine learning for students from kindergarten to twelfth grade (K-12) levels. As little evidence can be found in the literature, there is a need for additional research to understand and facilitate the learning experience of children while also considering the African…

Two types of critical theories have increasingly been used to understand LGBTQ+ individuals and persons with disabilities: Queer and Crip theories. Queer Crip theory can be used to analyze elements (e.g., traits, behaviors, contexts, and skills) of the lives of gifted and talented LGBTQ+ youth who also have disabilities, as those elements have…

Guided reading is a teaching practice many teachers utilize to provide differentiated reading instruction to small groups of learners. During guided reading, students read instructional leveled texts with teacher support. This research synthesis examines student-centered outcomes resulting from guided reading instruction over 20 years spanning…

This system-level ethnographic study of a strength-based approach to transforming a national invention education program makes visible how program leadership drew on research and their own expertise to shift who and how they served. With data analysis grounded in program reports, documentation, and internal and published research, the program's…

Co-teaching and related collaborative models of instruction are widely used in primary and secondary schools in many school systems. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the effects of such models on students' academic achievement and how these effects are moderated by factors of theoretical and practical relevance. Although…

Cybersecurity remains a critical concern for school systems nationwide, showing a consistent increase in publicly disclosed K-12 cyber incidents over the past 5 years. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment underscores this trend, predicting ongoing targeting of K-12 school networks by cyber actors who will…

Public school enrollment losses post-pandemic cannot be fully attributed to changes in population, or shifts towards charter or private school enrollments, pointing to a rise in homeschooling among families. This trend raises questions about the motivations behind the increased interest in homeschooling. Targeted interviews reveal that these…

This dissertation contributes to the discussion of what contributes to school district rankings in the state of Ohio. It uses Latent Profile Analysis to explore different variables at the contextual and district level as they correspond to Ohio's Performance Index academic measure and Value-Added academic measure. Results show that contextual…

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted longstanding issues in student achievement in the United States, with only 37% of students from grades 4-12 showing proficiency in math and reading, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The East Coast Charter Authorizer (ECCA), which oversees one of the largest and most diverse…

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), proposed by Fred Davis in 1986, is a foundational framework for understanding technology adoption, emphasizing Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) as key determinants of Intention to Use (ITU). While Attitude Toward Using (ATU) was initially central to TAM, it was later omitted in…

The importance of leadership for key educational outcomes is well documented, yet leaders' working conditions and well-being have received considerably less attention, particularly in the early care and education (ECE) sector. Job-Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory was used to develop a holistic conceptualization of leader well-being for the purpose…

Despite commitment to the values of one school for all in Norway, there has been an increasing number of segregated units for students with special educational needs (SEN) over the years, highlighting a discrepancy between legislative intentions and the practical implementation of inclusive education. Barriers to inclusion can emerge in any…

In 2022, authors conducted a research study of SC teachers who had completed the first-in-the-nation teaching endorsement in Project-Based Learning (PBL) between the years of 2014 and 2020. Researchers' key question was to what extent have teachers trained in the SC PBL endorsement implemented PBL in their classrooms? This study sought to assess…