The purpose of this report is to present summative findings from a five-year EIR early-phase project that implemented and evaluated the ENpowered program. PRG conducted a rigorous impact and implementation evaluation of the ENpowered program's effect on middle school student outcomes. The impact study utilized a quasi-experimental design to…

The leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States is tobacco product use. The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which was completed in 2022, showed that the e-cigarette epidemic among youth continues to remain a public health threat. The survey revealed that over 2.5 million middle and high school students…

Background: Summer camps can promote positive youth development. Unfortunately, racial, ethnic, and economic disparities contribute to inequities in camp participation and related research on marginalized youth. Consequently, it is not clear what types of camping programs work best for marginalized youth. Purpose: To conduct a quasi-experimental…

Multiple movement methods have been used in the music classroom for educational and research purposes. Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) is a movement framework that has been used with conductors, but there is limited research using Laban movements with K-12 band ensemble students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Laban…

Elevate [Math] is a 19-day (76-hour) in-person summer math program created by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation to help middle school students who are struggling in math to achieve math proficiency, increase their interest in math, and develop a growth mindset. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person summer program was adapted to a…

Youth participation in community-based, structured out-of-school time programs (OST) has been found to promote positive developmental outcomes by providing youth with resources to build interpersonal relationships and essential life skills. The increasing prevalence and multiplicity of youth participation in these activities leads us to expand the…

Background: Adolescent girls are at an increased risk of low physical activity and the associated health consequences. Girls Can Move!, an after-school intervention guided by social cognitive theory, was designed to increase physical activity. Purpose: To examine the feasibility and initial effectiveness of Girls Can Move! Methods The 8-week…

This study explores the results of an eTwinning project involving four countries, with a focus on collaboration between students from historically distant backgrounds: Turkey and Greece. It primarily aims to foster empathy and understanding, alleviate language anxiety, and enhance foreign language competence among the participants. Using a…

Newsela contracted with LearnPlatform by Instructure (LearnPlatform), a third-party edtech research company, to examine the relationship between Newsela ELA usage and outcomes for students. LearnPlatform designed the study to satisfy Level II requirements (Moderate Evidence) according to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The study included…

The FRIENDS Resilience programs provide cognitive-behavioral skills across the developmental spectrum and can be applied as a universal or selective prevention program. In the current study, we assessed whether, relative to the schools' existing counseling curriculum ("guidance"), FRIENDS improved social skills, problem behaviors, and…

Discovery City Schools, located in the southern United States, served approximately 8,168 public school students in 15 individual schools during the 2022--2023 school year. After a districtwide consolidation in 2019, Triumph Middle School (TMS) was established as the only middle school in the district and served 1,121 seventh- and eighth-grade…

Background: Environmental education is important for developing sustainable behaviors and increasing recycling awareness among younger generations. However, traditional teaching methods may not be sufficient to improve students' knowledge level and awareness regarding household waste and recycling. Objective: This study aimed to examine the…

In the academic year 2017-2018, the Ministry of National Education in Türkiye launched intensive English as a foreign language program specifically designed for fifth-grade students in middle school. This study, employing a quantitative research design methodology, aims to assess the program's effectiveness from the perspective of fifth-grade…

South African democracy was born in 1994 after years of oppression and dehumanisation. Through the implementation of Child Safeguarding Policies from 2012, deep unhappiness in schools was uncovered and the use of corporal punishment which was abolished in 1996 became apparent. Teachers were adamant that corporal punishment was the only means of…

Student academic success is key to education. The problem was not all middle school students, grades 6-8, across southeastern South Carolina were performing at a level of academic readiness for the next grade level. The study filled gaps in the literature by examining participants' perceptions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics…