Introduction: In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many schools to close their doors and transition to remote learning, disrupting how autistic students received school-based services and support. While school structure changes were challenging for all students, autistic students were uniquely affected, considering their reliance on…

Word problem solving is the premise for students to generalize their problem solving skills to real world problems. This includes students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). Modified Schema-based Instruction (MSBI) is one strategy that research has shown is effective for teaching students with ASD/ID to acquire…

Spatial thinking permeates much of our lives and is an asset when solving problems involving well-structured visual information or imagining solutions in physical or digital space. However, an estimated three million US school children have spatial talents that go unrecognized because of the tools commonly used for identification of academic…

This qualitative study presents 27 students' insights about four teachers' implementation of an immersive Native American history curricular unit designed to equip students with digital skills to critically navigate complex, polarizing social issues. The Digital Civic Learning (DCL) curriculum used Google Suite and Google Classroom or Schoology to…

Objective: This study explores whether variability in the implementation of an undergraduate course on human flourishing is differentially associated with student outcomes. Participants: 101 students in the "Art and Science of Human Flourishing" across three large, public, R1 universities in Fall 2018 participated in the study. Methods:…

Existing literature on the impact of Common Core State Standards in Math has shown little benefit, but has not examined variation in outcomes based on implementation strategies, student subgroups, or outcomes other than test scores. We use a difference-in-differences approach with school fixed effects to compare outcomes in pre- and post-standards…

Public preschool programs require the use of a research-based, whole-child curriculum, yet limited research examines whether curricula influence classroom experiences and children's development. We use five samples of preschool children to examine differences in classroom processes and children's school readiness by classroom curricular status…

Background: Spatial thinking skills are strongly correlated with achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and emerging research suggests that interventions aimed at building students' skills will likely yield measurable impacts on learning across K-12 settings. The importance of spatial thinking in science has…

Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs are frequently evaluated using randomized controlled trial (RCT) methodology as a means to assess program impacts. What is often missing in RCT studies is a robust parallel investigation of the multi-level implementation of the program. The field of implementation science bridges the gap between the RCT…

Rural students often face challenges in receiving high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without meaningful STEM educational opportunities, rural students might not develop the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a technology-driven workforce. The Learning by Making program (LbyM), an innovative…

Purpose: Many children begin school with limited vocabularies, placing them at a high risk of academic difficulties. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of a vocabulary intervention program, "Story Friends," designed to improve vocabulary knowledge of at-risk preschool children. Method: Twenty-four early-childhood…

In this chapter, we discuss the algebra framework that guides our work and how this framework was enacted in the design of a curricular approach for systematically developing elementary-aged students' algebraic thinking. We provide evidence that, using this approach, students in elementary grades can engage in sophisticated practices of algebraic…

Research Findings: This study used the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to examine barriers to teachers implementation of a supplemental academic language curricula. Despite high satisfaction with this scripted curriculum, three past studies indicated heterogeneity in teachers fidelity of implementing the curriculum as well as difficulty going…

Effective curricular support systems must include resources supporting high-fidelity activity implementation. We examined the frequency of pre-kindergarten teachers' online demonstration video viewing and its association with fidelity of implementation of a math and science curriculum. We found a range in frequency of video viewing and a positive…

The primary focus of this study was to determine the feasibility of teacher implementation of peer-assisted writing strategies (PAWS) in improving the writing outcomes of kindergarten children. Six classrooms were recruited, and 3 were randomly assigned to the experimental condition. Results indicated that the content, length, and formatting of…