Background: Understanding how students conceptualize culturally responsive service learning (CRSL) before and after an experiential education (EE) program has the potential to inform the instructional and theoretical designs and long-term possibilities of EE programs in teacher education. Purpose: To (a) explore students' early-trip conceptions of…

First-generation college students without broad support networks are more likely to leave STEM majors. In rural West Virginia, the First2 Network aims to improve STEM persistence by including students in creating solutions to STEM attrition. One solution, a research program for rising first-year students in STEM majors, is discussed here. The…

The proportion of underrepresented minority (URM) students graduating with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degrees, matriculating to graduate programs, and entering the STEM workforce continues to be significantly low. The Virginia-North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (the VA-NC Alliance)…

One-on-one mentoring is effective for helping novices with career development. However, traditional mentoring scales poorly. To address this problem, MentorPal emulates conversations with a panel of virtual mentors based on recordings of real STEM professionals. Students freely ask questions as they might in a career fair, while machine learning…

A substantial amount of evidence suggests that students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged households, experience summer reading loss. Available evidence suggests this is due to a lack of participation in literacy-focused activities and access to books during the summer break from school. The current study investigated whether…

Background: Retention of early-career teachers is a persistent problem in the United States, with 44% of teachers leaving the profession within five years nationally (Ingersoll et al., 2018). Similar trends are seen in Georgia as a whole (Henson et al., 2015), and among Atlanta Public Schools (2019). Retention of Black educators presents an even…

The impact of college STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] summer bridge programs is not well understood. This nationwide study pooled data from 27 colleges and universities involved in the NSF's [National Science Foundation's] STEM Talent Expansion Program to model changes in college career aspirations for 2 groups: 383 STEM…

Introduction: Children with visual impairments (that is, those who have low vision or blindness) often demonstrate lower levels of perceived and actual motor competence and physical activity compared to peers who are sighted. The purpose of this study was to assess the way in which seven-day sports camps specially designed for children with visual…

Many public school districts are seeking to expand or launch voluntary summer learning programs, especially for children from low-income families. These children experience setbacks over the summer compared to their more affluent peers. Most studies have found that students from low-income families learn less during the summer than do students…

This report examines the outcomes of the in-class summer programs operated in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). The Summer Programs, offered to provide supplemental instruction for students in need of remediation, are comprised of Literacy for Rising 3rd Grade Students, Algebra I End-of-Course (EOC) remediation, and Course Recovery. Not…

Effective gifted education should incorporate opportunities for gifted students to develop creative and critical thinking along with academic and affective skills. Professional learning (PL) supporting these outcomes is not consistently successful. Therefore, this study pilots a new PL model called Instruct to Innovate (I2I) to support teachers'…

This study investigated the costs of different summer reading programs and compared costs to the benefits of summer school as a way to avoid retaining students not reading proficiently at the end of third grade. Per pupil costs ranged from US$1,665 to US$2,194. The average cost was US$1,887 (range: US$266-US$5,552) with 82% of overall expenses…

We present the results of a novel early childhood intervention in which disadvantaged 3-4-yearold children were randomized to receive a new preschool and parent education program focused on cognitive and non-cognitive skills (CogX) or to a control group that did not receive preschool education. In addition to a typical academic year (9 month)…

Student retention is a consequential effort of all institutions of higher learning today. The survival of the institution is dependent upon the success of students in obtaining their degrees (Knox, 2005; Noel, 1978). In order to continue to grow a base of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students and produce quality…

Introduction: The current work probes the effectiveness of multimodal touch screen tablet electronic devices in conveying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graphics via vibrations and sounds to individuals who are visually impaired (i.e., blind or low vision) and compares it with similar graphics presented in an embossed format.…