The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA/Literacy, and the standardized assessments that test students on these standards, focus on students' ability to navigate online text and require students to comprehend, analyze, and make inferences about complex texts in both print and digital format. While the ability to read digital text with a high…

Although research indicates that conditions for effective technology integration appear to be in place, teachers still face challenges in adapting their instruction to new technologies. As more technology is integrated, the added value for students will depend on how effectively a teacher integrates technology. Given that technology may not be…

Successful education of young students is a demanding task that requires attention to adaptive teaching methodologies, and physiological learning systems described in neuroscience. This dissertation evaluated correlational relationships between cerebellum motor coordination, and academic proficiency in mathematics and English language arts (ELA)…

Despite prolific access to technology within America's K-12 systems, more research regarding how investments in educational technology affect student outcomes is warranted. A growing body of research has looked at changes in student achievement due to educational technology access. However, often student access within these studies is not well…

Students often struggle to comprehend complex text. In response, we conducted an initial, year-long study of Quality Talk, a teacher-facilitated, small-group discussion approach designed to enhance students' basic and high-level comprehension, in two 4th-grade classrooms. Specifically, teachers delivered instructional mini-lessons on discourse…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational research was to examine the extent to which teachers' perceptions of their administrators' instructional leadership and academic press correlated with student achievement in 34 elementary schools in Maricopa County, Arizona. The theoretical foundations of the study were expectancy theory and…

This study will examine and review the effectiveness of having a special education, resource teacher present in the classroom during Mathematics and Language Arts Literacy. In the state of New Jersey, students are issued a state assessment in the content area of Mathematics and Language Arts Literacy, and having a resource teacher present for…

Two school leaders and ELA teachers share the process through which they convinced their department to abandon the vocabulary workbooks they had been using for more than 30 years, the collaborative process through which they fostered a new approach, and the initial results of its implementation.

Planned instructional scaffolding--the temporary use of materials, routines and structures to support students in doing challenging academic work--is a critical component of English-language reading instruction with emergent bilinguals (students formally categorized as English Language Learners). Although scholars describe how scaffolds…

Participation in a classroom-based study provided Grade 4 students with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. Intentionally-designed instruction during the multifaceted research included a variety of…

Building on exploratory research (Braun et al., 2017), this study assessed how Core Leadership Practices (CLP), implemented through leadership development training, related to increased equity in student learning. Results confirmed a significant (p<0.05, medium to large effect sizes) positive increase in student learning for students who had…

Despite the widespread popularity of both Dual Language Programs (DLP) and charter schools in California, little is known about the intersection of these two school models. In a quantitative study utilizing several statewide databases, researchers explored four questions related to DLP and charter schools: 1) How many Latina/x/o students attend…

A call for educational reform motivated this school system to devise an enhanced version of STEM in their middle school. This case provides rich descriptions of how eighth grade middle school teachers, from multiple disciplines, enacted a STEAM team model that integrated Language Arts into STEM. These STEAM team teachers were systematically…

This technical report documents the processes and procedures implemented to support the Spring 2021 Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) Phase I Pilot in English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics, and Science assessments by NWEA® under the supervision of the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE). The technical report shows how the…

The departure of an effective school leader can influence staff turnover and student achievement for several years. With school systems facing an unprecedented public health crisis due to COVID-19, principal retention is a key area of concern for many local and state education agencies. The Regional Educational Laboratory West undertook this study…