This ethnographic case study investigated literacy instruction and intervention practices within a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework in upper elementary school. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support has been proposed as a system of schoolwide reform aimed to support students' academic and social-emotional development and is often used…

Multi-Tiered System of Supports is a comprehensive framework that unites colleagues of various backgrounds together in pursuit of a common goal to support students with evidence-based interventions to meet their individual needs in the school setting. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of professional development training teachers…

Data-based decision making (DBDM) is presumed to improve student performance in elementary schools in all subjects. The majority of studies in which DBDM effects have been evaluated have focused on mathematics. A hierarchical multiple single-subject design was used to measure effects of a 2-year training, in which entire school teams learned how…

Theory and empirical work suggest that teachers' social capital influences school improvement efforts. Social ties are prerequisite for social capital, yet little causal evidence exists on how malleable factors, such as instructional management approaches, affect teachers' ties. In this cluster-randomized trial, we apply a decision-making…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine what effective teaching with technology looked like in practice within middle grade Social Studies' classrooms. An additional purpose was to understand how teachers' combine content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge when making decisions about their curriculum.…

This action research was to answer the pedagogical question: How effective can a branching story approach be as a motivational tool for elementary reading instruction? A branching story was created with hyperlinks built into a Powerpoint story. The young readers could interact with options at different turning points of the story, which activated…

Accelerating the acquisition of reading skills in at-risk third- through sixth-grade students is critically important if educators expect to meet federal and state performance targets and also meet children's needs. In an attempt to rapidly advance learning in reading, a large urban school district provided a group of 2,227 students performing…