The purpose of this study was to examine if teachers' participation in the educational technology professional development was a significant predictor in the 8th grade students' mathematics achievement on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This non-experimental study analyzed selected variables from the 2013 NAEP 8th…

Geography education research has identified several concerns in geography education and recognizes several systemic and cyclical issues which serve to impede effective implementation of geography education. A pattern to be recognized in the review of literature is the consistent communicated concerns of ill-prepared geography teachers.…

The relationship between teacher quality and student achievement is often at the heart of educational debates about student success. In this study, we leverage data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to explore relationships between geography achievement in the 8th grade and various indicators of teacher quality. We found…

The purpose of this study was to utilize an ethnically homogeneous design to examine Black female student U.S. History content-specific knowledge. The study aims to elucidate the importance of singlegroup analyses as an alternative to between-group comparative designs. The present study utilized a critical, quantitative, descriptive research…

While rural communities are not monolithic, many have seen recent shifts in demographics from historically homogenous populations to more racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse residents (e.g., Sharp & Lee, 2017; Brenner, 2016). Such shifts can occur very rapidly as new regional economic, social, or political forces emerge and are…

Math achievement is critically important to the changing global economy. In order to be successful, students must develop a strong foundation in mathematics early in their school careers. But the training elementary teachers receive doesn't always prepare them to teach math well, and math anxiety can keep both students and teachers from reaching…

The theme of this year was educate to liberate. A reminder to the literacy community that education, and literacy extend beyond the content and courses we teach. As Freire puts it, "Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are…

In recent decades, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has implemented reforms aimed at improving and controlling the quality of the teaching workforce in public schools. Among those reforms are tests for licensure that assess both general and content-area specific knowledge, requirements for ongoing teacher professional development, and procedures…

The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) was grappling with several issues including: (1) A respectable rate of growth in student achievement for both fourth- and eighth-grade math in the state of Alabama, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), but below the national average; and (2) A growing concern about…

This study explored how mathematics content and methods courses for preservice elementary and middle school teachers could be improved through the integration of a set of instructional materials based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). A set of eight instructional modules was developed and tested. The study involved 7…

Training preservice teachers to develop a predisposition toward constructivist instruction is a major goal for many faculty in teacher education. One critical attribute of a constructivist teacher is a strong hold on pedagogical content knowledge. This study examined the prior knowledge of preservice science teachers and how that knowledge aligned…