In the current educational climate of testing and accountability, many elementary teachers find they lack adequate time and confidence to enact reform-based science teaching due to pressure to perform in reading and mathematics. With this tension in mind, we explore the phenomenon of elementary teacher specialisation in comparison to the…

In the United States, teachers' job-related stress and self-efficacy levels across all grades are influenced in some manner by the demands of high-stakes testing. This sequential mixed-methods study aimed at examining the dynamics among assigned subject matter, teacher job-related stress, and teacher self-efficacy in a large south-eastern Texas…

Indiana English learners (ELs) constitute a rapidly growing portion of the state's school-aged population, and those classified as limited English proficient are low performers on the state test. The purpose of this embedded mixed methods study was to understand how school personnel respond to accountability mandates, interpret test scores, and…

Since the onset of NCLB legislation and federal funding for schools tied to summative assessment performance, educational leaders have sought to identify factors that are most influential on student learning outcomes. Research continues to link the use of formative data practices and teacher efficacy to improved student performance. The intent of…

Teacher accountability has gained attention since the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), enacted in 2002 by then President George W. Bush. Research shows a strong correlation between effective teacher instruction and student achievement, yet the area of feedback to teachers on…

This research study examines the impact of teacher research on participants in a large-scale educational reform initiative in the United States, No Child Left Behind, and its strand for reading teachers, Reading First. Reading First supported professional development for teachers in order to increase student scores on standardized tests. The…

This study of advanced readers in Reading First (RF) classrooms was part of a larger evaluation of one state's RF implementation. The study's purposes were to (a) assess the longitudinal growth of advanced primary readers as compared with their non-advanced-reading peers over a 3-year timeframe and (b) determine the degree to which RF classrooms…

Public schools stress the need for students to become informed and engaged citizens, however social studies instruction is becoming marginalized in many elementary schools today, the very area where they learn citizenship and about the world around them. This study seeks to: understand the reason for the loss of instructional time for social…

The gender gap in achievement and the increasing awareness of differences between male and female cognitive development have ignited a growing interest in single-sex education. No Child Left Behind legislation and amendments to Title IX legislation have increased the number of schools in America offering single-sex education. This 2-year…