Teacher educators have an obligation to prepare preservice teachers with the skills and dispositions necessary to promote a socially just world. Yet the results of this study uncovered that the majority of elementary preservice teachers in a national sample (N = 846) have a simplistic perception of good citizenship consistent with what Westheimer…

Randomized experiments are often considered the strongest designs to study the impact of educational interventions. Perhaps the most prevalent class of designs used in large scale education experiments is the cluster randomized design in which entire schools are assigned to treatments. In cluster randomized trials (CRTs) that assign schools to…

The purpose of this study was to measure the motivation for academic and recreational reading of 6th grade students in a middle school located in southwest Florida using the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS). In this mixed methods study, motivation for both types of reading were measured, individual demographics of the population, such as…

In this mixed method research, we examined the effects of reading and singing software program (RSSP) as a reading intervention on struggling readers' reading achievement as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the high stakes state test administered in the state of Florida, at one elementary school. Our team defined struggling…

For more than a decade, Florida's Palm Beach County has been building a system of prevention and early intervention services to promote and support the healthy development and school readiness of children from birth to age 8. The county began this effort with a set of programs focused on serving families in four targeted geographic areas that have…

The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge, skills, and dispositions enabled for elementary school participants in two summer herpetology programs, one in North Carolina and one in Florida. An additional purpose of this study was to examine the normative scientific practices in which participants engaged and to describe how these…

CAMP (Collegiate Achievement Mentoring Program) Gator is a leadership-mentoring program in which collegiate student leaders serve as mentors to at-risk K-12 students. In addition, partnerships with Cisco and Franklin Covey Education have provided the program with the technology resources to conduct "virtual leadership mentoring" sessions…

This study reviews the state of professional development (PD) for teachers of beginning readers in Florida's rural schools. Teachers of beginning readers need to have a deep understanding of language, of how the reading process develops, and of effective pedagogy in early literacy. Few teachers begin their careers with sufficient knowledge and…

The data and research findings for this paper were derived from two studies. The first was commissioned to the National Afterschool Partnership (NAP) by the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate effective practices at the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs). The purpose of this study was to develop resources and professional…

Singing exaggerates the language of reading. The students find their voices in the rhythm and bounce of language by using music as an alternative technological approach to reading. A concurrent mixed methods study was conducted to investigate the use of an interactive sing-to-read program Tune Into Reading (Electronic Learning Products, 2006)…