Many parents, educators, and policy makers see great potential for leveraging tools like laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones in the classrooms of the world. Under budget constraints and shared access to equipment for students and teachers, the impacts have been irregular but hint at greater possibilities in 1:1 student computing settings.…

Math Snacks animations and support materials were developed for use on the web and mobile technologies to teach ratio, proportion, scale factor, and number line concepts using a multi-modal approach. Included in Math Snacks are: Animations which promote the visualization of a concept image; written lessons which provide cognitive complexity for…

Students who struggle with reading comprehension in middle school often lack the academic vocabulary the need to understand grade-level textbooks and other instructional materials. Research shows that to learn a new word well, students need to encounter and use it multiple times in different contexts. The authors describe Word Generation, a…

Over the past few decades, and especially in the past ten years, computer use in schools has increased dramatically; however there has been little research examining the effects of technology use on student achievement, specifically defined by standardized test scores. There is also concern as to how technology use differs by gender and if that…

The sheer quantity of words known (breadth) is strongly predictive of reading comprehension, yet little is understood about how quality of word knowledge (depth) affects comprehension. A group of 35 bilingual and monolingual 5th-grade students worked on developing depth of knowledge of 8 words, culminating in an activity in which the students…

Over the past decade, standardized test results have become the primary tool used to judge the effectiveness of schools and educational programs, and today, standardized testing serves as the keystone for educational policy at the state and federal levels. This paper examines the relationship between fourth grade mathematics achievement and…

This applied dissertation was designed to provide better access to current preparation strategies for passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test. The test preparation strategies did not meet the needs of the students. The students did not know how to use the computer to study for the test and did not know how to study at…

With increased emphasis on test-based accountability measures has come increased interest in examining the impact of technology use on students' academic performance. However, few empirical investigations exist that address this issue. This paper (1) examines previous research on the relationship between student achievement and technology use, (2)…