Middle school classrooms are increasingly more diverse, and students are often disconnected and disengaged from the learning. Research has demonstrated that arts integration instructional frameworks hold promise to engage students and to improve student outcomes. The purpose of this program evaluation was to assess if implementation and use of…

Teaching is globally recognized as one of the most stressful professions. Teachers are known to struggle with varying degrees of job stress (McCarthy et al., 2010; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2017). A performance gap analysis at the organization within this dissertation in practice--a Caribbean junior high school--revealed that the teaching staff was…

Background: The goal of the study was to develop and verify a pathway model (or theory of change) for STEM Scouts, an out-of-school time (OST), positive youth development program for elementary through high school-aged youth. Pathway models include connections between hypothesized activities to short-, mid-, and long-term outcomes. STEM Scouts is…

School districts choose programs based on limited data, word of mouth, or cost-effectiveness. STEM-based schools often choose project-based learning (PBL) programs to deliver curricula through limited research and word of mouth effectiveness. This study evaluated one PBL program implementation in the context of a suburban Texas middle school by…

In this dissertation in practice, the background of middle grades mathematics acceleration detailed why the organization benefited from a program analysis. Middle grades mathematics acceleration encourages students to take high school Algebra I in eighth grade so they can earn college-level math credits for free in high school. Often acceleration…

Purpose: The Santa Ana Unified School District received an i3 grant (Investing in Innovation; funded by the U.S. Department of Education Grant number U411C160074) to build on their existing school climate practices. Called the Enhanced Positive School Climate Model, the aim is to improve school climate, student-adult relationships, create social…

The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) was awarded an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Early Phase grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2017 to develop, implement, and test a promising program to improve student achievement and educational progress for high-need students: Reenergizing Leadership to Achieve…

Background: Researchers have emphasized the importance of integrating mental health education with academic curriculum. The focus of the current studies was "Mental Health Matters" (MHM), a mental health curriculum that is integrated with English language arts. It is taught by trained community member volunteers and aims to increase…

There is increasing concern in the United States about the academic challenges that middle grade students face. Middle schools are not meeting accountability standards, and as a result students are not being adequately prepared for high school. In response to these concerns, a state in the southeastern United States adopted a comprehensive school…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to employ confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare the four-factor model of teacher leadership with three alternative models. The alternative models of teacher leadership include: (a) a two-factor model investigating teacher leadership as teacher-driven and principal-driven factors, (b) a…

In 2014 the Oregon 4-H program adopted a new program model to describe and evaluate the impact of 4-H on youths. The model is based on promoting thriving in young people, with an emphasis on high program quality. This article discusses the impact on thriving in 378 youth participants of the 4-H Summer Conference (4-HSC) program. The results of the…

A Midwestern state allocated grant funding to encourage more accessible alternative programming at the middle level. Seventeen schools were approved for this grant and used the funds to supplement the operation of a new or existing program. This study provides policymakers and educators with an overview of the various types of alternative middle…

To succeed in today's economy, students need both proficiency in the "three Rs" (reading, writing and arithmetic) and strong applied skills. Communication skills, team work, and critical thinking have long been at the top of employers' lists of applied skills they seek in employees. States are responding to employers' needs by putting in…

The Soccer Coaching Club program used the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model in an after-school soccer program for sixth grade boys between 11 and 12 years old in a local middle school. Soccer, as the featured physical activity, provided the "hook" for regular attendance. Desired outcomes included improved…

Classification evaluation metrics are often used to evaluate adaptive tutoring systems-- programs that teach and adapt to humans. Unfortunately, it is not clear how intuitive these metrics are for practitioners with little machine learning background. Moreover, our experiments suggest that existing convention for evaluating tutoring systems may…