The passage of the NCLB Act enhanced accountability policies in the United States, and standardized testing became prevalent as a policy tool to ensure accountability in K-12 education. Given the high stakes of state administered accountability tests, more school teachers have adopted test-preparation strategies to ensure satisfactory student…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the joint and unique contributions of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at five reading comprehension levels in adult basic education (ABE) students. We introduce the statistical technique of multiple quantile regression, which enabled us to assess the predictive utility of morphological…

This study is a report of the relationship between a collaborative school culture, teacher quality and the influence these variables have upon student attendance and suspensions. The research is based upon data gathered from 50 public schools throughout the southeastern United States. Surveys were administered to examine teacher quality…

Challenging behavior in preschool can lead to harmful outcomes for some children. While interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing or eliminating challenging behavior, evidence suggests that young children with challenging behavior are under-identified for services, increasing their risk for expulsion from early childhood programs.…

This quantitative study examined the predictive impact of a series of factors on female community college students' intention to transfer in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The STEM Student Success Literacy survey (SSSL) was utilized to collect data from a large, diverse community college located in Florida. After the…

The overall aim of this quantitative non-experimental study was to investigate the degree to which content-focused professional development, active based-learning professional development and teacher self-efficacy predict student performance in reading, within persistently low-performing schools. The need to investigate professional development in…

The purpose of this study was to identify statewide trends in school approaches to student discipline and examine the associations between punitive discipline practices and student, school, and local education agency (LEA) characteristics. In addition, we compared punitive disciplinary practices for schools and LEAs that do and do not allow…

The role of gender, race/ethnicity, and disability category in the relationship between student perceptions of family support of personal growth and school facilitation of student involvement and the development of self-determination was examined in a sample of 190 diverse high school students with disabilities. Results indicated that both school…

Background: Developing and implementing policies to curb and prevent youth tobacco use is of the utmost importance. In Florida, public school districts were authorized to develop tobacco-free school policies through an amendment to the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act in 2011. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of tobacco-free school…

The purpose of this study was to explore connections among perceived caring climate, empathy, and student social behaviors in high school bands. Nine high school band directors (N = 9 schools), along with their students (N = 203), completed an electronic questionnaire for variables of caring climate, cognitive empathy, affective empathy, social…

The idea of targeting reading instruction to profiles of students' strengths and weaknesses in component skills is central to teaching. However, these profiles are often based on unreliable descriptions of students' oral reading errors, text reading levels, or learning profiles. This research utilized latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine…

Multiple studies propose that English proficiency dictates English language learners' (ELLs) performances on mathematics assessments. The current study investigates the predictive power of English proficiency on mathematics scores, while controlling for gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and grade level among ELLs at a south Florida elementary…

The authors explore the results of the Comprehensive Business Exam (CBE) administered to business majors during their senior-year business capstone course. The study results identified students' SAT and grade point average as a predictor of CBE performance, and variables that explain the correlation between CBE performance, SAT score, and grade…

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is steadily increasing among the baby boom population. Among this population, there is a gap between knowledge and behavioral choices. HIV risk perception is multifaceted and shaped by different sociodemographic factors. Baby boomers' perception of risk and sociocognitive determinates that impact their decision…

This study investigated the relationship between the mathematics scores of public middle school students in Miami-Dade County on Florida's standardized test, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) 2.0, and students' socio-economic status. The study found that SES had a strong correlation with the standardized test mathematics scores (r =…