Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRCs) have shown to be a successful intervention for improving classroom behavior for students considered to display challenging behaviors. DBRCs have been used for students with emotional/ behavioral disorder in an effort to improve academic and social outcomes. Few studies have examined the use of DBRCs for students…

This study examines the issues surrounding middle school students' transitions to high school and the degree to which freshman orientation models can help them. The attendance, discipline, report card grades, and end-of-course exams of 60 students who participated in a freshman orientation were compared to those of 150 students who were invited to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of high school transition strategies for ninth grade students in comparison to the traditional high school experience of first time ninth grade students. This study compared the English End-of-Course (EOC) test scores of first time ninth grade students in a traditional high school setting…

The Office of Special Education and Student Services asked the Office of Shared Accountability to evaluate the "Facilitated Communication Pilot." In facilitated communication (FC), people with communication impairments express themselves by typing with the aid of a communication partner, called a facilitator, who provides physical (and…

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between quality social support networks developed through high quality afterschool programming and achievement amongst middle school and high school aged youth. This study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how quality after-school programs influence a youth's developmental…

Social studies at the middle-level represented a marginalized discipline in South Carolina. Although it was integrated into the state's accountability testing agenda and weighted equally with English, math, and science content in state school and district report card rating calculations, differences exist in the amount of time allocated for social…

In the era of school accountability, school boards are under scrutiny for their effectiveness in improving student achievement. It has become more than obvious that school boards play an important role in the effectiveness, ineffectiveness, successes and failures of school districts. However, to what degree of importance was the premise for this…

The purpose for this study was to determine the influence on achievement and classification rate into special education of racially, culturally, ethnically, linguistically diverse students following the use of a district-designed response to intervention (RtI) structure by examining local processes that may contribute to student achievement and…