Educators, including teachers and administrators, have a responsibility to increase knowledge and achievement for all students. Gifted students who demonstrate increased abilities and proficiencies are often given less attention as schools continue to increase their focus on the lower quartile of students. To address this need, gifted programs are…

The following describes a journey of collaboration across disciplines to support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) curriculum and assessment enhancements in an Elementary Education teacher preparation program within a college of education (COE). As a collaborative partner with a public university in Florida, a public state college in Florida…

Purpose: Annually, the National Association of School-University Partnerships (NASUP) awards individuals with the Exemplary PK-20 Boundary Spanner Award. The award goes to a university-based or a PK-12 school or school district-based individual who "innovates the systems or practices to enhance the learning of all of those involved in the…

Annually, 13% of special educators leave teaching, twice that of general educators (Wong et al., 2017). In June 2017, the U.S. Department of Education and Office of Postsecondary Education announced that 46 states were drastically short of special education teachers (Robinson et al., 2019). This study explores how university special education…

This study aimed to explore preservice teachers' perceptions of their preparedness to support students who have been exposed to or/are currently encountering adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are a form of trauma and are very likely to occur among students. Due to students spending a significant amount of time in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of literacy coaching in Florida elementary schools and contribute its findings to the growing body of research associated with the position. Research to date demonstrates how this position holds potential for bridging the gap between teachers' knowledge and teachers' instructional…

Background: Grief and loss are common experiences for children and adolescents, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators feel unprepared to support grieving students due to lack of training. We studied educator experiences receiving grief-sensitive training as part of the grief-sensitive schools initiative (GSSI), which provides…

In a technology-driven society, computing devices are used more in education to make learning engaging, individualize learning, and enhance instruction. Educators are implementing computing devices and ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) to access various learning programs and software. Using ICTs, students engage in project-based…

Writing is an essential life skill. It is a critical area of literacy instruction and high-stakes assessments. However, emphasis on writing instruction and assessment has not correlated with widespread writing proficiency. Within this context, teachers experience the phenomenon of writing instructional leadership. Teachers' preparation as writers…

The Florida Department of Education requires that student teachers complete the Florida Teacher Certification General Knowledge (GK) Exam for certification. As of 2021, the Florida pass rate for the GK exam, the first of the required exams, is 63% and the pass rate at FIU is a similar 62%. There were also 28,517 GK retakes statewide that year. As…

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of American education. Many public schools were closed in 2020-2021, necessitating online education and implementation of social distancing guidelines. However, implementation was not uniform among school districts, creating ambiguity. Using the organization of disaster response theory as a framework,…

This study examined teachers' perceptions of inclusive classrooms. The specific areas of focus were analyzed by comparing demographic characteristics of the responding teachers to survey questions from the adapted Teachers Attitude towards Inclusive Education (TAIS) in order to determine how teachers perceive inclusive classrooms, how prepared…

Florida is experiencing a shortage of high-quality mathematics teachers. According to the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), there was a critical shortage of K-12 mathematics teachers (among several other subject areas) at the start of the 2022-2023 school year (FLDOE, 2022). In this report, the authors present selected findings from the…

Public school leaders struggle to find teachers to fill the vacancies in America's classrooms. The teacher shortage crisis is a result of many overlapping causes which include the disparity in resources to attract potential teachers, a declining enrollment in teacher preparatory programs, a lack of teachers certified to teach critical shortage…

Students with autism spectrum disorder is a growing population in classrooms that require specialized instructional strategies to meet their challenging and unique needs with behavior, academics, and socialization. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological research study was to understand the lived experiences of general and special…