Occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) support teachers in the utilization of assistive technology for their students. In 2019, teachers in an underserved school district in western New York participated in a training designed to support the use of accessibility features of Microsoft Office 365 and Windows 10. The purpose of this study was to…

Since the passage of early federal K-12 school legislation such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 and its many evolutionary successors including the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) there has been increased scrutiny on low-performing schools and particularly their leaders. These…

Integrating technology in classrooms has been discussed in many countries. Technology integration in Lagos, Nigeria, faces significant challenges due to several factors, including inadequate infrastructure, limited access to technology, and insufficient teacher training. The lack of reliable electricity and internet connectivity hinders schools'…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine topics in the economics of education. Chapter 1 tests the impact of holding student loan debt on borrowers' post-schooling decisions, with a focus on how it changes the way they evaluate risks when choosing between jobs. Chapter 2 analyzes the impact of an expansion of public-school choice…

Background/Context: The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was a performance-based accountability policy designed to motivate educators and administrators to change their behaviors and improve school and student outcomes. The simple logic behind this accountability policy was that they would change their behaviors to avoid sanctions. Many studies…

Background: A mismatch between organizational priorities and system-level policies can negatively impact implementation and sustainment of classroom-based physical activity (PA) interventions. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) present methods to systematically identify organization- and system-level implementation barriers, and (2) align…

This research investigated the teaching experiences of alternative route special education teachers working in urban Title I schools with a high population of students from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Five alternative route special education teachers along with five school-based administrators who supervise ARL special…

If properly trained, rural teachers can successfully digitalize their classrooms even with limited resources at hand. This study aims to empirically examine how teaching with limited digital resources affects student engagement and student performance in the rural school setting. The study involved 245 middle school-aged children from three rural…

Background: Recent studies in South Africa posit that there is a lack of reading materials in African languages, and the limited materials available contain outdated content that does not pique learners' interests. Objectives: This study aims to analyse the availability of reading materials for teaching inclusive reading comprehension in isiZulu…

This phenomenological research draws upon Pinar's concept of "currere" to frame the lived experiences of Cian, a young boy in an economically disadvantaged primary school in Ireland. By adapting Pinar's 4-stages of currere research (regressive, progressive, analytic and synthetic), we explore Cian's personal and academic lived…

Project Tomorrow's Speak Up® Research reports have advocated for a broader definition of the digital divide to include access challenges at home and the obstacles K-12 students face in gaining access to high quality digital tools and resources to support classroom learning. Project Tomorrow, in collaboration with Spectrum Business, is creating a…

This study examines freshmen education candidates' perceptions of Title I schools prior to and following a four-day field experience in Title I schools. Analyses of pre and post-field experience surveys reveal the experience affected candidates' perspectives. Over the course of the field experience, they developed a more favorable and optimistic…

Despite conditions that would work against a small and rural school in an impoverish rural area of the United States, Fairway Elementary School has managed to excel in its accountability measures. Through interviews with faculty, staff, teachers, students, and parents of children at Fairway Elementary School a model was developed through the lens…

Designing for and implementing deeper learning across classrooms and schools that serve communities disadvantaged by the U.S. educational system is challenging. This paper illuminates this challenge by asking the question: What would designers of interventions at the classroom, school, and district levels have to take into consideration when they…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore what attributes of equity and social justice education are shared by equity or social justice trained K-5 teachers in high poverty elementary schools in Eastern United States when asked to describe their practices and educational philosophy. Critical theory is the theoretical…