Although the majority of elementary school teachers cover all major subjects in self-contained classrooms, a growing number of teachers specialize in teaching fewer subjects to higher numbers of students. We use administrative data from Indiana to estimate the effect of teacher specialization on teacher and school effectiveness in elementary…

This quantitative study examined the achievement gap in mathematics through the analysis of standardized test scores from a suburban school district in Saint Louis County. The problem this study addressed is that students of color in Missouri continue to score well below their peers on mathematics assessments (Bohrnstedt et al., 2015; Kotok, 2017;…

In 2019, the Louisiana Board of Regents issued its Master Plan for Higher Education establishing an audacious goal for the state--60% of working adults holding a degree or credential of value by the year 2030. At that time, Regents committed itself to "lead the way in developing and implementing key initiatives to eliminate performance gaps,…

Measuring educational opportunity is a topic of interest to policymakers and education stakeholders alike. Standardized assessments of student achievement are commonly used to measure educational opportunity in North Carolina and across the nation. This research brief examines two measures of educational opportunity in North Carolina public school…

The current study, a causal comparative quantitative study, examined the relationship between content-based accelerated instruction and the growth of students identified as gifted and talented who enrolled in the participating district's accelerated advanced math class, and how acceleration affected students' growth based on socioeconomic status.…

In a large school district in Florida, many third-grade students have been retained over a 7-year period. Enrollment documents, such as summer school registration forms and seven annual summer reading camp evaluations in 2013-2019, indicated that 13,693 students attended the 4-week summer reading camp during this period. Summer reading camps are…

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study, which consisted of QUAN [right arrow] to qual investigated the impact of mathematics word problems among African American students in the seventh grade. This study applied a culturally relevant education (CRE) lens to examine how students solve mathematics word problems. Ladson-Billings (1997) and…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has implemented a student accountability system that measures students' performance on State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness (STAAR) in several content areas. How students perform determines the accountability ratings that will be assigned to every school district in Texas. Therefore, teachers and…

Historically, research has focused on academic underperformance for students of color and those living in poverty, with less attention given to protective factors that promote academic achievement. Students' perceptions of their school environment (i.e., school climate) and their social-emotional competence have emerged as protective factors for…

The achievement gap is a historic and pervasive issue of social justice in education. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further stalled student achievement in reading and math, amplifying the urgency for accelerating student learning to close the gap. The third grade is a critical year for literacy in education; if students have not mastered…

This study aimed to contribute to the literature by examining the impacts of using GeoGebra on students' perceptions and achievement in learning geometric transformations. This study contributes to mathematics education and learning environments supported by GeoGebra. This study reviewed the literature on social constructivist learning theory and…

The challenge that existed in the Fall of 2020 was not knowing exactly how students and teachers could adapt to a new way of teaching and learning amidst a world-wide pandemic. There has long been a debate over the effectiveness of online versus face-to-face teaching. The researcher found insufficient research so far has been done on the…

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental, nonequivalent comparison-group design was to determine if "How to Learn Math: For Students" (Boaler, 2018) had a statistically significant influence on ninth-grade and tenth-grade students' mathematical achievement and the achievement gap across socioeconomic status. Participants…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created one of the largest disruptions in educational history. The impact on learning loss and social-emotional well-being from the pandemic threatens to compromise achievement outcomes for an extended number of years. Previous research has proven relationships between grit, growth mindset, self-efficacy, and academic…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if a difference exists between male and female superintendents in rural Texas elementary schools in terms of student academic achievement measured through performance on the 3rd grade State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test. The study engages one research question for…