Education Commons^™

2024 Merc Annual Report, David Naff, Jesse Senechal, Paula L. Ogston-Nobile

MERC Publications

This is the annual report of the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University for the 2023-2024 academic year. It includes vignettes depicting MERC activities in the past year that align with each of its five principles: research, relevance, rigor, multiple perspectives, and impact. It concludes with a discussion of MERC's commitment moving forward.

Virginia College Access Resource Study: Region One Report, Amy Corning, Kate Daly, Jesse Senechal

MERC Publications

This research brief shares the results of a MERC study commissioned by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and supported by Virginia 529 about college access in central Virginia. The purpose of college access providers is discussed as well the current areas of need. A list of access providers in Virginia are listed at the end of the brief.

Middle Level Learning: Compendium Of Research And Best Practice, Jesse Senechal, Jk Stringer

MERC Publications

Young adolescence is a time of important transition. It is a time when youth strive to define themselves as individuals while at the same time establishing their relationship within social groups. It is a developmental period characterized by curiosity and exploration. From a certain perspective, these qualities of young adolescents seem to be a good match for school settings. Schools might offer the social spaces for establishing individual and group identity and the academic space that harnesses curiosity and allows youth to find direction as they move toward high school, college and career.

And yet, middle grades education – that …

Mix It Up With Blended Learning In K-12 Schools: A Review Of Literature, Laura Kassner

MERC Publications

The term “blended learning” represents a wide spectrum of delivery options, tools, and pedagogies, but conceptually refers to instruction that is a mix or blending of traditional face‐to‐face (f2f) and online components. Horn & Staker (2011) define blended learning as “any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick‐and‐mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/ or pace” (p.3). Allen, Seaman, & Garret (2007) further attempt to quantify the divide, defining it as “between 30‐79% of content delivered online with …

Encourage Self Regulated Learning In The Classroom, Sharon Zumbrunn, Joseph Tadlock, Elizabeth Danielle Roberts

MERC Publications

Self-regulated learning (SLR) is recognized as an important predictor of student academic motivation and achievement. This process requires students to independently plan, monitor, and assess their learning. However, few students naturally do this well. This paper provides a review of the literature including: the definition of SRL; an explanation of the relationship between SRL and motivation in the classroom; specific SRL strategies for student use; approaches for encouraging student SRL; and a discussion of some of the challenges educators might encounter while teaching students to be self-regulated, life-long learners.

High Stakes Testing And Students With Learning Disabilities: Factors Of Passing And Failing The Virginia Standards Of Learning Tests, Paul J. Gerber

MERC Publications

In the era of high stakes testing there are questions about the performance of students with learning disabilities. Passing or failing the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in Virginia Can be the difference between ultimately obtaining a regular diploma, modified diploma, or a certificate of completion. This study analyzed the performance of middle school students with learning disabilities to ascertain why some students passed the Virginia SOL tests and others failed. Student failure was attributed to two main trends in the data. First, was a significant pattern of inconsistency in program planning. Second, was a systemic set of problems in …

Teachers' Use Of High-Stakes Test Results To Improve Instruction: A Review Of Literature, James H. Mcmillan, Susan P. Mckelvey

MERC Publications

Across the United States many school districts and state departments of education have embraced high-stakes testing for their public schools and students. This has led to widespread school reform since many students have not reached the standards that the states and/or districts have set. Teachers increasingly focus on making sure that their students have enough knowledge to pass these tests, and some states and districts have made passing scores a requirement for graduation. Many states and districts have invested considerable time aligning their standardized tests with the objectives of the curriculum.

One of the consequences of high-stakes testing is that …

Accountability Tests And Assessment Of Students With Disabilities: High-Stakes Are For Tomatoes! A Review Of Literature, Paul J. Gerber

MERC Publications

Since the landmark work A Nation at Risk (1998), a report that warned about “the rising tide of mediocrity in American public education”, school systems in the United States have been evolving by way of myriad of reform efforts, particularly with regard to the “standards movement.” There has been much scrutiny of student achievement by variety of constituencies – policymakers, school boards, and unions; school administrators, teachers, and parents. Each has viewed the metamorphosis of the K-12 system through its own lens. Moreover, each group has been most interested in the “bottom line” of educational efforts. That is, the outcomes …

Using The Internet To Support K-12 Teaching And Learning: A Review Of Literature, Rachel A. Karchmer, Leanne Eberly

MERC Publications

The purpose of this literature review is to examine what research and theory has informed us about using information and communication technologies (ICT), specifically the Internet, to support K-12 instruction. In the fall of 2000, 77% of K-12 classrooms in the United States has at least one computer with Internet access (Cattagni & Farris, 2001). This number has surely risen especially as programs such a E-rate, funded by the federal government, provided billions of dollars to schools for the purpose of establishing Internet connections (see www.fcc.gov/learnet).

When reviewing the existing literature, it becomes clear that while great emphasis has been …

The Effectiveness Of Summer Remediation For High-Stakes Testing, James H. Mcmillan, Angela Snyder

MERC Publications

Summer school has been an integral part of American education for many years. Historically, summer school was used to prevent delinquency, to keep children “off the streets.” While this function is still served, the purposes of summer school now include academic enrichment, summer employment for teachers, supervision for children during the summer months for working parents, the mitigation of summer learning loss, and what can be teamed remediation of student knowledge and skills to meet high academic standards (Hirschman, 200; New York State United Teachers, 1999); the National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations, 2000). For some students, summer …

The Effectiveness Of Remedial School Summer Programs: Review Of Literature And Annotated Bibliography, James H. Mcmillan, Dawn Bonanno Fitzelle

MERC Publications

Summer School has been an integral part of American education for many years. Historically, summer school was used to prevent delinquency, to keep children “off the streets.” While this function is still served, the purposes of summer school now include academic enrichment, summer employment for teachers, supervision for children during the summer months for working parents, the mitigation of summer learning loss, and what can be termed remediation of student knowledge and skills to meet higher academic standards (Hirschman, 2000; New York State United Teachers, 1999; The National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations, 2000). For some students, summer …

A Study Of The Impact Of Overage Middle School Students On Middle Schools, Daisy Reed, Caroline Kirkpatrick

MERC Publications

A continuing issue in school reform efforts is the need to decrease dropout rates for students. Many dropouts are at-risk students who have failing grades, inadequate academic sills, and low levels of literacy. These students are often retained in grade, and eventually drop out. While students may actually drop out in high school, dropping out behaviors begin to occur in middle school or even earlier, in elementary school. Middle School students who are retained and become overage have the potential for having a negative impact on the school district and the school. More importantly, these students often suffer a decrease …

Teaching As Reflective Practice: Papers By Teacher Researchers, Merc Research Teachers

MERC Publications

This is a research report on "Teaching as Reflective Practice" put together by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium. The research papers in this report include:

"Expectation and Innovations: A Nation At Risk; Shopping Mall High School; Horace's Compromise" by Angela Pickels and Brettina Sanchez of Monacan High School, Chesterfield County Public Schools.

"The Successful Interdisciplinary Class Must Secede From the Traditional" by Puck Snidow and Margaret Flanagan of Clover Hill High School, Chesterfield County Public Schools.

"What Has Been the Impact of Beaverdam Elementary Schools's Computer Network on Teachers?" by Katherine W. Benkert and Donna Kouri of Beaverdam Elementary School, …