Education Commons^™

A Matter Of Time: The Relationship Of Class Length And Demographics On The South Carolina Algebra I End-Of-Course Test In South Carolina Middle Schools, Jennifer Addie Ramsey

Education Dissertations and Projects

For middle school students taking Algebra 1 as a high school credit, having sufficient instructional time to understand and explore the course content is crucial. While the focus of the literature review helps lend understanding to the study, there has been limited information concerning assessment scores in middle school math classes and the length of class time. This study investigated the differences in the End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP) test scores of middle school students in Algebra 1 as influenced by schedules used in South Carolina public middle schools for each individual year in a 5-year span of the 2010-2015 academic …

A Mixed-Methods Study Of Student Perceptions Of The Transition To Middle School, Danyah Mcallister Hill

Education Dissertations and Projects

The study detailed in this dissertation was designed to examine and understand student perceptions of self-efficacy, motivation, student-teacher relationships, and procedural differences during the transition to middle school. The mixed-methods study utilized a survey, focus groups, and interviews to triangulate the data.

An analysis of the data revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between student perceptions of motivation and self-efficacy at School A and School B. The researcher found that students at School A had a more positive perception in the areas of motivation and self-efficacy than School B, yet School B met its predicted growth score and …

Examining The Effects Of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Read 180 Program On Reading Achievement And Self-Efficacy In Middle Schools, Amanda Michelle Cox

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine if improving reading achievement through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (HMH) READ 180 program impacted a student’s reading self-efficacy. Of the students participating in this study, particular attention was placed on the factors of gender, ethnicity, and the length of time students were exposed to HMH’s READ 180 program.

The setting for this research was three middle schools in upstate South Carolina. The schools sampled were from a combination of urban, suburban, and rural populations. The study’s methodology was quantitative and correlational.

When reviewing the results of the study, the research indicated that there …

An Investigation Of Middle School Mentoring Relationships Through The Lens Of The Developmental Assets Framework, Christopher Thomas Reinsma

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

School-based mentoring is a popular but relatively unstudied support intervention for students entering middle school. Mentoring research more generally reveals that relationship quality between student and mentor is foundational for achieving positive student outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, the 20/20 Vision Project explored mentoring relationship quality and student outcomes for a group of 15 fifth and sixth grade students at an intermediate school in the upper Midwest. Students and mentors were matched in developmental relationships that focused on building developmental assets over the course of one school semester. Matched pairs met for 40 minutes, one time per week for …

Experiences Of Middle-Level Students, Teachers, And Parents In The Do The Write Thing Violence Prevention Program, Sarah E. Peterson, R. Craig Williams, Rick A. Myer, Josefina V. Tinajero

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

We examined experiences of participants in Do the Write Thing national violence prevention program for middle-level students. Using mixed methods, we conducted surveys and focus groups with students, parents, and teachers who attended the program’s National Recognition Week in Washington, DC. Results revealed important affective, behavioral, and cognitive impacts on participants, including improved relationships, increased understanding of violence, and commitment to reduce violence. Participants from cities where insufficient time and resources were devoted to the project did not experience significant change. Teachers reported developing greater empathy for their students and making substantial changes in their teaching, providing support for students …

Growing Independence: Making Practice Collaborative, Flexible, And Meaningful, Sam Nelson

Middle Grades Review

The concept of practice, from a middle school student’s perspective, is mundane, redundant, perhaps yawn-inducing. This essay explains a first-hand account of an educator moving to a proficiency-based learning format and discovering how student proficiency does not often improve without engaging and flexible practice opportunities. Using middle level concepts and brain-based research, changes in the educator’s practice came to accommodate the needs of students and take away the stigma of practice as being boring or repetitive. The essay includes examples of learning targets, in-class activities, and curriculum structures.

The Promise Of Character Education In Middle School: A Meta-Analysis, Calvary R. Diggs, Patrick Akos

Middle Grades Review

Early adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by changes in reasoning, social cognition, and desire for autonomy in youth aged 11-14 (or grades 6-8). This period is also associated with heightened impulsivity and risk-taking that has been linked to school-related challenges such as antisocial behaviors and declining grades. Character education, a particular brand of social-emotional practice, has been promulgated as a developmentally responsive program that can promote prosocial behavior and academic success by building upon existing developmental strengths. However, research findings to date are primarily informed by elementary school program outcomes. Due to this limitation, a meta-analytic review of recent …

The Future Of Middle Level Education Research: Looking Forward By Looking From The Inside Out, James F. Nagle, Penny A. Bishop

Middle Grades Review

No abstract provided.

Things Learned - Or Affirmed - As A Middle School Mom, Kate M. Cassada

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

As a life-long middle school advocate, I have always known and valued my students as their teacher and school leader, but recently I became a middle school mom. As a parent, many of my beliefs about doing what is right for middle school children have been affirmed, and I have gained wisdom by seeing the situation from a parent's perspectives. Here are some of the lessons learned or affirmed by a middle school mom.

Effectiveness Of 1:1 Technology In The Science Classroom, Courtney Tara Weiss

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: (a) to determine if using e-text technology in a middle school resource science classroom increases student academic performance, (b) to determine if using e-text technology in a middle school science resource classroom increases student engagement/on-task behavior, and (c) to evaluate student comfort and satisfaction in using an electronic textbook or print textbook in a middle school resource science classroom. Ten middle school students, four in grade 7 and six in grade 8 participated in the study using the Discovery Education Science Techbook and the AGS General Science series. A single subject design with ABABA …

Meaning-Making In Early Adolescence: Practices And Perspectives Of School Counselors, Jill E. Schwarz

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Adolescence is a crucial life stage involving aspects of identity development and decision-making that have potential life-long consequences. A sense of meaning is related to many beneficial factors during adolescence, including psychological health, academic engagement, and overall well-being. This qualitative interview study was designed to investigate middle school counselors’ perspectives and practices regarding exploring meaning with their early adolescent students. Analysis of ten individual interviews and a focus group revealed that the school counselor participants did engage in work with middle school students around meaning-making. They primarily helped students to find meaning through identity exploration, specifically focusing on navigating challenging …

The Relationship Of Formative Assessment To The Professional Development And Perspective Transformation Of Teachers, Kimberly K. Snyder

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study uses practitioner research to explore teacher perspectives about formative assessment. The researcher engaged in a four-month-long series of professional development sessions with one middle school and two high school English-Language Arts teachers from the Capital View School District. Understanding formative assessment as a process to monitor student learning and then customizing instruction based on the data gathered from the formative assessment is a complex skill in which teachers need practice and even coaching to become adroit. The sessions were intended to help early-career teachers better understand formative assessment and incorporate it as a strategy in their teaching praxis. …

Is The Flipped Classroom Pedagogy Effective For All Students?, Stephanie Quarato

EDL Sixth Year Theses

In my experience as a mathematics teacher, I have learned that mathematics is a subject that is commonly paired with negative feelings. Many individuals lack confidence in their ability to perform mathematics. As a mathematics teacher, I am always looking for different ways to reach the needs of all of my students. The flipped classroom was one initiative that I implemented into my classroom to understand the benefits of learning in this unique way. In a flipped lesson, the students learn the lesson from a textbook or video as the homework, while the practice is completed in the classroom. The …

The Influence Of An Extended School Day On Middle School English Language Arts And Mathematics Achievement In A New Jersey Suburban School District, Davida Lindsay-Harewood

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study examined the influence of an extended school day, reported in instruction minutes, on academic achievement of general and special education middle school students in one public suburban New Jersey school district using English Language Arts and Mathematics data from the 2014 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). The sample was selected using Propensity Score Matching, a statistical technique employed to reduce the influence of selection bias. The final sample consisted of 238 students in Grade 6, 238 in Grade 7, and 238 in Grade 8 in the New Jersey suburban, upper middle-income school district during …

Sustained Implementation Of School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports Through Continuous Regeneration, Thomas A. Edwards

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

School-wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBIS) aim to create safe and civil school environments through proactive teaching, consistent reinforcing, and appropriate response to student behavior. The literature pertaining to the implementation of SWPBIS is limited, having few longitudinal studies of school-based changes to sustain the initiative. The present case study examined the data-based adaptations in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, priority, and continuous regeneration during a five-year implementation of SWPBIS at a high needs middle school. Findings demonstrated marked improvement in fidelity of implementation, student, parent, and staff perceptions, and student behavior outcomes. Recommendations related to continual improvement that engages more staff …

Re-Viewing, Re-Imaging, And Re-Invigorating Middle School Teacher Education, Edward Podsiadlik Iii

Middle Grades Review

How do we best prepare educators for teaching in the middle grades? This essay reviews authentic middle student feedback and two comprehensive units of instruction in order to re-view and re-imagine the potential of middle school teacher education to become re-invigorated in its capacity to offer relevant and critical instructional experiences. Essential questions explored are: 1) what do effective middle school teaching and learning uniquely look and sound like?; and 2) what singular components, considerations, and challenges does middle school teacher education need to specifically address? Evidence is examined that demonstrates pedagogical components, strategies, and a wide-range of resources which …

Specialized Middle Level Teacher Preparation: Moving From Advocacy To Actualization, Chris M. Cook, Penny B. Howell, Shawn A. Faulkner

Middle Grades Review

Is specialized middle level teacher preparation necessary? This essay offers the authors thoughts regarding middle level teaching and the necessity of specialized middle level teacher preparation. The reader is encouraged to further the discussion of middle level teacher preparation from advocacy to actualization.

The Case For Specialized Middle Grades Teacher Preparation, Penny A. Bishop, James F. Nagle

Middle Grades Review

No abstract provided.

How Engineering Standards Are Interpreted And Translated For Middle School, Eugene Judson, John Ernzen, Stephen Krause, James A. Middleton, Robert J. Culbertson

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

In this exploratory study we examined the alignment of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) middle school engineering design standards with lesson ideas from middle school teachers, science education faculty, and engineering faculty (4–6 members per group). Respondents were prompted to provide plain language interpretations of two middle school Engineering Design performance expectations and to provide examples of how the performance expectations could be applied in middle school classrooms. Participants indicated the challenges and benefits of implementing these performance expectations and indicated personal experiences that helped them to interpret the performance expectations.

Quality of lessons differed depending on the performance expectation …

Out Of School Time Science Programs: Examining A Program’S Impacts On The Science Identities Of Middle School Female Participants, Elizabeth Ripley Mactavish

Doctoral Dissertations

Science education reform efforts emphasize teaching science for all Americans, and identify scientific literacy as the principle goal of science education (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1993; National Research Council [NRC], 1996). Despite the goal of scientific literacy, some students, especially females and minorities, consider science irrelevant to their personal interests or career goals. Additionally, research pinpoints middle school as a period when female students begin to lose interest in science (Farenga, 1999; Hill et al., 2010).

Decades of research have documented the gender achievement gap, yet little research has been focused on the science identity gap …

Physical Activity Differences Related To Gender And Grade Level In Middle School Students, Casey Reeves

Graduate Theses

In the last 35 years, the United States youth has experienced a significant rise in obesity levels, and a significant decline in physical activity levels (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015a; CDC, 2009). A variety of research has been conducted on the implications of decreasing levels of physical activity (PA). However, theories are mixed on when this rapid decline of participation in PA is occurring. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to identify a significant gap in PA levels between females and males and 2) to identify the age/grade in which the projected discrepancy develops. The …

Middle School Teachers’ Perspectives On Promoting Effective Technology Integration, Yona Andrew Rose

All Theses And Dissertations

Technology integration reforms in education have increased in number and expectation throughout schools across the United States. Some instructors have experienced barriers with skill sets, attitudes, professional development opportunities, and collaboration time which have impacted their ability to model good practices. Pictures of qualified, confident teachers integrating technology into their classrooms with regularity and fidelity are unclear. Existing literature was reviewed regarding methods of increasing teacher comfort and knowledge related to technology integration so that the 21st Century Skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication can be addressed in public schools. This research study explored what middle school teachers …

A Mixed-Method Study Of Mobile Devices And Student Self-Directed Learning And Achievement During A Middle School Stem Activity, Scott Bartholomew

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the increasingly ubiquitous nature of mobile devices among K-12 students, many argue for and against the inclusion of these devices in K-12 classrooms. Arguments in favor cite instant access to information and collaboration with others as positive affordances made possible through mobile devices. Self-directed learning, a process where individuals take charge of their learning and decide what they will learn, how they learn it, and how they assess their learning, has been identified as an increasingly important trait for K-12 students. The relationship between mobile device access in K-12 education settings and student self-directed learning has not been explored. …

Effect Of Class Size On Teaching Middle School English Language Learners, Carolina N. Garcia

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Class size is an issue in American K-12 education that researchers have examined and debated for years. Documented research studies conducted on the impact of class size on student achievement have not come to concrete conclusions due to the minimal influence of federal class size reduction programs throughout the United States. Furthermore, despite the vast body of literature concerning the class size and its impact on student achievement, focusing primarily on students in the elementary grades, there is a distinct lack of scholarship focusing on the effect of class size on teaching English Language Learners (ELL) and attempt to fill …

Finding Better Ways: Exploring Techniques To Support Native American And Low-Income Students In A Middle School, Wade Curren, Julie Curren, Caitlin Draper, Ben Schiermeister

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This paper explored four techniques middle school educators used to increase the academic success and engagement of Native American and low-income students in the classrooms. Two researchers studied the effects of relationship building and culturally relevant writing curriculum on student engagement. The other two researchers studied the effects of vocabulary instruction and differentiated assessments on student academic success. Twenty four Native American or low income students in grades 6 through 8 were studied. Data was collected through student surveys, observations, and assessment results to determine the effectiveness of these four strategies. The researchers found that the relationship building and culturally …

Active Learning, Primary Documents, And Complex Events: Reinvigorating History Education, Samantha Clonch

Honors Projects

History is frequently taught through lectures, tests, and individual work with primary documents, which can be exceedingly tedious for students. This is problematic because it leads to student disengagement and limited learning. Also problematic in history education is the lack of time spent teaching events which are viewed as less impactful than others on the course of history. The Louisiana Purchase is one such event. It is often taught in one day or less as an action that simply doubled the size of the United States. This project is an attempt to combat these problems. The project contains a seven …

The Use Of Middle School Atlases In The Social Studies Classroom In South Korea, Jung Eun Hong, Hyoun Kyoung Lee

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Middle school atlases are supplementary textbooks for social studies learning in South Korea. Although atlases are developed and designed to provide various useful resources for students’ social studies learning, especially geography, atlases have not been frequently used in actual social studies classrooms, and sometimes they are never used. This study reports the causes of low adoption rates of middle school atlases in Korean social studies classrooms through the analysis of survey responses from both teachers and students. This study also addresses ways of increasing the use of atlases in the classroom.

Reading As A Necessity: Best Practices For Incorporating Reading Into One English Course, Kristin M. Janssen

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research project investigated the best practices of teaching reading in a middle school curriculum requiring reading and writing to be combined in one English course. A private middle school in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, was evaluated on its use of the best practices. The participants were 24 teachers of 13 different subjects taught to students in seventh and eighth grade. All middle school teachers were sent a survey including questions about the best practices of reading across the curriculum, integrated instruction, and cooperative learning. The results of this study suggested that best practices of reading instruction …

A Collaborative Integrated Stem Teaching: Examination Of A Science And Math Teacher Collaboration On An Integrated Stem Unit, Drew C. Ayres

Open Access Theses

The integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum in middle school science and math classrooms is a reform effort currently taking place. The teachers are being encouraged to teach integrated content through national and state standards. The teachers have not been trained to do this form of teaching, which has led to feelings of discomfort or incompetence to fulfill those standards. This has led to a need for professional developments to train these teachers. Those developing the professional developments are seeking to identify ways to encourage teachers to continue to implement integrated units.

The purpose of this study was …

K-12 Outreach: Identifying The Broader Impacts Of Four Outreach Projects, Barbara M. Moskal, Catherine Skokan, Agata Dean, Caron Westland, Heidi Barker, Que N. Nguyen, Jennifer Tafoya

Caron Westland

Over the last four years, a series of outreach programs have been offered through the Colorado School of Mines to middle school teachers from eleven school districts in the State of Colorado in the United States. Each of these programs is designed to illustrate through hands-on activities the application of mathematics to science and engineering. Each also has an academic year follow-up such that a faculty member, an expert teacher, or a graduate student assists the teachers in the classroom. An expected outcome of this effort is the improvement of instruction in mathematics and science in the participating middle schools; …