This study examined similarities and differences in how U.S. and Japanese middle-school science teachers teach science through inquiry. Classroom practices were examined through observations in the United States (N = 9) and Japan (N = 14). The observational data were coded and quantified based on the rubric that incorporated 2 dimensions: student…

Middle school students perform well academically when their schooling environment meets their developmental needs (Eccles et al., 1993). Both school culture and student-teacher relationships are influential aspects of the school environment that impact academic expectations, school satisfaction, and academic performance. In the current study, we…

This article examines an after-school program in which English language learners (ELLs) collaborated with their mainstream peers at an urban middle school to produce a multilingual video that addressed a social issue. The project, which was grounded in the tenets of critical and culturally relevant pedagogies, allowed the young people to mobilize…

More than 2,300 teachers in 241 schools across 25 states participating in a professional development approach to character education classroom management known as Development Designs 1 and Developmental Designs 2 (DD1 & DD2) were studied throughout the 2008-2009 academic school year. Data from this longitudinal program evaluation indicate that…

This study reports finding from an ex post facto causal-comparison study utilizing data from a multifaceted program evaluation of a professional development approach to classroom management known as Development Designs 1 and Developmental Designs 2 (DD1 & D2). Data from this program evaluation indicate that teachers implement a number of classroom…

This study presents findings from an evaluation of the Developmental Designs classroom management approach and professional development model during its first year of implementation across 22 middle schools in a large, Midwestern school district. The impact of this professional development model on teaching and learning as related to participants'…

This study examined classroom assessment practices of 3rd- through 12th-grade teachers in a Midwestern state. In addition to determining the frequency with which specific assessment item formats were utilized, the level of use of selected "best practice" approaches to assessment was considered ("performance-based assessment, teacher-made tests,…

Stereotype threat research has demonstrated how presenting situational cues in a testing environment, such as raising the salience of negative stereotypes, can adversely affect test performance (Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003; Steele & Aronson, 1995) and expectancy (Cadinu, Maass, Frigerio, Impagliazzo, & Latinotti, 2003; Stangor, Carr, & Kiang,…

In this qualitative study, the author explored the concept of differentiation in urban, suburban, and rural language arts classrooms. The overall goal of understanding how differentiation occurred in these classrooms led to the following specific intentions: (1) to identify teachers' understandings of differentiation, (2) to understand their…

The t-test is one of the most commonly used significance tests to assess whether the means of two groups are statistically significantly different from each other. The use of t-test has become a natural choice, and rarely practitioners question its appropriateness. This article reviews and discusses t-test's value in providing a rough comparison…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of one class of sixth grade middle students enrolled in a Title I reading class. The class consisted of 15 students. Through instrumental case study, qualitative data were collected over 24 weeks through (a) interviews, (b) observations, and (c) documents: student…

The purpose of this quantitative study, funded by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) through Just Read, Florida!, was to investigate the use of Tune in[TM] to Reading, an innovative reading intervention, with struggling adolescent readers in the juvenile justice system. One hundred and three students who exhibited issues ranging from…

This paper reports on a project which investigates the impact of systemic environmental education (EE) programs on student achievement on EE-based integrated tests and standardized tests in math, language arts, and listening. Systemic environmental education programs are defined by curriculum designed to align and integrate subjects around real…

The purpose of this study was to explore and interpret students' perspectives of their experiences in four urban middle school physical education programs. Focus group interviews with 76 students were supported by field notes and researchers' reflective journals. Researchers used constant comparison methods (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) to identify seven…

Institutions of teacher education face a challenge of preparing teachers with the capacity to provide high-quality instruction to the increasingly diverse student populations in our nation's schools. In an effort to better prepare a our middle level preservice students to teach in diverse settings, we engaged in a case study of one group of…