As more educators integrate their curricula with online learning, it is easier to crowdsource content from them. Crowdsourced tutoring has been proven to reliably increase students' next problem correctness. In this work, we confirmed the findings of a previous study in this area, with stronger confidence margins than previously, and revealed that…

Prior research shows that self-explanation promotes understanding by helping learners connect new knowledge with prior knowledge. However, despite ample evidence supporting the effectiveness of self-explanation, an instructional design challenge emerges in how best to scaffold self-explanation. In particular, it is an open challenge to design…

We investigated the effects of proximal grouping of numbers, problem-solving goals to make 100, and prior knowledge on students' solution strategies in an online mathematics game. Logistic regression on 857 problem-level data points from 227 middle-school students showed that students were more likely to use productive solution strategies on…

Understanding equivalence is fundamental to STEM disciplines, yet misunderstandings and misconceptions inhibit students from fully appreciating or leveraging the concept. Using the game-based algebraic notation system, From Here to There! (FH2T), students explore ideas of equivalence by dynamically transforming expressions or equations among…

Exclusionary discipline practices have a direct negative impact on individual students, schools, and society at large. To improve equity and cultural responsivity, active efforts to assess the contextual fit of effective strategies are necessary. The following study describes the Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an intervention…

Students value school success but often experience classroom norms implying that learning is easy and succeeding in school is not difficult. Applying an identity-based motivation (IBM) lens highlights three ways succeed-with-ease-not-effort norms can undermine students' grades and increase their risk of course failure. Succeed-with-ease-not-effort…

Extended Reality (XR) experiences for mathematics teachers can allow them to understand both pedagogy and the mathematics itself in new ways. In this study, we explore a virtual reality (VR) simulation for learning about geometric shapes where teachers could engage in joint, shared manipulation of holograms in three dimensions. We examine what…

Numbers and variables often follow the same principles of arithmetic operations, yet numbers can be computed to a value whereas variables cannot. We examined the effect of symbols--numbers versus variables--on middle school students' problem-solving behaviors in a dynamic algebra notation system by presenting problems in numbers (e.g., 3+5-3) or…

Introduction: Schools have become a primary setting for providing mental health care to youths in the U.S. School-based interventions have proliferated, but their effects on mental health and academic outcomes remain understudied. In this study we will implement and evaluate the effects of a flexible multidiagnostic treatment called Modular…

Middle grades teachers want early adolescents to take responsibility for their own learning and success in school. One way to encourage this is with "interactive homework," which enables students to lead conversations with a parent or family partner about something interesting they are learning in class. An exploratory study tested…

As leaders in the school, principals play an important role in fostering family engagement. Unfortunately, little is known about specific aspects of leadership that promote family engagement. Collegial leadership, an aspect of principal leadership that promotes organizational health via trusting relationships and a sense of community, may be…

District leaders have invested widely in the creation of parent portals, but have paid less attention to ensuring that they are achieving their purpose in providing information that parents can use in supporting their children's academic success. This study, based on qualitative field note data from a larger four-year study of a continuous…

Improving ninth grade course passing rates has been shown to be crucial in improving high school outcomes. Yet at this critical transition to high school, family engagement has tended to decrease. This study explores how increasing use of the parent portal could potentially help to reduce ninth grade failure. Using automatically-generated…

Purpose: This study explores the roles of morphological skills (Morphological Awareness, Morphological-Syntactic-Knowledge, Morphological-Semantic-Knowledge, and Morphological-Orthographic/Phonological-Knowledge), vocabulary (knowledge of definitions, relationships between words, and polysemous meanings), and syntax in contributing to adolescent…

EMPOWER was an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant awarded to Cabarrus County Schools by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. EMPOWER provided social-emotional, academic, and non-cognitive supports in magnet school settings to students from low-income families. Family engagement and teacher…