Research

Should Middle School Students with Learning Problems Copy and Paste Notes from the Internet? Mixed-Methods Evidence of Study Barriers

In the experimental phase of this mixed-methods study, 49 middle school students receiving special education services took notes from the Internet under either a written notes or a copy-and-paste notes condition. Immediate, cued-recall measures of factual learning showed that students who wrote their notes were better able to recall what they had noted, although recall

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Helping Middle School Girls At Risk for School Failure Recover Their Confidence and Achieve School Success: An Experimental Study

Middle school girls who are at risk have experienced a disproportionate number of intense and disruptive traumatic life events. Such events can adversely affect healthy development and often contribute to higher levels of school failure and problem behavior. Few programs focus on helping at-risk middle school girls achieve school success through gender-specific developmental intervention, and

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The Relationship between Curriculum-based Measures in Oral Reading Fluency and High-Stakes Tests for Seventh Grade Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral reading fluency and performance on a statewide reading achievement test for middle grades students. Participants in this study were 75 seventh grade students. One month before the students were administered the state test, each student read three probes from their current basal reader

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Examining Response to a One-to-One Computer Initiative: Student and Teacher Voices

The impact of a one-to-one computing initiative at a Midwestern urban middle school was examined through phenomenological research techniques focusing on the voices of eighth grade students and their teachers. Analysis of transcripts from pre- and post-implementation interviews of 47 students and eight teachers yielded patterns of responses to illuminate how one-to-one computing changed students’

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The Role of Sociability Self-Concept in the Relationship between Exposure to and Concern about Aggression in Middle School

This study examined middle grades students’ sociability self-concept and their perceptions about feeling safe at school. Participants’ (N = 420) exposure to school aggression and concern about the potential for violence at school were measured across four critical areas: fighting, bullying, stealing, and seeing weapons. Results indicated a limited exposure to school aggression for these young

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A Path Analysis of the Relationship Among Critical Motivational Variables and Achievement in Reform-Oriented Mathematics Curriculum

This study investigated the relationship among critical motivational variables and mathematics achievement as middle grades students engaged in a reform-oriented curriculum, Mathematics in Context. We tested 327 students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade before and after two years of implementation. We performed a path analysis with subscales representing latent motivational variables and with achievement on

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