Teacher Perceptions of Middle School Students Meeting English Language Arts Literacy Standards

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of middle school students meeting English Language Arts standards. Guided by the theories of Vygotsky (1978), which are founded in the cognitive, communicative, and developmental ideologies, this study examined how educators perceived instructional supports, teacher expectations, the student and teacher relationship, and teacher morale to impact achievement. This study revealed that middle school English Language Arts educators perceived that instructional supports, teacher expectations, the student and teacher relationship, and teacher morale do impact students meeting English Language Arts Standards. However, educators perceive that if combined, the components of each have the potential to make a greater positive impact on student achievement. Twelve English Language Arts teachers participated in the study. These teachers completed a questionnaire and participated in an interview with the researcher. Observational field notes also were recorded during the study by the researcher. The questionnaires, interviews, and field notes were coded using Excel and NVivo software. The documents were used to determine the educators’ perceptions of students meeting English Language Arts standards. The results indicated that teachers perceive a positive correlation between students meeting English Language Arts standards and instructional supports, teacher expectations, teacher morale, and the student and teacher relationship

The Common Core and the Future of Student Assessment in Ohio

Ohio committed itself to embracing higher standards that cross state lines when it joined 45 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting the Common Core standards in math and English language arts (ELA) in June 2010

Mathematica's Evaluation of The Equity Project Charter School: High Salaries for Teachers, Positive Impacts on Student Achievement

Mathematica found that by the end of the 2012 -- 2013 school year, TEP's impacts on student achievement were consistently positive across subjects and cohorts, with especially large effects in math. Using benchmarks for average annual learning gains, the research team found that, compared to similar students in comparable New York City public schools, students who attended TEP for four years had test score gains equal to an additional 1.6 years of school in math, an additional 0.4 years of school in English language arts, and an additional 0.6 years of school in science. Using another relevant benchmark, TEP's cumulative effect on student achievement over four years is approximately equivalent to 78% of the Hispanic-white achievement gap in math, 17% of the Hispanic-white gap in English language arts, and 25% of the Hispanic-white gap in science

Evaluating online information: Attitudes and practices of secondary English Language Arts teachers

As an increasing number of teens are engaging in digital environments, they are becoming open to online misinformation often designed to further a variety of agendas. Online misinformation, or “fake news” as it is often referred to in popular culture, permeates all Web 2.0 technologies. Since English Language Arts curriculums often focus on topics related to critical media literacy, English Language Arts teachers have a unique opportunity to integrate strategies to evaluate online information. This survey design study explored the attitudes and practices of secondary English Language Arts teachers regarding teaching students strategies to detect online misinformation. Teachers working within one mid-Atlantic suburban county completed a web-based survey consisting of questions about their demographics as well as the importance for students to learn, teachers to teach, and frequency of integrating strategies to evaluate online information. Results indicated overwhelming support for integrating critical media literacy into English Language Arts classrooms

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016

This section highlights high-achieving schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire examinations in Math, English Language Arts (ELA) and Science for the 20115-16 academic year. For these awards, we consider schools that serve free or reduced lunch to at least 66% of the student body

Literacy Applications for Today\u27s Learner

Common Core English Language Arts Standards and changing technologies have shifted the ways students and teachers select and read text. Reasons for the lack of digital literacy implementation in instruction are due to the large amount of choices available without sufficient background information on how to critically evaluate literacy applications. This article presents the framework of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards and how they are used to enhance literacy instruction through implementation of literacy technology applications. Limitations and advantages of digital applications are explored, descriptions of the applications are provided, and strategies for implementation in the English/Language Arts classroom are discussed

English Language Learners and Home-Language Text Use in Secondary English Language Arts Classrooms

This qualitative phenomenological study dissertation provides an overview of a problem of practice: the disengagement of English language learners in the secondary English language arts classroom. The researcher would like to determine how secondary English language arts teachers effectively incorporate one well-researched, yet infrequently used intervention: the integration of home language texts to teach transferrable English language arts skills to English language learners. An overview of relevant literature about the topic is included and multiple research questions for further study are provided. An action research phenomenological study to address the research questions along with the findings from the implementation of the plan of action are described, and recommendations for further study are offered