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The goal of this research was to develop a greater understanding of the effectiveness of enrichment programs outside of the school setting. This study was also intended to contribute to the broader understanding of the mechanism of student school-related stress, reported by parents, as it relates to student academic performance, specifically in a population which primarily consists of students and parents who are of Asian-Indian-American descent. With rising standards and intensifying pressure on students to be academically successful, it is necessary to examine the stress students experience due to their academics, as well as its effects on their academic performance. Participants in this study included twenty 1st through 5th grade elementary students who attend weekly classes at one of three local academies where the after-school academic enrichment program is offered. Data from those students participating in both math and English was accounted for separately, resulting in 34 total student subjects which can be utilized for this study (N = 34). After performing bivariate logistic regression, the models did not reach significance (p > .05), therefore it cannot be said that an increase or decrease in dependent variable of students’ school grades can be predicted that any of the following independent variables: homework completion, length of enrollment, and academy homework scores,. The perceptions of the parents, in addition to those of the children experiencing these stressors should be studied further.

With the implementation of more rigorous reading standards nationwide, teachers are feeling less secure about their abilities to teach students to become proficient readers. Utilizing Bandura's theory of self-efficacy as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how teachers perceived their self-efficacy to teach complex reading standards to struggling readers. Seven middle school English language arts teachers from 2 schools in a southern school district participated in this study. The research questions addressed teachers' understanding of the recent Common Core literacy standards and perceptions of their own self-efficacy to teach mastery of these standards to struggling readers. Semi-structured interviews with teacher study participants were recorded, transcribed, coded, and then analyzed in search of common themes. Findings showed that teachers perceived themselves to be knowledgeable about the literacy standards but, believed themselves unprepared to teach mastery of the standards to students who read significantly below grade level. Middle school teachers in this study claimed they had received no training that emphasized effective strategies for struggling readers and believed that training in such strategies and more collaboration with colleagues would increase their self-efficacy to enhance reading skills of struggling students. The resulting project created from the findings was a series of professional development sessions for middle school teachers to explain reading strategies that support the reading development of struggling readers. This study could affect positive social change by identifying ways in which middle school teachers may become more empowered to teach struggling readers. When teachers are empowered, their confidence and self-efficacy levels increase, and students benefit from effective instruction.

The purpose of this feasibility study is to provide evidence of how integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills into eighth-grade social studies instruction facilitates student understanding of content material and ability to write about social studies content. In thiswithin-subjects paired-samples research study, 197 eighth-grade participants received instruction in a social studies content area and in argumentative writing. Data from a criterion-referenced social studies pre and posttest and data from pre and post instruction writing samples were analyzed to evaluate the influence of the integration of literacy tasks in middle school social studies classrooms oncontent area knowledge acquisition and argumentative writing quality. Analysis of the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) data usingregression analysis showed that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ performance on the CRT after the students engaged in literacy tasks emphasizing reading, writing, speaking, and listening during the social studies instruction. Analysis of the writing rubric scores using Cohen’s d showed statistically significant differences exist between the students pre and post essay scores. These results suggest that having students engage in reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks and in explicit writing instruction and production during a social studies unit facilitates their content knowledge acquisition, improves the overall quality of students’ argumentative writing, and more specifically, improves the organization and development of that writing. It is recommended that further research be conducted to determine the best way to group students for collaboration when incorporating reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks within content area instruction.

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