This was a causal-comparative study the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Program on middle school student academic achievement and attendance. There were two major research questions, which were presented. They were as follows: Is there a statistically significant interaction among gender (males, females), race/ethnicity (blacks, whites), and group membership (Talented and Gifted, AVID) with respect to Stanford 9-TA Partial Battery Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) achievement total scores after controlling for initial differences in socioeconomic status and, Is there a statistically significant interaction among gender (males, females), race/ethnicity (blacks, whites), and group membership (Talented and Gifted, AVID) with respect to attendance after controlling for initial differences in socioeconomic status? These questions were analyzed using two three way ANCOVAS with 2 x 2 x 2 factorial designs, with a .05 alpha level employed to test for statistical significance. The researcher analyzed standardized testing and attendance data collected on the 1996-1997 eighth-grade student cohort within one mid-sized socioeconomic diverse urban school district. Data were collected on 398 students beginning with the 1994-1995 school year and concluding with the 1996-1997 school year. Data for eighth grade students not enrolled in the Gifted and Talented, or AVID programs for that length of time, neither were used. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, 1995). Threats to the internal and external validity of this study may be that students have relocated or were not present during test administrations and their Stanford 9-TA Partial Battery Achievement Test data were not available. Test data for students neither blacks or whites, or in AVID or the Talented and Gifted programs for the indicated three-year span were not analyzed. Students missing attendance data were also not included. The creators of AVID, profess that students participating in the AVID program will attend school and achieve academically as well as other groups of children. The researcher's analyses of the data does not substantiate this claim. The data yielded that AVID students produced lower achievement scores on the Partial Battery of the Stanford 9-TA Achievement Test in all areas. It was also found that gender, race/ethnicity and group membership were significant factors. / Ed. D.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2007), 27% of the nation’s 8th grade population scored below the basic reading level in 2006-2007. Reading fluency strategies are a viable practice for improving reading achievement yet seldom are they incorporated into the 8th grade curriculum. To be effective, passages used in reading fluency strategies should be at the students’ instructional reading level (Daly, Persampieri, et al., 2005; Welsch, 2007). However, if increased oral reading fluency gained at the instructional reading level fails to generalize to content-area text that a student is required to read, the gain is not clinically significant, as it does not allow the student access to required reading. Stahl and Heubach (2006) recommended providing instruction in more difficult material while providing a strong degree of support. In this study, four middle school students reading one to two years below grade level received strong support for increasing reading fluency while using their social studies textbook. The intervention package consisted of listening passage preview, repeated reading, phrase-drill error correction, and performance feedback with student charting. Two research questions guided this study: (a) What are the effects of a comprehensive treatment package consisting of commonly utilized strategies for improving oral reading fluency on middle school students’ oral reading fluency using their required grade-level social studies textbooks? and (b) to what extent does performance generalize to required literature textbook passages and passages from CRCT Coach in Science (2002) and CRCT Coach in Social Studies (2002)? A multiple probe across participants design was used to answer these questions. Visual analysis of graphically displayed single-case data revealed that the multicomponent reading intervention positively affected student performance on intervention and generalization passages. The results of this study are promising, and given that reading content-area text is the core of education in middle school, further research is necessary.

This thesis aims to explore how Korean middle school students exercise agency in the Free Semester policy setting. The Free Semester is an education reform policy in Korea which has been implemented to change traditional East Asian learning environment to be more student-centered and creative one since 2013. This qualitative research is motivated by what kinds of difference the Free Semester policy have brought in regards to Korean young adolescents’ perception on schooling, learning and autonomy. Data for this study was mainly consisted of semi-structured interviews with seven Korean public middle school students; three second-grade girls (age of 13), one second-grade boy (age of 13), one third-grade girl (age of 14) and two third-grade boys (age of 14) who experienced the Free Semester one or two years ago. To analyze the interview data, thematic analysis was used and, as a result, three main themes were found as follows: Theme 1. Experiencing autonomy, Theme 2. Hope for more autonomous actions 3. Appreciation of social and cultural values. Korean middle school students experienced a widened range of agency in a newly given school setting under the Free Semester policy. However, their agency was still far limited by East Asian education culture. The students were stuck in ambivalent situations; while the students are encouraged for student-centered and creative learning by the Free Semester policy, they were still pressured to value traditional passive learning attitude since it is regarded as a winning strategy to earn a higher test score.

This purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention package that combined Skillstreaming procedures for the development of social skills with the use of video modeling for middle school students identified with ASD. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine if the video modeling intervention package has an impact on social skill performance of three middle school-aged students with ASD. A multiple probe design across participants was employed to assess the effects of the video modeling intervention package on two beginning social skills (i.e., initiate greetings and initiate a conversation). The participants were three middle school-aged students with ASD enrolled in a self-contained classroom. The dependent variable was the percentage of correct social skills components performed when greeting the teacher and initiating a conversation within in the first 10 minutes of class each morning. The independent variable was an intervention package that included video modeling and direct instruction for each social skill component with Skillstreaming procedures (i.e., modeling, role playing, feedback). The results of this research indicated that all three students improved their social skills performance following the implementation of the video modeling intervention package. Furthermore, during the maintenance phase, the social skills performance of each student was maintained. Recommendations for further study and for teachers of students with ASD are presented.

This study investigates middle school students’ interest in learning about the Holocaust, which methods are the most effective at teaching the Holocaust and how the testimony of Holocaust survivors can be retold to the next generations of middle school students. In order to answer these research questions, my study uses surveys with three classes of current middle school students in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, a focus group with graduate students at the University of Victoria and an interview with Larissa Weber, the director of the Anne Frank Exhibition in Berlin. These quantitative and qualitative results are analyzed using a mixed methods approach. The middle school students’ perceptions regarding effective educational methods when teaching the Holocaust in my limited sample (n=77 in the first survey and n=58 in the second survey) suggest that there is a connection between personal narrative and empathy when teaching the Holocaust in middle school classrooms. These findings are contextualized with a summary of the history of Holocaust education in Canadian public schools and a discussion regarding the role of empathy in learning about the Holocaust. / Graduate / 0515 / 0311 / 0534 / natashaw@uvic.ca

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:57:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Natalia Coelho Soares.pdf: 1911222 bytes, checksum: 49a1ece22c9ff2a82a16d9ff71201d25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aimed to investigate whether and how eighth-grade middle school students who have difficulty in solving mathematical operations with natural numbers deepen their knowledge in this field when they have the opportunity to work with technological tools that are not frequently used in classroom. Data collection was based on twelve semi-structured interviews, which were done according to André (2008) concept of study of case. The students conceptions about solving mathematical operations with natural numbers were analyzed based mainly on the APOS theory. It was concluded that by introducing technological tools that are not frequently used in classroom, such as abacus and printing calculator, the students were allowed to deepen their knowledge about natural numbers and, consequently, reframe their conceptions about it / Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa de mestrado que teve o objetivo de investigar se e como, alunos do 8º ano do ensino fundamental, que apresentam dificuldades na resolução de atividades matemáticas que envolvem operações com os números naturais, aprofundam seus conhecimentos, quando lhes é dada a oportunidade do uso de tecnologias não usuais em sala de aula. Para a coleta de dados, foram realizadas doze entrevistas semiestruturadas que caracterizaram o estudo de caso, conforme definido por André (2008). As análises das concepções construídas pelos sujeitos basearam-se sobretudo na teoria APOS. Concluiu-se que a introdução das tecnologias não usuais, como o ábaco e, principalmente, a calculadora com impressora possibilitaram o aprofundamento e a consequente ressignificação das concepções dos sujeitos sobre as operações dos números naturais

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