<p> Treatment integrity of school-based interventions is discussed within the dropout prevention and the Check &amp; Connect (C&amp;C) mentoring program framework. Treatment integrity factors and increasing and measuring it are explored. The psychometric properties of the C&amp;C Survey, an online administered self-report treatment integrity measure, used 2010/2011 data from 24 mentors and middle school mentees. Estimation of the C&amp;C Survey's criterion and content validity through mixed methods included data across multiple factors of treatment integrity and mentee outcomes. Aspects of the C&amp;C Survey correlate to improved mentee attendance and, less so, to decreased mentee GPA. Qualitative data showed mentors with higher C&amp;C Survey scores have more comprehensive knowledge of C&amp;C interventions. Experienced mentors found the C&amp;C Survey accurately reflected their activities. The C&amp;C Survey was deemed to have adequate psychometric properties. The frequent use of online administered treatment integrity measures for school-based interventions is proposed and further investigation posited.</p>

<p> This quantitative method, quasi-experimental design study examined the possible effect of foreign language study in Tennessee middle schools on mathematics achievement. The population was 1,708 historical student test scores of a single cohort spanning 6^th through 8^th Grades from the same schools within a large urban public school district. NCLB demographics included race, gender, socio-economic status, and ELL status. The quasi-experimental design followed methods described by Shadish, Cook, &amp; Campbell, including independent control and treatment groups, pre-test/post-test, stratification, and matching. The instrument was the mathematics portion of the revised (2008-2009) Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) standardized tests. The TCAP was revised with increased critical thinking skills according to the Webb taxonomy and normalized to national standards. The study indicated that the foreign language treatment group performed significantly better than the control group, <i>t</i>_2&ndash;samp (&infin;) = 4.87, <i>a</i> &lt; .05, on their 8^th Grade TCAP mathematics test. The problem was that foreign language programs had been reduced or eliminated under NCLB-related academic and financial pressures. Political and educational leadership lacked evidence linking foreign language study to mathematics achievement in middle schools. This study was situated within an intuitionist mathematics philosophy, brain-based research, and social cognitive learning theory. Implications included an age-appropriate curriculum development model, curricular integration, support for foreign language study in middle schools, and the possible detrimental effects of cancelling foreign language programs.</p>

<p> Immigrant and refugee students who have been entering the United States have a pressing challenge and that challenge is the learning and comprehension of the English language. School administration and faculty have struggled to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee students in urban schools. The purpose of the quantitative correlational study was to test the hypothesis that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade immigrant and refugee band students scored higher on the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test than did junior high immigrant and refugee non-band students in the reading and comprehension of the English language, as assessed by the 2010 and 2011 reading and 2011 writing test scores of the AIMS. The target population consisted of the immigrant and refugee student population in three junior high schools in the A1 district, a Title 1 district in Phoenix, Arizona. The federal government created and developed Title 1 schools in the United States for students who were living at or near poverty and who may have been at risk of failure. The data clerks, faculty, and administrative members collected the reading and writing scores of the band and non-band sixth, seventh, and eighth graders of the three junior high schools from the Microsoft Excel&reg; program of the A1 District and the data were input into the Microsoft Excel program, then into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences&reg; (SPSS) program and analyzed. Two-tailed <i>t</i>-tests were conducted to analyze differences in the reading and writing scores between the band and non-band students in three junior high schools in Central Phoenix. A statistically significant difference in reading and writing scores was found between those students who were band participants and those who were not.</p>

<p> Using action research design and methodology, the goal of this project was to reduce and prevent bullying at a rural middle school in South Dakota through the implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP). This project was rooted in replication of Dr. Dan Olweus' seminal work on bullying prevention, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. N = 521 students participated in the project. The OBPP Implementation Flowchart and OBPP Scope and Sequence guided implementation. Despite a high degree of fidelity of implementation on the OBPP Readiness Assessment, OBPP Classroom Implementation Checklist, and OBPP First Year Checklist, the results on the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire (OBQ) were mixed with some key indicators showing an increase in bullying behaviors. However, the results are limited due to the OBPP's propensity to bring about increased recognition and reporting of bullying behaviors in the first year as a result of skills and strategies learned through class meetings. Additional time and study are recommended in order to draw definitive conclusions regarding the overall effectiveness of the OBPP. Other recommendations for further study include: improved fidelity of implementation and the addition of a prosocial skills/character education component to support the tenets of the OBPP.</p>

<p> This quasi-experimental research study examined the cognitive effects of background music used with middle school students during mathematics classes and mathematics testing. Eight schools, nine teachers, 23 classes, and 302 students participated in the project. A series of five compact discs of Mozart selections, a specifically selected composite of 12 CD albums, was used over a period of 10 class days and one testing day. The tests were teacher-designed for use during the regular regimen of testing for their specific classes. The conditions of music and no-music were reversed so students were their own controls. Results showed a nonstatistical gain overall; however, sixth grade females had a net music gain that superseded all other male and female groupings. In addition, an incremental gain was found with those who had played instruments. Other gains/losses were noted for these conditions: if students liked or did not like background music during classes and testing, if they liked or did not like listening to music while doing homework, if they liked singing or not, and whether they felt that the music was a help or hindrance to their attention, concentration, and/or distraction. The students' perspectives concerning the quasi-experiment were reported as supplemental qualitative data which included impressions about the experiment, opinions about the experience they had, and suggestions for future experiments.</p>

<p> The purpose of this holistic single-case study was to identify and to understand the child, the family, and the school interactions that influence the development of Brazilian students&rsquo; English fluency. The general research question was: What perceived influences act within and on the students&rsquo; language acquisition to acquire English fluency? A purposeful sample of seventeen participants evidenced the factors that influenced the seventh and the eighth grade Brazilian students&rsquo; English fluency. Data were collected through 17 interviews, tape-recordings, interview transcriptions, document analysis, and 17 member-check interviews. Data were coded and analyzed through the NVivo 10.0 for Mac Beta. The seven themes of external influences that emerged from the data of the factors that influenced Brazilian students&rsquo; English fluency included: English Lessons are Priority in Extracurricular Activities, Technology Use is Fundamental in English Fluency, Parents Participate in the Learning Experience, Contact with Culture and Native Speakers Advances English, Parents Set High Standards, the Curriculum, and Teachers&rsquo; Competency Influences English Fluency. One sub-theme resulted: Parents&rsquo; Motivate through Example. The two internal themes included: (1) Students are Naturally Interested in English, and (2) Students Enjoy Learning. The findings of this study supported the literature that ecological factors influence students&rsquo; learning, specifically the family, the school, and the community. Identifying and understanding the positive interactions that influenced the students&rsquo; learning of English in this case may benefit teachers and families, to improve the students&rsquo; learning a foreign language for success in the Brazilian context.</p>

<p> This study sought to fill the gap in the literature concerning gifted students and academic motivation by examining the academic motivation in 126 non-gifted (<i>n</i> = 66) and intellectually gifted (<i>n </i> = 60) middle and high school students. The study used archival data to answer the following questions: What is the relationship between motivational variables, test anxiety, and student GPA for both non-gifted and gifted students? Are there differences in motivation across student group and across gender? And does a unique profile of motivation exist for intellectually gifted students? Study results revealed positive relationships between certain aspects of motivation and academic performance within the non-gifted students and the gifted students. Findings indicated that intellectually gifted middle and high school students tend to be more motivated than their non-gifted peers and experience significantly less test anxiety than their non-gifted peers. Gender differences in motivation were found only within the gifted group on intrinsic goal orientation, with gifted female students reporting more intrinsic goal orientation than their male counterparts. While a unique profile of motivation did not arise for intellectually gifted students, the gifted students were more likely to fall within cluster groups with high motivation, high sense of control over academic outcomes and high perception of their ability to successfully complete academic tasks. These students tended to have a higher GPA and experience very little test anxiety when compared to students with low motivation.</p>

<p> The United States must provide quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in order to maintain a leading role in the global economy. Numerous initiatives have been established across the United States that promote and encourage STEM education within the middle school curriculum. Integrating active learning pedagogy into instructors' lesson plans will prepare the students to think critically - a necessary skill for the twenty first century. </p><p> This study integrated a three-week long Near Space Balloon project into six eighth grade Earth Science classes from Valley Middle School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was hypothesized that after the students designed, constructed, launched, and analyzed their payload experiments, they would have an increased affinity for high school science and math classes. </p><p> A pre- and post-survey was distributed to the students (n=124), before and after the project to analyze how effective this engineering and space mission was regarding high school STEM interests. The surveys were statistically analyzed, comparing means by the Student's t-Test, specifically the Welch-Satterthwaite test. Female students displayed a 57.1% increase in math and a 63.6% increase in science; male students displayed a 46.6% increase in science and 0% increase in math. Most Likert-scale survey questions experienced no statistically significant change, supporting the null hypothesis. The only survey question that supported the hypothesis was, "I Think Engineers Work Alone," which experienced a 0.24% decrease in student understanding. </p><p> The results suggest that integrating a three-week long Near Space Balloon project into middle school curricula will not directly influence the students' excitement to pursue STEM subjects and careers. An extensive, yearlong ballooning mission is recommended so that it can be integrated with multiple core subjects. Using such an innovative pedagogy method as with this balloon launch will help students master the scientific process and experience real team collaboration, as they did in this successful mission.</p>

<p> This study examined the efficacy of peer tutoring, specifically Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), as supplemental instruction for middle school students with reading difficulties. A multiple baseline across individuals design was used to demonstrate changes in oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of this study suggest that students who participated in PALS did not substantially increase reading fluency or comprehension when analyzed on the basis of non-overlapping data points. Nonetheless, two of the three underperforming students improved their reading skills such that they were no longer in the at-risk range by the end of the study. The third lower-performing student did make important gains over the course of the study. Notably, the lower-performing participants perceived themselves as having made gains in reading and they attributed these gains to working with a partner. The limitations and implications of future research are discussed. </p>

<p> In this study, the focus was on determining leadership strategies that promote teacher empowerment among urban middle school science teachers. The purpose of the paper was to determine if leadership strategies are related to teacher empowerment. The emphasis was on various forms of leadership and the empowerment of teachers in context in restructuring the democratic structure. An effective leadership in science education entails empowering others, especially science teachers. In this regard, no published studies had examined this perspective on empowering teachers and school leadership. Therefore, this study determined if a relationship exists between leadership strategy actions and teacher empowerment. The significance of the study is to determine a relationship between leadership strategies and teacher empowerment as a positive approach toward developing successful schools. Empowerment is essential for implementing serious improvements. Empowering others in schools must form a major component of an effective principal&rsquo;s agenda. It is becoming clearer in research literature that complex changes in education sometimes require active initiation. For this study, a quantitative methodology was used. Primary data enabled the research questions to be answered. The reliability and validity of the research were ensured. The results of this study showed that 40% of the administrators establish program policies with teachers, and 53% of teachers make decisions about new programs in schools. Furthermore, the findings, their implications, and recommendations are discussed. </p>