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Preparing Teachers to Close the Gap: How Innovative Teacher Education Can Help English Learners Succeed

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  Read the full dissertation The Challenge: Persistent Achievement Gaps for English Learners In America's classrooms, English learners (ELs) consistently underperform compared to their English-proficient peers. Despite decades of educational reforms and specialized programs, this achievement gap persists as one of education's most stubborn challenges. My research examined a promising approach to this problem: transforming how we prepare teachers to work with English learners. Rather than training only ESOL specialists, what if we equipped every teacher with the skills to effectively teach language and content simultaneously? A New Approach to Teacher Preparation Traditionally, English learners were pulled out of mainstream classes for specialized English instruction. While this approach had benefits, it often created an unintended side effect: general classroom teachers sometimes felt less responsible for ELs' learning, viewing these students as primarily the E...
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The Hidden Factors Behind Civics Education Success: What Schools and Districts Reveal About Student Achievement

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Read our full research article in the Florida Journal of Educational Research Why Civics Education Matters More Than You Think Imagine a classroom where students aren't just learning about government—they're practicing how to become engaged citizens. They're analyzing public issues, discussing solutions, and developing the skills needed to influence their communities and beyond. This is the promise of high-quality civics education in America. But here's the reality check: approximately 76% of 8th graders across the U.S. score below proficiency on national civics assessments. Let that sink in. Three out of four students lack the fundamental knowledge needed to understand how our democracy functions. As researchers looking at Florida's standardized civics testing, we wanted to understand what's really behind these numbers. What makes some schools more successful than others at teaching students about civic life? And why do we see such persistent gaps in achievemen...
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Does a Student's Lunch Ticket Hint at Their Civics Test Score? Exploring the Link Between School Poverty and Civic Learning

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  Imagine two schools: one in a wealthy suburb, the other in a neighborhood facing economic hardship. Students in both are learning about government, their rights, and their responsibilities as future citizens. But do they have an equal shot at succeeding on a test measuring that knowledge? New research suggests that a seemingly unrelated factor – how many students at a school qualify for subsidized lunches – might offer a clue. Brief Context of the Research Problem (Why It Matters): Civic education is crucial. It’s how young people learn to participate in democracy, understand societal issues, and become engaged citizens. In many places, standardized tests, like Florida's End-of-Course (EOC) assessment in civics, are used to measure how well students are learning these important concepts. However, we also know that a student's socioeconomic status (often indicated by things like eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, or FRPL) can be linked to their overall academic pe...
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