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This study employed a quantitative experimental correlational (action research) design utilizing Pearson's r correlation coefficient to determine whether or not there was a statistically significant relationship between students' socioeconomic status and having a diagnosed disability at one economically disadvantaged public, rural, co-educational junior-senior high school in the northeast region of the United States. Data from students in grades 6-8 who were considered economically disadvantaged were analyzed. It was determined that there is little to no correlation between students' socioeconomic status and having a diagnosed disability at the school utilized in this study. However, additional analyses indicated that almost 70% of students with a diagnosed disability were also economically disadvantaged, which suggested that a causation analysis is recommended for future study.

This study is an action research study conducted at one rural northeastern Pennsylvania junior/senior high school to gain secondary education subject-area teacher's perspectives on educating students with special needs in a co-teaching environment. A written open-ended questionnaire was issued to relevant faculty members which determined that co-teaching has many challenges but is a positive experience overall; co-teachers can be reduced to performing only the tasks of teacher aides; both co-teachers need to know the academic material and be comfortable with each other; and co-teachers must have time to plan lessons together.

A Web 2.0 technology was implemented during reading instruction in one 3rd-grade classroom in suburban southeastern Pennsylvania. Trained preservice teachers provided feedback to students via the World Wide Web to enhance their performance and social connections. Motivation scores were measured before and after the intervention was implemented. A t-test for dependent samples indicated that there was a statistically significant improvement in motivation scores (p [less than] 0.05). These findings indicate that having young students use interactive technologies can boost motivation relative to reading comprehension activities. (Contains 3 tables.)

Background: The idea for attempting a distance tutoring project between university tutors and elementary school students using Microsoft NetMeeting was conceived: (a) to provide a new experience mentoring children for university students pursuing a teaching certificate, (b) for university students to utilize technology in pedagogy, (c) as an outreach to elementary school students in need of academic assistance who may not otherwise have access to such assistance (for instance, students in poorer urban or rural school districts who do not have tutors), (d) to eliminate off campus travel for university students to take part in a mentoring opportunity, and (e) to utilize existing technology and keep project costs to a minimum. Purpose: This research sought to inform participants on how NetMeeting (the free Microsoft program that allows two or more computers to communicate in a virtual meeting with file sharing, whiteboard, text chat, audio, and video) can be an effective and practical means of tutoring students at a distance whose computers still operate on Windows 98, 2000, or XP platforms. Discussion included ease of communication between tutor/student, student academic progress, miscellaneous outcomes, and initial systems/firewalls troubleshooting issues between the university and the elementary school. Setting: University campus and Catholic (Parochial) elementary school, January to May 2007. Study Sample: Four university students served as one-on-one tutors for four elementary students. The research design was qualitative. Findings: An adult was required to be present to connect the elementary student with the college tutor prior to and during each session. Telephone access must be available to ensure that the student and tutor are present and that the connecting technology is in working order. There must be communication between parties in the morning of the distance tutoring session to ensure that the tutoring session will take place. The video component of NetMeeting was deemed unnecessary for distance tutoring. Headsets with microphones are essential. Several successes were noted in student performance, including using whiteboard and text chat functions for typing out spelling words; reading current and future stories aloud; predicting plots of stories by looking at pictures; and assisting with pronunciation of new words. Conclusion: Implementing the distance tutoring project using NetMeeting was a viable means for communicating between the university and elementary school. Poorer schools with limited budgets would be able to utilize NetMeeting to connect with colleges/universities in conducting similar programs to assist elementary and/or secondary students with their studies without needing to be in the same geographic area. Appended are: Technical Terms and Abbreviations. (Contains 1 note.)

The effect of an environmental field trip on student learning in one middle school in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States was examined. An experimental one-group pretest-posttest group design was implemented on a sample of 579 students which comprised 12 groups. Although a t-test for dependent samples indicated that less than half of the groups showed a statistically significant improvement from pretest to posttest at the p less than 0.05 level, a group item analysis indicated that in only 1 out of 60 instances was the group mean lower than 70% on a posttest question (and in 36 out of 60 instances, the group mean was 90% or higher on a posttest question), indicating that most students were able to demonstrate learning of the material contained within the field trip immediately afterwards. Pretest and posttest items are appended. (Contains 1 table.)