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The primary purpose of this study is to examine and understand how teachers of charter schools perceive their respective schools' cultures. The research is based upon data gathered from teachers (n=372) in schools (n=18) within a Charter School System (CSS) in the southern United States. We used descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way ANOVA as our statistical tools. The findings revealed that teachers at the Charter Schools have a positive perception of the school culture within their respective schools. Teachers particularly favored professional development opportunities and collegial support in their respected schools. School size, grade span, and years of operation did not make significant differences in CSS's school culture except collegial support. Collegial support scores for the K-12 school was significantly higher than the 9-12 schools.

This study was grounded in the social cognitive career theoretical framework (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). The purpose of this four-year longitudinal study was to examine the factors that may have contributed to students' motivation to develop STEM interest during secondary school years. The participants in our study were 9th-11th grade high school students from a large K-12 college preparatory charter school system, Harmony Public Schools (HPS) in Texas. We utilized descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses to carry out the study. The results revealed that three-year survey takers' STEM major interest seemed to decrease steadily each year. Although there was a significant gender gap between males and females in STEM selection in 9th and 10th grade, this difference was not significant at the end of 11th grade. White and Asian students were significantly more likely to be interested in STEM careers. We also found that students who were most likely to choose a STEM major in college had higher parent and teacher expectations, higher math and science self-efficacy, higher GPA grades, took more AP courses, and participated in STEM clubs.

The present study focuses on the results of a four-year study that examined a Harmony Public School (HPS) high school students' STEM major selection patterns. We utilize 626 12th grade students who were common participants in each year of the 4-year study. We used quantitative method for the question 1 and 2 and a mainly qualitative focus for the question 3. Descriptive statistics for the first question revealed that HPS students had higher rates in STEM career interest in all categories including gender and race/ethnicity throughout each of the four years of the study. For the second research question, we found that male students with higher science self-efficacy scores and less STEM club participation have a statistically significant effect on students' STEM major choice. For the third question, students indicated that their parents and teachers, and courses taken in high school were their top three factors that influenced their STEM career selection.

The purpose of this study is to compare the college enrollment and STEM college major choice rates of graduates of a STEM-focused charter school system to those of students who graduated from traditional public schools in the state of Texas and the USA for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented groups. In addition, the factors students perceived as important in their STEM career selection were examined. Participants were Harmony Public Schools (HPS) alumni who graduated between year 2002 and 2016. Data were collected through annual and additional surveys via e-mails and Facebook. Data were analyzed descriptively to answer the research questions. It was found that HPS had significantly higher college enrollment rates in all minority groups including female, African American, Hispanic, and low-SES when compared to public school students in the state of Texas and the USA. The second research question revealed that HPS graduates' STEM major choice rates were significantly higher than their counterparts in the state of Texas and the USA in all subgroups including female and students of color. Students' self-interest, teachers, and parents were found to be the top three factors that students thought affected their major choice.

This study explores the characteristics of after-school program activities at a charter school in the Southeast US highlighting students' experiences with and gains from these after-school program activities. A qualitative case study design was employed to understand students' views and opinions regarding the activities and their learning trajectories. Study data were collected through formal and informal observations, one-on-one semistructured interviews, and field notes. The study's findings indicated that such activities emphasize open-ended and collaborative scientific investigations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and provided an arena for students to demonstrate various uses of 21st century skills. We have described and explained: (a) the importance of collaborative learning groups, (b) the popularity of after-school program activities, (c) interest in STEM fields, and (d) activities' contribution to developing 21st century skills. These findings show that STEM related activities have the potential to promote collaborative learning and inquiry as well as to contribute to the development of 21st century skills. These findings have also been discussed in light of how STEM related after-school program activities support students' learning.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how students' high school experience, math and science efficacy, and student, parent, and teacher expectations affect their plans for college major choice after controlling for students' gender, ethnicity, and parental variables. Over 1500 9th grade students participated in the study. Using logistic regressions, we found that males and students whose parents held degree from a U.S. college are more likely to consider STEM majors in college. Hispanic students were found less likely to consider STEM major in college compared their Asian counterparts. Students who completed more STEM PBL projects and attended STEM summer camps are more likely to consider STEM majors. Students with higher GPAs also indicated that they are more likely to study STEM majors in college. In addition, students with higher parent and teacher encouragement are more likely to consider selecting a STEM major after graduating from high school. Moreover, students who had higher math and science efficacy are also more likely to consider choosing a STEM major in college. Last but not least, we found that students' future career choice is also positively associated with their interests and goals they develop during high school years. Other findings and interaction effects with gender and ethnicity are also discussed in the paper. Overall, this study demonstrates that students' contemplations about STEM major selection in college is influenced by the complex interplay between the "individual," "environment," and "behavior," three major components of social cognitive career theory.

This study examines college students' science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) choices as they relate to high school experiences, parent, teacher, and self-expectations, and mathematics and science efficacy. Participants were 2246 graduates of a STEM-focused public Harmony Public Schools in Texas, Harmony Public Schools (HPS). Descriptive analyses indicated that the overall percentage of HPS graduates who chose a STEM major in college was greater than Texas state and national averages. Logistic regression analyses revealed that males and Asian students are more likely to choose a STEM major in college than females and non-Asian students, respectively. Moreover, students whose parents had a college degree in the U.S. are more likely to major in STEM fields than those who did not. Furthermore, males with higher mathematics efficacy and females with higher science efficacy are more likely to choose a STEM major than their counterparts with lower mathematics and science efficacy.

This study examined the high schools' state tests performances in mathematics, reading, and science of an open-enrollment STEM-focused charter school system,Harmony Public Schools(HPS), between 2010 and 2013, and compared them with the performance of matched traditional public schools (TPS) in Texas. After propensity score matching, 12 HPS schools were compared with 32 matched public schools. Independent sample t-tests were performed to compare the schools' TAKS and STAAR scores in each year. One-way ANOVA was conducted to examine differences across years for each school type and Univariate General Linear Model was used to investigate if school type by year interaction had an effect on scores for each subject over the years. T-test results revealed that HPS scores were significantly higher than TPS scores in most of the categories. One-way ANOVA results showed that both TPS and HPS scores dropped significantly in most of the categories during the transition from TAKS to STAAR and univariate GLM analyses indicated significant interaction effects between school type and year variables for all but 10th grade mathematics.

Because mobile technology has become so obvious in a child's life, use of it for teaching and learning has become a necessity. This study investigates use of Chromebook laptops in 6-12 grade classrooms in relation to teachers' experience. We employ a mixed method approach. First, we study how teachers' years of teaching and numbers of technological tools they have are related to their comfort of teaching with Chromebook laptops, as well as their attitudes change towards technology after teaching with a Chromebook for a year. Second, to have more specific thoughts about teachers' Chromebook experience, we conducted qualitative analyses to hear teachers' voices. Of the 658 6-12 grade Mathematics and English teachers from 30 schools invited to be part of the study, 553 teachers completed the survey. We utilized Pearson Product correlation for the first question. A paired-sample t test was run to examine whether teachers' attitudes towards technology use changed after teaching with Chromebooks for a year. For the qualitative part, we used a Phenomenological approach to analyze what teachers felt about their experience with Chromebooks. We found that teachers' comfort of teaching is not significantly correlated with their years of experience. As expected, there was a statistically significant relationship between the number of technological tools they had and their comfort of teaching with technology. Teachers' attitudes significantly decreased after teaching with Chromebooks for a year. Teachers complained about excessive blocking and lack of tech support, along with some suggestions including filtering and proper training, both for teachers and students that is for a smoother transition from traditional teaching to Chromebook-integrated teaching. Findings and implications are presented to help schools improve technology integration in the discussion and conclusion parts.

Social cognitive theory guided the design of a survey to investigate high school students' perceptions of factors affecting their career contemplations and beliefs regarding the influence of their participation in the international Science Olympiad on their subject interests and twenty-first century skills. In addition, gender differences in students' choice of competition category were studied. Mixed methods analysis of survey returns from 172 Olympiad participants from 31 countries showed that students' career aspirations were affected most by their teachers, personal interests, and parents, respectively. Students also indicated that they believed that their participation in the Olympiad reinforced their plan to choose a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major at college and assisted them in developing and improving their twenty-first century skills. Furthermore, female students' responses indicated that their project choices were less likely to be in the engineering category and more likely to be in the environment or energy categories. Findings are discussed in the light of increasing the awareness of the role and importance of Science Olympiads in STEM career choice and finding ways to attract more female students into engineering careers.

As online videos have become more easily available and more attractive to the new generation of students, and as new student-learning approaches tend to have more technology integration, the flipped classroom model has become very popular. The purpose of this study was to understand college students' views on flipped courses and investigate how the flipping affects their achievement in mathematics. We also studied how college students prepared for flipped classroom sections. Finally, college students' views were analyzed to see what they think about flipping in terms of benefits and preparation. Participants were 96 college students consisting of mostly freshmen & sophomores. We utilized descriptive statistics and paired t-test to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics revealed that participants preferred watching flip class videos (44%) over reading the sections from the textbook (17%) for preparation. Dependent t-test results showed that there is a statistically significant difference between students' average quiz scores from non-flipped sections and flipped sections. Students achieved significantly higher quiz scores in flipped sections than non-flipped ones. Overall, most of the students (83%) stated that flipped-taught lessons prepared them better.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how international teachers, who were from overseas but taught in the United States, rate effective teacher qualities in three domains; personal, professional, and classroom management skills. The study includes 130 international mathematics, science, and computer teachers who taught in a multi-school charter school system in south-central America. It was found that international teachers perception of effective teachers was similar to findings of other research regardless of nationality as long as teachers enjoys teaching, explain the materials clearly, and grade student work fairly. Univariate ANOVA analysis revealed that international teachers' US teaching experience had statistically significant effect on teachers' ratings of professional skills. Findings were discussed in light of developing more general effective teacher qualities regardless of subject matter.

As the global economic competition gets tougher, American policymakers and researchers are interested in finding ways to increase the number of students pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-related majors in order for the United States to continue its role as an economic powerhouse. A survey study was employed to investigate a multi-charter school system's (Harmony Public Schools [HPS]) after-school program in which doing a science fair project was expected for all 4th-12th grade students, and students were encouraged to participate STEM-related clubs (MATHCOUNTS, American Mathematics Competition [AMC], Science Olympiad, University Interscholastic League [UIL] and Science DEMO.). In particular, the first part of the study focused on how related matriculation of this specific school system was with the national average (n = 230). In the second part, the relationships between students' science fair and STEM club participation and their STEM major selection was investigated (n = 149). Findings showed that HPS outperformed the national average in terms of post-secondary admissions and STEM major selections. Multiple years of science fair project competition were positively related with students choosing a post-secondary STEM major (x[squared](4) = 5.32, p = 0. 255). There was also a statistically significant relationship between the number of STEM clubs students participated in and their choice of STEM major (x[squared](4) = 34.22, p less than 0.001). Findings are discussed in light of developing STEM-focused after-school clubs. (Contains 3 tables.)

This case study of a first-year and an experienced teacher presents an analysis of the place and frequency of three types of questions: probing, guiding, and factual. We examined the use of these questions in the course of five lessons, in order to study the relationship between the part of the lesson and types of questions asked. In addition, we interviewed the teachers to gain insights into their reasons for asking different types of questions. Both teachers asked many more factual questions than other types of questions regardless of their teaching strategies. Both asked more probing questions during the summary part of the lessons than in other parts. The first year teacher asked more probing questions overall than the experienced teacher, except in a lesson in which the experienced teacher engaged student with manipulatives. Guiding questions were rarely used by either teacher. In the interviews, both teachers said asking higher order questions was important for better students' learning, even though they asked relatively few probing or guiding questions. Using the indicators we developed for question types, we found that the two teachers were aware of the functions of questions they used. Even after a considerable amount of time had elapsed, they were able to recall the lesson from a video clip and explain why they used questions with particular students or in a specific situation.