This GEER grant was funded to conduct objective statewide research using phone and web-based survey methodology, strategic focus group research, and publicly available academic and attendance data to tell the story of Mississippi’s efforts to deliver high-quality education to its K-12 students under the limitations of the 2020 pandemic conditions.
The follow-up goals are to use the results of this research to produce a white paper series that delves deeper into the innovations and best practices in educational resources, technology access, instructional best practices, and staffing that ensured K-12 educational services during the 2020 pandemic emergency. Proposed topics for upcoming white papers may include:
Dr. Kathleen Alley is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State University, and served as a co-investigator on this project. Dr. Alley has significant research publication experience in the fields of literacy, middle grades education, and technology. Additionally, she has 27 years’ experience in K-12 education as a teacher, library and technology specialist, and a district level instructional technology specialist and curriculum specialist for K-8 literacy. Dr. Alley has served as Primary Investigator on three state-level grants, providing professional development to Mississippi teachers as part of the No Child Left Behind: Improving Teacher Quality Program administered by the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning.
Dr. Kellie Fondren is an assistant professor of special education in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State University and served as a co-investigator on this project. Dr. Fondren’s educational background lies in mild-moderate k-12 education, emotional and behavioral disorders, and post-secondary transition. As part of this project, Dr. Fondren was actively involved in focus group interview design, participant recruitment, and qualitative data analysis as it related to special education, having previously conducted statewide online survey research exploring best practices in delivering instruction to students with disabilities. Dr. Fondren has regularly taught online at the college level since 2015.
Dr. Peggy F. Hopper is a professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State University, and served as a co-investigator on this project. Dr. Hopper is an award-winner for her work in online education and has conducted research in numerous academic areas using a variety of research methods. Hopper’s educational research has appeared in multiple peer reviewed journals and book chapters. Dr. Hopper’s current strand of research is investigating resilient teaching during the pandemic and how the change to online and hybrid classes will affect the profession of secondary teaching, grades 7-12.
Dr. Kristin H. Javorsky is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, and served as the principal investigator for this project. Dr. Javorsky’s national and international presentation and publication record demonstrates expertise in the field of early childhood education research (preschool-3rd grade) particularly as it relates to technology and/or rural contexts. While working as a research fellow at the National Strategic Planning and Research Center (nSPARC), Javorsky and her team published Surveying the Landscape: Early Childhood Education in Mississippi, using statewide phone surveys and statistical analysis to report on the state’s newly adopted Early Learning Standards and Guidelines. Her team also produced Getting Fresh Perspectives on the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems: Listening Sessions with Mississippi’s Licensed Childcare Providers.
Dr. Stephanie M. Lemley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State University, and served as a co-investigator on this project. Dr. Lemley brings consecutive years of professional experience with online teaching, as well as supporting certified teachers online. Dr. Lemley has conducted both online survey research as well as qualitative research studies utilizing interviews and focus groups as the main method of data collection and analysis. In this work, her population samples have included K-12 in-service teachers and doctoral students. In 2016, her work as part of the Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association led to the publication of a national middle level research agenda to guide future work of researchers and policy makers.
Dr. Nicole Miller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State University, and served as a co-investigator on this project. Miller has served as co-investigator on several grants including awards from the Library of Congress and U.S. Department of Education and her research in the areas of middle grades education (4th-8th grade), technology integration, online instruction has been well-published. Dr. Miller has experience with large-scale survey research, most recently as part of a national study on Common Planning Time through the Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Miller regularly teaches education courses online and provides professional development and ongoing support to certified teachers, particularly those teaching in the middle grades (4th through 8th grade).
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Dr. Kelly Moser, Associate Professor, Department of Classical & Modern Languages and Literatures (CMLL) has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in World Language Education. Before joining the Department of CMLL, Moser previously served as the coordinator of the K-12 World Language (WL) Education program housed in the College of Education. She was a former high school Spanish teacher in Tennessee where she earned two graduate degrees in Spanish literature and World Language Teacher Education from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Moser currently teaches Spanish and language pedagogy, coordinates the basic Spanish language program, and leads graduate teaching assistant professional development and training for her department. Moser was the 2020 recipient of the Educator of Excellence awarded by the Southern Conference on Language Teaching and the 2019 Mississippi Educator of Excellence. She has led workshops and presented related to best practices in WL teaching and learning across the globe. Additionally, Moser’s research focuses on language teacher development, teacher identity, and most recently remote language teaching and its impact on teacher perceptions, experiences, and potential attrition. Her scholarly works can be found in Foreign Language Annals, System, Language Teaching Research, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and Journal of Language, Identity, and Education. Dr. Moser served as the PI of Grant #G00005561, Mississippi State Support for Online Language Teaching (SOLT).
Dr. Sol Pelaez, Associate Professor, Department of Classical & Modern Languages and Literatures has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (SUNY, Buffalo), a Bachelor degree in History (Licenciatura-research oriented), and one as a Professor of Middle and Higher Education in History (teaching oriented) from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has been teaching Spanish and Latin American culture and literature at Mississippi State University since 2010 and has served as the coordinator of third-semester Spanish. She has presented regionally at the Mississippi Foreign Language Association several times on how to integrate the teaching of language, culture, and literature and on principles of communicative language teaching. Pelaez has also coordinated the development of first and second-semester online Spanish. Dr. Pelaez served as co-PI of this project.
Dr. Karina Zelaya, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of Classical & Modern Languages and Literatures earned a PhD in Spanish from The University of California, Davis. Zelaya has been an active advocate for diversity and inclusion programming at the University. She has served for four years as the Director of the Spain and Central America Study Abroad Language and Culture programs. She has led workshops and presented on teaching Central and Latin American literature and culture as well as served in an advisory role for curriculum development in Latin American/Latino Studies for academic institutions in Nevada and California. Dr. Zelaya is also the 2019 Mississippi State University Diversity Award recipient. Dr. Zelaya served as co-PI of the project.
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