What Counts When it Comes to School Enjoyment and Aspiration in the Middle Grades.

Young adolescents, and the middle level educators who work with them, face many exciting but demanding challenges during this key period of development. According to stage-environment fit theory, the degree to which middle grades students perceive a good fit between their school environment and their needs impacts their academic and life outcomes. The authors endeavored to build on middle level research by studying the extent to which students' needs are supported by school environment factors and how this "fit" relates to two academic outcome variables: school enjoyment and aspiration.

Students with Disabilities' Self-Report on Perceptions toward Disclosing Disability and Faculty's Willingness to Provide Accommodations.

Perceptions of students with disabilities toward faculty willingness to provide accommodations and students' willingness to disclose a disability were investigated in a sample of undergraduate and graduate students with disabilities (n=141) at a large mid-Atlantic university. Results revealed that most students felt their professors were willing to provide accommodations. High levels of students perceived instructors' willingness to provide accommodations were associated with high students' willingness to disclose a disability.

Rural Student Voices to Improve Educational Attainment Oriented Programs.

The Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) strives to increase college-going and completion rates for students in West Virginia (USA), a state with low educational attainment and the second most rural state in the country. The positive impact of HSTA on student academic trajectories has been documented, but student voices have not been represented. This qualitative study using Bronfenbrenner's ecological perspective explores student experiences through HSTA, with an eye toward how similar programs serving rural populations might improve while understanding student participant perspectives.