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Standards and policy changes in K-12 education have created the unintended consequence of reducing instructional time spent on social studies content. This limited time devoted to social studies presumably has led to more integrated social studies and literacy instruction. The purpose of this paper is to document the types of high-quality social studies children’s books found in classroom libraries across five states.

In the present mixed methods study, the researchers utilized a database of 60 classroom libraries across five states to identify which high-quality trade books, defined by the National Council for the Social Studies, were present. The researchers document trends in both frequencies of books and social studies content across decades, classrooms, grade levels and states from 1972 to 2015.

The findings indicate that National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Notable Trade Books for Young People texts are largely missing from the elementary classroom libraries the researchers sampled. Of the 5,544 unique titles included on the NCSS lists from 1972 to 2015, 453 were located in the US classroom libraries database, representing 8.17 percent of books found on the notable lists.

Before teachers can take steps toward integrating social studies and literacy, they need easy access to high-quality social studies texts. Many high-quality trade books are recommended each year for exposing students to social studies content; however, the researchers found limited numbers of these books in classroom libraries. The researchers recommend the lists be circulated to a wider audience to inform more teachers about these texts.

This study aims to investigate the impact of outside financing (equity and debt financing) on the quality of financial reporting in Iran.

Sample includes the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange – 152 companies in a period of four years during 2010-2013. Data were analyzed by using multiple linear regressions with the benefits of the combined data.

The results indicates that there is a positive relationship between the quality of financial reporting based on the qualitative characteristics of the theoretical principles of the Iranian Financial Accounting Standards Board and debt financing. Moreover, there is a negative relationship between the quality of financial reporting based on the Dechow and Dichev (2002) model and debt financing. Additionally, there is a negative relationship between the quality of financial reporting (based on the qualitative characteristics of the theoretical principles of the Iranian Financial Accounting Standards Board as well as the Dechow and Dichev models) and equity financing.

Financial statements as the output of the accounting system has always been considered by the investors, the creditors and the government; nonetheless, its dependability in making decisions has always been doubted because of using the accrual principle in the calculation of the reported figure in the statements and, consequently, the possibility of being manipulated by the managers as well as the likelihood of conflict of interest among the managers and the shareholders.

Recent years have documented the growing interest in using WhatsApp in higher education. However, the determinants of students’ satisfaction and loyalty towards WhatsApp groups have received less attention. This study aims to extend the Delone and McLean information system success model by incorporating social and emotional factors to investigate the drivers of satisfaction.

Data were collected through questionnaires completed by 308 undergraduate students. The partial least squares technique was used for data analysis.

The findings reveal that information quality, trust in members and social usefulness play crucial roles in shaping students’ satisfaction and loyalty to WhatsApp groups. System quality has no significant effect on satisfaction. Furthermore, emotional connection negatively moderates the relationship between social usefulness and satisfaction.

The findings of this study will be useful for educators and practitioners seeking to integrate WhatsApp into their pedagogical repertoire. The results demonstrate the importance of considering the social and emotional needs of students in addition to the quality of the information provided.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to integrate system characteristics, particularly with social and emotional factors. Furthermore, this study extends the literature on WhatsApp use in higher education by testing the drivers of students’ satisfaction and loyalty.