The purpose of this quantitative research was to determine if there are differences in scores on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale among undergraduate students involved in honors leadership programs at a four-year university. The study was an analysis of students' reported resilience scores in relation to the number of leadership activities in…

Teachers should possess a set of professional commitments, which includes active participation in professional development that leads to student learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between professional development engagement and career satisfaction. This study used a quantitative descriptive correlational research…

Higher levels of civic and community engagement in higher education are positively associated with students' academic performance and they also build upon citizenship skills such as informed voting. Yet, while these are worthy and important outcomes of higher education, students from disadvantaged backgrounds can have more difficulty navigating…

Many students enter college without the skills and knowledge needed to successfully perform college-level work. An important leverage point for increasing college readiness is the transition from high school to college. One strategy implemented at postsecondary institutions to ease this transition, boost academic and social readiness, and foster…

High parental involvement has consistently been shown to enhance academic achievement among Latino youth. Still, some youth continue to thrive academically despite low parental involvement. The Theory of Rationality suggests that the impact of even potentially negative behaviors depends on how the behavior is interpreted. To test the application…

Applying latent class and regression techniques to data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 997), this study explored the potential academic advantages of time spent in out-of-school activities. Of particular interest was how these potential advantages played out in relation to the timing and duration of activity…

The purpose of this companion, qualitative case study was to examine the degree to which the residential professional development model at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) possibly influenced the retention of experienced teachers. The researcher sought to discover the ways and to what degree NCCAT had discharged…

Although research suggests associations between children's executive function skills and their academic achievement, the specific mechanisms that may help explain these associations in early childhood are unclear. This study examined whether children's (N = 1,103; M age = 54.5 months) executive function skills at the beginning of prekindergarten…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe factors that are related to agricultural educator career retention and to explore the relationships between work engagement, work-life balance, occupational commitment, and personal and career factors as related to the decision to remain in the teaching profession. The target population for…

One way to support the social engagement of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is by identifying features of natural environments that increase the likelihood of social interaction. This descriptive study was an examination of the (a) social engagement of 68 preschoolers with ASD in classrooms, (b) ecological features of classrooms that…

This study is based on survey research conducted in 2010 and 2011, involving graduate students using a 3D immersive environment for their coursework. Investigators examined students' perceptions of community and presence via coursework offered in the immersive world. Utilizing the Sense of Community II index and the Communities of Inquiry survey,…

This study examines the effects of governance involvement on the vitality of community college faculty members. This study explores the degree to which involvement in the governance of a college through a faculty senate fosters the vitality of elected faculty members. While faculty vitality is a difficult concept to measure directly, faculty…

This study focused on the influence of selected personal factors on North Carolina legislators' perceptions of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service. A review of the theories of perception and related research was coupled with interviews with 145 members of the 124th General Assembly of North Carolina. Concepts of the district or…