Having a child with special needs can be overwhelming, emotionally draining and extremely stressful for parents and their family members. Research identifies the support systems families need in order to have quality-of-life. The current study uses mixed methods to evaluate the degree to which parents and other primary caregivers in Arizona view…

As scrutiny of teacher effectiveness increases, there is a greater call for multiple instruments to measure teacher effectiveness and provide robust feedback to support teacher growth and development. Student perception surveys, questionnaires completed by K-12 students about their teachers, have increasingly been used to evaluate teachers and…

College completion has become a national priority in the United States. Before students can graduate from a college or university, however, they must survive their first year in higher education. The retention of out-of-state freshmen is a major piece of the larger college student retention puzzle due to recent national enrollment trends and the…

First-generation college students are an underrepresented group in terms of study abroad participation nationally and at Arizona State University (ASU). The ASU and International Studies Abroad (ISA) Planning Scholars Scholarship Program was developed to support first-generation college students in their pursuit of study abroad. This mixed-methods…

As evidenced in the growing achievement gap between English language learners (ELLs) and their non-ELL counterparts, it is clear future teachers need to be better prepared to work with ELLs. This study examined the influence of infusing ELL strategies into methods courses through instructional coaching. This study was inspired by the larger…

Two concerns served the impetus for this study. Limited literature has created a research gap exploring why Latinas earn baccalaureate degrees from extended universities, and the community central to the study has been lagging behind state and national baccalaureate degree attainment. The researcher employed mixed-methods to describe motivating…

Online education is unique in part for the relatively high degrees of autonomy afforded learners. Self-direction and self-regulation, along with support, are essential for students to succeed. The site of this action research project was a new, small online public charter school for middle and high school students, Foothills Academy Connected…

Disparities exist among minorities in educational attainment. The gap widens when examining access to higher education and persistence rates among minority males as compared to their white counterparts and minority females. The purpose of this action research study was to explore the impact of a reciprocal mentoring model between faculty and…

Education policymakers at the national level have initiated reforms in K-12 education for that past several years that have focused on teacher quality and teacher evaluation. More recently, reforms have included legislation that focuses on administrator quality as well. Included in far-reaching recent legislation in Arizona is a requirement that…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to assess the impact and influence of a pre-international experience course on Arizona State University (ASU) students before they study or intern abroad. Currently, the study abroad pre-departure orientation for ASU participants consists of online modules and a two-hour face-to-face…

Undergraduate teacher preparation programs face scrutiny regarding pre-service teachers' preparation upon graduation. Specifically, scholars contend that teacher preparation programs do not adequately prepare pre-service teachers to plan for effective instruction. Situated in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, this…

First-year alternatively certified teachers face significant challenges as they attempt to address the complexities of classroom teaching, particularly when they are assigned to teach in urban school settings. As the number of alternatively certified teachers continues to increase, it is important to provide them with professional development…

The purpose of this case study using a mixed method approach was to examine the role of that correctional educators in an Arizona state prison based on their challenges, attitudes, and motivations in order to learn how best to prepare people for that role. Although the research on public school teachers and teaching in adult education practices in…

Adult Hispanic ESL students in rural San Luis, Arizona, face a challenging situation. Since San Luis lies on the southwestern tip of Arizona and borders with Mexico, Spanish is the predominant language. English, on the other hand, is mostly heard in classrooms. This can be a predicament for adult Hispanics who need to be proficient in English in…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to understand the key constructs and processes underlying the mentoring relationships between doctoral students and their mentors. First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the measurement structure underlying the 34-item Ideal Mentor Scale (IMS; Rose, 2003), followed by…