This study investigated whether the type of course materials used by instructors in postsecondary education had an impact on their teaching approach. The study focused on two approaches to teaching, teacher-focused and student-focused, and examined the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) versus commercial materials as the independent variable.…

The study detailed in this doctoral project was designed to examine and understand educator and administrator perceptions of the current state of inclusive education in Catholic schools. The study utilized a survey with quantitative and qualitative characteristics to analyze data. An analysis of the data revealed that there are both similarities…

The purpose of this study was to provide a quantitative comparative analysis of public and private school teachers' perceptions of the level of support they received during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like previous pandemics, such as the Spanish Flu, the COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event that will also be recorded in history books. Society,…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate differences among special education enrollments for specific learning disabilities (SLD) and other disabilities within districts using school-wide response to intervention (RTI). Differences between rural and suburban school districts during the phases of the insufficient criterion rollout…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between "district capacity" as measured by the District Capacity Assessment (DCA) and the "initial, depth, scale," and "sustained" implementation of an evidence-based practice (EBP), Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). This exploratory analysis…

Since the implementation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Academic Progress Rate (APR), Historically Black Colleges & Universities' (HBCU) male student athletes have disproportionately received more APR academic penalties than other groups of athletes (NCAA, 2016b). Each Division I team receives an APR score based on…

In order to compare the accessibility, need, and extent of professional development, technology, and its relationship to low socioeconomic (SES) schools and achievement, data were accessed from the Kentucky Department of Education, Division of School and Community Nutrition Qualifying Data Report to identify schools with a greater than 50% free…

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study situated at a large community college in the midwestern United States was to examine faculty attitudes, knowledge, and use of open educational resources (OER) and to identify institutional initiatives that would support OER adoption. The goal of the first, quantitative phase of this…

Quality assurance of academic programs that lead to licensure or certification in a profession traditionally has been through the industry-recognized accreditation body. There have been a limited number of studies on whether accreditation is associated with better program quality and outcomes; the purpose of this study was to add to that body of…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002 emphasized holding schools accountable for student achievement and academic growth. Accountability was a continued focus as President Obama offered states Race to the Top funding if they included, among other changes, a focus on accountability and identifying low achieving schools. One Midwestern state…

In this study a post-assessment survey was analyzed to seek for social learning preferences among women in a competency-based online learning environment. The survey asked what learning resources students used to prepare for the assessment. Each learning resource was given a relative sociability rating. This rating acts as the weighting for a…

A purpose of this study was to explore the inter-relations among eighth grade mathematics student achievements in the content domains of "Number, Algebra, Geometry, and Data & Chance" and the cognitive domains of "Knowing, Applying, and Reasoning," in the context of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study…

The intersection of the accountability measures found in NCLB with the legislative response to the Campbell decisions in Wyoming has resulted in an unprecedented focus on accountability for student achievement and resource use. Funding provided to schools has increased with a concomitant drive for accountability and transparency, the publication…

The purpose of this study was to examine the dispersion of human capital resources within one school district in southern California and compare the use of personnel at each school to the desired allocation informed by the district's strategies and staffing formula. The district's resource distribution was also compared to that of the Evidence…

This dissertation examined the relationship between educational resources and student achievement in Illinois public schools. Illinois school districts were compared by type, size, and location. This study built on the premise that disparities exist in educational resources because of the state's reliance on property taxes to fund education.…