The field of computer science has long been plagued by issues of diversity - in particular, attracting and retaining those historically marginalized in computing contexts. This is a great loss to the field, to the future of innovation, and to society. Perhaps most importantly, it is an incalculable loss to those populations excluded from pursuing…

Scholars and educators have described participation in target language (TL) communities as one of the primary aims of language learning, holding a fundamental position in ACTFL's (2011) "Standards." Limited work has been conducted to describe how students participate in and gain access to these TL communities through various forms of…

The Internet provides immediate access to social contacts and health information, yet older adults remain one of the least likely groups to use the Internet in the United States. Older adults can gain significantly from health information through the Internet because they have more chronic health conditions compared to other age groups. Although…

A 2014 study found that more than half of all Americans aged 16-74 do not possess the literacy skills needed to adequately cope with the demands of day-to-day life, with over 13 million people in the United States alone considered to be functionally illiterate. There have been numerous efforts to address these high illiteracy rates by way of Adult…

Native American secondary students have consistently scored lower in reading than other racial groups. Research has suggested that increasing student reading engagement and using a culturally-responsive pedagogy may help Native American students to improve reading levels. The problem addressed by this study is the need to identify best practices…

Advances in technological uses within public schools provide increased methods to collect and store non-public personal information (NPI) or personally identifiable information (PII) from both students and employees. Consequently, the sensitive information collected is susceptible to unauthorized disclosure, as various public school employees are…

Within the confines of this study, the researcher investigated Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering curriculum goals within Missouri high schools. The study measured Missouri PLTW teachers' perceptions of various elements of the curriculum as well as state and national PLTW End of Course student assessment data to determine if a relationship…

This study analyzes Achieve3000, Lexia Core 5, and Imagine Learning software programs designed to increase student literacy levels in a six-week summer school program. The Brainology program was also used with 4th to 6th grade students to determine if there was an increase in growth mindset. Three elementary schools with the highest percentages of…

The United States has a weight problem. It's not just about food intake but also about energy consumption [97, 153]. This dissertation asks: "How can we encourage people to act in ways that are mutually beneficial for themselves and the environment?" To date, there is no single behavior intervention in the literature targets behavioral…

Software has an important role in supporting scientific work. This dissertation studies teams that build scientific software, focusing on the way that they determine what the software should do. These requirements engineering processes are investigated through three case studies of climate science software projects. The Earth System Modeling…

For many years English learners (ELs) have lagged behind native speakers of English in the academic community. In an era of accountability, the pressure to achieve and maintain Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status is increasing the burden of success on ELs, especially when trying to learn a second language. The population of English learners is…

Preparing students to be successful in high school AP courses and exams begins at the middle school level. SpringBoard is a program created by the CollegeBoard to bridge content expected in high school with the current middle school curriculum. SpringBoard was introduced and piloted in the Colonial School District during the 2014-2015 school year…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of customized individual counseling interventions on the career and college readiness of adolescents within foster care. An intervention program, consisting of customized individual interventions, entitled "Students That Are Reaching Success" ("S.T.A.R.S.") was created by the…

This action research study investigated teachers' perception of bullying and bullying training. It also examined the effects the Bully Busters training had on the bullying knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy of teachers and teacher assistants. A mixed method approach, which included a pre-experimental design and interviews were used to collect…

This dissertation is a study of scientific collaboration at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a modern, multi-disciplinary, distributed laboratory involved in sensor network research. By use of survey research and network analysis, this dissertation examines the collaborative ecology of CENS in terms of three networks of…