The shortage of autism specialists and lack of culturally sensitive autism assessment tools are helping to perpetuate racial and ethnic disparities in autism identification and treatment. Using DisCrit as a framework, this quantitative study examined the utility of one autism assessment tool, the Social Responsiveness Scale, second edition (SRS-2)…

The ever-changing advances in technology require digital literacy skills for success in the workplace. To determine the critical digital literacy skills needed in the workplace today, the development of a reliable, valid instrument occurred using the nine steps of scale development by DeVellis and Thorpe (2021). Based on the SkillRise (2020a)…

While multimodality and multiliteracies has been a concept for 25 years (Kalantzis & Cope, 2023; The New London Group, 1996), research on and application of the concept within text complexity measures has been limited. Attempts to assess multiliteracies and multimodality (Jacobs, 2013; Schmerbeck & Lucht, 2017; Wyatt-Smith & Kimber,…

Reliability and validity are two important topics that have been studied for many decades in the educational measurement field, including discussions of Writing Studies' subfield of writing assessment, since the establishment of the College Entrance Exam Board [CEEB] in 1899 (Huot et al., 2010). In recent years, scholarly conversations of fairness…

This dissertation measures the multicultural teaching competency (MTC) and the frequency at which science educators use culturally relevant educational practices (CREPs). This study's mixed-method, convergent design is grounded in critical theory, and the MTC and culturally relevant education (CRE) framework. Findings suggest that the CREPs-F…

Nursing education programs are faced with urgent demands to transition to competency-based education (CBE) to address the limitations of the nursing workforce. The AACN (2021) has developed the Essentials, or the core competencies for graduating entry- and advanced-level nurses to inform CBE. A concept analysis of Foundational Competence was…

The current study involved the development, scaling, and validation of a new, brief, strength-based measure of children's ecological support, as rated by their parents. The scaling and validation of the Child and Youth Ecological Assets Scale--Parent Form (C-YEAS-P) took place through two studies. The first study involved 500 parents who were…

In the nascent field of human-nature relational values, there is a growing body of literature suggesting their transformative potential in sustainability education. The ability to analytically distinguish relational values from other valuations can both inform pedagogical approaches and help to identify how people understand and value their…

A major challenge to promoting effective early science and engineering education is the lack of reliable and validated assessments that align with current educational guidelines for science and engineering. Existing early science and engineering assessments either cover a narrow range of concepts and practices and/or are not designed in a way to…

Throughout the history of higher education in the United States, parents and family members of college students have often found themselves as obsolete to the postsecondary experience. Minimal research has been dedicated to understanding the experience of parents and family members of college students until the millennial generation began their…

This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS; Hopko, Bare, & Hunt, 2003) and the Math Anxiety Scale -- Revised (MAS-R; Bai, 2009) across race and gender as well as the extent to which race and gender predict learning math anxiety and math evaluation anxiety at both the secondary level, which…

Research and interest in trauma-informed pedagogy have grown substantially. Trauma-informed pedagogy includes knowledge of trauma symptoms, associated behaviors, and environmental and instructional trauma-informed strategies. Various scales measure attitudes and experiences with trauma-informed practices; however, the literature suggests a lack of…

International school leaders must be prepared to steer their schools through ongoing crises and changes, regardless of the factors creating the crises and the need for swift change. To achieve the best possible outcomes from these dynamic situations, international school leaders must strategically deploy skills and abilities delineated by the…

This study focuses on creating a reliable and valid instrument to measure high school students' perceptions of academic challenge. The research is divided into four phases: qualitative analysis, item development, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and validation. Initial data from college students' retrospective views and high school students'…

Grades serve as one of the primary indicators of student learning, directing subsequent actions for students, instructors, and administrators, alike. Therefore, grade validity--that is, the extent to which grades communicate a meaningful and credible representation of what they purport to measure--is of utmost importance. However, a grade cannot…