The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of function-based interventions on the challenging behavior of three young boys with autism in rural Tennessee. Tennessee preschool teachers serve primarily rural communities, marked by high poverty rates and lack of access to ongoing teacher training and consultation. Positive Behavior…

This study was conducted to examine instructional strategies and resource allocation in successful schools. The study was based on analysis of six effective Southern California elementary schools. All the analyzed schools were Title I, non-charter public schools that had demonstrated consistent student achievement, had narrowed the achievement gap…

There has been an increase in the use of partnerships as a policy prescription for improving education since the mid 1980's. This trend builds on nearly a century of reform movements in education, has been noted in the professional literature and can also be seen in the growing trend to add partnership requirements to federal grant programs in a…

The amount of services delivered by school psychologists through consultation is increasing as is the number of students with challenging behaviors in the classroom. In this type of delivery model, the school psychologist works as a consultant to the teacher who will actually deliver the intervention to the student. The purpose of this research…

Language teacher education (LTE) has received increased attention over the last several decades. Language teacher educators, university researchers, classroom teachers, and future teachers have contributed immensely to existing knowledge on how language teachers learn to teach. Researchers and practitioners have finally acknowledged that future…

Children grow and change more rapidly during the first eight years of life than any other time in their life span. Progression through the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental stages varies for each individual child. Children with atypical development experience a wide spectrum of variability in their development. Over the past…

This study reviewed the effects of change, fatigue and transformation of low-performing schools while implementing an instructional Design rather than an instructional program. The study investigated the relationship of the America's Choice, Inc. schools with the configuration of the grades 6-8 scores compared to the scores of the state average…

The purpose of the study is to thoroughly examine a school district's plan for developing, implementing, and monitoring a strategic plan for adequately preparing students with twenty-first century skills or the marketable skills students will need in order to contribute to the dynamic twenty-first century workplace while meeting federal and state…

The concepts of professional learning communities and organizational disciplines support staff development and leadership that lead to sustainable systems. Little research has examined the ability of rural schools to achieve sustainable systems. This quantitative design study considered the relationships between predictor variables of…

An open admissions policy for the City University of New York was approved by the University's Board of Higher Education in 1969, ushering in a new era of greater access to college for the city's poor and working class Blacks, Latinos, and white youth. This policy change was made in response to demands from students, civil rights organizations,…

The purpose of this study was to examine three seventh grade R180 teachers' perceptions regarding the local setting factors and role of the teacher impacting the program's implementation across the three middle schools. The conceptual framework guiding this study was derived from the Scholastic R180 Logic-of-Change Model, which depicts an…

Spurred by the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001, virtually every educational reform program now includes an accountability component that requires sound data collection and reporting (NCLB, 2002, section 101). Drawing from empirically based and theoretical literature in the field, this dissertation examines Adequate Yearly Progress…

Culturally/linguistically diverse and economically disadvantaged students are under-represented in gifted education programs. White middle-class children tend to be afforded the opportunity of gifted education services. This study analyzed Ashe City Schools' journey to implement Project U-STARS-PLUS in order to identify and serve…

Using a multiple-gating procedure, 5 research sites (3 elementary and 2 middle schools) were identified as implementing a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. This study uses a multiple case study design to describe the RTI implementation in reading at these 5 sites. Findings suggest that the sites studied are utilizing a hybrid model (a…

This study utilizes longitudinal, mixed-method data drawn from participants in an environmental education/international immersion program for middle high-school students to study outcomes and processes associated with program participation. Studies of program outcomes and processes are important for better understanding the design and impact of…