This study explored the relationship between K-8 teachers' current usage and engagement of curriculum and instructional practices, assessment practices, and feedback practices through the implementation of standards-based grading practices. The theoretical works of Bobbitt (1924), Bloom (1956), and Sadler (1989) framed this study. A digital survey…

This dissertation contributes to the discussion of what contributes to school district rankings in the state of Ohio. It uses Latent Profile Analysis to explore different variables at the contextual and district level as they correspond to Ohio's Performance Index academic measure and Value-Added academic measure. Results show that contextual…

This basic qualitative study aimed to understand how the results of the kindergarten readiness assessments are used within the classroom for planning curriculum, connecting to learning standards, and implementing individualized instruction, along with kindergarten teachers' perspectives on the usefulness of kindergarten readiness testing. The…

In conducting confirmatory factor analysis with ordered response items, the literature suggests that when the number of responses is five and item skewness (IS) is approximately normal, researchers can employ maximum likelihood with robust standard errors (MLR). However, MLR can yield biased factor loadings (FL) and FL standard errors (FLSE) when…

Many children are attending after-school programs for various reasons, such as academic support, recreational play, and social interaction. Accompanied by high parental demands for affordable child-care, after-school program participation has increased significantly. The issue of quality care becomes important as the number of children enrolled in…

Digitally-based assessments create opportunities for collecting moment to moment information about how students are responding to assessment items. This information, called log or process data, has long been regarded as a vast and valuable source of data about student performance. Despite repeated assurances of its vastness and value, process data…

The purpose of this research was to create a Culture of Assessment Instrument (Appendix F) that will allow education program provider (EPP) assessment leaders to measure the assessment culture within their program. General Systems Theory was the theoretical framework as the foundation of this research. Using a modified Delphi panel of assessment…

Once research questions are posed, researchers must answer many a priori questions regarding research design before analysis can be performed and any conclusions can be made, including sample selection criteria, data collection method, model specification, analysis and estimation technique. The choices made by researchers along this forking path…

Recently, Bayesian diagnostic classification modeling has been becoming popular in health psychology, education, and sociology. Typically information criteria are used for model selection when researchers want to choose the best model among alternative models. In Bayesian estimation, posterior predictive checking is a flexible Bayesian model…

Augmented Reality (AR) is a medium that gives people the ability to engage with digital information in ways that deviate from more traditional HCI methods (e.g. WIMP user interfaces (Christensson, 2014)). Previous work has shown that AR has useful implications for collaboration, and with remote work experiences and teleconferencing becoming…

The United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared critical thinking as a capability imperative for Force XXI. He directed Military Services to develop critical thinkers. There is limited evidence of success in terms of developing critical thinking abilities. Specifically, the U.S. Army lacks a single, generally accepted, codified…

The purpose of this study was to assess and describe the status of program evaluation within the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites. The National Science Foundation's REU program supports thousands of undergraduates annually in hands-on, immersive research experiences under the mentorship of…

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…

With increased awareness of student achievement in today's schools, examining ways to evaluate teacher performance and the effectiveness of teachers has become an area of focus. Tuition-based private schools risk closing if they cannot maintain quality programs and have high levels of student achievement. This qualitative study examined private…

This dissertation aimed to narrow the gap between learning and exercising leadership. It tried to address three main gaps in the field of leadership development assessment as its main research objectives: 1) the measurement gap which concerns the divergence between academic and industry perspectives on leadership development 2) the…