Identifying effective means of ameliorating achievement gaps and addressing literacy deficits is essential. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is one avenue for providing this effective instruction to the students that can most benefit from it. In the current study, kindergarten students in a public school district in Illinois received…

The current study aimed to examine performance times during text reading and question answering of students with and without a history of reading difficulties. Forty-three university students with a history of reading difficulties (HRD) were compared to 124 university students without a history of reading difficulties on measures of word and…

Despite their well-established connections to student motivation and to learning outcomes, attributions, particularly at the task-level, have not garnered much attention in L2 learning research. However, research evidence in educational psychology (e.g., Stajkovic & Sommer, 2000) suggests that L2 task attributions may affect subsequent task…

In lower- and middle-income countries, including Ghana, students in rural areas dramatically underperform their urban peers. Rural schools struggle to attract and retain professionally trained teachers (GES 2012; World Bank 2012). We explore one potential solution to the problem of teacher recruitment: distance instruction. Through a cluster…

This dissertation study examined reading achievement among students enrolled in half-day kindergarten (HDK) and full-day kindergarten (FDK) programs. First, a review of the research on reading achievement in students in both HDK and FDK programs was presented. Next, the study, including the research questions, study design, and analysis plan, were…