For over 100 years, youth mentoring has grown to be an evidenced based prevention strategy for youth, demonstrating positive youth outcomes through strong relationships with caring adults. While trusting relationships are the mainstay of the positive impacts achieved through mentoring, the difficulty in recruiting volunteer adults has not met the…

This dissertation portfolio is comprised of three first-authored pieces of writing that investigate the oral language and emergent literacy development of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Each piece features a unique but complementary aim. The first study investigates group differences on a battery of emergent…

Atypical expressive prosody is reported as a consistent challenge for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and is associated with a broad set of clinical impairments including perceptions of oddness from others. Theories of atypical prosody in ASD have attributed these impairments to the broader symptoms of ASD, particularly in the…

The assumption that sending students abroad for extended periods of time will lead to increased understanding of others, one's place in the world, and increased skills required to navigate cross cultural interactions does not hold up in the literature. Recent research in the field of international and intercultural education calls practitioners…

Research suggests a linkage between the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse students and the cultural competence practice and behaviors of educators. Attention in the available research is given to urban school districts with a large population of culturally and linguistically diverse students and the relationships between…

Background. The state of Iowa has seen a drastic increase in the number of schools that provide one laptop for each student. These 1:1 schools have invested large amounts of time and money into becoming a 1:1 school. The current research on 1:1 schools is sparse, and policy makers are actively trying to evaluate those programs. Purpose. To…

Joint attention has long been considered absent or deviant in children with autism. Although this deficit is seen, there is variability in joint attention within the population and some children with autism employ it. Little is known about the profile of joint attention skills of these children or how joint attention use affects concurrent…

The purpose of this study was to (a) evaluate and discuss strengths and weaknesses in the current system of identifying gifted students and (b) investigate the effectiveness of using the Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test to identify underrepresented and gifted minority students in grades one through five in Central Mississippi. The study consisted…

This study explores the effects of a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) program on language majority and minority students. The fundamental hypothesis was that the process of receiving instruction in two languages (English and Spanish) throughout elementary school (i.e., attendance at a TWBI school) would help the native Spanish-speaking students…

The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to evaluate the Positive Alternative Credit Experience (PACE) Program using an objectives-oriented approach to a formative program evaluation. The PACE Program was a semester-long high school alternative education program designed to serve students at-risk for academic failure or dropping out…

The purpose of this study was to gather more information about the influence of beginning higher education at a two-year college versus beginning at a four-year college on a student's educational achievement. The three outcomes of interest were: (1) whether a student remains continuously enrolled throughout college; (2) total number of college…

This case study research investigated the effects of increased school time on the literacy achievement of at-risk kindergarten students. It varied from most increased school time kindergarten research because of the utilization of the para-educator delivery model within a small class size setting of 10 students. The study measured literacy…

The purpose of the quantitative research study was to determine if participation in the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) led to significant differences in the math and reading/language arts scores on the West Virginia Educational Standards Test 2 (WESTEST 2), between students who participated in the program compared to students who…

Web-based self-management interventions (W-SMIs) are designed to help a large number of chronically ill people become more actively engaged in their health care. Despite the potential to engage more patients in self-managing their health, the use of W-SMIs by patients and their clinicians is low. Using a self-management conceptual model based on…

This study investigates the relationship between parents and politics. In part one, the effect of having school-aged children on parents' political outcomes is examined. Do the resource constraints associated with child-rearing depress participation, or does the presence of children increase activity? One finds that parents are more active in…