Nationally, teacher candidates struggle to pass the Praxis examination, which they need to be licensed. Little research has been done to examine the characteristics and learning strategies of teacher candidates who pass and who do not pass the Praxis examination. Studies have shown benefits in the use of self-regulation and achievement in courses…

Successful reading comprehension is not a guarantee, even for highly skilled readers. When comprehension fails, the ability of the reader to recognize the failure may be critical to avoiding "mis"comprehension (i.e., false confidence in an inaccurate text representation) and to taking steps to improve comprehension. Generally, people…

Charter schools have existed in the United States for thirty years, with mixed results. Research has largely focused on charter school failure and an analysis of what led to the demise. This study aimed to understand characteristics predicting charter school success, alongside those predicting failure. Specifically, it focused on a charter…

Readers read for different purposes and the texts they read vary in topic and difficulty. These situational factors influence standards of coherence--how much understanding a reader aims to have for a given text. Three studies examined whether individual differences in reader-based standards of coherence influenced off-line and on-line…

Background: For decades, public education, particularly in urban communities, has failed to ensure students of color are able to experience sustained academic success. As a result, campuses within these communities often find themselves vacillating between impending school improvement reforms and short-lived school improvements, only to return to…

The outcome of Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) students not passing the initial National Council of Licensure Examination for Registered Nursing (NCLEX-RN) can adversely affect schools of nursing. This failure also adversely affects the national nursing shortage. The declining national pass rates on the NCLEX-RN for ADN graduates and the increasing…

Too many of our nation's youth have failed to complete high school. Determining why so many of our nation's students fail to graduate is a complex, multi-faceted problem and beyond the scope of any one study. The study presented herein utilized a thirteen-step mixed methods model developed by Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2007) to demonstrate within a…

Graduates of associate degree (AD) nursing programs form the largest segment of first-time National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN®) test takers, yet also experience the highest rate of NCLEX-RN® failures. NCLEX-RN® failure delays entry into the profession, adding an emotional and financial toll to the unsuccessful…

Despite the increase in their college enrollment, nontraditional students in U.S. postsecondary institutions are less likely to stay in college until they earn their degree. What could explain nontraditional student high attrition rates and overall success beyond what their demographic characteristics reveal? The purpose of this study was to…

The study under investigation was the impact of early literacy and behavior sanctions on Black male matriculation towards graduation in a selected South Carolina school district. Attendance and course failure in English strongly predicted whether or not students graduated from high school. Early literacy is the foundation for academic success in…

In the school achievement and motivation literature of African American students, one major theme of the literature is a supposed inconsistency or discrepancy in African American students' value and expectations for their academic achievement and their actual levels of achievement. The discrepancy between Black students' achievement ideologies and…

Federal legislation and educational programs such as "No Child Left Behind" (2001) and "Race to the Top" (2009) identify school leaders as one of the major catalysts to improving academic achievement. Increasing accountability demands call for replacement of the principal when adequate gains in student achievement are not met,…

Teachers' pity and anger responses to students who fail often are interpreted by the students as indicative of the teachers' attributions for the cause behind the student failure. Students' interpretations of these emotional responses can affect their self-esteem and expectations for future success. The present study explored variables that may…