The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the shared experiences of novice school principals' mentor training and to gain an understanding of the experience of peer educators. This dissertation employed a qualitative case study methodology to interview Arizona principals with less than three years of experience who did not receive…

Background/Context: In the early elementary grades, many students do not achieve literacy proficiency due to inadequate personalized literacy instruction (Taylor et al., 2010). Despite increasing evidence that differentiated instruction informed by assessments of students' reading abilities can improve learning more effectively than…

Certain introductory engineering courses have been termed gateway courses, due to high failure rates resulting in many students leaving engineering altogether. In one such course, thermodynamics, instructors intentionally formed peer-led study groups (PLSGs) with an undergraduate teaching aide (UGTA) playing a supportive facilitator role instead…

Few studies empirically compare the approaches law enforcement officers (LEOs) and school mental health professionals (SMHPs) use to keep schools safe. Such comparisons are important for improving safety and student wellbeing. A focus on the experiences of racial/ethnic minority students is especially important given evidence that school safety…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the Nation's largest domestic food and nutrition assistance program for Americans with low income. SNAP-Education, commonly referred to as SNAP-Ed, is the nutrition education arm of SNAP benefits. SNAP-Ed aims to help individuals stretch their food budget while also supporting a healthier…

Some claim that good and poor readers continue their trajectories despite intervention. This quasi-experimental study examined whether the READ 180 program helps general education, below-grade-level, Title I pre-adolescent readers improve. Participants included 82 students, grades 4-8, in public Title I elementary and middle schools. Results…

With the literature calling for comparisons among technology-enhanced or active-learning pedagogies, a blended versus flipped instructional comparison was made for numerical methods coursework using three engineering schools with diverse student demographics. This study contributes to needed comparisons of enhanced instructional approaches in STEM…

The Mountain Plains Region (Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming), in partnership with the Southwest Region (Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas), have combined efforts to produce the first cross-regional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed)…

Home visitation has the potential to improve parent, child, and maternal outcomes and has become a widely implemented prevention program across the United States. The purpose of this research was to use a randomized controlled trial to assess the short-term effectiveness of the Arizona Healthy Families program across a range of outcomes. Two…

The overall aim of the Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC) investment is to increase district capacity to implement a high-quality middle years math curriculum as part of a Coherent Instructional System (CIS) to accelerate learning for students who are experiencing poverty, Black, Latino/a, and/or English Learner (EL)-Designated ("priority…

Summer bridge programs are supposed to connect a graduating high school senior's summer to their first semester in college, easing the transition away from home and into a university setting. Although research is plentiful on the programs, assessments regarding the overall effectiveness of such programs have been mixed (e.g., Cabrera, Miner, and…

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the…

Educators, researchers, and policy makers concerned about college under-enrollment among underserved groups of students have traditionally focused reform efforts at the high school level. Over the last several decades, however, there has been a growing interest in improving college readiness beginning at the elementary level. Recently, the…

Junior enlisted Marines are getting married at a faster rate than their civilian counterparts and nearly twice that of senior personnel (Gomulka, 2010; Cohen, Passel, Wang, & Livingston, 2011). With the high rate of marriage, these same junior Marines have a disproportionately high divorce rate. While the high rate of divorce is a significant…

The cost of attending college has risen sharply over the last 40 years. Although more credit and grant aid have been made available to students, there are still major gaps between aid and the cost of attendance for many students in the United States, all of whom are left to figure out whether they can afford the remaining costs associated with…