The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if students' participation in the ALP co-requisite developmental English program relates to the likelihood of passing gateway college-level English. Data was collected to allow for analysis of gateway college-level English passing probability for all students who participated in gateway…

In this dissertation I will present my work in both the fields of spintronics and physics education research. In the first section, I present a method to account for spin pumping in spin torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) measurements. A spin current can be generated via the spin Hall effect (SHE), which is typically transverse to the charge…

Research examining the pursuit of the principalship reveals that many educators are driven by higher-level needs that make the role of principal compelling and desirable. The role of principal can be attractive to educators in that it enables one to positively affect the lives of students and teachers, and to raise one's status, thereby satisfying…

Gender disparities in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) degrees continue to be a global problem. Increasing equitable participation in STEM majors requires understanding how and why these disparities arise. This study examined relationships between female's selection of a STEM major, personality, STEM interest, STEM…

There is a national shortfall of women and minorities in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Thus, it is imperative to understand the factors that impact students' decisions to pursue a STEM field of study. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the impact of science self-efficacy beliefs of female high…

The Conover Solution is a nonparametric method used to analyze relative growth in students' achievement on state tests administered on two or more occasions. However, there has been very little research assessing the robustness of this method in the presence of missing data. Using vertically scaled and non-vertically scaled data from the math…

The goals of Healthy Campus 2020 are to improve health across college campuses for students. One of the focuses is to increase physical exercise and avoid weight gain and risks for obesity. During this time of transition, many college students do not partake in regular exercise and females are at lower levels of exercise participation compared to…

This quantitative study sought to determine relationships between third through fifth grade boys' and girls' perceptions of connectedness to their school community and between their behavioral outcomes. This study also sought to determine the effect of students' perceptions and gender on their numbers of discipline referrals incurred. Students'…

The digital age is reshaping learning and instruction and encouraging educational technology advances within higher education institutions. However, online faculty are not integrating technology into their classes despite the technology related professional development they receive. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if a…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of course modality on the academic achievement of students enrolled in majors and nonmajors biology courses at an open-enrollment community college in the Southeastern United States. Results from a Kruskal Wallis H test indicated a significant difference in final grades between face-to-face,…

The high school assistant principal position is a complex and demanding role. Being a parent to school-aged children is also a complex and demanding role. For high school APs who have school-aged children at home, the ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance is essential to their ability to effectively fulfill both professional and personal…

The purpose of this convergent mixed methods study was to examine environmental worldviews and to explore influencing factors, such as the relationship between affective disposition toward learning experiences and environmental worldviews, for students at a public four-year university. A convergent mixed methods design provided qualitative and…

The purpose of this mixed methods explanatory sequential design was to more fully understand the experience of those who work as full-time fraternity and sorority advisors on a college campus. Spector's (1985) Job Satisfaction Survey was used in Phase 1 of this study to determine the overall job satisfaction score of fraternity and sorority…

Women are underrepresented in the field of computer science. The presence of female computer scientists has changed over time, with a downward trend in the past few decades, with only 18% of women compared to men earning their degrees in computer science. Increasing the numbers of female students who pursue computer science not only will lead to…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between student characteristics and student retention in a predominantly online college using data from two cohorts of entering students in either 2017-2018 or 2018-2019. Due to the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable indicating retention, this study relied on the point biserial…