The number of children identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entering mainstream public school classrooms is increasing. No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that these students be taught using research-based practices. There is, however, very little known about best practices in the public…

This dissertation study examined a high school mathematics coach in the context of a three-year project called MAST (Mathematics Achievement Success Today) that provided summer content courses, lesson study, and mathematics coaching for high school teachers. This study focused in particular on the work of the MAST project coach as she interacted…

The problem of low job satisfaction (JS) among academic department chairs (ADC) may result from the selection process. ADC searches seldom comply with best practices for hiring or are predictive of a good fit. Formal searches are seldom used. Some incumbents did not want the job. Research into the history, nature, and problems of the position…

Principals are charged with the responsibility of conducting teacher evaluations that lead to improved instructional practices, as well as using information gathered during the process to make informed data-driven decisions about teacher performance. This study analyzes the impact digital teacher evaluations have played on this process. Four…

In order to prepare new online students to be successful in the virtual classroom, many institutions opt to provide them with an orientation course. Academic institutions must understand the needs of their students in order to develop an orientation course that is best suited to prepare their students for success. In this study, online graduate…

The purpose of this research was to examine the patterns and themes of litigation in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) disability discrimination cases charged under the theory of disparate impact. Specifically, this study used Computer Assisted Legal Research (CALR) to identify and review all U.S. Appellate Court ADA disparate impact cases as…

As researchers in the CALL teacher education field noted, teachers play the pivotal role in the language learning classrooms because they are the gate keepers who decide whether technology or CALL has a place in their teaching, and they select technology to support their teaching, which determines what CALL activities language learners are exposed…

The internationalization of higher education is no longer a desirable academic ideal. Rather, it is an essential component for higher education. In the era of globalization, colleges and universities are deploying widespread initiatives to infuse a global dimension into their teaching, research and service functions. Faculty play an important role…

Despite abundant research substantiating the value of teaching with films, there is a dearth of accessible resources that can help educators select films for positive modeling of character strengths. This scarcity exists in spite of the evidence that supports the efficacy of films' influence on young people. Young people today are receiving…

Multifactorial reasons have produced a growing nursing shortage. One possible group that could reverse this shortage is inactive nurses. Many stakeholders wonder about allocating scarce resources to identify, locate, educate, and redeploy this group into active practice. The purpose of this one-phase embedded validating quantitative mixed…

In the United States in 2011, 6,000 students between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of high school on a daily basis. Educators have developed numerous dropout prevention programs to address this problem. However, little research exists examining how high school principals and counselors engage students in these programs. The purpose of this…

The focus of this research is in the area of virtual schooling at the K-12 level, specifically looking into teachers' perceptions of important traits of teacher effectiveness and student progress in this online learning environment. Such a study is important in Indiana, as this is the first time in public school history when there is now a new…

This dissertation investigates how relational trust manifests within schools that have recently enacted the distributed leadership framework, a program implementation by the Penn Center for Educational Leadership. First, the dissertation highlights research that connects the distributed leadership and relational trust frameworks in the task of…

This study examined the critical aspects of oversight that superintendents must employ to improve instruction. It was an analysis of superintendents as instructional leaders. In this study, we looked at four school district superintendents who have demonstrated instructionally effective school districts. The study was based on a three-year period,…

Because digital tutoring is rapidly expanding, more rigorous, independent evaluations of their effectiveness is critical to inform federal, state, and local policy decisions that influence their role and application of technology in educating underserved students. The in-depth observations and vignettes in this paper illustrate the challenges in…