Advancements in education and the perceived necessary educational outcomes require advanced psychometric approaches. This is particularly true when we consider noncognitive assessments -- assessments that aim to measure soft skills, otherwise untested in classrooms today. Noncognitive skills have gained traction in recent years due to the…

Many employers state that they expect college graduates to have "soft" or domain-general skills like critical thinking, and universities claim to teach these skills. To prove colleges are delivering on their promise--and to demonstrate that employers are picking the best personnel fairly--colleges, students, and employers need a valid…

With the rapid changes in technology at the beginning of the 21st century came a call from Education and Business leaders to strengthen learning opportunities for students in what were called 21st Century or Workplace Transferable Skills. These leaders collaborated globally to define and prioritize these skills in a variety of frameworks.…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether there is a correlation between English language proficiency level (ELP) and growth in reading for English learners (ELs) in first, second, and third grade in suburban Virginia. In order to develop language skills, it is important to take the four language domains into consideration,…

Higher Education and its evolution in the twentieth century has seen a paradigm shift and an increased focus on the disconnect of the classroom with the employment field and market. Higher education has been presented with the challenge of not only understanding how one behaves and adapts to transitions but the approach and how to analyze a change…

The future success of today's students and our nation depends on how well prepared our students are to contribute to the globalized world of the 21st century. The population of English Language Learners (ELLs) is exploding in the United States. If students are not given the appropriate language scaffolds to learn English, ELLs will struggle…

Reading comprehension is an extremely important skill that students need to be effective learners; however, a significant percentage of students are reading below grade level on a nationwide scale (National Assessment for Educational Progress, 2019; National Institute of Health as cited by Learning Disabilities Association of America, 2022). In…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a packaged workplace social skills intervention comprised of behavior skills training, video modeling, and task analyses on the percentage of workplace social skills steps accurately demonstrated during a role-play for transition-age individuals with autism without intellectual disability. Results…

Generic statements are a fundamental linguistic tool for efficiently passing along information. Yet they can leave a lot unsaid, such as how broadly they apply. In this dissertation, I examine how generic statements work as a pedagogical tool. To do so, I use the esport "League of Legends" as a naturalistic experimental setting in which…

This study explored the relationship between multiple teacher factors and shifts in teacher technology integration practices for the development of 21st-century student skills. More specifically, through a multiple regression analysis, teacher technology knowledge, teacher technology skills, school culture, and teacher self-efficacy were examined…

This dissertation focuses on the structures and impacts of digital skills in the rapidly transforming labor market. It is rooted in the premise that understanding the value of digital skills requires a relational perspective, acknowledging that these competencies are not isolated, but form complex structures across different occupations. The…

The gap between skilled workers needed and skilled workers available increased since the start of the fourth industrial revolution. Employees now need different knowledge, skills, and abilities to enter the workforce and stay current with new technologies than they did in the past. One way this knowledge gap and skilled worker shortage could be…

The Institute for Women's Policy Studies (2017, September) reported that only eight percent of single mothers enrolled in higher education completed their studies and graduated with a degree in six years. This may be due to a lack of social support and not using the counseling services for their own well-being. Studies show that behavioral…

The presence of independent and functional living skills increases autonomy and predicts better outcomes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Teaching caregivers to successfully teach functional living skills is an indirect way to positively impact the lives of adults with IDD. Behavior skills training (BST) is an…

This dissertation outlines three studies investigating linguistically diverse students' (including bilingual and monolingual students) language use and self-efficacy in writing. Bilingual students are those who speak a language other than English, including students with various levels of English proficiency and language experience. The first two…