Educators, administrators, and researchers continue to search for a solution to return play to kindergarten classrooms while encouraging the use of technology to meet federal education standards. A review of the literature showed a gap in strategies for implementing play, findings were lacking on video games with digital badges in education, and…

Since the early 1900s, the traditional thinking about education and school role in the USA has shifted to view schools as non-isolated entities from the larger society where schooling should be re-energized with help from the society, which includes student homes and communities. This mixed approach action research study evolves around improving…

K-12 standards and curricula are beginning to include engineering design as a key practice within Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. However, there is little research on how the youngest students engage in engineering design within the elementary classroom. This dissertation focuses on iteration as an essential aspect…

With the ongoing changes in education and the changing demographics of students in schools, the topic of school readiness is imperative. When children enter elementary school behind academically and socially, they are not prepared to be successful learners in kindergarten. Because school readiness is an indicator of school success, it is important…

School leaders and teachers are confronted with federal, state, and local mandates that must be followed to ensure all students reach their fullest academic potential. To this end, the challenge has been raised to teachers and administrators to have younger students in the lower elementary grades prepared for standardized student testing.…

Kindergarten redshirting is the term used to describe the phenomenon where a parent chooses to keep their child from attending kindergarten so that the child may gain a year's worth of maturity. This qualitative dissertation examines the decision making process undergone by parents who have redshirted their children. While some parents began the…

There is confusion among teachers in a school district in a southeastern state about the instructional use of the state-mandated Dominie assessment for word-level reading and phonemic awareness skills for kindergarten and first-grade students. Recent assessment data indicated that 20% of students tested in kindergarten and first grade needed…

When considering closing the achievement gap, full-day kindergarten (FDK) is a viable contender. The implementation of specific teacher strategies enhances the FDK experience and elicits gains among the students. The literature clearly articulates a strong correlation between poverty and poor achievement and supports the notion that the…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain a better understanding of how induction programs might effectively support STEM K-8 teacher preparation. American schools are not producing competent STEM graduates prepared to meet employment demands. Over the next decade, STEM employment opportunities are expected to increase twice as fast…

The problem addressed in this study is that Native American and Hispanic English language learners (ELLs) in a rural Mississippi school district are not performing at the same level as non-ELLs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the perceived causes of ELL failure and low academic performance on district and state…

This study sought to gain a better understanding of how participants made decisions regarding placement for their first-born children for the prekindergarten year. The purpose of this research, to explore participants' decision-making process, was guided by the following research question: "How do parents make decisions to select placements…

There is a disparity of mathematics achievement between native English speakers and English language learners (ELL). This study sought to understand the barriers ELL kindergarten students faced in being successful in mathematics. The purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to explore kindergarten teachers' perceptions…

This qualitative study explores the level of satisfaction of parents regarding early identification/intervention services for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). The purpose of this study is to compare the progress of children who are D/HH with their hearing peers on elements used to measure the readiness of students to enter the…

Receptive language skills allow students to understand the meaning of words spoken to them. When students are unable to comprehend the majority of the words that are spoken to them, they do not have the ability to act on those words, follow given directions, build on prior knowledge, or construct adequate meaning. The inability to understand the…

Although a limited body of research has supported the positive impact of the Tools of the Mind curriculum on the development of self-regulation, research supporting a direct relationship between Tools and academic achievement is extremely limited. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind curriculum…