This study examines administrator perceptions of Pennsylvania's state assessment data. This study had three main purposes. The first purpose was to investigate the value and utility of state assessment data to inform decision making and the possibility of improving student achievement through the routine use of state assessment data. The second…

The problem addressed in this study is that the potential roles of an artificial intelligence-enhanced chatbot using big data in e-learning in higher education were not widely documented in the research community. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the potential roles of an artificial intelligence-enhanced chatbot using big…

This dissertation is composed of projects on three aspects of gathering and learning from data in the social sciences: drawing representative samples, taking valid measurement, and making warranted inductive inferences. Chapter one studies the challenge of drawing representative human samples. It is well documented that most samples used by…

Degree completion rates have recently dominated national debates regarding the value of higher education (Gagliardi et al., 2018). Inherent in this debate is the issue of how to utilize institutional data to evaluate student performance (Hubbard et al., 2020). This process, known as data-driven decision-making (DDDM), has been studied at four-year…

According to the United States Department of Education (2012, 2016), degree completions are a vital measure of overall institution success. Significantly, declining student persistence rates and low degree completions are consistent problems in public colleges throughout the United States. Not only are diminishing retention and incomplete degrees…

The present study used a sequential mixed method design to compare special education and general education elementary teachers' self-efficacy for data-driven decision making. Participants were 127 teachers from several school divisions in a mid-Atlantic state in the United States. Dunn et al.'s (2013a) "The Data-Driven Decision Making…

Technology integration into classrooms is crucial for student success. It should be implemented beyond lesson planning and organizing information. Digital tools like Mastery Connect can effectively drive data-driven instruction to close learning gaps. The TPACK Model outlines the framework for successfully integrating technology into the…

Educators and community members in the Cayman Islands are subjected to school inspections that are based on the United Kingdom model for inspecting schools. This model has not been tested to determine its appropriateness for use in a Caribbean education setting. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of educators and community…

Access to the Internet has increased connectivity between people across large distances. It has also amplified the desire of college students to engage in the illegal sharing and distribution of data. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to analyze the behaviors that motivate Michigan college students to engage in digital piracy.…

Third grade reading teachers at the local setting are not consistently using formative benchmark data to improve student reading performance, creating a gap in practice. This gap in practice may be due to teachers' lack of capacity to use the data to make changes to their instructional practices. The purpose of this qualitative study was to…

First-Year Engineering (FYE) programs are a critical part of engineering education, yet they are quite complex settings. Given the importance and complexity of FYE programs, research to better understand student learning and inform design and assessment in FYE programs is imperative. Therefore, this dissertation showcases various uses of data…

Dialogue act (DA) classification plays an important role in understanding, interpreting and modeling dialogue. Dialogue acts (DAs) represent the intended meaning of an utterance, which is associated with the illocutionary force (or the speaker's intention), such as greetings, questions, requests, statements, and agreements. In natural language…

This multiple descriptive case-study explored the perceptions and experiences of eight occupational therapy program academic fieldwork coordinators (AFWCs), regarding their usage of Formstack, as an online fieldwork data collection system. Previous survey research revealed that AFWCs had positive feelings about the new AOTA Fieldwork Performance…

Intermediary organizations seek to make change in the world by strengthening the practice or building the capacity of direct service providers. In the education sector, these types of organizations often play important roles as technical assistance providers, capacity builders, additional administrators, investors, or funders. At the core of this…

The use of blended learning in kindergarten K-12 schools in the past decade has seen a dramatic increase, but the research on the effectiveness of blended learning has shown mixed results. However, some schools use blended learning that would be considered successful. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of principals in…