Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819 to become a training ground for the leaders of a new republic. The institution has changed a great deal since its founding, but principles connected to "Mr. Jefferson's" legacy abound. One such ideal is student self-governance. Described in institutional literature as a core…

Families of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit decreases in cohesion and adaptability, increased social isolation (Higgins et al., 2005), higher levels of marital dissatisfaction (Hastings et al., 2005), and overall disruption to daily life (Bristol et al., 1988). Research has provided evidence of higher levels of stress,…

Many students experience difficulties learning to program. They find learning to program in the object-oriented paradigm particularly challenging. As a result, computing educators have tried a variety of instructional methods to assist beginning programmers. These include developing approaches geared specifically toward novices and experimenting…

Administrator perspectives regarding current and potential increased participation in post-secondary educational opportunities by Michigan high school students were explored in this descriptive quantitative study. Targeted concerns included current institutional levels of involvement, personal knowledge concerning program rules and regulations,…

This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of living-learning communities on GPA and fall-to-fall retention rates for college freshmen at Regional University (RU). The specific focus of this study was the effect of these communities on students of different ethnic groups and on the potential of these communities to reduce the academic…

The school accountability movement has led to a marked increase in the use of standardized test scores to measure school and teacher productivity, yet little is known about the correlation between test score gains and improvements in long-term outcomes. In the first chapter of my dissertation, I study the impact of a school choice policy in…

This qualitative research study examined the effectiveness of law school education in preparing new attorneys to practice law from the view point of novice criminal law attorneys. A debate has existed over the past few decades between legal academia and the practicing bar as to what are the most effective learning processes and strategies of…

This study extends what is known about the experience of mid-childhood immigration. Fifteen participants, college students who immigrated to the U.S. from Latin America between the ages of 8 and 16 and who had completed at least a semester of transferable college-level coursework, provided their narratives by way of an open-ended interview…

Bullying is a prelude to murder. Victims of bullying have resorted to extreme acts of violence in order to escape the torment that bullies have created in victims' lives. Research on empathy supports the idea that teacher empathy could ameliorate bullying in schools. This study investigated whether or not teacher empathy had an impact on…

This action research study investigates children's perceptions of and feelings about musical performance. The participants were 41 children from two intact third-grade classes at one private school in the southwest region of the United States. The study occurred over nine weeks, including preparation for performance, the performance, and the…

Despite available training in technology resources in the district under study, teachers have indicated that they lack an understanding of how to integrate technology effectively in the classroom. Through analysis of survey data, an archival technology plan document, a focus group with teachers and interviews with principals, this dissertation…

A problem in American education is that rural schools have difficulty recruiting licensed teachers. Teacher shortages in mathematics, science, foreign language, and special education are more acute in rural areas. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive survey study was to examine specific recruiting strategies and newly hired licensed…

The present study investigated the extent to which providing students with individualized performance feedback informed and directed their learning behavior. Individualized performance feedback was delivered to students using curriculum-based measurement progress indicators, either as a visual representation of ongoing performance in the form of a…

School administrators who recruit teachers domestically and abroad lack an internationally accepted checklist for effective teachers with which to evaluate teacher applicants. This study was conducted to use the elements of a U.S.-based effective teacher checklist survey with a sample of secondary teachers in Guatemala and Japan to describe the…

Immediacy is the closeness expressed by communicators which maybe observed in teachers as they try to engage students. Teacher immediacy may take nonverbal and verbal forms. U.S. studies have concluded that immediacy has positive effects on U.S. college students' learning. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of American faculty's…