Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be considered an important tool for professionals to reskill and upskill as well as a cost-efficient way to stay relevant. However, evidence-based research is still needed to identify why specific categories of people, especially professionals, take paid MOOCs. The paper aims to analyze the factors that…

Calls to improve relationships between research and practice abound, among them efforts to help researchers to work in partnership with and communicate more effectively with policy and practice audiences, informing those that govern and design educational policies and those charged with implementation in schools and classrooms, respectively. These…

Supporting parents in use of effective, evidence-based discipline remains an important goal for research, practice, and policy. This study explored parental well-being and reported discipline practices with preschoolers (2-5 years). Parents (N = 205; 97 fathers) completed a Qualtrics-based survey assessing discipline practices, feelings of…

Background: Although schools often implement evidence-based sexual health education programs to address sexual and reproductive health disparities, multiple factors may influence program effectiveness. Methods: Using student-reported perceived impact measures as a proxy for program effectiveness, we employed a socio-ecological approach to examine…

This dissertation is developed around two studies created with the goal of describing and quantifying current educators' knowledge and perceptions of reading assessment and subsequent data-based instructional decision making. Unique to the field, a critical component of this study is an emphasis on educators' development of "data…