Youth participation in meaningful and purposive civic organizations and activities not only impacts the participants' development, but also influences their involvement in their communities both today and in the future. The combination of the two studies included in this dissertation examine just that. Both studies were conducted utilizing…

Challenges particular to second-year students have been identified that can impact persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. We implemented a program to improve student success in intermediate-level science courses by helping students to feel they belonged and could succeed in STEM. We used survey measures of…

The purpose of this quantitative one-group pretest-posttest design study was to test the effectiveness of professional development for integrating technology in the curriculum of an urban Iowa middle school. Iowa middle school teachers are expected to integrate technology, to comply with Iowa Core Curriculum standards, by 2014. The participants…

Case studies of Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) in the Iowa project included four high schools that have been practicing this professional development model for the last five years. The schools, AHST Secondary School, Cedar Falls High School, Spencer High and Middle Schools and Valley High School were visited in April, 2011. The visits included…

Effective schools research gave birth to a new role for principals: instructional leader. Recent studies have suggested the relationship between strong school instructional leadership and higher student achievement. Skeptics question whether the principal's job is realistic and reasonable, with its emphasis on instructional leadership, multiple…

Children of color are overrepresented in child welfare in Iowa at a rate double their percentage of the population. In 2005 the Iowa Department of Human Services implemented two pilot demonstration projects to address overrepresentation of Native American and African American children in the child welfare system. The projects, called the Minority…

This research was comprised of a case study conducted at Grand View University to determine faculty perceptions and perspectives of outcomes related to a Title III grant-funded, professional development program. The conceptual framework for the study was based on a systematic process called the logic model (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). A…

U.S. Demographic changes have had an impact on health education, care, and promotion. The best health education, promotion, and care can be delivered by culturally sensitive health professionals. The importance of addressing the issue of culture is widely acclaimed by educators from various health disciplines. Participation in an international…

In response to the growing demand for parenting educators, and the need to ensure that educators have basic knowledge and skills relevant to designing, implementing, and evaluating parenting education, "Partnering with Parents," an outreach academy was developed. Analysis of data gathered via a follow-up survey, online discussion board,…

This descriptive study investigated the benefits and costs of using electronic portfolios (EPs) in preservice teacher education by examining the voices of students in six programs thought to be mature in their implementation. Benefits included opportunities to reflect, better access to and organization of professional documents, increased…

Iowa's emerging workforce of entrepreneurs with disabilities and the design of Iowa's Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (EWD) program were examined in an exploratory study. The study focused on the following issues: organizational characteristics of the EWD program; the characteristics of EWD applicants and their motivations for choosing…