At community colleges and open-enrollment universities, most first-year students take placement exams in English and mathematics to determine whether they are ready for college-level courses. But large-scale studies have indicated that these test scores misplace substantial numbers of students--in other words, for many students, the test score…

Students with disabilities in the United States continue to encounter less than favorable success in employment and education after high school. Only 35% of students with disabilities graduating from high school have workforce skills. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate high school special educators' perceptions of the…

Despite ongoing efforts to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) fields, disparities persist. MYHealth Summer Launch is a virtual, out-of-school STEM outreach program aiming to increase participation of historically marginalized students in health research to develop researcher identity and…

This study explored children's perceptions of a canine-assisted social-emotional learning program developed within the framework of a canine therapy program at a mid-sized Canadian university. Data collection made use of interviews, field notes, and observations. Children (N = 8, 5-11 years) from an after-school program participated in a six-week…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the professional development program designed for distance education instructors, in which design-based learning and mentoring strategies are implemented consecutively. Eight university instructors from the same university in Turkey with one year of experience in online teaching participated in the study.…

Responding to concerning reports regarding common world language classroom practices failing to meet a communicative standard (Burke, 2011; 2014), acknowledging the critical shortage of teachers in the United States, and reacting to the call by Madel (2020) to leverage teacher leadership to promote pedagogical development within the field, this…

The concept of educational recovery is relevant to many systems, both those that experience some form of sudden disruption as well as those that historically have been prone to disruption. Our involvement in developing a curriculum framework for displaced learners in the Learning Passport project (UNICEF, 2020) made us more aware of the field of…

This dissertation presents two essays on econometric methods for program evaluation and policy choice. In Chapter 1, I develop a statistically optimal way of using data to make policy decisions when the performance of counterfactual policies is only partially identified. Specifically, I consider a class of statistical decision problems in which…

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was to explore the effect of the school closures due to COVID-19 on the delivery of FAPE in school districts who utilized their FID day models for the delivery of instruction. Education, as we know it, was forever changed in March of 2020. In the age of increasing natural disasters and…

This chapter covers the 50 years from the inception of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). It explores the growth and diversification of JOCV as well as its expected returns to Japanese society. Stakeholders nationwide made many efforts to establish and develop JOCV, assisted by increasing domestic internationalization. As Japan's…

Previous research on preparation for the VPSA role has emphasized career progression rather than participation in professional development activities. This study aimed to explore the perceived effectiveness of 11 different professional development activities across 8 of the NASPA/ACPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Educators in…

This study aimed to determine adventure camps' effects on Japanese adolescents' body image. A questionnaire survey containing three body image scales was administered to 64 adventure camp participants and 100 non-participants. The study results revealed significant differences and trends regarding 2 of the 3 factors ("understanding of…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the impact of informal STEM education on underrepresented middle school girls. The study took place within the context of the EUREKA! summer program, a collaboration between Drexel University's Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering and Girls Inc. of Philadelphia and…

Mentoring is widely cited as a strategy to increase the representation of Latinx in technology, but the role of informal relationships with adults outside their family remains unclear. This study explores how natural mentoring is utilized by Latinx youth at a community-based organization, including the perspectives of both mentors and mentees,…

Background: Many Irish children are failing to meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity. Research shows that children are failing to develop the necessary physical literacy skills to reverse this trend. Early childhood has been identified as a critical period to intervene, with the school environment identified as a key environment to…