This study focused on beginning teachers in K to 12th-grade Christian schools and their perceived levels of satisfaction in their role as teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the beginning teachers' participation or lack of participation in a mentoring program and their job satisfaction scores. Beginning…

Early reading skills are strongly associated with long term academic and life achievement. Despite the recognized importance of literacy, indicators point to a literacy crisis in the United States. Research and policies have highlighted the necessity of selecting reading programs with documented effectiveness and implementing them with fidelity.…

Promoting healthy development for youth requires understanding the factors that predict positive outcomes. Although cognitive skills are important for student development, research has also identified social-emotional and behavioral growth as key developmental contributors. Social-emotional and behavioral skills, such as adaptability, emotional…

Student behavior within our school system has been and still is an area of concern. There are many different approaches to maintaining a healthy and safe culture for learning. Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) programs can have a powerful impact on schools. No matter the goal of the PBIS program, a school's climate and culture…

This study had two research questions: how do special educators describe their experiences implementing mindfulness and their perceptions of its usefulness for students with autism spectrum disorder. Multiple data sources were used, including interviews, document analysis, and analytical memoing. A qualitative multiple-case descriptive case study…

The local problem under study was that a non-Title I school implemented a 25-minute response-to-intervention (RTI) remediation block to address the fact that students were scoring below proficiency on literacy assessments; however, teachers were unsure of how to best use this time to improve literacy instruction and were unsure which RTI…

This study analyzed the impact of athletics on the academic achievement of middle school students in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. This study determined whether middle school athletics impact athletes' achievement more than middle school nonathletes. The study further analyzed achievement based on race and gender, and English and Math…

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is the zeitgeist for educational leaders in the contemporary world. Studies have determined that when implemented with fidelity, SEL skills aid school leaders in enhancing cooperation, reducing violence, and aid students in building their problem-solving skills, thus boosting academic achievement as a whole, while…

Intervention research in education investigates whether and how particular educational programs help students learn. Treatment effect heterogeneity, or variation in a program's impact, makes this effort more complicated, because it means more work must be done to understand what works, for whom, and in what contexts. This dissertation consists of…

Food insecurity among students is a problem on college campuses. The most comprehensive study to date, conducted by the HOPE Foundation, found that 42% of community college students experience food insecurity (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018). Despite the awareness that food insecurity exists and awareness that food insecurity can cause physical,…

Service learning (SL) is often considered a powerful way of reforming education practices by connecting communities and schools. The majority of colleges and universities in the U.S. offer students some form of SL experience during their undergraduate education. Students who take SL courses in college have demonstrated gains above and beyond those…

In response to patterns of educational inequity, many schools implement system-wide behavioral frameworks to reduce exclusionary discipline. School-wide positive behavior supports (SWPBS) is one such framework that supports socially appropriate behavior by enhancing the capacity of schools to implement research-validated practices. However, there…

Traffic incidents caused by vehicular crashes, roadway construction, disabled and abandoned vehicles, extreme weather conditions, and planned special events, comprise about half of all traffic congestion. As the duration of traffic incidents increases, it increases the probability of severe congestion, secondary crashes, traveler delay, travel…

Background: Some education programs' early positive effects disappear over time. Other programs have unanticipated positive long-term effects. Foundations have warned of the dangers of putting too much weight on in-program effects, which "often fade over time." The U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) even…

Future Forward (FF) is an early elementary literacy program that pairs one-on-one tutoring with parent engagement. In 2017, Education Analytics (EA) received an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-Phase grant to expand FF to 14 schools in seven school districts across three states. The randomized control trial (RCT) study of the 2019-20 FF…