In 1998, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, with assistance from the Developmental Assessment and Placement Advisory Committee, adopted an assessment policy that set standards for college placement testing at Massachusetts public colleges and universities. The purposes of the policy were to place students more adequately suited for…

This study was a case study of the experiences and perceptions of collaborative, subject-alike planning among middle school teachers. Many investigators have identified gaps between teacher planning and classroom instruction and have asserted that teacher planning often occurs independently and in isolation of other teachers. Researchers in other…

Urban school districts continue to hire teachers who have received their certification through nontraditional routes. For these nontraditionally certified teachers (NCTs), there is growing evidence that improved staff development and administrative support can positively improve NCTs' retention and enhance students' learning. Because the attrition…

Employers of newly hired higher education graduates report their new workforce is not prepared. Further research was required to discover insights to the workforce readiness gap. This concurrent mixed methods study explored what competencies influenced employer's perceptions of the work-readiness of Information Systems (ISYS) undergraduate…

Background: Mobile phones and other technologies are widely used in health programming in developing countries, many introduced by international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) to accelerate data collection. This research examined: How are INGOs adopting the innovation of mobile technology into M&E systems for health care programs in…

The assumption that sending students abroad for extended periods of time will lead to increased understanding of others, one's place in the world, and increased skills required to navigate cross cultural interactions does not hold up in the literature. Recent research in the field of international and intercultural education calls practitioners…

First-generation college students differ in their backgrounds and experiences from other college students and are more likely to drop out of college than continuing-generation students (Ishitani & Snider, 2004; Lohfink & Paulsen, 2005). The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to describe the experiences of first-generation…

Healthcare technologies are evolving from a practitioner-centric model to a patient-centric model due to the increasing need for technology that directly serves healthcare consumers, including healthy people and patients. Personal health information management (PHIM) technology is one of the technologies designed to enhance an individual's ability…

Accountability standards challenge schools to provide quality education for all students and to ensure that all students are on grade level by the end of the school year. If schools fall short of this challenge failing to make at least one year of progress, schools are at risk of being identified as low performing. In this age of accountability,…

The purpose of this study was to expand on the current research pertaining to women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, better understand the experiences of undergraduate women in the sciences, identify barriers to female persistence in their intended STEM majors, and understand the impact of the STEM co-educational…

Keywords: special education directors, workload, job satisfaction, special education administration. The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to investigate employee characteristics, workload, and job satisfaction of special education directors employed by local education agencies in North Carolina (N = 115). This study illuminates the…

The Foundations of Reading course and the Direct Instruction reading program Corrective Reading are components of literacy instruction designed to meet the needs of struggling adolescent readers. An evaluation of the program's effectiveness within the district has not been conducted, and the impact on student achievement was unknown. The purpose…

To ensure the quality of digital simulation game, we utilized the usability evaluation heuristic in the design and development processes of e-café operational management game-based learning material for students. The application of usability evaluations during this study is described. Additionally, participant selection, data collection and…

In mixed methods research (MMR), integrating the quantitative and the qualitative components of a study is assumed to result in additional knowledge (or "yield"). This narrative review examines the extent to which MMR is used in the field of childhood trauma and provides directions for improving mixed methods studies in this field. A…

A key challenge of visual methodology is how to combine large-scale qualitative data sets with epistemologically acceptable and rigorous analysis techniques. The authors argue that a pragmatic approach drawing on ideas from mixed methods is helpful to open up the full potential of visual data. However, before one starts to "mix" the…