Social and emotional growth is an important aspect of child development. Children spend their formative years engaging with parents, peers, teachers, religious leaders, and other community members--each one of these interactions plays a vital role in the social and emotional development of every human. The purpose of this study was to investigate…

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) on school culture at the high school level. PBIS is a three-tiered framework that several schools and organizations use to focus on the positive behavior outcomes over the negative behavior outcomes. Additionally, the effectiveness of…

Professional development (PD) programs do not always reach the teacher or allow for sustained usage of technology. However, recent studies show that teachers are more open to use technology after increased technology dependence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Motivated by that new openness to technology integration, we used interview and survey data…

A state-wide Individual Student Alternative Education Plan (ISAEP) seeks to assist high school (HS) students at risk of not graduating in completing HS credentials. The problem was that there was no formal state-wide process for monitoring the program to understand its impact. The purpose of this quantitative exploratory study was to determine…

Instructional coaching programs are designed to improve teacher effectiveness to ultimately improve student performance. The role of the instructional coach varies among schools and is dependent on building leadership or the most recent trends of a school district. Inconsistency in the roles and responsibilities of instructional coaches can impede…

Dual enrollment programs have been in existence for decades in public high schools in the United States. While there is literature on the academic impact of these programs with a focus on high school and college outcomes, there is a gap in the literature regarding what is known about students' experiences in dual enrollment programs that allow…

STEM leaders, deans and chairs who oversee three or more academic disciplines, tend to leave their posts at a fast pace. This can cause disruptions within an academic unit for both students and faculty. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate the rate of attrition among community college Science, Technology, Engineering and…

Social emotional learning (SEL) has had a rich history in educating the whole child, yet schools still do not have (SEL) as part of their curriculum. Today's educators have a renewed perspective on what common sense always suggested: when schools attend systematically to students' social and emotional skills, the academic achievement of children…

Student-teacher relationships are critical to ensuring successful transitions to high school, but programs focused on building strong relationships have been concentrated at younger school levels. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gather feedback from ninth grade students, teachers/staff, and administrators regarding an existing…

Reading nonfiction texts with understanding is important to school success, yet many students struggle to do so. This randomized controlled trial extends previous research by contrasting an earlier iteration of a comprehension tutoring program (Comp) against a variant with strategies for transferring learning (Comp+Transfer). Participants were 189…

Emerging technologies in the classroom are paving the way towards high-quality, hands-on distance learning. Augmented Reality (AR), which overlays virtual information into the physical world, provides a promising solution for the development and delivery of collaborative educational content. Frameworks such as ARkit, ARCore, have enabled AR…

Over recent years, the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) has trended toward increased focus on improving the ethics and social validity of behavior analytic interventions. As part of this shift, ABA researchers and practitioners have begun to call long-held practices into question and seek alternative options. Despite their evidence base,…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the racial trauma in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been named the "twin pandemics." While physical activity has numerous benefits, including mental health, physical activity declined significantly in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem of practice seeks to address high school…

Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs are a popular tool used in schools to increase children's competencies across multiple domains, including emotion knowledge and social interaction. Children with appropriate social-emotional skills tend to experience more positive peer relationships, fewer problem behaviors, and improvements in school…

Objective: Individuals with autism who are minimally speaking often rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Communication partner training is an integral element of AAC intervention, and parents are ideal communication partners for supporting their child's language development skills. Asynchronous, online trainings may offer…