This study was conducted to determine if differentiated instruction improved student growth. The overall effectiveness was studied as well as that of gender and the aptitude of average and above average students. The study was that of a quasi-experimental design using student subjects in the classrooms of three second-grade teachers. The school in…

In the first chapter, I measure the impact of student loan debt on young, college-educated workers' decisions regarding labor supply and enrollment in graduate school. I exploit variation in student loan debt driven by the formulas that determine Federal Student Aid in order to identify these effects. Instrumental variable estimates indicate…

The purpose of this study was to determine if meta-analysis can be used to enhance efforts to identify evidence-based practices (EBPs). In this study, the quality of included studies acted as the moderating variable. I used the quality indicators for experimental and quasi-experimental research developed by Gersten, Fuchs, Coyne, Greenwood, and…

The authors conducted a synthesis of studies of reading comprehension interventions for middle school students (Grades 6-8) identified with a learning disability. They identified 12 studies between 1979 and 2009 with treatment and comparison designs and 2 single-participant studies. Findings from the studies indicate large effect sizes for…

This study examined the effectiveness of an adult career development program designed to reflect the diversity and demands of career choices, the low level of comfort many have with career choices, and the limited resources available to resolve complex adult career problems. A possible selves process was used, delivered through a blend of computer…

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between prior use of social media in education and the perception of social media use in education and for future careers. College agriculture students and instructors were surveyed to address the objectives. The descriptive measures showed that instructors had more positive perceptions of…

In the first study, using a randomized experiment to measure the impact of school vouchers on college enrollment, Matthew Chingos and Paul Peterson, professor of government at Harvard University, examine the college-going behavior through 2011 of students who participated in a voucher experiment as elementary school students in the late 1990s.…

Phoneme awareness instruction plays a crucial role in reading acquisition for young children. While this early literacy topic has been studied for over 30 years, and cited by the National Reading Panel Report (2000) as an important area for further research, no reports to date explore the influence of instructional group size on phoneme awareness…

The intent of this study was to fill gaps in the knowledge base about coaching; specifically the reflective thought processes of teachers as they implement an innovation, and whether or not these processes differ if teachers work with coaches for support. The theoretical framework informing the study design included Transformative Learning…

This quasi-experimental study attempts to estimate the effect that participation in Courage to Teach (CTT), a transformative professional development (TPD) program, has on subsequent engagement with teaching. The primary focus of a TPD program is on the "person" who teaches, as opposed to content or technique. The subjects of the study…

The purpose of this research was to determine if communication skills training had an impact on public schools administrators' knowledge and application of communication skills, and their attitude toward school public relations. School administrators from three Tennessee school systems participated in this pretest/posttest quasi-experimental…

This study was conducted to see if a difference exists in the mean Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills: Oral Reading Fluency scores of students who entered kindergarten as 4 year olds, 5 year olds, and 6 year olds inclusively. Specifically, this dissertation considered the possibility that holding children out of kindergarten an…

The objective of this research is to identify the relationship between formal learning spaces and student learning outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental design, researchers partnered with an instructor who taught identical sections of the same course in two radically different formal learning environments to isolate the impact of the physical…

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has received strong empirical support and is practiced widely as a treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) and BPD with comorbid substance use disorders (BPD-SUD). Therapeutic success in DBT requires that individuals generalize newly acquired skills to their natural environment. However, there have…

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuropsychological childhood disorders that causes inconvenience to children, families, and the society. The objective of the present research is to investigate the effect of teaching Couples' Communication Model on the symptoms of ADHD in 4-9 year-old students. For this…