Superintendents must manage all programs within a school district, but many superintendents do not possess the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully direct a district's special education program. This study examined superintendents' perceptions of their knowledge of special education and the importance of that knowledge to their practice.…

Although young children are major audiences of science museums, limited evidence exists documenting changes in children's knowledge in these settings due in part to the limited number of valid and reliable assessment tools available for use with this population. The purposes of this study were to develop and validate a concept mapping assessment…

In DIF studies, a Type I error refers to the mistake of identifying non-DIF items as DIF items, and a Type I error rate refers to the proportion of Type I errors in a simulation study. The possibility of making a Type I error in DIF studies is always present and high possibility of making such an error can weaken the validity of the assessment.…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the affects of implementing Response to Intervention (RtI) strategies on kindergarten reading readiness skills in a Wisconsin school district. The gains in reading readiness skills of a total of 42 at-risk kindergarteners from three different elementary schools were analyzed comparing…

This study builds upon Deci and Ryan's (1985) Self-Determination Theory (SDT) which states that humans must meet three basic psychological needs for optimal well-being: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore trends in principals' experiences in the areas of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.…

Enrollment management has become a common practice at four-year institutions, but has not been extensively explored at community colleges. As students have more educational options available to them, community colleges have begun to explore ways to grow their enrollment, improve student retention and increase graduation rates. This study explored…

Teaching in today's schools across the nation is much more than presenting reading writing, and arithmetic. Experienced educators as well as novice teachers face a much more different audience of students in the classroom. It is very important for administrators and teachers to be prepared to impress knowledge in the public schools that is high in…

This study examined the experiences of three vocal jazz ensemble directors who influenced the field through their successful programs at the university level. These directors, Dr. Gene Aitken, Professor Larry Lapin, and Dr. Stephen Zegree, were chosen because of their national reputations as well as their program's longevity and success. The…

In this study the role of self-theories of intelligence and self-efficacy on adaptive help-seeking behavior was examined. One-hundred, first-year college students were asked to complete a highly difficult vocabulary task that would ensure universal failure. Performance attributions were assessed in order to determine the students' view of…

This study investigated a fourth grade problem solving team, teacher adherence to an intervention, and the effects of the intervention on student performance. This study hypothesized that (a) providing performance feedback to problem solving teams on a 20-item checklist created from the literature increases procedural adherence, (b) creating an…

The purpose of this study was to determine if using an intervention called Student Dictated Oral Review Stories (SDORS) had an effect on science vocabulary usage and content knowledge for ninety-three students in six first grade classrooms and the subgroup of economically disadvantaged students in a mid-sized north Texas school district. The…

Gunning Bedford Middle School is one of the largest middle schools in the State of Delaware. Demographically, its students are very diverse. In the past five years, the student population trend has changed as the area has grown. Like many schools in Delaware and around the nation, Gunning Bedford has a gap in the achievement of its students.…

Due to the immense growth of community colleges since the 1960s and particularly over the last decade, a leadership gap now exists as presidents, provosts, and deans retire in record numbers. This diminished leadership pipeline can be attributed to two main factors: the obvious increase in retirement of senior executives completing their academic…

This study used increased physical activity during recess to reduce stereotypy in preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Results indicate increasing physical activity can be used as an intervention to reduce automatically maintained stereotypy in preschoolers with ASD. The intervention had a lesser effect on a preschooler whose stereotypy was…

The underrepresentation of minority and low socioeconomic students has been an issue in gifted education for many years. Barriers related to poverty, cultural differences, linguistic differences, and deficit orientation in school systems are just a few possible causes of underrepresentation. This study examined the effects of a talent development…