The purpose of this multiple-paper dissertation is to design a digital game and stealth assessments within the game to assess young second language learners' Chinese reading proficiency. In Chapter 2 (Paper 1), I describe the game designed for this dissertation and how it was implemented in a dual language immersion classroom. This study found…

To foster proper educational growth and to ensure equal scholastic opportunities for students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) in the United States of America, the state governors and chief school officers established the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Teachers being at the forefront in realizing the goals of these standards,…

The failure of Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports® (PBIS) to resolve behavior issues among primary grade students at a single charter elementary school in the southeastern United States was the problem that guided this study. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how primary teachers and administrators identified…

This study examines how academic coaching influenced at-risk college students' academic performance. Academic coaching places one student with a trained academic coach, who attempts to outline an academic plan with the student. The student contracts with the academic coach and they meet biweekly to assess progress and to discuss experiences and…

Disruptive behavior (DB) negatively affects the learning process in various ways, interfering with the educational process of individual students, the teacher, and/or the class as a whole. Group contingency interventions, such as the Good Behavior Game (GBG), are often used classwide to provide teachers with evidence-based management strategies…

In 2014, The Atlantic Philanthropies awarded two grants totaling $21 million to agencies charged with working together to support and expand health career pathways for high school students in Oakland. Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency (ACHCSA) received a grant of $11 million, and the Alameda…

My dissertation explores the interdependent connection between African oral tradition and traditional African healing strategies found in storytelling in Chicago. In examining a nonprofit based in Chicago that offers cultural education through political resistance oral narratives (i.e. storytelling), my research examines how storytelling can…

Teacher turnover has adverse consequences for student achievement and imposes large financial costs for schools. Some have argued that high-stakes testing may lower teachers' satisfaction with their jobs and could be a major contributor to teacher attrition. In this paper, we exploit changes in the tested grades and subjects in Georgia to study…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore young Arab women's understandings of mentoring as part of a pre-service teacher training program both before and after an extended internship throughout which a collaborative approach to mentoring was practiced. It aimed to identify the opportunities and challenges such an approach would bring in…

This study evaluated third grade students who received RTI instruction and third grade students who do not receive RTI instruction performance on the Renaissance STAR Reading® assessment and the SC READY assessment with respect to gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. This study is significant because it examined the academic performance…

Legally coordinated transition plans have been the expectation since the Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA, 1990). Research is firm that parent participation and high expectations are evidence-based practices supporting improved outcomes in post-secondary environments (Mazzotti et al., 2016; Test, Mazzotti et al., 2009).…

Mississippi leads the nation in child obesity, chronic diseases, poverty, and food insecurity. Stemming the long-term consequences of high obesity rates will require a cultural attitude and behavioral shift towards healthy eating. This study explored the perceptions, beliefs, practices, and self-efficacy towards healthy eating among limited…

Pennsylvania teachers were surveyed about their perception of the outcomes of one-to-one technology programs. Results quantified teacher perceptions regarding: (1) educational resources; (2) the effects of school environments; and (3) standardized test scores. Results demonstrate that Pennsylvania educators do not perceive one-to-one programs…

Purpose: (1) To compare demographic, mental health, service usage, and emotional and behavioral characteristics and strengths of youth receiving care from depressed versus nondepressed caregivers and (2) to determine whether a community-based program for reducing problematic behaviors and bolstering strengths is equally effective for youth with…

Probing university students' understanding of direct-current (DC) resistive circuits is still a field of active physics education research. We report here on a study we conducted of this understanding, where the cohort consisted of students in a large-enrollment first-year physics module. This is a non-calculus based physics module for students in…