Since the early 1980's, the number of picture books that present Queer characters and themes has grown. Correspondingly, the number of challenges to these books has also increased. "And Tango Makes Three," the true story of two male penguins who hatch and raise a chick in New York City's Central Park Zoo, is one such picture book that has received…

The objective of this research was to use technology to develop an on-line orientation manual for clinical research coordinators. Many clinical research coordinators begin their careers as staff nurses and have little knowledge related to clinical research. As such, when they transition to a career in clinical research they lack the knowledge…

Purpose: Research in the field of early childhood education (ECE) demonstrated the association between skilled directors and high quality programs. Still, most state licensing requirements do not delineate the requisite knowledge or experience necessary to be an effective director. Many ECE directors advance to their position directly from the…

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model which addresses special education program evaluation needs. As such, the focus was on development. Often development and research are seen as one (e.g., Department of R&D; Director of R&D). They are, however distinctively different in process and product. The model developed provides…

This study attempts to add to the college student dropout literature by examining persistence decisions at private, non-selective university using previously unstudied explanatory variables and advanced econometric methods. Three main contributions are provided. First, proprietary data obtained from a type of university that is underrepresented in…

According to the U.S. Constitution as construed by the "Plyler v. Doe," 457 U.S. 202 (1982) Supreme Court Case, all children in the United States--from kindergarten through grade twelve--have a right to a free public education regardless of citizenship; however, undocumented students seeking to continue their education beyond high school face…

The Holy See (2008) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (1995) stated that all students, including those with disabilities, have the right to a quality education and special attention should be given to those who are disenfranchised by having a disability (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1972). Based on a literature…

Education in a free society requires that students are provided with a provocative and thoughtful curriculum and learning materials that will prepare them to function as productive adult citizens in a diverse and changing world. Textbooks and curricular materials that engage the rising generation in the study of social ideas, problems, and issues…

The Communities For Equity was a group of Michigan mothers who filed a Title IX discrimination suit against the Michigan High School Athletic Association due to its athletic scheduling practices. The 10-year court battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This case study reviewed the policy decisions of the Wisconsin Interscholastic…

This qualitative naturalistic descriptive case study provides an understanding of the characteristics of a community of practice within a National Writing Project invitational summer institute. This study utilized naturalistic, descriptive case study methodology to answer the research question: What characteristics of a community of practice are…

America's school-age population is experiencing a demographic shift. In 1972, students of color represented 22% of the school-age population; in 2005, minority students accounted for 33% of public school enrollment (Statistics, 2007 Villegas, 2002). This study sought to explore how these changing demographics affected University Town Community…

The preservation of meaning between inputs and outputs is perhaps the most ambitious and, often, the most elusive goal of systems that attempt to process natural language. Nowhere is this goal of more obvious importance than for the tasks of machine translation and paraphrase generation. Preserving meaning between the input and the output is…

This dissertation examines the issue of academic preparation of future professional instructional designers in the context of higher academic institutions. It is presented in nontraditional dissertation format as approved by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. The dissertation is comprised of three publishable…

Disproportionality has been a persistent problem in special education for decades. Despite mandates outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004), African American students continue to be disproportionately represented in the Emotional Disturbance (ED) category in special education (e.g., Skiba,…

The purpose of this study was to assess the readiness of South Carolina secondary school library media specialists to prepare students to meet the "AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner" (American Association of School Librarians, 2009b) by investigating the availability of 21st century technology tools, the confidence level of media…