The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the factors that affect women administrators in higher education at four-year public and private universities in Texas. By comparing private and public universities, the research provided an assessment of similarities and differences of the factors impacting achievement of women in higher…

Students in college make daily choices about how to use their independent study time, including choices about allocation of attention. Based on theoretical considerations and clinical studies, attention and the dividing of attention through multitasking is thought to have a relationship to performance levels. Research is only beginning to explore,…

The academic achievement gap that exists between African American students and their Caucasian peers is a challenging national concern for which an absolute solution has been elusive. Specifically, the African American male over-represents failure in most academic categories. Policy makers and educators acknowledge that this represents a national…

A qualitative case study was conducted on the Mooresville Graded School Districts's (MGSD) digital conversion for the entire school district. MGSD is a semi-rural small suburban school district with 5,450 students kindergarten through twelfth grade. The school district consists of three elementary schools, two intermediate schools, one middle…

In 2007, Mooresville Graded School District developed a strategic plan to infuse twenty-first-century learning skills into the schools by providing staff and students in grades four through twelve with a laptop computer. In late fall of 2007, Mooresville High School deployed laptops to all certified staff and to the entire student body in the…

Research on collaboration between academic and student affairs in higher education suggests that student affairs must change to enhance outcomes of collaborative efforts. The purpose of this case study was to investigate perspectives of both academic and student affairs professionals within the context of a campus on which collaborations occur…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions of team teaching middle school mathematics in urban schools. The research questions focused on student academic performance and the impact that team teaching may have from the perspective of teachers. The theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner formed the theoretical foundation…

Many students are entering college underprepared and do not earn a degree because of the many barriers they encounter. The purpose of this study was to identify reasons underprepared students did not complete college and to examine strategies, resources, and programs that underprepared students could have used to persist in college. The…

This dissertation proposes a principle of "economy of command", arguing that it provides a simple and natural explanation for some well-known properties of human language syntax. The focus is on the abstract combinatorial system that constructs the hierarchical structure of linguistic expressions, with long-distance dependencies…

Problem: The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Educational Statistics estimate that part-time faculty now comprises almost half of the faculty labor force; many believe this statistic has been gravely underestimated. Powerful unions like the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Association of Colleges…

In this project, I propose an alternate rhetorical strategy for literacy educators (K-16) seeking to enter debates over common standards for "college- and career-readiness" in literacy. I argue that the NCTE's current strategy fails to invite public participation in debate, and to remedy this situation, I suggest educators employ…

Three quarters of community college students enter higher education with the goal of transferring to a four-year institution to pursue a bachelor's degree and as few as 11% succeed. Scholars cite four main reasons for why this gap in baccalaureate completion matters: (1) community colleges today are educating approximately one-half of all…

The current study utilized data from screening and full evaluations for learning disabilities conducted at a university-based learning center. Results from the screening assessments were analyzed to determine the extent to which they predicted the diagnosis of learning disorders in postsecondary students. Mean scores from the screening assessments…

The number of online learners in the United States at the K-12 level almost doubled in the two-year period from 2006 to 2008. However, research in this area is emergent at best. With the passage of legislation in 2010 requiring all school districts in Virginia to have a plan to provide online learning options for K-12 students, the need for…

This dissertation is comprised of three independently conducted studies, linked by investigation into the development of thinking skills deemed necessary for the 21st Century. While educators and policy makers advocate teaching students creative and critical thinking skills to address an increasingly global and complex world, they simultaneously…