The use of oral reading fluency (ORF) passages within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework is examined. Significant limitations within the current ORF research are discussed. The passage equivalency and readability scores for DIBELS Next, AIMSweb, and a school district's curriculum's ORF passages are evaluated using…

This study examines the predictive validity of literacy measures from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELs). Third grade EL students were screened three times during the year with DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) and Daze. Predictive validity of the scores was examined…

A review of literature suggests women superintendents face several disadvantages gaining access to positions as public school district superintendents. This study focused on (1) which characteristics applied to the prediction of women superintendents in California public K-12 system; (2) if the predecessor's sex predicted for the…

Background: Hospital adoption of health information technology (HIT) systems is promoted as essential to decreasing medical error and their associated 44,000 annual deaths and $17 billion in healthcare costs (Institute of Medicine, 2001; Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 1999). Leading national healthcare groups, such as the Institute of Medicine,…

This thesis describes new approaches to the formal modeling of narrative discourse. Although narratives of all kinds are ubiquitous in daily life, contemporary text processing techniques typically do not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. We describe two approaches to the problem. The first approach considers…

Teaching has long been considered an isolated profession with little opportunity for collaboration. A major task for school leaders is to create improvement from within the school. Teachers are a valuable resource and each one possesses expertise in strategies and methodologies that can be a benefit to others. This action research explored the…

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a systematic and data-based method for identifying, defining, and resolving students' academic, and/or behavior difficulties. RtI is a targeted intervention that includes a 3 tiered pyramid model created to assist all children in areas of their greatest need. The purpose of this study is to examine first and…

Transitioning from a technical role to a managerial role has many challenges, particularly in information technology (IT) (Lester & Parnell, 2006). These challenges include people or soft skills, language skills, knowledge, intuition, mentoring, and delegation (Brokett, 2007; Feyerherm & Rice, 2002; Lester & Parnell, 2006). The IT…

Agile project management is most often examined in relation to software development, while information security frameworks are often examined with respect to certain risk management capabilities rather than in terms of successful implementation approaches. This dissertation extended the study of both Agile project management and information…

Mobile devices are becoming indispensable tools for many students and educators. Mobile technology is starting a new era in the computing methodologies in many engineering disciplines and laboratories. Microcontroller extension that communicates with mobile devices will take the data acquisition and control process into a new level in the sensing…

Alcohol consumption by college students in the United States has increased in quantity and frequency over the past five years. With this increase, there has come evidence of a rise in negative consequences caused by alcohol misuse. To help reduce these problems, colleges and universities nationwide have begun implementing alcohol programs for…

This study focuses on a meaningful understanding of idiosyncratic language in psychosis. The psychotic neologisms examined in this dissertation challenge the listener's accurate understanding. Idiosyncratic aspects of speech in psychosis are largely researched from a diagnostic perspective in the literature. This study asks how individuals…

The purpose of this study was to identify the benefits and challenges of co-teaching, as self-reported by high school general education teachers, special education teachers, and administrators and determine if they shared common beliefs regarding supporting students with special needs within the general education curriculum. Participants included…

Reading is a complex process involving numerous skills and abilities contributing to acquiring meaning from text. Individuals without the requisite reading skills will have difficulty not only in school but throughout their lifetimes. The purpose of the study was to compare the reading ability of incoming college freshmen with that of adults with…

The federal government spends much money on information technology (IT) projects each year, yet numerous IT projects continue to underperform. For instance, in Fiscal Year 2008, OMB and federal agencies identified approximately 413 IT projects ($25.2 billion) as being poorly planned, poorly performing, or both. Agencies struggle to implement sound…