The use of acronyms and abbreviations is increasing profoundly in the clinical domain in large part due to the greater adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems and increased electronic documentation within healthcare. A single acronym or abbreviation may have multiple different meanings or senses. Comprehending the proper meaning of an…

This dissertation addresses the complexity of test illustrations design across cultures. More specifically, it examines how the characteristics of illustrations used in science test items vary across content areas, assessment programs, and cultural origins. It compares a total of 416 Grade 8 illustrated items from the areas of earth science, life…

This study focused on the perceived ethics of the decisions superintendents make in response to a situation with a teacher that was value-laden, potentially volatile, and potentially affected by the teachers' gender or ethnicity. Superintendents (N = 123) each read one of 12 versions of a vignette depicting a sexting incident between a…

In 1992, California became just the second state in the United States to enact significant charter school legislation. Today, over 940 charter schools are operating in California servicing nearly 350,000 students. California leads the nation both in the number as well as the fastest rate of growth of charter schools (Center for Education Reform…

This mixed-methods study was designed to determine how principals perceived the ethicality of sanctions for students engaged in sexting behavior relative to the race/ethnicity and gender of the student. Personality traits of the principals were surveyed to determine if Openness and/or Conscientiousness would predict principal response. Sexting is…

Expectations and legislation have placed new accountability measures on educators to ensure that students are college ready upon high school graduation. Research was necessary to analyze the relationship between instructional spending and college readiness measures as reported on the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) in Texas. The…

This study examined the enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations that utilized a shared services model in higher education. The purpose of this research was to examine the critical success factors which were perceived to contribute to project success. This research employed a quantitative non-experimental correlational design and the…

The research conducted in this study inquires about Information Technology (IT) managers' and executives' attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge on Cloud Computing (CC) security. The study evaluated how these factors affect IT managers' and executives' willingness to adopt CC solutions in their organizations. Confidentiality,…

Computational thinking aims to outline fundamental skills from computer science that everyone should learn. As currently defined, with help from the National Science Foundation (NSF), these skills include problem formulation, logically organizing data, automating solutions through algorithmic thinking, and representing data through abstraction.…

While many studies have demonstrated that conversational tutoring systems have a positive effect on learning, the amount of manual effort required to author, design, and tune dialogue behaviors remains a major barrier to widespread deployment and adoption of these systems. Such dialogue systems must not only understand student speech, but must…

This study addresses the complex process of translation and adaptation of two Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) performance tasks (PTs), originally developed in English for American students, into the languages and cultures of five participating countries. Focusing on confirming evidence bits (CEBs), disconfirming evidence bits (DEBs), and no…

One factor underlying the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in schools is the interest and willingness of teachers to learn and adopt these technologies in their teaching. Previous studies of geographic information systems (GIS), as one type of ICT, indicate that the lack of teacher training is one of the key barriers to…

The relationship between faculty members' perceptions of the quality of the faculty-administrator relationship, and faculty intent to stay at one's institution was examined at a Florida-based, multi-campus, non-profit, career-focused university. The pool of potential participants included the total population of 1,085 full-time and…

This research study explored the critical nature of the connection between student achievement and superintendent leadership. A great deal of scholarship has addressed either student achievement or leadership and previous evidence has suggested the impact of both parental education and racioethnicity on student achievement, but few studies have…

This study examined the effects of a critical thinking instructional intervention in a higher education technology course with the purpose of determining the extent to which the intervention enhanced student critical thinking knowledge, skills, dispositions, application and transfer abilities. Historically, critical thinking has been considered…