The researcher for this evaluative study investigated the efficacy and impact of the iStartSmart college success course by examining the first-term retention, fall-to-fall persistence, and three-year completion rates of community college students who enrolled in the one- or three-credit course at a community college in Arizona and the rates of…

Accounting for complex interactions between contextual variables and learners' individual differences in aptitudes and background requires building the means to connect and access learner data at large scales, across time, and in multiple contexts. This paper describes the ASU Learning@Scale (L@S) project to develop a digital learning network…

Minority students and students with disabilities are disciplined disproportionately from their peers. Discipline has led to many negative consequences in the lives of youth in the United States, including the school-to-prison pipeline. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance encouraging school districts to develop policies that…

The amount of second language (L2) use has significant influence on native speakers' comprehension of L2 learners' speech. Nonetheless, few empirical studies examine how differences in the amount of language use affect the intelligibility and comprehensibility of nonnative speakers' reading and spontaneous speech. This study aims to contribute to…

This nonexperimental quantitative correlation study examined relationships between select special education and standardized testing variables for a purposive homogeneous sample of Arizona secondary school districts with Native American populations, and the archival records for students with disabilities postsecondary outcomes between 2012 and…

Given the flexibility to revise their academic goals under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a vast majority of the states that received federal waivers are setting different expectations for different subgroups of students, an "Education Week" analysis shows. That marks a dramatic shift in policy and philosophy from the original law.…

The downward enrollment trend shown in this year's "AS&U" 100--a compilation of the nation's 100 largest school districts--is unmistakable. Added together, the 100 largest districts had 10,708,137 students in 2006-2007, compared with 10,763,959 in 2005-2006. Even districts that showed steady growth throughout the 1990s and the early…

More than half of all school-age children in the United States read below grade level (NCES, 2012a). Seventy-five percent of all special education referrals are due to poor reading skills (NCES, 2012b). The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services reports that 50% or more of students with disabilities score at or below the 20th…

Wisconsin's stagnating state higher-education budget has forced the university to keep faculty salaries far below average. When professors get feelers from elsewhere, they learn that a move can easily mean a 100-percent salary increase--sometimes more. Budget problems have also depleted money for perks that keep faculty members on board--funds for…

Problem/Condition: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities characterized by atypical development in socialization, communication, and behavior. ASDs typically are apparent before age 3 years, with associated impairments affecting multiple areas of a person's life. Because no biologic marker exists for ASDs,…

As part of the final report by the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness, a discussion of the numbers available to predict teacher supply and projected student enrollment is presented with an examination of Arizona's professional education programs and how they are meeting the needs. A discussion of…

The problem of how best to plan for Arizona's future is approached from two different angles. First, an outline is presented of 10 key assumptions regarding the most likely scenario for the United States in the 1980's. Assumptions are that there will be an unstable international environment but no nuclear war; fiscal conservatism in all areas of…

Over the past 6 years, Arizona State University West (ASU West), located in Phoenix, Arizona, has developed an Early Childhood program that features curricula based on the National Education Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T; International Society for Technology in Education [ISTE], 2000), National Technology Standards for Students…

According to U.S. Census statistics, for every step up in educational attainment, there is an increase in average income. The mean income for those with an associate's degree, $21,116 per year, is five percent more than a person with some college, and 40% more ($6,050), than a person with only a high school diploma or equivalent. The basic cost of…

A STUDY OF NAVAJO AMERICAN INDIANS IS PRESENTED. INCLUDED ARE THE TRIBE'S HISTORY, RESOURCES, ECONOMIC SITUATION, AND WAYS TO IMPROVE IT. THE NAVAJOS ARE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES IN THAT THEY ARE RAPIDLY INCREASING, THEY HAVE INCREASED THE SIZE OF THEIR RESERVATION, THEY STILL LIVE IN ISOLATION AND IN A PRIMITIVE FASHION, AND…