Leaders in higher education currently face issues with reaching goals of inclusive excellence. Research suggests that building self-efficacy and collective efficacy with culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) could be an effective approach to achieving inclusive excellence. This study aims to explore how CRP can be utilized in higher education and…

The goal of this research is to examine the official yearly document, created by the State of Michigan, to officially rank all public schools from best to worst in our state, and offers an alternative way of evaluating these schools. For several years, between 2010 and 2016 the Michigan Department of Education had created a Top-to-Bottom ranking…

Education is a major factor in economic development in Jordan. Although the country lacks many natural resources, it has invested heavily in its human resources through the provision of quality education. While there is still room for improvement and growth, the country has reached notable milestones in economic development even though it is…

This research investigated the relationship between adult resilience, resilient leadership practices, and variables that reflected turnover to learn if increasing adult resilience or resilience leadership practices is an avenue to reduce turnover of high quality early childhood education teachers. The areas of adult resilience and resilient…

Higher Education is facing an increasingly competitive marketplace with high tuition prices, consumers are pushing back on rising tuition prices and choosing community and state colleges. A shortage in the traditional college age student population, has compounded the enrollment problem at small, private colleges. Most private colleges are…

The quality of preK-12 education is an international issue of central importance in discussions currently being held by educators, administrators, legislators, and educational policymakers. Concerns addressed in these discussions include funding, high-stakes assessments, the role of technology in the classroom, national and state curriculum…

Online education has become a major component in higher education and is no longer viewed as something students choose only when it is impossible to take a course in a traditional setting. Student perception of the quality of online learning is a prominent component of an online course. However, it is not the only component to consider, as various…

The purpose of this study was to build on the research already completed by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) in the development of ACTE's quality Program of Study Framework and accompanying evaluation instrument to examine the validity of the instrument's results and its utility when used independently by local educators…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether factors of social comparison theory influence public school choice in Indiana. There were two arms in the study. One arm used three district-level variables (parent education level, socioeconomic status, and homogeneity of race) associated with social comparison theory (SCT) and five…

The current study sought to test the relationship between course design, as described by the rubric produced by Quality Matters, and online university student performance. Due to the link between student motivation and active learning behaviors, and thus performance, it was predicted that the better-designed courses would facilitate student…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are increasingly being used in South Korean elementary schools in order to improve student learning and the quality of teaching. This new educational trend is being funded by provincial offices of education but facing some difficulties in implementation and sustainability. School leaders, teacher leaders,…

This mixed methods study explores how market-oriented policies, specifically privatization and decentralization of the educational system in Chile have impacted students' academic achievement since the Change in the Constitution in 1980. First, using teachers' interviews I identify variables that influences students' academic achievement and…

The National Council for the Social Studies recommends high-quality access to academic content in the social studies domains (history, government, economics, and civics) to improve in-school performance and postschool civic and community outcomes for students in K-12 schools. To date, limited research information exists to inform social studies…

This dissertation consists of three essays focused on policies that hold the potential to reduce gender and socioeconomic gaps in the developing world. The first two chapters focus on higher education while the last chapter focuses on STEM gender gaps during primary school. Chapter 1 looks at the impacts of new transportation infrastructure on…

Online education today is on the front lines of the massive changes in society brought on by the rise of the Internet and its impact on how knowledge is constructed, who controls it, and how these changes affect higher education. For students and educators, developing a more robust definition of quality in online education is a potential tool to…