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This research examines two possible influences of student achievement at the middle school level: school culture and parental involvement. The study investigates Kentucky Scholastic Audits of 90 middle schools from 2001 through 2005. The purpose of the study is to identify whether school culture and parental involvement affect student performance. The results of this study suggest that demographic variables account for most of the variance in the Academic Index. Controlling for demographics, parental involvement does not affect the school Academic Index, while school culture does add significantly to the variance explained.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)'s emphasis of reading, language arts, and mathematics (RLA&M) and its de-emphasis of science has been a source of great concern among educators. Through an objectivist and constructionist framework, this study explored the unforeseen effects of the NCLB on public science education among Title I (TI) and non-Title I (NTI) students. The research questions focused on the effects of NCLB on Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores in the high-stakes subjects of reading, language arts, mathematics and the low stakes subject of science among TI and NTI 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in a north Georgia County during the 2010/2011 school year. This study also compared instructional time TI and NTI teachers dedicated to science. A causal-comparative quantitative methodology was used to analyze Georgia's public domain CRCT scores. Three independent-samples t tests showed that TI schools exhibited significantly lower Science CRCT scores than did NTI students at all grade levels (p < 0.0001). The data also showed CRCT scores in high-stakes subjects between TI and NTI students converging but science CRCT scores between TI and NTI students diverging. The self-report survey indicated no significant differences between TI and NTI teachers' instructional science time (t (107) = 1.49, p = 0.137). A teacher development project was designed to focus on improving teacher science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge through a formal introduction to the nature of science. With increasing global science competition, science is more relevant than ever, and communities need students with strong science foundations. Further study is recommended to analyze the factors associated with this science gap between TI and NTI students.

Congressional concern about homeless students resulted in the McKinney-Vento Act (MCKV) in 2001, which provides funds to local educational agencies (LEAs). MCKV is almost a decade old, yet no evaluations of its academic effectiveness have been reported. Using a systems theory framework, this study answered research questions (RQs) involving whether normally housed students in Grade 6 scored higher than homeless students in Grade 6 in reading (RQ 1) and math (RQ 2) on end-of-grade (EOG) test scores and whether homeless students in Grade 6 from LEAs that received MCKV funding scored better in reading (RQ 3) and math (RQ 4) on EOG test scores than those from LEAs that did not. Data from 2006 and 2007 were provided by the North Carolina (NC) Department of Public Instruction. About 20% of the state's LEAs received MCKV grants, which created a treatment group (funded LEAs) and a control group (nonfunded LEAs). Based on t tests, the normally housed students scored significantly higher on EOG reading and math tests. Using untreated control group designs with matched pretests (Grade 5 EOG test scores) and posttests (Grade 6 EOG test scores), 2 x 2 ANOVAs with repeated measures failed to reject the null hypotheses for RQs 3 and 4. This study did not support the hypotheses that MCKV grants improved the academic achievement of homeless students. MCKV provides valuable services, but in NC, it does not support training programs for teachers, counselors, and social workers on improving academic achievement. The positive social change implication of this study is that concerned educators can use these results to lobby legislators to fund training to improve academic performance of homeless students in order to help break the cycle of homelessness.

Career and technology education (CATE) courses were offered to high school students as an alternative form of education. The research problem at the study site, which is a high school located in southeastern United States was the lack of research-based findings on high school graduates' perceptions of CATE courses. The purpose of this study was to understand the participants' perceptions of the impact of CATE courses on career goals. The research question that guided this study was: What are the perceptions of high school graduates of a CATE program? The conceptual framework was based upon multiple intelligences, differentiated instruction, and the social cognitive theory of self-efficacy. Purposive sampling was used to identify 10 high school graduates who took CATE courses and were interviewed to share their perceptions of those courses. Responses were audio taped and transcribed for content analysis and coding to identify common themes on this topic. The findings indicated that CATE courses provided students with practical applications by which CATE instructors strived to meet the needs of students, indicating that CATE students have been prepared for career opportunities. The findings also indicated that CATE students graduated from high school because students developed technical and academic skills through the program. Implications for positive social change include potentially increased rate of high school graduation of CATE students and the impact of CATE courses on graduate's career goals. The results of this study can be used by CATE teachers and school administrators to support continued advocacy for teacher professional development within the field of CATE courses.

Critical thinking is a skill that school systems are trying to develop in their student populations. Numerous studies have been conducted on developing critical thinking skills such as self-regulation, interpretation, and analysis. However, available data on the use of learning management systems (LMS) as a means to develop critical-thinking skills have been opaque. This study examined the perceptions of local stakeholders and the impact of confidence-based assessment (CBA) on secondary students at one high school. The conceptual framework guiding the study represented a synthesis of theoretical perspectives on critical thinking and its development with the current research on the pedagogical foundations of LMS applications. This qualitative case study project was designed to understand the perceptions of teachers, administrators, and content developers regarding the viability of a LMS with CBA embedded to increase students' critical-thinking skills. The research question focused on the use of Moodle, an LMS option, modified to use CBA to measure, improve, and enhance critical thinking skills. Qualitative data from open-ended questionnaires and interviews were gathered from teachers, administrators, and content developers who had taken a CBA within Moodle, and then coded using typological analysis to explore the respondents' perspectives. Since compelling evidence was found that a cost-effective LMS with embedded CBA may provide a positive benefit to students, a project consisting of a detailed program implementation plan was proposed to the school district. If implemented, the program can be replicated by educational institutions, potentially contributing to social change by democratizing access to a testing methodology that increases students' background knowledge while measuring their critical thinking skills.

Research has indicated children with autistic disorder often demonstrate below average intelligence. Others have suggested intelligence of the autistic population has been underestimated. A gap in the current literature reflects the need to examine the accuracy of assessment of intelligence of children with autistic disorder. The research questions underlying this study addressed tools professionals use to assess intelligence of children with autistic disorder, how tools are selected, the level of confidence in the accuracy of results, and what level of consensus exists among experts. This Delphi study used a panel of 20 autistic disorder experts and 3 rounds of surveys to establish expert consensus of practices for gaining an accurate measure of intelligence and to determine if an appropriate tool is available to measure intelligence of children with autistic disorder. This study was based on the Lockean inquiring systems philosophical perspective with a sequential, exploratory, mixed methods design and employed the constant comparative method for data analysis. Emergent themes included strategies used for assessing intelligence in this population, barriers to determining accurate results, and methods for mitigating the influence of barriers. With moderate to strong consensus among participants, the findings demonstrated lack of availability of an appropriate measure of intelligence for children with autistic disorder. This study has the potential to contribute to positive social change with findings justifying the development of an appropriate assessment tool which will enhance life opportunities of children with autistic disorder when more accurate measures lead to appropriate placement in academic, vocational, and social settings.

In the 1920s, high school students were placed on one of three tracks: high, average, and low. Over the years, vocational education was transformed into a low track assignment for students, often racial minorities, who were perceived as less intelligent. However, the interaction between vocational education and tracking policies and practices remained unclear. Using critical race theory, this study produced an historical analysis of the interaction of these two programs. This included a systematic identification of the originating factors influencing tracking and contemporary tracking policies and practices to understand how tracking affected racial minority students' access to equal educational opportunities in the early 1900s and from 2006 to 2009. Data sources used included archival records that contained tracking data, policy discussions, and policy records; these were used to determine how and why tracking was implemented in one public school district and the impact of the policy itself. Themes were identified using latent and manifest coding procedures including deductive categorization. Results indicated that one unintentional side effect of tracking was the placement of students unfamiliar with traditional White cultures into lower skill student tracks. Further, a comparison of the 1920s and 2006 to 2009 tracking and vocational education programs indicated no adaptations to ameliorate these unintentional side effects. Implications for positive social change include clarifying to policymakers issues in tracking as a means of placement that may result in inappropriate decisions that limit options for minority students.