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Juvenile substance use has been a major societal problem in the United States over the past 30 years. The research literature on substance use in juvenile populations has focused on identifying risk factors that are thought to increase the likelihood that youths will engage in using illicit substances, and identifying protective factors that may serve to decrease the likelihood that youths will initiate drug use or habitually use drugs. The overarching purpose of this research has been to utilize this information in the development of drug prevention/rehabilitation programs. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether theoretically and empirically established risk and protective factors associated with youth substance use significantly predicted, or were significantly associated with, the adjudication status of youths who had been arrested at least once for using or possessing illicit substances. Additionally, the study investigated if theoretically and empirically established risk and protective factors were significantly associated with the frequency of arrests of students in a large public school district. Finally, the study explored if risk and protective factors were significantly associated with youths' IDEA status, due to IDEA status being previously shown to be significantly correlated to other forms of juvenile offenses. Data were analyzed from a cleansed database containing the educational and juvenile justice data of students attending a large public school district in Southern Arizona during the 2006-2007 academic year. The results showed that both grade point average and school attendance data significantly predicted (p < .05) the juveniles' adjudication status, but not standardized achievement scores. Further, IDEA status was found to be significantly associated (p < .05) with the youths' adjudication status. However, societal variables such as the crime and socioeconomic levels of youths' house zip codes were not found to be significantly associated with adjudication status, IDEA status, or the frequency of arrests for the 2006-2007 academic year. The implications of these findings are discussed, as well as the limitations of the study and future directions for research in this area.

Project-Based Learning (PBL), real-world based projects, has been found to increase students' abilities to understand, use and present concepts; allow the use of higher level thinking skills; enhance motivation and attitude; and increase engagement. Due to the lack of time and resources within the classroom, other avenues must be investigated that will allow PBL to be utilized in an effective manner. The use of Out-of-School Time (OST) provides this opportunity as well as assistance to students with needs that extend beyond a regular classroom setting. However, little direct research has been done to determine the effectiveness of project-based curricula in OST settings. This study incorporated a PBL curriculum into an afterschool program. The data collected and analyzed included surveys, assessments, checklists, field notes, audio recordings, student mathematics journals and notebooks, and a group discussion. As a result of the project, students were able to collaborate with one another and the instructor to gain new insights, knowledge, and experiences that varied from a typical classroom. These results, along with recommendations based on the findings, will aid in future implementations of a PBL curriculum in an OST setting. With refinement, a PBL program in an OST setting has the potential to supplement learning, enabling students to be more successful in the classroom.

The experience of staff at Native American boarding schools is commonly over looked in literature. These narratives fill a gap in the literature that show and illuminate problems within the schools and problems children have in these settings as they are with the students throughout the day. Boarding school still have a place within Native American education system, as they allow students to come together to foster a new Native American culture.

This study explores the effect of orientation on the quality of visitors learning experiences. Orientation, elaborated by P. Ya. Galperin, originates in Lev Vygotskys instrumental psychology and informs Falk and Dierkings Contextual Model of Learning. This studys approach viewing elements in physical, sociocultural, and personal contexts as orienting features provides a rationale and tool to explore museum learning. In this study visitors interact with a Bernoulli exhibit to which orienting features a visitor information interface and a museum educator are added. Depth of visitor engagement can be inferred from dwell time, number and kinds of indicator behaviors, and self-reported perception of their experience. Understanding the impact of orienting features should be a requisite to inform the work of museum exhibit designers and educators.

My involvement with the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame educational goals of the museum began in 2002 as a volunteer. For several months I assisted the Director of Education by helping revise educational materials and editing a new outreach program. In 2004, shortly after the Education director resigned, I was approached by the Executive Director. She was unsure of where to take the museums education program in the future. Her desire was to take a step back and evaluate what the museums education programs had accomplished in the past two years since the museums reopening in Ft. Worth (2002) and set goals moving forward. My dissertation and the purpose of this project was to develop a strategic plan for the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame education program. The strategic plan representing decisions made by the Education Committee included objectives and action plans for the following goals: 1.The Museum will utilize ongoing strategic thinking to prioritize and execute educational goals. 2.The Museum will develop and implement an educational funding strategy (operations and endowment). 3.The museum will establish a professional education department with long-term leadership, vision, experiences, and skills. 4.The museum will create and implement an audience development strategy for educational programming. 5.The museum will enhance the educational experience of visitors to the museum. 6.The museum will develop and implement an educational outreach plan to educate beyond the museums four walls.

This study focuses on the promotion of scientific literacy within the natural science departments and how faculty within these departments define, incorporate, and evaluate scientific literacy in their courses. The researcher examined data from participant interviews, observations, and archival material from courses taught by the participants. The results of the research study suggest that participants express their idea of scientific literacy through storytelling, real world connections, technology, and collaboration. Results suggest that diversity in the perception of scientific literacy within these themes did occur, either actually or conceptually. The research used the definition and components set forth by the National Research Council as a benchmark when looking at the participants' own definition, incorporation and evaluation of scientific literacy.

Examining whether in-house counsel for a mid-sized urban school district in the State of Texas constitutes a valuable resource or an unnecessary expense was the purpose of this study. Specifically, the study analyzed the true value of in-house counsel for mid-sized urban school districts in Texas via the case study method. The case studies were structured to examine four separate issues faced by a mid-sized urban school district. The issues studied involved students rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, construction and resulting disputes, personnel problems, and instructional controversies involving First Amendment rights. The issues ranged from those where the mid-sized urban school district had no legal advice to situations in which in-house counsel was involved at each and every step. When the mid-sized urban school district acted without legal advice in two of the four case studies, the result was observed to be violations of law and resulting contract disputes. The former could, and unless corrected, would likely lead to litigation whereby the mid-sized urban school district would face significant financial exposure, not only for defense costs, but also resulting damage awards because the school district would have minimal defenses available. The latter did, in fact, result in outside legal fees, litigation, and construction delays the inconvenience of which cannot be reasonably measured. In contrast, when the mid-sized urban school district acted either with the advice of in-house counsel or directly through in-house counsel, politically charged and potentially litigious situations were resolved with no outside legal fees or litigation of any kind. In fact, when in-house counsel was involved early and often, the challenges faced by the mid-sized urban school district quietly and quickly dissipated. Although measuring actual cost savings is difficult, it is apparent that the mid-sized urban school district likely benefitted financially from the absence of litigation, and perhaps even more so from the absence of lingering classroom distractions. Hence, this study reasonably supports the conclusion that in-house counsel is a valuable asset to mid-sized urban school districts.