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This study was an endeavor to add to the research base on the impacts of law enforcement in our public schools, as well as to examine the presence of school counselors on the school-to-prison pipeline. The findings of this study suggest that there were no associations between the presence of a law enforcement officer and increased rates of referrals and arrests of students in schools across the United States. Additional results suggest that because in school suspension rates for high schools and expulsion rates for elementary were increased when the school had a law enforcement officer, schools needs to be cognizant of other areas of student discipline that are impacted. Most importantly, the findings also suggested that the absence of a school counselor in high school is associated with a significant increase of law enforcement involvement for students. Implications from this study suggest that the continued fight against the school-to prison pipeline has made positive impacts on students, but there is more work to be done and efforts for change have to continue. Suggestions are made for efforts to focus on needed policy changes regarding school discipline, training for both law enforcement officers and school administrators, and ensuring that mental health access and intervention becomes a top priority for schools across the United States.

Emotional disturbance is a qualifying area under special education for students experiencing emotional or behavioral difficulties in school. To qualify with an emotional disturbance, a student must meet at least one of the five criteria and demonstrate an educational need in order to qualify for special education services. There is an additional piece of the federal eligibility guidelines, known as the social maladjustment exclusionary clause. The term social maladjustment is not defined, leaving the state and local education agencies to operationally define the term, which has led to challenging debates over the last several decades. The Fragile Families Child and Wellbeing Study (FFCWS, 2001) and Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten (ECLS-K, 2009) each present a unique opportunity to construct and examine operational differences between characteristics of social maladjustment and behaviors related to emotional disturbance. Using structural equation modeling and latent class analyses, behavioral subgroups within the datasets were identified. The results of the current study indicate there are developmental behavior changes between kindergarten and third grade and students have varying degrees of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. In addition, the results from the Fragile Families Child and Wellbeing dataset suggest the social maladjustment population may be relatively small or inappropriate to define at the age of nine. Future research should examine characteristics using data with more variables related to conduct problems beyond the age of nine as well as with other datasets related to juvenile justice.

Public school teachers have an incredible responsibility to prepare students and improve performance in their schools, and they are often fulfilling many different responsibilities and managing outside stressors as well. Retaining high-quality teachers who are satisfied with their job is an important goal for a school to be successful. The school environment in which a teacher works can have a significant impact on a teacher’s level of satisfaction and decision to remain in the field. Despite previous evidence indicating that both teacher satisfaction and school environmental factors have a significant impact on student achievement, very little research has focused on the nature of the interaction between teacher satisfaction, school leadership, school climate, teacher autonomy, and student performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher satisfaction, school environmental factors, and student performance in math and reading. It was hypothesized that teacher perceptions of school environmental factors would be predictive of teacher satisfaction, and that teacher satisfaction would serve as a mediator between the measured school environmental factors and student performance in both reading and mathematics. Furthermore, this relationship was explored using a multilevel analysis to measure the influence of the classroom environment on the model, while controlling for the students’ previous performance, students’ socio-economic status (SES), and teachers’ years of experience. Results of the analyses indicate that teacher satisfaction was well measured and predicted by both school leadership and school climate, but teacher autonomy was not adequately measured or related to teacher satisfaction in this study. Furthermore, a multilevel model was a good fit to the data, including the latent variables. When examining these relationships at the classroom (between) level, school leadership no longer held a significant relationship to teacher satisfaction. Teacher satisfaction was more related to school climate at the classroom level. In this model, none of the latent factors measuring school environmental factors or teacher satisfaction were significantly related to student performance in either reading or mathematics. When examining these relationships at the classroom (between) level, and controlling for student SES, school leadership was predictive of mathematics performance, albeit with a small, negative path value. Since none of the latent variables were consistently predictive of student academic performance, mediation analysis was unnecessary and not upheld. These results indicate that teacher satisfaction may have a more indirect, complex influence on a variety of school outcomes that were not demonstrated here. If administrators and trainers are aware of the impact of the school environment on teacher job satisfaction and student performance, they can focus on improving individual, classroom, and systems-level supports and training.

Today, technologies are rapidly changing living and working environments and bringing about non-traditional problems in personal and professional life. The realm of academics and education is not exempt from these non-traditional problems. In the US today, problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments have been viewed as critical and necessary to daily life, including to education and various careers. In the US, low problem-solving proficiency among students requires immediate attention by educators. Fostering problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments is a main object of all levels of education in many countries. There is a dearth of studies focusing especially on adults' problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of literacy and numeracy on problem-solving skills, providing a model that conceptualizes relationships among adult’s problem-solving skills, literacy, and numeracy. This study is novel in that it extends the extant literature with its focus on real-world problems that are germane to technology-rich environments. The data used in this study were drawn from PIAAC US data, which includes 5010 completed cases and 1326 variables. Participants’ background information (e.g., income, education, and learning strategies) was collected by interviews. The assessments of literacy and numeracy competencies and problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments were tested using computer-based approaches. This study compared three completing models. The results indicate the following: 1. With control of educational background, income, and age, time that was spent on literacy- and numeracy- related tasks negatively affected problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. The participants who spent less time on literacy- and numeracy-tasks, regardless of their educational background, income and age, had higher problem-solving skills, compared to the participants who needed more time. 2. With control of educational background, income and age, literacy and numeracy accuracy positively affected problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. Despite their educational background, income and age, participants with a high level of accuracy tended to have higher problem-solving skills, compared to those with a low level of accuracy.

Research in the eras before and after desegregation has highlighted a growing achievement gap between White students and their African American and Hispanic peers. While this achievement gap is now realized as a lifespan process (e.g., present during early childhood, primary school secondary school, college, and in occupational realizations), its prevalence during early childhood and the profound ripple effect that influences subsequent stages of development warrants further examination. Using a capital investment framework situated within Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, this study examined the antecedents of the achievement gap. Utilizing the 3-year old cohort from the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES; USDHHS, 2013), I analyzed the nature of the achievement gap with responses from 1,713 children (NWhite= 384, NAfrican American= 654, NHispanic= 675) and parents, and nearly 500 teachers. Employing a series of quantitative techniques, I examined the extent of the achievement gap between students from different racial groups across four waves of data for three measures of achievement (i.e., logic and mathematics, spelling, and letter – word recognition). Cohen’s d analyses were utilized to examine the extent of the achievement difference between racial groups and growth curve models (single- and multi-level) were utilized to examine the influence of time variant and time invariant predictors on the development of that achievement gap. Results from this study indicate patterns of achievement and instructional influence that do not fit within contemporary research. While no meaningful achievement gap was evidenced for spelling achievement, White students had a considerable lead in mathematics and logic and African American students had a considerable lead in letter-word recognition. Parents’ and teachers’ instructional activities differentially influenced student achievement at each wave, not only as a function of racial group, but also as a function of content domain. In mathematics and logic, teachers’ instructional activities predicted increases in achievement for African American students. While parents’ instructional activities did not predict achievement at each wave, teachers’ instruction was shown to be a negative predictor of student achievement for White and Hispanic students. In spelling, parents’ instructional activities had a distinct, incremental predictive pattern on White students’ achievement. Teachers had an incremental predictive influence on African American students’ achievement. In letter-word recognition, parents’ instructional activities were shown to incrementally enhance the achievement of Hispanic students. Teachers’ instructional activities consistently predicted achievement for African American students and showed an increasing pattern of influence on achievement for Hispanic students. Parent demographics played unique roles in predicting student achievement during the first year of Head Start for each of the achievement tests and racial group. More specifically, information not otherwise gained through measures during the time in Head Start suggests that parental demographics (e.g., income, employment, education) influence student achievement differentially for each racial group. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.

The number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to increase exponentially and their parents experience more stress than parents of children with no psychological disorder. We hypothesize that as more children will be diagnosed with ASD, more parents will concomitantly undergo more stress. Parents will need to use more coping strategies to address their child’s condition alongside the burden of their own lives. The purpose of this study was to add to the existing knowledge base regarding how parents cope with their child’s diagnosis of ASD and the factors that influence parents’ coping behaviors. To accomplish this, a multi-methods study was conducted. This two-phase study was designed to obtain statistical quantitative results from a sample and then follow up with a few individuals to probe the quantitative results in more depth. Survey data was first collected from parents of children diagnosed with ASD to examine the relationship between coping self-efficacy, coping outcome expectancy beliefs, and coping strategies. Then, the qualitative phase was conducted to describe how parents cope with their child’s diagnosis of ASD. Seventy four parents completed a demographic and background questionnaire, the coping self-efficacy, the outcome expectancy beliefs, and the Brief Cope questionnaires. Based on the results, six parents were selected for semi-structured interviews. Quantitative analysis indicated that there was no significant association between coping self-efficacy belief scores and coping strategy scores and there was no significant relation between coping outcome expectancy belief scores and coping strategy scores either. The qualitative analysis found seven themes that represent parents’ description of their coping strategies. Practical implications were drawn and recommendations were made for future research.

Few studies have looked at the relationships between broad and narrow cognitive abilities and mathematics achievement within a sample of students with specific learning disability (SLD). Empirical links between cognition and mathematics abilities must be identified to improve the ability of professionals such as Educational Diagnosticians and School Psychologists in order to accurately identify students with mathematics learning disability. This study examined the relationships between the broad and narrow cognitive abilities of Crystallized-Intelligence (Gc) and Long-term Storage and Retrieval (Glr) and mathematics achievement within a sample of students with SLD at age 9-15 years. This study also examined the relationships between math calculation skills and math reasoning. Instruments include the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Tests of Achievement. Participant data were split into the two special education math eligibility areas, Math Calculation Skills (n = 90) and Math Reasoning (n = 96). The data were also split into two age groups, 9-12 and 13-15 years to determine if a developmental component exists between the selected broad and narrow abilities and mathematics achievement. Cognitive and achievement data were then used to determine the existence of statistically significant relationships between cognition and mathematics achievement. Correlation analysis found no statistical significance between the broad cognitive abilities of Gc and Glr and mathematics achievement. Math Reasoning and the narrow cognitive ability of Ideational Fluency (FI) were related among all participants and at age 9-12 and 13-15. A positive relationship between Lexical Knowledge (VL) and Math Calculation Skills at age 9-12 and a negative relationship between Lexical Knowledge (VL) and Math Calculation Skills at age 13-15 were revealed. Correlation analysis also found that Math Calculation Skills was a statistically significant predictor of Math Reasoning among all participants and at age 9-12 and 13-15 years.

In response to today’s high-tech global economy, there has been an increasing need for professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. To enhance students’ STEM performance and career aspirations, researchers have suggested capturing their mathematics interest as early as elementary school. Research on academic interest, however, has suffered from various conceptual, theoretical, and measurement issues. In the literature, there are mixed findings regarding gender, ethnic, and age differences in mathematics interest which has entailed reexamination of the existing measures of interest. The purpose of this dissertation study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Self Description Questionnaire I (SDQI) with regard to children’s mathematics interest based on the item response theory (IRT) framework. The data for this study were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) with a sample of 14,631 children. These children were assessed in third- and fifth-grade using the ECLS-K adapted SDQI mathematics subscale, which consists of eight items with ordered response options ranging from 1 to 4. The IRT-based evaluation suggests that the SDQI items have sufficient discrimination, but insufficient item thresholds in assessing third- and fifth-graders’ mathematics interest. Specifically, the IRT parameter estimates indicate that 4-point scale of the SDQI items does not function much better than a dichotomous scale, particularly among third-graders. Thus, it is recommended that the current SDQI be reconsidered for its age appropriateness. In addition, affective items, which involve enjoyment, liking, and positive emotions, are found to be better indicators of interest than cognitive items that involve perceived competence, ability beliefs, or self-efficacy. In terms of measurement bias across gender, ethnic, and age groups, item-level bias emerged in most of the items as assessed by the IRT-based Wald Test of differential item functioning. In general, it was found that boys and White children tend to endorse higher-order options of cognitive, perceived competence items to represent their mathematics interest, while girls and ethnic minority children tend to endorse higher-order options of affective items. This affective-cognitive distinction of measurement bias indicates that children may interpret and respond to self-report interest measures differently as a function of their demographic background, resulting in artificial item-level group differences as detected by the SDQI, although the scale score can still be trusted in such group comparisons. Finally, results of the item parameter drift analysis indicate that children become more sensitive to the response anchors as they grow older, which reaffirms that the current SDQI items with the 4-point scale performs poorly among young children. Taken together, findings of this dissertation study provide insights into the conceptualization and operationalization of mathematics interest and affect, as well as practical implications for future use, and development of self-report measures in this field.

School districts in Texas have been affected by the downturn in the economy for several years. Revenue declines and expenditure increases have led to fiscal pressures for school districts. Both state and federal allocations for school districts have declined and state law limits the ability for Texas school districts to access revenue from local property taxes. School districts must make budget decisions and find new revenue sources in order to keep meeting the needs of the students in their districts. The purpose of this study is to examine how small, rural, low-income school districts in Texas respond to fiscal pressures, and if behavioral economics helps explain superintendent decision-making. The study will build on previous research conducted in the fields of balancing school district budgets, decision-making, and a relatively new field of behavioral economics, and will replicate a similar study done in Pennsylvania.

This dissertation examined associations among Peer Relation Competence (PRC), health-related outcomes, and academic achievement of school-aged children. The study used data extracted from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). Data were analyzed with multiple regression in order to answer four fundamental research questions: 1) Does physical activity predict PRC? 2) Does body mass index predict PRC? 3) What school characteristics promote children’s exposure to physical activity? And 4), are PRC, body mass index, and physical activity predictors of academic achievement? Results of this study suggest that physical activity as measured by children’s participation in physical education and recess are not predictors of peer relation competence. Children who were categorized as overweight or obese, according to body mass index, were found to report significantly lower scores in peer relation competence. Also, characteristics significantly contributing to children’s increased exposure to physical activity opportunities at school were geographic location, size and setting of the school, and whether a school is private or public. Finally student demographics, including gender, race, and socioeconomic status, in conjunction with participation in team sports were found to be significant predictors of academic achievement as measured by reading, math, and science Item Response Theory scaled scores. Implications of the results of the study are examined from a social ecological theory perspective with particularly relevant implications for policy.

Discussing the possibility of transitioning traditional grading practices into standards based grading practices create controversy in public schools. The purpose of this study is to examine grading practices through the lens of transformational leadership. This study used a sequential explanatory mixed method design. The study included a questionnaire that measured the relationship between the variables of principals’ years of teaching experience, years of administrative experience, content area of expertise, understanding traditional grading vs. standards-based grading, professional development on standards-based grading, implementation of standards-based grading and principals’ transformational leadership. The results revealed a significant relationship between the principals’ years of teaching experience and transformational leadership identified through a self-rated questionnaire. The other significant relationship revealed was between a principals’ understanding of traditional based grading vs. standards-based grading and the amount of professional development a principal had on standards-based grading. In addition, three purposefully chosen principals from the quantitative stage continued to participate in the study by being interviewed. The qualitative results revealed four themes: (1) clarity of the traditional grading and standards based grading definition; (2) grading was acceptable; (3) grades are fair yet unfair; and (4) shared beliefs that buy-in is a key element to implement standards based grading. Implications derived from the study were that time and buy-in was necessary for standards-based grading to get implemented effectively. Future research is needed to continue to explain the reasons standards-based grading does not get implemented even though the practice is valued as an effective grading practice to use.