This study examines the skills, strategies, and routines used by National Board Certified Teachers in order to teach vocabulary to kindergarten students. The research focused, specifically, on the strategies teachers used during shared reading activities to help children gain a better understanding of vocabulary, while also ensuring that students were meeting the academic standards. All of the participants were National Board Certified and taught in kindergarten classrooms around the Phoenix, AZ area and three of the teachers taught in Title I schools. They participated in two formal interviews that were voice recorded, as well as one week of classroom observations. During the interviews the teachers shared their experiences related to National Board Certification, their beliefs about teaching and more specifically about teaching vocabulary, and the best methods for teaching students vocabulary. They also discussed ways they use the academic standards from Common Core in their classroom, and shared if they think the standards are aligned with the National Board Professional Teaching Standards. Upon examination of the interviews and observation field notes, several themes emerged. 1) The process of National Board Certification impacted their teaching practice and increased self-reflection. 2) Vocabulary is taught throughout the school day, across all content areas, using both direct and indirect instruction. 3) All of the teachers use shared reading activities as one method of teaching vocabulary words to their students. 4) Teachers find value in academic standards and National Board Professional Teaching Standards; however, they do not all agree that the two types of standards support one another.

Since the early 1980s spoken word has been on the rise as a highly influential performance art form. Concurrently, there has been an increase in literature on spoken word, which tends to focus on the critical performative and transformative potential of spoken word. These on-going discussions surrounding youth spoken word often fail to take into account the dynamic, relational, and transitional nature of power that constructs space and subjectivity in spoken word. This ethnographic study of one youth spoken word organization – Poetic Shift – in a southwestern urban area makes a conscious attempt to provide a nuanced, contradictory and partial analysis of space, place, and power in relation to youth spoken word and aspires to generate an understanding of how spaces designated for spoken word are dialectically (re)produced and maintain or subvert dominant relations of power through a constant stream of negotiations. This study aims to more explicitly examine the relationship between place and spoken word in effort to understand how one’s positionality impacts, and is impacted by, their involvement in youth spoken word.

Over the course of a 6-month period participant observation was conducted at two high school spoken word workshops and four interviews were completed with both teaching artists and young adult spoken word poets. Using spatial and critical pedagogy frameworks, this study found that Poetic Shift serves as a platform for youth to engage in the performative process of narratively constructing and reconfiguring their identities. Poetic Shift’s ideological position that attributes value and validation to the voices and lived experiences of each youth is an explicit rejection of the dominant paradigm of knowing that relegates some voices to a culture of silence. The point at which the present study deviated from most other literature on spoken word is where it offers a critique of Poetic Shift as a site of critical literacy and of the unreflexive rhetoric of student empowerment. The problematic presuppositions within the call for youth voice and in the linear, overly simplistic curriculum of Poetic Shift tend to reinforce the dominant relations of power.

The purposes of this study were (1) to examine the direct and indirect effect of school-level testing policies on reading achievement though changes in amount and types of reading instruction, (2) to investigate the reading trajectories moderated by school-level testing policies longitudinally, and (3) to examine the relationship between testing policies and the achievement gap by exploring whether certain student characteristics moderate the relationship between testing policy and reading achievement, using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Cohort of 2010-2011 data. Findings from a multilevel full structural mediation model suggest that school-level frequency of state/local standardized tests had an indirect effect on student reading achievement through changes in both amount and the types of instruction at the school-level (cross-sectional fall kindergarten sample =12,241 children nested in 1,067 kindergarten classes). The findings from a three-level growth models indicated only children of Asian background and children from high socio-economic backgrounds who had frequent standardized tests in kindergarten accelerated in their monthly reading growth, whereas other children (e.g., low SES, non-Asian children) did not show any changes in the rate of the reading growth (longitudinal sample from fall of kindergarten to spring of first grade = 7,392 children nested in 744 kindergartens). The findings from the current study suggest that testing policy is not an effective means to reduce the achievement gap of children from disadvantaged family backgrounds, underperforming children or that children from low socieo-economic backgrounds. These children did not seem to benefit from frequent standardized tests longitudinally. Implications for supporting school assessment practices and instruction are discussed.

This dissertation examines how young children engage with digital games at home and how parents think and talk about their children's digital gaming. This is an ethnographic case study of the digital game playing of six three-year-old children in six families. This study combines ethnographic methods and critical perspectives to construct analyses that have the potential to rethink young children's digital game play. The focus of this study is on understanding how digital gaming functions in children's everyday lives. This study shows that young children's digital game play takes place in the interstices of their everyday family life. Digital games do not entirely change or displace other practices in early childhood, but they are integrated into existing young children's everyday practices in their family life. Digital games as a source of young children's imagination enrich young children's play rather than substitute for young children's spontaneous non-digital play. Young children and their parents tactically use young children's mobile game play to cope with their modern life. Negotiating over game selections, time, and space between young children and their parents is an everyday practice of families and digital games are a site not only for family power struggles but also of shared activity. Digital games reflect the dominant culture in which they are produced. However, this study shows that young children do not passively receive the messages in the games but rather make sense of the game contents according to their everyday local experiences. Digital games are now a part of everyday practices for both adults and young children, and young children's digital game play reflects contemporary society.

Definitions of quality child care are subjective, depending on who is defining quality, and constructions of quality remain a contested issue in the early childhood field. There are multiple ways of defining quality child care, most of which are from the perspectives of researchers, policymakers, and professionals. Few studies of child care quality take into consideration parents’ perspectives of what quality child care means to them and what they deem as important for the wellbeing of their children (Ceglowski & Davis, 2004, Duncan et al., 2004, Harrist et al., 2007, & Liu et al., 2004). This study compared parent perspectives to criteria for assessing child care used in Quality First, a statewide quality improvement and rating system for providers of center-based or home-based early care and education, to better understand the gaps drawing from ecological theory (refs – add these) and discuss the consequences of these different perspectives.

This study utilized a comparative qualitative analysis of ways in which parents and state agencies view determinants of child care quality. The data for this study were collected from interview responses to open-ended questions on a larger mixed-method study with parents of children under the age of 6 from the Central Arizona area. The quality indicators used by Quality First included the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS-R), Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R), Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS-R), and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), which were analyzed and compared to parent descriptions of quality factors in child care.

The findings of this study contribute to the discussion of ways in which parents’ perspectives are similar and different to that of quality rating scales, in this case those used by Quality First, and how the gap may be contributing to unintended consequences. In the study, I noticed that parents were more inclined toward affect qualities as quality indicators whereas the Quality First had more structural qualities as quality indicators. This led to the addressing of the need to bridge this gap to have a more comprehensive understanding of quality child care to meet different needs as identified by parents and professionals.

The primary objective of this study was to develop the Perceived Control of the Attribution Process Scale (PCAPS), a measure of metacognitive beliefs of causality, or a perceived control of the attribution process. The PCAPS included two subscales: perceived control of attributions (PCA), and awareness of the motivational consequences of attributions (AMC). Study 1 (a pilot study) generated scale items, explored suitable measurement formats, and provided initial evidence for the validity of an event-specific version of the scale. Study 2 achieved several outcomes; Study 2a provided strong evidence for the validity and reliability of the PCA and AMC subscales, and showed that they represent separate constructs. Study 2b demonstrated the predictive validity of the scale and provided support for the perceived control of the attribution process model. This study revealed that those who adopt these beliefs are significantly more likely to experience autonomy and well-being. Study 2c revealed that these constructs are influenced by context, yet they lead to adaptive outcomes regardless of this contextual-specificity. These findings suggest that there are individual differences in metacognitive beliefs of causality and that these differences have measurable motivational implications.

This study examined the mediating role of children's self-reported appraisals in the relation between interparental conflict intensity and child adjustment. Both parent-reported and child-reported conflict intensity were used as predictor variables. Findings suggested that children's total appraisals mediated the relationship between child-reported conflict intensity and all four outcome variables (conduct disorder, depression, anxiety, and total adjustment). Additionally, children's appraisals of negative evaluation by others mediated the relationship between child-reported conflict intensity and depression, and both rejection and negative evaluation by others mediated the relationship between child-reported conflict intensity and anxiety. Only one mediational relationship was established when assessing conflict intensity through parent report, with children's appraisals of harm to others mediating the relationship between parent-reported conflict intensity and anxiety. Findings from this study outline the importance of assessing conflict and appraisals from the child's perspective as results indicated a higher level of mediating effects of child appraisals in the relation between conflict and child outcomes when assessing conflict from the child's perspective.

The immigration process changes personal narratives and professional trajectories and challenges identities and individual beliefs. Yet there is currently limited research on European women immigrants' transitions in the United States. This study examines personal and professional trajectories, in the United States, of Eastern European immigrant (EEI) women with prior educational attainment in their country of origin. This study examines the following issues: personal/social learning, developmental and professional experiences prior to and post migration, and social lives after the women's arrival in the United States. The study discusses the results of in-depth interviews with eight EEI women living in Arizona and California and recounts these women's life stories, gathered through open-ended questions that focused on areas of their personal and professional lives, such as childhood, marriage, immigration, education, family relations, socio-economic status, employment, child- rearing, and other significant life events. These areas impacted the women's creation of personal beliefs and their ability to develop new identities in the United States. The study examines EEI women's identity constructions within their life trajectory narratives.

Recent legislation allowing educational agencies to use Response to Intervention (RTI) in determining whether a child has a specific learning disability, coupled with a focus on large-scale testing and accountability resulted in the increasing use of curriculum based measurement (CBM) as a tool for understanding students' progress towards state standards, particularly in reading through the use of oral reading fluency measures. Extensive evidence of oral reading fluency's predictability of reading comprehension exists, but little research on differential effects across racial, gender, and socioeconomic subgroups is available. This study investigated racial, gender, and socioeconomic bias in DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS ORF) probes predictive and concurrent relationship with MAP reading comprehension scores for African American and Caucasian students. Participants were 834 second through fifth grade students in a school district located in a southeastern US state. The dataset consisted of student fall and spring DIBELS ORF scores and spring MAP reading comprehension scores. Concurrent correlation results between spring DIBELS ORF and MAP reading comprehension scores were moderate to large and statistically significant across all grades and demographic groups; however, correlations between fall DIBELS ORF and MAP reading comprehension scores were generally weak. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to examine the best variable, or combination of variables, in predicting MAP reading comprehension scores. Models differed for each grade level; however, spring DIBELS ORF scores were always included, whether alone or in combination with demographic variables, in the best prediction model. Potthoff's procedure was used to simultaneously test for slope and intercept differences among regression equations to determine if DIBELS ORF scores from fall and spring differentially predicted MAP reading comprehension scores across demographic groups. Nine of 24 simultaneous contrasts demonstrated a significant effect; seven were related to race, one was related to gender, and one was related to socioeconomic status. Racial bias in predicting MAP reading comprehension performance from spring DIBELS ORF was found. Differential prediction among gender and SES groups was not consistent indicating little to no practical significance. Results are discussed in the context of practical implications of differential validity, both predictive and concurrent, and potential impact on disproportionality.

The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of African American women in pursuit of doctoral degrees in the southwest, their challenges and motivations, and plans for the their next chapter. Drawing from critical race theory and a sociocultural framework, this qualitative study uses Dan McAdams' Life Story Interview (McAdams, 2005) to explore the journeys of these high achieving minority women and how achievement is conceptualized in their stories. Particular emphasis is placed on their critical events, challenges, and alternative futures. Seven separate themes (parental support and advocacy in early education, improved experiences among other African American students, perseverance through struggles/experiences led to purpose, poor department support, family support, impact of spirituality, and relocation and desire to give back) emerged that address three main research questions. Implications for findings and suggestions for future research are offered.