Education Commons^™

Improving Dental Students' Knowledge And Confidence In Treating Tobacco Use, Victoria Pierce

DNP Projects

Background: Tobacco use can lead to numerous chronic health conditions. Healthcare professionals in the dental field are in a unique position to broach this issue with patients. Research shows that dental students do not feel equipped to provide tobacco cessation care, citing lack of education on the subject among their top reasons for this.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to evaluate changes in dental students’ knowledge and confidence related to treating tobacco use after participation in an educational intervention about the 5A’s, behavioral counseling, and first-line prescription medications.

Methods: This quality improvement initiative utilized a quasi-experimental survey design …

Special Education Teachers, Literacy, And Students With Moderate And Severe Intellectual Disability: A Survey, Ann Katherine Griffen

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Literacy includes many skills involving the use of language to read, write, listen, and speak. The ultimate goal in acquiring literacy skills is to function as independently, and in as integrated a manner as possible, in a literate society. Literary skills are critical skills for all students, both with and without disabilities. Since the 1990s, literacy has moved closer and closer to the forefront of our collective awareness regarding students who are at risk of not acquiring sufficient literacy ability. However, students with moderate and severe intellectual disability (MSID) have not always been included in this group of students. In …

School Characteristics: Impact On A Student's Post-Graduation Decision, Andrew Kidd

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Graduating high school seniors have several choices to make as they begin their transition to adulthood. Some of the most popular and studied choices are to attend college, enter the work force, or join the military. Past research is focused on the effects of demographic, socioeconomic status, or gender characteristics, but little is known about the effect that specific school characteristics have on a student’s post-graduation choice.

The purpose of this analysis is to answer the question “do school characteristics affect a high school student’s post-graduation choice?” In this analysis I use Kentucky school level data and a simple regression …

Does Kees Help Retain High-Performing Students In-State For Higher Education?, Rachael Clark

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Kentucky’s merit-based program, the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES), started in 1998 providing financial assistance to students attending higher education in-state based on high school academic achievements. The intended goal of KEES is elusive, however two key objectives are often mentioned with KEES. These are incentivizing and rewarding high school academic achievement and keeping high-performing students in Kentucky for their college education. This study aims to investigate whether Kentucky’s merit-based program keeps high-performing students in Kentucky for higher education.

The dataset available for this research was provided by the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics from their high school …

Student Characteristics And Retention In Merit Preparatory School: An Analysis Of Retention In A New Jersey Charter School, Alyssa Mckenzie

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate with fewer limitations on hiring and firing staff, and that have more flexibility with curriculum than traditional public schools. The goal of charter schools is to improve education and that goal often is measured through test scores in math and reading. This paper is a case study of one charter school, Merit Preparatory Academy, located in Newark, New Jersey, over two academic years. The school operated as a free-standing charter in the first year and was managed by a charter management organization in the second.

Schools are often evaluated by comparing the …