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This study presents findings from an investigation of the impact of teachers who graduated from a fully online master’s degree program with training in pedagogy and a content-specialization in elementary reading and literacy (oERL) on reading achievement in a large urban public school system in the northwestern United States. The research team used a non-equivalent group design and matched pairs of teachers based on degree, grade-level taught, and teaching experience to construct the study on three years of student and teacher data. The study consisted of 70 teachers and 3,828 student observations. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to understand the teachers’ effects on student learning over time. Results indicate there was a significant positive effect of the oERL on student achievement. Broadly, this study is an example of a serious attempt to ascertain the impact of a high demand and fully online program on the community where graduates are employed. More narrowly, these results support the view that a fully online program aimed at training teachers, a rarity in graduate education, can provide opportunities for those teachers to obtain the pedagogical content knowledge that can positively influence instructional effectiveness.

The research on resilience has been hampered from a lack of a specific definition that can operationalized for measurement. The High Capacity Model of Resilience and Well-Being (H-CAP21) is a new theoretical model that defines specific traits that create states of resilience and well-being for use as a screening tool in clinical and nonclinical settings. Norming was completed across two studies with a total population of 1442 participants comprised of a clinical population of inpatient psychiatric patients and a non-clinical population of adult midcareer graduate students. A four-factor model represented by a 21-item scale was confirmed as a best fit. Individual subscales yielded alpha's from .75-.92, convergent validity with the Resilience Scale and discriminatory validity with and Obsessive Passion subscale and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Criterion-related validity exhibited a positive directional relationship between the subscales with the criterion (cumulative GPA) and significant correlations with the overall scale score and commitment subscale. However, the remaining subscales did not reach a level of significance with the criterion. Further exploration of the H-CAP 21 will expand the type and setting of the populations the instrument is assessed with to include clinical populations, military applications, self-regulation, and motivation. The H-CAP 21 is believed to have clinical utility as a psychometrically sound screening tool.

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