Teachers and counselors are the gatekeepers or people closest to students in the schools who can make a difference in student suicide prevalence rates. Although suicide is the leading cause of death among youths between 15 and 24 years old, half the high schools in Texas do not have suicide prevention plans in place. The purpose of this…

This study examines how administrative burden is evolving in college classrooms to meet external pressures focused on student success. Through a mixed methods analysis of data from a 2018 survey, this work tests how faculty and administrators view ownership of the responsibility to meet these mandates and whether it is affecting classroom…

After a natural disaster hits, schools often focus on a recovery plan that meets the immediate needs of students. Unfortunately, teachers' needs are not prioritized, leaving them to address personal and professional disruptions on their own. We studied 20 school districts in North Carolina and Texas that were affected by Hurricanes Matthew and…

This study examined student academic optimism in four diverse North Texas school districts. This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to analyze results of an online administration of the survey, and Latinx student responses to a focus group protocol derived from the survey. Quantitative results indicate the individual scales…

Supporting parents in use of effective, evidence-based discipline remains an important goal for research, practice, and policy. This study explored parental well-being and reported discipline practices with preschoolers (2-5 years). Parents (N = 205; 97 fathers) completed a Qualtrics-based survey assessing discipline practices, feelings of…

It was not known how the visually disabled perceived gaining employment or how perception affected employment seeking behaviors within this population. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore how the visually disabled perceived gaining employment and how perception affected employment seeking behaviors within this…

This study explored media usage among adolescents and its relations to academic performance and aggressive behavior from a qualitative research perspective. This study represents the first of its kind by utilizing a phenomenological methodology to gain insights about lived experiences of adolescents' media use relative to their academic…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine Texas Public School counselors' perceptions of family strengths in Hurricane Katrina African American evacuee children and adolescents and in their families. An additional purpose of this study was to determine how these counselors may have called upon these perceived strengths to intervene in…

An estimated 370,000 schoolchildren were displaced last year by Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster ever to strike the United States. One year after, hundreds of thousands of these displaced students remain scattered in schools across the nation. In Houston, which has the largest concentration of evacuees, two schools continue helping…