The purpose of study was to examine how frontline employees make sense of a planned organizational change. The voices of frontline employees, the group of employees responsible for making the product or delivering the service, have frequently been ignored or neglected during planned change efforts. In this study, attention was focused on the…

This work explores the complex cognitive processes students engage in when addressing contextual tasks requiring linear and exponential models. Grounded within Piagetian constructivism and the Knowledge in Pieces (KiP) epistemological perspective (diSessa, 1993, 2018), this empirical study in a clinical setting develops a Microgenetic Learning…

Public health involves the organized efforts of society to prevent disease, prolong life, and promote health. These efforts are exemplified through partnerships across various public and private sectors, including academia, which are crucial in addressing complex public health challenges. An academic health department (AHD) is a formal partnership…

The research objective of this qualitative study was to discern a new purpose for provision of support to autistic individuals that would thoroughly eschew harmful normalization, which was the traditional purpose of all types of support for hundreds of years. Clinical practice and special education are moving toward a neurodiversity-affirming…

Approximately 25% of United States mental health practitioners are employed in private practice settings (BLS Data Viewer, 2021). However, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, which sets standards for graduate level counseling programs, neither specifies private practice settings as a specialization nor an…

This paper explores how the charter school sector evaluates the success of specialized education programs in order that the Nature School can learn from these best practices and develop its own framework. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with five evaluation experts and eight diverse charter school authorizers overseeing a significant…

This dissertation of practice considers the dynamics of identity development of in-service educators and the intersection of their educator role with their other identities in service of orienting toward an anti-racist praxis. The problem of practice addressed centered the theory that educator identity is socially constructed, and identity may…

For higher education to be responsive to the changing national and student population, its leadership must be "reflective of the world around it, (which) will be key to managing the challenges of today and the unknown challenges of tomorrow" (American Council on Education, 2017, para. 4). Unfortunately, despite the increasing diversity…

Community schools are a national initiative gaining traction due to the recent identification of the community school model as an evidence-based approach to education that satisfies requirements set forth by the Every Student Succeeds Act. The community school model centers around four pillars: integrated student support, extended and enriched…

Up until third grade, reading instruction is focused on learning to read, while in fourth grade and up, students begin reading to learn (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2024; Grunke et al., 2013). This reading with purpose includes increasing critical thinking skills and using newfound reading skills to understand complex subjects such as math and…

Amidst the current unprecedented climate, characterized by events such as COVID-19, overt acts of racism, insurrection, the emergence of White supremacist groups, high-profile murders of Black and Brown individuals by the police, increased political activism, and unapologetic racist political rhetoric, this research aimed to examine how external…

This case study explored the experiences of alumni of a private boarding school for low-income children who had informal mentors to understand the long-term effects of informal mentors among a diverse population. Guided by the memorable message framework, the study retrospectively focused on relationships alumni identified as having made a…

Self-efficacy is seen as a barrier for youth, females in particular, to enter computer science (CS). In this study, I presented a near-peer mentoring model that focused on changing the mentee's self-efficacy in CS. The present study had three objectives: (a) to design a near-peer mentoring model (i.e., a conceptual model) around the sources of…

Modern-day educators often share a sense they lack voice and agency with school administration. A classic example is curriculum development, where third-party designers develop uncontextualized curricula, and teachers then must implement the design even if inefficient and ineffective. What happens if this identical situation occurs at the program…

The continuing rise in economic inequality has caused disparities between wealthy and low-income families in academic achievement, parental involvement, and adult occupational attainment. School leaders have created community schools as a strategy to combat the adverse effects of poverty on students and their families and meet the needs of the…