This dissertation advances research on evaluation (RoE) through a trio of studies focusing on the role of context and the innovative use of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software in formative evaluation in a qualitative research project. The first article extends Coryn et al. (2017) and elucidates how various contextual…

Despite efforts to improve retention and degree completion rates, American higher education suffers from a persistent social-class achievement gap (Stephens, Hamedani, and Destin, 2014). This gap is often explored quantitatively through the examination of academic outcomes of first-generation college students (i.e. students who parents have not…