The objective of this study was to better understand what aspects of place and curriculum influence experiences for underserved youth in an environmental education program. For instance, how can environmental education managers create program experiences that maintain depth and focus, while honoring the unique ways students connect and find…

Freshmen beginning their undergraduate education enter college with various backgrounds and expectations. Institutions seek to properly acclimate first-year students into this new transition. One way to help a first-year student transition into college is with a first-year program. First-year programs provide a unique space for students to adjust…

This study explored the implementation of Project Lead The Way (PLTW) integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum in four first grade classrooms. Data was collected from four teachers and two media specialists via interviews and student PLTW Light and Sound unit assessment scores. A self-efficacy survey was…

Preschool programs, as they have rapidly become more academically oriented, are squarely centered in a debate about developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood. Nature-based preschools are increasingly embraced by parents as a healthy choice compared to more academically focused programs. The Whitaker Preparatory School, a pseudonym,…

The field of computer science has long been plagued by issues of diversity - in particular, attracting and retaining those historically marginalized in computing contexts. This is a great loss to the field, to the future of innovation, and to society. Perhaps most importantly, it is an incalculable loss to those populations excluded from pursuing…

Arts entrepreneurship educational efforts within U.S. university music departments vary between institutions. Music history and theory course sequences and content remain relatively unchanged over the decades. Set against this, arts entrepreneurship is still in its conceptual phase as administrators and educators navigate elusive definitions and…

This study aimed to investigate and improve the college readiness of students in an innercity public school. Recent statistics on college completion in a prominent city in the U.S. reveal that only 52% of students from inner-city schools graduate with college degrees within six years. This is quite worrisome, considering that 71% of jobs in that…

Within the confines of this study, the researcher investigated Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering curriculum goals within Missouri high schools. The study measured Missouri PLTW teachers' perceptions of various elements of the curriculum as well as state and national PLTW End of Course student assessment data to determine if a relationship…

Counselor education programs have a responsibility to ensure the training of competently trained professionals to meet the growing multicultural needs of our country. Immersion courses have grown in popularity as a method of instruction to influence the awareness, skill and knowledge necessary for multicultural competence. The purpose of this…

This phenomenological qualitative study examines a problem of practice and its context within equity, ethics, and social justice. Nationwide, African American students represent a small percentage of all students enrolled in an honors program or college. This study explores the experiences of African American students who are members of the Sally…

Across the United States, systems of education are failing, and this dysfunction is characterized by both academic underachievement and overachievement. This research was an investigation of whether a purpose-driven curriculum contributed to student success in school and in life. This dissertation was intended to inform school systems about…

The concept of "global learning" has become a pervasive buzzword in higher education in the United States. While the term is well-known, its meanings are multiple. In some instances, global learning refers to a modernization of liberal education initiatives, while in others it refers to the implementation of global experiences abroad. In…

This instrumental case study explores the experiences of visiting faculty members at an American university's international branch campus (IBC) in Singapore. It is concerned with one aspect of the broader topic of quality assurance in transnational higher education: the manner in which faculty hybridize their home campus course curricula for use…

The purpose of this institutional ethnography was to explicate the social relations of broadband adoption through the public programs implemented by the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) between 2009 and 2013, when they operated for the first time in alignment with federal regulations that orchestrated the practice of the Broadband Technology…

Participation and achievement in science by students of color and girls remains inequitable despite decades of initiatives aimed at leveling the playing field. Science in out-of-school-time is a strategy that emphasizes the role of informal education, however, robust descriptions of learning environments which effectively recruit and retain…