To this day, Columbia College maintains one of the most robust liberal arts curricula among the tertiary education landscape, an institutional decision that has been both lauded and denounced by students, professors, and cultural critics alike. As this dissertation examines, high tensions from all angles largely stem from the Core Curriculum's…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has many benefits to students, and previous studies have focused on public and private, in-person learning environments. The homeschool environment has not been studied to determine the benefits of SEL, including increased academic outcomes. The problem was the poor student academic achievement due to the…

The lack of formal grading policies within individual schools and school districts results in differential grading across classrooms. In many secondary schools, an individual course may be taught by multiple teachers. This study aimed to determine if the existence of differential grading results in disparate outcomes for students based on their…

Academic performance of male student-athletes who participate in revenue-producing sports is typically lower than that of other athletes and non-athletes at the collegiate level. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of high school teachers in core academic classes who educate these students. The goal of this…

The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and improve the student learning experience by understanding how Grades 4 & 5 educators in a Title 1 suburban-urban school district perceive, comprehend, and apply the CASEL framework for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to improve learner motivation and academic achievement. Using…

Despite legislation being consistently passed to support post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities, year after year since the completion of "The National Longitudinal Transition Studies," national employment statistics continually demonstrate that implementation of intentions is wanting. A large percentage --50-60%-- of…

What do the teachers' stories of embodied teaching in the elementary classroom reveal about how and why they practice embodied teaching? Utilizing Deweyan Pragmatism as the theoretical framework and narrative inquiry as the research methodology, this research seeks to answer the main question above. This study was conducted with elementary teacher…

This study synthesizes research linking Long-Term English Learners (LTELs) and strategies necessary for teachers to implement in order to address their learning needs. The purpose of this study was to provide targeted professional development (PD) training in English learner (EL) strategies and best practices based on the California English…

Within the context of higher education, HBCUs are more specifically known, due to their controversial origin, for having mission and vision statements that broadly imply attending this particular institutional type will aid its students in their civic development. However, despite the vast literature on civic engagement and college students,…

This non-experimental, quantitative study used a correlational research design to determine if a significant, positive relationship existed between students' completion of a series of CTE courses and earning industry-recognized credentials and sense of self-efficacy toward employment pursuits. The study further sought to determine if a…

This convergent parallel mixed-methods study examined the factors affecting teacher recruitment and retention, and explored teachers' and administrators' perceptions about the obstacles and opportunities they encounter during the hiring process. The researcher used a purposeful convenience sampling method in recruiting participants; a total of 49…

This study explored two aspects of K-12 core content area teachers' experiences with digital citizenship through the Connectivism lens (Siemens, 2005). First, it explored how teachers instruct students on digital citizenship topics, including how they define digital citizenship and integrate it into their core content area curriculum. Second, it…

The problem addressed in this study was high school science teachers' lack of understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and clarity for the integration of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) approaches to align standards in STEM with high school science education. The purpose of this qualitative case study was…

The gap between skilled workers needed and skilled workers available increased since the start of the fourth industrial revolution. Employees now need different knowledge, skills, and abilities to enter the workforce and stay current with new technologies than they did in the past. One way this knowledge gap and skilled worker shortage could be…

Since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 there has been an ongoing debate in the field of special education on the relative importance of students with significant cognitive disabilities participation and progress in the general education curriculum. Some researchers have argued that the core…