Completion rates in higher education have historically been low. Colleges and universities have tried many different programs, offerings, degrees, schedules, and more to encourage their students to stay enrolled, complete their programs, and graduate. One such offering is the learning community, a grouping of incoming students into cohorts with…

This study explored the experiences of school counselors utilizing peer-group supervision to assist in analyzing data to determine the effectiveness of interventions. The literature gap indicates that further research was needed regarding the relationship between appropriate supervision and its impact on school counselors' ability to analyze data.…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the shared experiences of novice school principals' mentor training and to gain an understanding of the experience of peer educators. This dissertation employed a qualitative case study methodology to interview Arizona principals with less than three years of experience who did not receive…

This qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis study explored the lived experiences of seven peer recovery specialists as they described their experiences with the Virginia Peer Recovery Certification Process and/or obtaining leadership roles. This research was viewed through a disability lens, along with modified labeling theory,…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore how executive leaders and faculty in "The College" located in a region of Ontario, Canada describe their perceptions of academic integrity processes and the experiences leading to underreporting of academic integrity incidents (AIVs). The study aimed to understand the…

This qualitative, multiple case study examined how peer mentors at a public, four-year university supported the transition of first-year college students. Using Schlossberg's (Anderson et al., 2021) Transition Framework the study was guided by the following questions: 1) How did peer mentors, in light of the Approaching Transitions phase in…

The purpose of this study was to examine graduate students' perceptions of online synchronous and asynchronous courses in peer engagement, teacher presence, and course design and materials. It further compared differences in synchronous and asynchronous courses, and whether graduate students' perceptions differed due to student age, number of…

All students studying Computer Science (CS) deserve to have their basic psychological need for belonging satisfied. In this dissertation, I present two studies of belonging among CS students at the University of Washington-Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering. In the first study, my collaborators implemented a resubmission…

The current study aims to contribute to knowledge by examining the effects of high school and college relative standings on the self-esteem and academic self-concepts of Texas college students. Texas is a special context for high school students where class rank is especially salient. Currently, high school graduates within the top 6% of their…

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the growth of middle school students who participated in peer support groups. The students suffered grief, loss, or challenging circumstances due to death of a loved one, foster care placement, separation or divorce of parents, living with a guardian or grandparent, physical abuse, the…

This quantitative study, administered at a higher education institution, looked at what variation exists among immigrant students, domestic students, and international students as determined by analysis in the HERI CIRP Freshman Survey as measured by responses to Habits of Mind questions. Habits of Mind is a framework of attributes that focus on…

This mixed-methods case study explored whether the write-converse-write (WCW) strategy impacted students' science conceptual understanding, as evidenced by their writing, along with the teacher and student perceptions regarding the strategy. The study was conducted in a small school district in northern California with three eighth-grade teachers…

This study focuses on the academic progress of English learners (ELs) from 2018 to 2023 during remote learning and compares it to their non-EL peers. Using a mixed-methods approach, data was collected from a southern California middle school. The findings reveal that a decrease in GPAs, an increase in chronic absenteeism, and a decrease in state…

This timely study is an investigation of the English language learning experiences and related empowerment capabilities and deprivations of female rural migrant TVET students in two locales in Western China at macro, mezzo, and micro levels during the years of the great expansion of the TVET school system. This study involves basic interpretive…

This study sought to understand the societal and educational barriers African-American high school male teens encounter preventing the participation of organizations providing college and career training. This project utilized an exploratory sequential mixed-method study that included research-based surveys to measure developed individual and…