Student absenteeism is a persistent concern in K-12 education. Not only are the negative academic and social consequences of excessive absenteeism well documented, but states, districts, and schools are increasingly being held accountable for student attendance. As research indicates that disruptions in students' learning contexts may exacerbate…

Self-reported positive effects of peer mentoring for mentors and mentees have included enhanced academic performance, greater sense of belonging, and retention, among other widely accepted benefits of the intervention. However, minimal quantitative or mixed methods research has focused on mentoring staff who design, implement, and therefore…

Research has shown that students with disabilities are more likely to maintain a lower social participation status than their peers. One aspect of social participation is the social relationships between these students and their peers. This study examined the friendship and hang out networks of students with and without disabilities in a highly…

This study examined how a professional development initiative on racial equity facilitated the expansion of faculty members' agency to use a critical race-consciousness lens to disrupt White supremacy in faculty hiring policy and practice. I analyzed interview data from faculty members who participated in a 10-month professional development…

Research on attitudes toward college students with high-functioning autism (HFA) in college settings produced mixed findings. This study builds on prior research by examining the affective and cognitive attitudes toward vignette characters with and without an autism label. Students from two public Southern California Universities (n = 712)…

The provision of sports opportunities for youths in schools has expanded beyond traditional competitive offerings, with activities such as skateboarding and surfing now considered important avenues for youth development. This trend follows the recent expansion of action or 'lifestyle' sports provision into various community and educational…

The role of racial diversity at colleges has been debated for over more than a half a century with limited quasi-experimental evidence from classrooms. To fill this void, I estimate the extent that classmate racial compositions affect Hispanic and African American students at a large and oversubscribed California community college where they are…

My research inquiry is centered on the larger project of building a transformational, empowerment model of worker voice in workplaces. The purpose of my research is to explore/illuminate the question, "How can I use workers' stories to center and advance collaborative worker voice on the job through peer-driven training initiatives?" I…

Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) are school clubs for LGBTQ+ youth and peer allies to support one another. This eight-week weekly diary study considered whether a youth's positive and negative affect during a given week could be predicted by experiences in their most recently attended GSA meeting. Ninety-nine GSA members (M[subscript age] =…

Despite the warnings given to young Christian students about hedonistic college campuses, many of these students arrive at Stanford to instead find a plethora of lively Christian organizations and their nonreligious classmates often more curious than hostile. While Stanford by no means espouses Christian values, hedonism does not rule campus…

This study examined the impact of an in-school dance curriculum on the social-emotional development of at-risk preschoolers in a southern California public preschool program. The preschoolers (N = 69) participated in dance for thirty minutes, once a week, over an entire academic year. We compared the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP)…

Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of online graduate degree programs. However, there are few informal opportunities for students online to connect with one another and learn about the field outside of their coursework. It is important to understand who these online graduate students are, as well as their…

The transition from high school to college can cause an undue amount of attrition for fully qualified, college-intending first-generation students. Although the students may have overcome multiple obstacles to be accepted to a college and arrive at the transition over summer, it can feel overwhelming to complete the flood of tasks without access…

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) at Cal Poly Pomona explored factors contributing to student enrollment and engagement, especially for MilleniGenZ students. The research was built on the latest evidence that college students who engaged in research along with faculty mentoring and team collaboration were more able to persist in their…

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to explore community college graduate lived experience as it relates to retention and persistence. Data was collected from 15 California community college graduates from multiple community colleges who earned an associate's degree and were 18 years of age or older. Collecting participant data provided…