After nearly four decades of growth, the number of people held in U.S. prisons has begun to decline. In an era of decarceration, social scientists need to understand prisoner reentry experiences. Longitudinal studies are one strategy to accomplish this goal. Yet, the retention of a formerly incarcerated population across waves of interviews is…

The 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech is one part of a decades-long increase in the frequency of gun violence on U.S. college and university campuses (Drysdale, Modzeleski, & Simons, 2010; Ferraro, 2015). The events at Virginia Tech also served as a catalyst for the spread of so-called "campus-carry" laws, or acts of state policy…

As the Texas Education Agency implements new standards for arts teachers and U.S. arts education policy stakeholders articulate a need for culturally competent educators, teacher preparation programs must respond and consider methods to prepare developing teachers to meet such standards. Preservice arts educators need exposure to a variety of art…

Students attending suburban and rural schools face obstacles that make dropping out of school a viable option for them. The need for schools to find strategies that will keep students in school is critical. One strategy that is successful in keeping student interested in school is participation in sports. As the leaders of sports' teams, coaches…

The 21st-century job description for school principals requires greater areas of leadership and accountability utilizing student data to improve instruction as mandated by state legislative reforms. The Principal's accountability is measured using the principal evaluation system. The general problem is that many principal evaluation systems are…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the influence of high stakes testing on high poverty and low performing middle school campuses in a Texas Education Service Center as perceived by middle school campus principals. Participants of the study consisted of 10 middle school principals who have served on a low performing and high…

The American Academy of Pediatrics and World Health Organization recommend responsive feeding (RF) to promote healthy eating behaviors in early childhood. This project developed and tested a vicarious learning video to teach parents RF practices. A RF vicarious learning video was developed using community-based participatory research methods.…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the lasting impacts of students who attended outdoor orientation programs. This research sought to explore a critical gap in outdoor recreation research: longitudinal research about lasting impacts of outdoor orientation programming. We asked the following research questions to guide the…

This study was designed to use critical reflective journaling practices to explore the experiences of preservice teachers working in a juvenile justice education program called the Reach Academy. Using a qualitative case study design, the researchers explored how 48 preservice teachers utilized critical reflective journaling to examine their own…

The purpose of this study was to focus on the relationship between career-development training programs and the motivation of employees. The study used a qualitative method and a phenomenological design using semistructured interviews conducted with a script of open-ended questions. Two main components of the research design were the modified van…

A growing body of research examines the impact of recent teacher evaluation systems; however, we have limited knowledge on how these systems influence teacher retention. This study uses a mixed-methods design to examine teacher retention patterns during the pilot year of an evaluation system in an urban school district in Texas. We used…

This study was designed to determine if there is a connection between the preparation of first year teachers to meet the needs of culturally diverse students and the pedagogical education they receive in their preparation program. The researcher was guided by three research questions: 1) How do first year teachers feel about how their…

In this study, we analyze the experience of students in the Physics Learning Assistant (LA) program at Texas State University in terms of the existing theoretical frameworks of "community of practice" and "physics identity," and explore the implications suggested by these theories for LA program adoption and adaptation.…

Despite a great increase in the numbers of students enrolling in higher education, specifically at community colleges, the successful completion rates for these students has remained static since the 1970s. When reviewing strategies to increase student retention and successful completion, the Student Success Course (SSC) has emerged as a promising…

This study examines whether community college developmental summer bridge programs (DSBPs) can help students acquire the academic and college knowledge needed to attend and succeed at a four-year higher education institution. In-depth interviews with 14 participants at nine four-year institutions in Texas were conducted two years after their…