The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on ninth-grade students' mathematics achievement in a rural school district located in South Carolina. Students enrolled in ninth grade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (2018- 2019 school year) Algebra I EOC scores were compared to the students enrolled in ninth grade for…

Homeschools have grown in prevalence in recent decades in the United States, including an unprecedented increase in homeschooling rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present quantitative study sought to add to the growing homeschool research by examining an existing depersonalized data set from the Classic Learning Test [CLT] suite of…

Efforts like holistic review admissions by nursing programs to create a more ethnically diverse student body have led to increased enrollment of students with underrepresented ethnic and cultural social identities. However, these students continue to experience higher attrition rates compared to their White, middle-class peers. Although both sense…

This study investigated the factors influencing students' performance in science subjects at different schools in a school district in the midland area of South Carolina. For the convenience of the study and to maintain confidentiality, the school district is named Midland School District 2022. The population of this study included students in…

This qualitative case study explored the opportunity gap between Black and White students in public schools in the United States. The problem addressed in this study is the existence of an opportunity gap between White and African American students in public schools. Addressing and closing the gap has long been a concern for families, researchers,…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of the Leader in Me philosophy to students' equitable achievement in school, by measuring the academic achievement of third through fifth graders in suburban Missouri public schools. A secondary purpose of the study was to inform teachers and school leaders of effective strategies for…

This quantitative, correlational dissertation research examined if, and to what extent, student early academic success, student socioeconomic status, and student classification as a member of an underrepresented minority predicted student completion at a southeastern Washington two-year institution. The theory of behavioral economics, the iPASS…

How government delivers public services can have broad societal effects, beyond the impact on programmatic outcomes. Such societal effects are particularly likely in the delivery of public education, as educational concerns drive residential and school choices, and public schools are the second largest public employer in the United States. My…

As technology continues to permeate all aspects of modern society, it is critical for PK-12 students to participate in computer science (CS) learning opportunities that prepare them to navigate and leverage technology in their future careers. However, research consistently shows that Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, and Native American students,…

This correlational study examined factors that defined the experiences of high school students who navigated the postsecondary pipeline in pursuit of a postsecondary education. Data for this study were obtained from the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The factors explored were related to…

From its inception in the early 1900s, vocational education in American high schools was designed to prepare students for jobs that did not require any formal postsecondary education. In the last decades of the 20th century, growing concern about how separating students into "college" and "non-college" tracks often perpetuated…

This study investigates the relationship between Ohio interscholastic varsity football playoff success and a set of variables derived from the extant literature with explicit attention towards those factors related to school choice initiatives. This quantitative study utilized multiple statistical tests to investigate these relationships with the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the narratives of Black women repaying student loan debt. Black Feminist Thought (BFT) was used as the framework. Selected participants had to be at least 18 years, self-identify as a Black woman, owe either U.S. federal and/or private student loans, and not be enrolled in a college degree program. Snowball…

This mixed-methods outcomes study investigated the number of in-school and out-of-school suspension reports before and after the implementation of a preventative-based discipline method, classroom circles. The study was guided by five research questions, (1) What is the relationship between the use of classroom circles school-wide and ISS and OSS…

The COVID-19 pandemic shed a light on the differences in educational outcomes within American public schools. Although race and socio-economic status is independently associated with scholastic outcomes, it is necessary to take an intersectional approach to examining the persistent and widening opportunity gap stemming from inequity in public…