The doctrine of sovereign immunity in Florida has evolved over time as the common law and statutory environment within the state has changed. Public schools and public-school employees enjoy some level of immunity protection under both common law and statutory law. Nonetheless, Florida law creates a duty to provide a safe environment for students…

In this qualitative study, 21 Title IX federal court cases between 2000-2022 were examined. The purpose of this analysis was to explore how the changes in Title IX guidance across President George W. Bush (R), President Barack Obama (D), and President Donald Trump (R) administrations have impacted higher education institutional liability lawsuits.…

According to the federal government, intellectually gifted students should be provided the opportunity to experience a challenging curriculum. School districts have the responsibility of identifying talented students and providing them with learning experiences at or above their grade level as well as implementing professional development…

From the establishment of institutions of higher education in Colonial America until the 1970s, college administrators have acted "in loco parentis," or as legal guardians of students "in the place of parents." Under the legal regime of "in loco parentis," society and the legal system required school administrators to…

Engineering higher education is growing rapidly across the world, especially in the Global South. For many of these countries, the dominant engineering university models were imported and established by colonial European empires. These imported systems of higher education and engineering evolved to meet the local contexts of Europe and the United…

Improving educational outcomes and school conditions for historically marginalized students has been a primary goal since the school accountability movement began in the 1960s. However, despite decades of legislation, policy, and enactment designed to achieve this purpose, historically marginalized students continue to suffer from disparate…

North Carolina public charter schools are schools of choice authorized by the State Board of Education. North Carolina has nearly 200 charter schools, which are evaluated for effectiveness annually by a tool called the Performance Framework. However, to date, the evidence collected through the Performance Framework has not been offered to scholars…

The research on high-poverty, high-performing schools, suggests instructional leadership is an essential component for principals to be effective school leaders. Unfortunately, in spite of themes in the research, and shifts in principal preparation initiatives, practice suggests principals struggle to hold to instructional priorities. Given the…

This dissertation focuses on children experiencing homelessness and the effects homelessness has on their academic achievement from the perspective of the children, their parents, and local homeless liaisons. More importantly, this research explores what educators can do to create a positive, supportive, and stable environment at school for…

This study discusses the student activism that led to the legal case that established due process rights for students at state-funded colleges and universities. In 1960, Alabama State College students organized a sit-in demonstration against Jim Crow segregation and subsequently challenged their expulsion from the college for taking part in the…

Too many students with disabilities leave secondary school without being connected to an agency. This is especially true for those students with more severe disabilities that require a modified curriculum. Students with disabilities learning in a modified curriculum often need more support during school and usually will need the same or more…

In response to federal accountability measures, the Pennsylvania Department of Education introduced the School Performance Profile, shifting the student achievement spotlight from school districts to individual schools, thus placing the onus squarely on the shoulders of teachers and school leaders. Shared leadership has been touted in the…

Few issues have taken U.S. higher education by storm in the way Title IX did over the course of the era of heightened enforcement (defined for the purpose of this study as the period between the issuance of the Office for Civil Rights' Dear Colleague letter on April 4, 2011 and Donald Trump's inauguration as President in January 2017). The Dear…

This was an exploratory study to understand Latino parent involvement in schools. Using Clark and Estes (2008) conceptual framework the parents' perceptions of their knowledge, motivation and organizational elements that support and impede parent involvement at home and at school were explored. Interviews with 10 Latino parents in a low…

To date, there is very little existing research on the sexuality education of high functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) even though current research suggests that 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with ASD (CDC, 2014). Through group consensus of experts in ASD representing families, school-based professionals, and researchers,…