Male superintendents predominantly hold superintendency in K-12 public school districts in the southern United States. The research problem was the underrepresentation of female superintendents in K-12 public school districts. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how female superintendents perceive the underrepresentation of…

How do people navigate institutional life together amid deep differences? Existing work highlights the mechanisms that drive and challenge exclusion and polarization, but these theories do not account for the moral frameworks, both implicit and explicit, that guide action. My dissertation brings tools from cultural and interactionist sociology to…

Undergraduate general chemistry courses are often perceived in a negative light by students. Student attitudes towards chemistry play a significant role in their success in chemistry and retention in STEM altogether. Research has shown in K-12 classrooms that care-based instruction strategies can help to improve student attitudes towards…

First-generation students are estimated to be a large portion of current and future postsecondary education enrollment in the United States. Additionally, existing research indicates that those students are more likely to be at risk of not being as successful in higher education. However, all this research is in spite of the fact that there is not…

Introduction: Computer science (CS) lacks representation from people who identify as one or more of the following identities: woman, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latina/Latino/Latinx, or disabled. We refer to these groups as historically underrepresented groups (HUGs). Informal learning, like CS summer camps and hackathons, can increase interest…

The United States accomplished an impressive feat in 2020-21: enacting federal policy reforms that halved child poverty and uplifted low-income families amidst a global pandemic. Many of the reforms, though temporary, were unprecedented in U.S. history, representing a sea change in U.S. policy toward young children. This paper first discusses the…

In 2021, approximately five million young people in the United States were not in school or working. This group of young people transitioning to adulthood, roughly ages 16 to 24, are often referred to as "opportunity youth" and sometimes "disconnected youth." Young people from low-income families and from communities of…

Educational practitioners, researchers, and policymakers have focused on increasing community college transfer rates as an equity strategy for improving social and economic mobility among historically underserved populations. While there is a vast amount of research on students who have successfully transferred, there is limited evidence base on…

Population aging presents opportunities and challenges for higher education. Increasingly, age-diverse student populations are entering into or returning to postsecondary education; meanwhile, campuses are workplaces where faculty and staff are aging-in-place. Yet, age bias and discrimination continue to exist in institutions of higher education.…

AI offer first-hand account of a key stage in the development of parental choice in American public schooling, when Massachusetts state officials, concerned not to repeat the trauma and disruption resulting from mandatory reassignment of students to achieve desegregation in Boston, persuaded and helped more than a dozen other cities to adopt plans…

Antonio Duran Nancy E. Thacker Darrow LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other minoritized genders and sexualities) and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities contend with oppressive realities on and off college campuses. Family relationships--families of origin and chosen families--have garnered attention…

Instability in early childhood education and care (ECEC) arrangements may have detrimental consequences on children's mental health. This study examined ECEC trajectories in the first 30 months of life for 373 children from low-income families in Toronto. We provide information about patterns of instability and reasons for instability. We also…

In response to unwaveringly high attrition from STEM pathways, STEM Intervention Programs (SIPs) support STEM students in effort to increase retention. Using mixed methods (survey and focus groups), we studied students at one university who were either supported or unsupported by SIPs to understand how students may differ in experiences believed…

Universities actively promote themselves to potential students, control admissions and deliver programs of study. For most students globally, there are financial costs to attending university. At the extreme end of failure are students who receive 'zero-fails': they enrol, do not submit any assessments, and receive a mark of 0 out of 100. A…

Background: People with intellectual disabilities living in group homes often have complex health needs, are high health service users and need support from their service provider to access health services. In Australia, little is known about the types and amounts of these supports. Methods: A case study was conducted on a large Western Australian…