This study addressed the problem of the dropout rate of marginalized students placed in disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP). The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to explore West Texas DAEP educators' perceptions of the zero tolerance policy that resulted in the placement of marginalized students in DAEP and…

Equity in education and the role of the principal are critical reasons for this study. Equity-centered leadership challenges other leadership practices in its' focus on affecting change concerning equitability, access, diversity, and society. However, there is a gap in research in understanding the lived experiences as an equity-centered leader.…

College aged students have one of the highest rates of suicidality, however, research on suicidality often negates the experiences of college students of color. The sample included 122,465 college students of color and explored the relationship between suicidality and variables such as academic distress, clinician initial assessment of…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to evaluate the readiness of educators to implement classroom discipline interventions and strategies after attending an equity-based professional development (PD) and identify effective action steps that address the disparity in discipline referrals towards students of color and sanctions through…

Purpose. This research aimed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersection of ethnicity, first-generation status, and higher education attainment. The study sought to comprehend the essence of the journey through college for a group of first-generation Latino males, unveiling the challenges, triumphs, and transformative aspects that…

First-generation college students (FGCS) are considered underrepresented minorities in healthcare. While there are numerous studies on undergraduate students, little is known about FGCS in graduate programs, as this information has not been routinely collected. As such, diversity has been measured only based on race or ethnicity, which may not…

It is not known how African American doctoral students describe their doctoral education lived experiences in their pursuit of a doctoral degree in education in predominantly white institutions (PWI). The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to better understand how minority doctoral students understand their lived experience in…

As of October 2022, over 53,000 children and youth are in foster care in California, including approximately 13,000 youth between the ages of 16 and 21. The State has an obligation to offer services and supports to help these young people transition into adulthood. The Independent Living Program (ILP) helps transition age youth currently or…

Women of Color faculty remain underrepresented across all fields of postsecondary science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). Although extant literature describes the collective institutional-level experiences of Women of Color faculty, an effort to understand the departmental-level experiences and contextually how the…

This phenomenological study explores the mentoring needs of 13 Black and Latinx engineering postdoctoral scholars who aspire to the professoriate. An adaptation of the ideal mentoring model (Zambrana et al., 2015) is employed as the conceptual framework. Moustakas' (1994) four-stage process of phenomenological data analysis was utilized to examine…

University students are susceptible to psychological issues due to various academic and social stressors in their lives. Decreased life satisfaction among these students can result in a wide variety of adverse outcomes, which can negatively impact their overall well-being and academic performance. The current study aims at examining the mediating…

This partnership-based study identified how many middle and high school students take care of parents, siblings, and grandparents at home, via student surveys across Rhode Island public schools (N = 48,508; 46% White non-Latinx; 21% Latinx; 47% girls). Further, we investigated how students' caregiving for family related to their school engagement,…

School belonging is important for well-being and academic achievement of youth. School belonging is a broad concept for which researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds have developed a variety of synonyms and indicators. To explore the content of the concept of school belonging, an expert rating study was conducted with 73 expert…

Group projects are expected in contemporary engineering curricula, and yet they often pose a challenge to students and instructors alike. Could making projects personally relevant help? The present study created and tested a conceptual framework regarding the impact of personal relevance on groupwork in a project-based learning (PBL) course. We…

Societal belongingness -- feelings of being a connected, an affiliated, and a respected member of the larger society -- may contribute to the understanding of adolescent development both as a person and a member of society in a multicultural context. The current study examined the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the…