"When a group of people come together to share a vision for an organization, each person brings a unique visualization of an amazing running institution and each shares a responsibility for the establishment to run effectively" Senge (2006). This dissertation in practice (DiP) was aimed at addressing a performance gap of low engagement…

The Federal STEM Education Strategic plan recognizes the importance of building computational literacy today. This document is aligned to the Computational Literacy Interagency Working Group (IWGCL) objectives to: (1) develop a common operational definition; (2) identify existing research on computational literacy; and (3) identify existing…

High school students are currently transitioning out of an autism program at the author's school, without functional life skills. This impacts their ability to live independently and reduces their employment opportunities. Life skills are "skills or tasks that contribute to the successful, independent functioning of an individual in…

Campus administrators and practitioners must make sense of state policy and system-level initiatives for successful implementation. This qualitative study examined campus administrators' and student health and well-being practitioners' sensemaking of the University System of Georgia's (USG) Mental Health Initiative (MHI) through interviews with…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the shared experiences of novice school principals' mentor training and to gain an understanding of the experience of peer educators. This dissertation employed a qualitative case study methodology to interview Arizona principals with less than three years of experience who did not receive…

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate student responses to three different instructional strategies used to fulfill level I fieldwork requirements: traditional in-clinic rotation, a combination of virtual simulation and traditional in-clinic rotations, and virtual simulation. A multi-decade occupational therapy (OT) fieldwork…

The purpose of this study was to explore and evaluate the necessary adaptations to the Family Behavior Support application (FBSApp) paired with collaborative coaching for Spanish-speaking families of young children with disabilities and co-occurring challenging behaviors (CB) in home contexts. We utilized a multi-phase mixed methods research…

Many departments seek to improve their equity, diversity, and inclusion using data-informed methods; however, not much is known about how closely department leadership aligns their review practices with appropriate theory. This dissertation seeks to explore four areas: 1) how are equity, diversity, and inclusion are being conceptualized (implied…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are an important teaching resource to universities. Most GTAs enter graduate school with limited if any teaching experience but are given the responsibility of teaching numerous sections of introductory courses. GTA professional development (PD) is essential for the formation and preparation of these novice…

This collective case study is intended to examine the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives of three historically white institutions (HWIs) in the southwest region of the U.S. through the lens of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). I employed the theoretical framework of Gusa (2010), White Institutional Presence, and Ray (2019), Theory…

The Advanced Placement Teacher Investment Program in Indiana (AP-TIP IN) program trains teachers to prepare students for college with rigorous math, science, and English coursework using the College Board Advanced Placement Program®. The program's goals are to increase enrollment in math, science, and English Advanced Placement® courses, and…

Campus agricultural projects (CAPs) are campus farms or gardens where students learn to grow food. With at least 286 CAPs at institutions of higher education across the United States, this study seeks to understand the impact that participation in intensive internships at CAPs has on students and how student experiences align with the missions of…

The paper examines the effectiveness of special apps for online piano lessons and measures the apps' impact compared to the control group that studied without the use of additional software. The study involved 350 students. The effect of Skoove and Simply Piano apps on the learning of piano skills has been analyzed. First-year students from small…

This article argues that current approaches to civic learning tend to normalize Whiteness. It describes how a team in Massachusetts developed a framework for civic learning through a lens of racial equity and provided professional development opportunities based on this framework. Civic learning for a multiracial democracy cannot be done in a…

Structured out-of-school programs (OSPs) can be contexts in which youth can be producers of their own positive change (Eccles & Gootman, 2002). However, despite a considerable body of research documenting the benefits of participating in OSPs, there is a lack of knowledge about how youth of color in low-income communities define positive…