This study applies Clark and Estes's (2008) gap analysis model to understand how a state education agency's decision making, during reform policy implementation, impacts the success of the initiative. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to assess the effect of the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) decision making, during the policy design and…

A number of studies have examined the impact of changes in price on students' enrollment decisions at the undergraduate level, but little is known about the price responsiveness of graduate and professional students. This dissertation utilizes difference-in-differences and regression-discontinuity methods to analyze student-level data for admitted…

Since the inception of public education in the United States, members of the public have fought for control over what is taught to students and how concepts are presented. Public education lies continually in the crosshairs of politics and polemics related to issues ranging from prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to language teaching and the…

Drawing upon Weick's (1995) theory of sensemaking, this qualitative study described how high school social studies teachers make meaning of culturally responsive sustaining education (CR-SE) as outlined in New York State's (NYS) CR-SE framework. This study also examined how that sensemaking is reflected in social studies teachers' curricular and…

Responsible Management Education (RME) seeks to prepare students to address social and ecological crises via going beyond a traditional narrow understanding of shareholder wealth maximization. Past research has shown mixed results regarding the effectiveness of RME courses to change students' subsequent behavior. We examine whether taking an RME…

China serves as an indispensable recruitment market for higher education institutions across the globe. Using large-scale administrative and survey data from one of China's pipeline provinces for sending students abroad, we provide new evidence on the factors influencing Chinese students' graduate school choices internationally. We model…

This article examines the experiences and coping strategies of four university middle-managers during the unprecedented time of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We use the research approach of autoethnography to reflect on our experiences and decision-making processes. To reflect on how we managed the rapid change and moved from…

This qualitative case study investigated rural high school social studies teachers' perceptions of Robert Stahl's decision-making materials within their content area and the relevance of curricular implementation. The primary questions addressed in this study focused on high school social studies teachers' perception of current instructional…

Teachers are rarely included as partners in school reforms or in planning teacher supports to enact new initiatives. The authors explored co-design as a professional learning (PL) framework to support localized enactment of a high school language arts project-based learning (PBL) course. They examined aspects that facilitated or limited progress…

Cyberbullying perpetration has become an international public health concern among adolescents. Based on the general aggression model, the present study sought to examine whether deviant peer affiliation was significantly related to adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration, and whether moral disengagement mediated this association and self-control…

The increased reliance on Big Data Analytics (BDA) in society, politics, policy, and industry has catalyzed conversations related to the need for promoting ethical reasoning and decision-making in the mathematical sciences. While the majority of professional data scientists today come from privileged positions in society, those processed by the…

This action research study investigates the role of Data-Based Decision-Making (DBDM) in increasing academic outcomes within a charter school network. During Cycle 1, interviews and focus groups with teachers, interventionists, and school deans shed light on critical themes, including leadership, data collection, analytic capacity, and a culture…

Students in 11th or 12th grade will make important decisions about their post--high school plans, if they have not already done so. Some will plan to enter the workforce right after high school. Others will make decisions about pursuing an education goal. Will that goal be a nondegree credential or an academic degree? For those considering an…

Rising food and nutrition insecurity across the U.S. poses a significant health concerns. Despite the expansion of federal support and food aid programs, insecurity persists. This dissertation asks about the extent to which national funding initiatives and local emergency food organizations as mediated by the university-based agriculture Extension…

Existing research has studied the underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students enrolling in and graduating from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in college (e.g., Okahana et al., 2018; Rincón & Lane, 2017). However, there is a dearth of research that examines the precollegiate…