The need for more quality public schools for U.S. children is as great as ever. One policy solution to help meet this demand is to grow more of what is already working. To expand access to existing high-quality charter schools, policymakers and authorizers remove barriers and make it easier to grow enrollment and expand locations. Behind every…

Every year, more news outlets report cybersecurity?breaches--and higher education is not immune from these sinister trends. Cyberattacks on colleges, universities, and foundations have become more frequent, more sophisticated, and more dangerous. Successful cyberattacks can compromise an institution's reputation, result in substantial financial…

We examined students' naturalistic decisions about spacing their study in an undergraduate course (N=185) and whether self-selected spacing predicted course performance. Usage of two study tools -- an online textbook and quiz tool -- was recorded daily. We operationalized spacing as how often the tools were used and the timing of their use…

Early childhood education (ECE) programs play an important role in a child's social, emotional, and cognitive development. ECE programs strive to prepare the students for kindergarten. The importance and value of ECE programs have increasingly become more important to state and federal officials. As a result, these officials have made significant…

National and state-based assessments have been a common practice for the past several decades. These assessments often come with high-stake consequences for students and schools, which tends towards the creation of a test-centric environment where educators prioritize test-based instruction to prepare students to be successful on those…

This dissertation studies how institutions of higher education occupy a unique space that can add to the discourse of business studies by relating how consumers can simultaneously function as products. This is substantiated by defining the word "student" beyond the traditional meaning of a student as learner when considering the higher…

This qualitative study captured the stories of African-American male students, who participated in the African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) program at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the south, to better understand how racial climate effected their college experiences and retention decisions. The data collected from this PWI revealed…

Superintendents are leaving districts at an alarming rate across the nation, which can lead to detrimental effects for students, staff, and communities. Where once this was a position of prestige, it has become one in which educational experts are choosing to leave districts because of the various stressors that comprise their jobs. It is not…

Literacy is an essential life skill, and adolescents need strong literacy skills to succeed in secondary schools and beyond. Low literacy achievement in the middle grades puts students, particularly students with disabilities (SWD), at a disadvantage heading into high school and can lead to negative outcomes such as dropping out. The intention of…

This study focused on the difficulties and challenges experienced by sons who had absent fathers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of sons who grew up with absent fathers and the effects on them as adults at home, in school, in their neighborhoods, and their decision-making processes. The sample consisted…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the operations of many Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) and caused numerous accommodations to be made to address the needs of students and faculty while effectively managing the crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of crisis management, computer literacy skills, and technology as…

Cognitive abilities are fundamental for decision-making, and understanding the causes of human capital depreciation in old age is especially important in an aging society. Using a longitudinal labor survey that collects direct proxy measures of cognitive skills, we study the effect of educational attainment on cognitive performance in late…

Dispositions associated with math skills, including creative problem solving, analysis, reflection, and persistence, are valued in a variety of professional contexts (Durksen, Bobis, Anderson, Skilling and Martin, 2014, World Economic Forum, 2018). Math achievement on international math assessments show that U.S. students do not perform as well as…

Teacher leaders have long been relied upon to help schools run smoothly and efficiently. Public schools have found an increase in the need for teachers to step into leadership roles to assist administrative teams in implementing policies. Many schools have turned to distributed leadership as a way to give teachers more of a voice in schools and to…

The problem addressed in this study was the equity gap in college certificate and degree completion between first and continuing generation college students. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of first-generation, low-income students regarding their persistence decisions for…