This dissertation study explores the perceptions of principals as literacy leaders and the enactment of these perceptions in high-need elementary schools. Literacy leadership, as perceived by principals, was analyzed based on interview data from six participants. Individual cases were studied for the unique characterizations each participant…

Washington, D.C., has looked to school choice as one way to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. School choice attempts to "level the playing field" between students of different backgrounds by making it possible for all families to have access to a city's high-quality public schools--whether students live near these…

An initiative to coordinate early learning programs across a major city in the Midwestern United States was undertaken in 2013. The opinions of teachers regarding effects on instruction and children were not included in the development and implementation of the program. This omission is important because multiple scholars have pointed to the…

This study examined the influence of risk and protective variables on Latino students' experience of depression, college adjustment, and drop-out intentions. One hundred and seventeen Latino undergraduate students at a Midwestern university participated in this investigation. Perceived bicultural competence emerged as a protective factor; and…

While there are many causes at the root of the academic achievement gap between high- and low-income students, one that is seldom acknowledged is summer learning loss, which disproportionally affects low-income and minority students. With a wide achievement gap across all regions of Massachusetts, private schools in the commonwealth should…

Tailoring education policy to deliver the skills needed by modern labour markets is complicated by the rapid pace of technological change. These complications are amplified when the associated risks of technological redundancy and the lengthening working lifetimes are taken into account. At the heart of the challenge for policy-makers is…

Taking a critical archival studies approach, this dissertation engages critical discourse analysis as a means of analyzing the analogous treatment and representation of political dissidents from the civil war and alleged gang members in post-conflict El Salvador through the medium of human rights documentation. By analyzing a cross section of…

While research makes clear that individuals' gender, racial, and sexual identities and their intersections impact experiences of and responses to sexual and gender-based violence, the literature on college sexual assault prevention programs reflects an overwhelming absence of this type of identity-based program content. This Interpretative…

Project RAISE is an Arts Integration model that integrates the arts into Common Core curricula of the treatment group: 11 K-6 elementary schools. The RAISE Model fits most closely to an "elaborated residency" (Ingram, 2003) that "builds capacity" of teachers and students to use arts integration strategies in English and Math.…

The Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) is authorized by Part B of Title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, P.L. 114-95) in 2015. Congress created this program to address the unique needs of rural schools that disadvantage them relative to non-rural schools. To…

Often overlooked in discussions related to how to ensure accessible and affordable high-quality early childhood education is the heavy burden that has been carried by the early childhood workforce; the data reveal a level of exploitation of this workforce that must be considered and addressed. This chapter will focus attention on the economic…

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between a 1:1 laptop program and the achievement test results for the Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT). Two cohorts were examined (N=193): 1. Tenth graders who took the OGT subtests in Reading, Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies in 2014 (n=109) and who had received traditional instruction…

For decades, social theorists have posited--and descriptive accounts have shown--that students isolated by both social class and ethnicity suffer extreme deprivations that limit the effectiveness of equal-opportunity interventions. Even educational programs that yield positive results for moderately disadvantaged students may not prove beneficial…

The pandemic has shown how important schools are as networks of support for children and families. Our project, "Learning Through Disruption," also shows that schools have a particularly vital role in addressing the needs of high poverty communities, both directly and indirectly. Yet this work goes largely unrecognised and underfunded.…

The research featured in this paper is part of the CORE-PACE Research Partnership, which is focused on producing research that informs continuous improvement in the CORE districts as well as policy and practice in California and beyond. In this report, the authors used data from multiple interim assessments to examine how the rate of student…