The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the Kentucky Department of Education (Kentucky) had an adequate oversight process in place to ensure that (1) local educational agencies' (LEA) American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) plans met applicable requirements and (2) LEAs use ARP ESSER funds…

The academic research enterprise is highly complex, involving multiple sectors of society and a vast array of approaches. In "Demystifying the Academic Research Enterprise," Kelvin K. Droegemeier shows next-generation scholars across all disciplines how to become more productive earlier in their career, as well as how to help shape the…

This is the second in a series of success stories about how arts organizations, states, schools and other entities are using funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to support arts education. Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) is one of the nation's 20th largest…

The purpose of this design case was to document rigorously the process and decisions made during the development of a five-day, pre-semester virtual orientation for International Graduation Teaching Assistants (IGTAs) and their domestic counterparts, teaching in an English as a Second Language Composition (ESLC) Program of a large land-grant…

Starting in May 2020, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund transferred billions of dollars through state departments and on to districts to support COVID-19 recovery efforts. The funding, which lasts through 2024, represents the largest one-time infusion of federal dollars ever provided to K-12 school districts and has…

Passed in 2022 with bipartisan support, Senate Bill 5789 established the Washington Career and College Pathways Innovative Challenge Program with a $6 million initial investment in the first year and a $16 million appropriation in the 2023-2025 Washington state biennium budget. The program awards competitive grants to existing and new…

In this article, I document and analyze all municipal, state, and county-level efforts for Black reparations in the United States. Most efforts resemble H.R. 40's exploratory commission model, possibly due to policy path dependency. Few geographies have allocated funding for committee recommendations, but some have allocated funds for committee…

This study examined the nature of student engagement, as reported by students enrolled in fully online Ed.D. and Ed.M. programs in an academic unit at a U.S. land-grant university. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design, a Web-based questionnaire was administered (n = 83) and follow-up interviews were conducted (n = 14). The…

U.S. National Professional Development (NPD) grants can afford a longitudinal understanding of how teachers learn to support English learners. When NPD projects are completed successively and successfully, they can provide an even greater longitudinal arc of understanding. This article chronicles the designs and lessons learned across five NPD…

In this dissertation I use modern microeconomic methods to examine the impact of K-12 education policy interventions on student outcomes. In the first chapter I explore how increased funding for school policing and sentiment surrounding school policing can have downstream effects on student discipline, and how these effects vary by student and…

Time to degree completion is an important metric of academic progress and success for doctoral students. It is also a common way for educational stakeholders to compare programs even if the content of the degree programs varies. But what types of behaviors and experiences are associated with faster times to degree? In this study, we examine the…

College students with identities traditionally marginalized in scientific disciplines are more engaged and more likely to remain in science if they feel that they belong in their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes and departments. In this qualitative case study, we elevated marginalized student voices to learn how…

This research considers Pell grant restoration for incarcerated people for the field of higher education in prison. Using the original data, we outline the limits of Pell funding in the prison context by surfacing persistent funding challenges that the Pell grant alone cannot address and may exacerbate. By providing the necessary investments to…

While the tuition fee system has had a large amount of political and media attention in the last two decades, far less attention has been paid to the student maintenance system -- the amount of funding students have access to for day to day living expenses. But for many students, this funding is of more immediate importance, and can have a major…

Well-executed coaching can drive instructional improvement, teacher retention, and student achievement. However when school systems face intense budget pressures -- as many are now as they grapple with the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding and declining enrollment -- instructional coaching is often the…