In California, a half century after the landmark "Serrano v. Priest" decision overturning the state's public school finance system because of the inequality between the state's school districts, a significant amount of wealth-based inequality in per-pupil expenditures continues to exist. One of the sources of this inequality is the…

The developments and changes that have accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the educational world and all sectors. Educational institutions around the world have implemented emergency and online educational practises to ensure continuity of education as opposed to the planned distance education activities that were implemented for…

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) can reliably grade essays at scale and reduce human effort in both classroom and commercial settings. There are currently three dominant supervised learning paradigms for building AES models: feature-based, neural, and hybrid. While feature-based models are more explainable, neural network models often outperform…

In a series of research briefs, the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) examines and describes the amount of student mobility in Texas, with particular focus on Houston area public schools. This fourth research brief provides an overview of patterns of student mobility differed by race, socioeconomic status, and English learner status.…

This study examines the capital identity projection (CIP) phenomena and the extent to which the presentation of "economic success" in historically Black college and university (HBCU) students contributes to their academic performance (students' self-reported grade point average [GPA]). The present study adds to the literature by…

Two-year post-secondary institutions such as community and technical colleges continue to serve as the primary pathway into higher education for men of color (Bush & Bush, 2010). 71% of Black and Latino men begin their experiences in public postsecondary education at a community or technical college (Wood, Harris, & White 2015). The belief…

The study's purpose was to determine the effectiveness of charter school programs in increasing academic achievement in students with disabilities who received special education services within one charter management organization. The study reviewed student achievement on a state standardized assessment in ELA and Mathematics. Relationships…

This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of reading aloud using theme-based material on the change from baseline to study endpoint in Crystallized Intelligence (Gc) of first grade students (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004). A total of 39 students (19 male, 20 female) from two districts in a Midwestern state were recruited to participate. To…

The present laboratory-based study investigated socioeconomic status (SES) as a moderator of the association between empathic accuracy and well-being among married couples from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Empathic accuracy was measured using a performance-based measure of empathic accuracy for one's spouse's negative emotions during a…

Using data collected from the United States Census and the National Center for Educational Statistics, the purpose of this study was to examine the causal effect of wealth and its impact on the higher education outcome of low-income Black students. A quantile threshold model was used to investigate the effect of household wealth on low-income,…

Retention rates for African American students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been low compared to rates of predominantly White institutions. The problem investigated was the retention rates of African American students enrolled at degree-granting Title IV HBCUs. The absence of research focused on African…

This qualitative interpretive study examined the experiences of student conduct administrators using restorative justice conferences at American Catholic colleges and universities, as well as the role of restorative justice conferences in strengthening Catholic Social Teaching through such student conduct processes. At its heart, restorative…

Little is known about the higher education experiences of gay and sexual minority male veterans. This study utilizes a general qualitative design to explore these experiences. Using Phillips and Lincoln's (2017) Veteran Critical Theory as a theoretical framework, I explore the supports and barriers that gay and sexual minority male veterans…

Differentiated instruction (DI) is recognized as a factor that could improve the reading disparity among students despite diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Few studies have been conducted that document elementary public school reading teachers' perspectives on differentiating reading instruction and selecting DI strategies for low-performing,…

This dissertation consists of both quantitative and qualitative studies. The quantitative study utilized the 2017 public use data set from the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (n = 16,383). The purpose of this study was to describe female first-generation doctoral students who have successfully completed PhDs in STEM fields through analysis of…