Shakamohtaa: Connecting And Coming Together To Support International Student Career Readiness, Sabreena Macelheron

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Abstract

In the evolving Canadian landscape, permanent residency acquisition has undergone a transformative shift from land sales to educational credential procurement. Canadian higher education markets post-secondary qualifications to international students (IS) seeking migration routes, posing nuanced challenges. IS, despite holding higher education credentials, often find themselves relegated to non-field specific jobs due to existing disparities in the Canadian job market. Amid this equation, IS grapple with the essential need for pre-and-post graduate career experiences to fulfill eligibility criteria for permanent residency application. This pursuit extends beyond merely aligning with their credentials, requiring conformity to approved national occupation codes aligned with …

Engaging Every Student In American Government: A Vertical Learning Approach, Tatiana Schumacher

Graduate Research Showcase

This project is a research-based creative endeavor that aims to design an innovative high school course on American government. The course, titled “American Government: Thinking Classrooms,” has several unique and effective features. It promotes equity in the political science classroom by focusing on student assets, such as their cultural backgrounds, personal experiences, and interests. The course also incorporates social-emotional learning, helping students develop skills such as self-awareness, empathy, and collaboration. Culturally responsive teaching methods are utilized, connecting the content to the students’ lives, using diverse sources and perspectives, and fostering critical thinking. The course adopts Peter Liljedahl’s “building thinking classroom” …

A Time To Create Change: A Case Study Of Culturally Relevant Education, Colleen Kopay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An opportunity gap exists in the United States school system where students of color score lower on standardized tests and have fewer opportunities than their white counterparts. Culturally Relevant Education (CRE) theory attempts to close this gap, and is defined by Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) as

Pedagogy that rests on three criteria or propositions: (a) Students must experience academic success; (b) students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence; and (c) students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order (p. 160).

In short, CRE is the use of culture, rigor, and critical …

Content Area Language And Literacy, Saadia Ali, Margaret A. Berg

Open Textbooks & Reviews

Content Area Literacy courses have long been a requirement in teacher education programs for pre-service teachers for the secondary level and, sometimes, for the elementary level. The 2020 World-class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Framework takes a genre approach that aligns well with the traditional Content Area Literacy courses in teacher preparation programs. WIDA argues for an educational approach that fosters (a) equity of opportunity and access, (b) integration of content and language, (c) collaboration among stakeholders, and (d) a functional approach to language development. This textbook examines the elements that make up the Simple View of Reading with adjustments …

What Determines Investment Into Fine Arts Programs In Public High Schools?, Tiandra Bland

All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

The problem addressed by this study is that the investment in fine arts programs in public high schools is not clearly understood or represented in current research and literature. Determining if the investment is related to funding resources, equity issues, or other issues revealed important information about how public high schools invest in their fine arts programs and could help future administrators or researchers more clearly understand how fine arts programs in public high schools are valued. This summary determined that funding equity is an area of concern in school programs that affects many organizations including arts education. The findings …

Inclusive Education For All: Identifying Teacher Beliefs About Working With Students With Disabilities, Chelsea Sharek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs K-12 teachers have when working with students with disabilities in a rural Pennsylvania school district. This study aimed to identify if teachers’ personal beliefs created biases about their students and school systems; thus, forming barriers and preventing an inclusive education when working with disabled students. Instrumentation for this quantitative study is the Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) survey. Findings suggest that some teachers at Sunnyside School District (pseudonym) hold personal beliefs that could create biases about their students and school system that may form barriers when working with …

Soft Skills Don’T Have To Be Hard: Embedding Soft Skills Instruction In Moroccan Secondary Schools, Dc Lambert

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

In an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, the need for the development and mastery of soft skills has perhaps never been greater. Schools can play a key role in soft skills education, but implementation in the classroom has faced a range of challenges that have impeded instruction. One solution is embedding soft skills within an extant academic curriculum, with the advantages that the academic infrastructure is already in place, and few additional materials or time are needed. This field study found that embedding soft skills had excellent outcomes, even with limited resources, materials, and training, a notable first step in …

Catalyzing Change For Equitable Participation, Liza Bondurant, Seema Rivera

Journal of Practitioner Research

This manuscript discusses the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles designed to help math teacher-researchers (TRs) create more equitable discourse patterns in their classrooms. Before the first cycle, TRs were asked to complete gender and race implicit assessment tests (IATs). Then, TRs planned and recorded a video of themselves facilitating a math discussion. Next, math teacher educators (MTEs) used the Equity QUantified In Participation (EQUIP) classroom observation instrument to code and analyze the discussion. Subsequently, TRs had an opportunity to reflect on the EQUIP and IAT results and set goals for making their teaching practices more equitable. MTEs provided guidance …

Anti-Exclusionary Leadership: Increasing The Achievement Of Marginalized And Minoritized Students In An Ontario High School, Nicholas J. Woolley

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) seeks to address the underachievement of marginalized and minoritized students at an Ontario secondary school. Using critical theory, the OIP recognizes that systemic barriers, the pervasive neoliberal performativity agenda, and educator biases and practices combine to reinforce stubborn inequities that negatively impact students who are racialized, poor, and/or identified as having special educational needs. The term anti-exclusion is used to propose an activist stance that challenges inclusion’s connotations of assimilation into a dominant culture. Addressing inequities in a publicly funded, top-down school district context requires adaptive leadership to foster collaborative professionalism while interrogating the status …

Vamos A Pláticar: The Sense-Making Process Of Career Services Practitioners At California Community Colleges In A Guided Pathways Epoch, Claudia Estrada-Howell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The California Community College system and its vision for success, which includes a focus on increasing students' degree and certificate completion, as well as increasing the percentage of existing Career and Technical Education students who report being employed in their field of study is highlighted. To help support these goals, the California Community College System has adopted the Guided Pathways framework. This framework requires all campuses to fundamentally redesign their programs and support services to ensure they are clear, more educationally coherent pathways to credentials that in turn prepare students for success in the workforce and further education. To do …

Leading With Equity Through Action: The Theory Of Racial And Gender Equity Advancement In Rural Schools, Anna Gross

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

All students deserve an equitable education. Rampant misinformation has flooded the educational world, and society as a whole, turning the concept of “equity” into something that has become politically charged. However, all students are different, and differences must be acknowledged and celebrated to ensure all students receive the education they need to thrive both academically and socially.

The purpose of this study is to examine equitable practices in rural schools. Using a constructivist paradigm, a grounded theory research approach was utilized through collection of qualitative data to theorize why some rural schools are further advanced than other rural schools of …

Reaching Rural Students With Resources And Enrichment-Focused Learning In The Summer Months, Kathrina M. O'Connell

The Rural Educator

This promising practice describes the summer programming transformation at a rural, Title I school. After eliminating barriers to education and remediation overtones, the school now provides free transportation, meals, and books for all participants and engages them in research based, enrichment focused literacy learning. The program’s first year experienced a 746% increase in registration, 34% increase in retention, and 18% increase in attendance. Similar registration and participation numbers were reported in years two - four, with reading growth demonstrated in all four summers. Both students and their parents reported increased engagement and motivation to read in the summer months. Results …

A Trauma Responsive Approach To Fostering Resilience, Addressing Equity Issues And Improving Student Wellness And Academic Success, Mark Harrington, Joe Thompson, Kimberly Witeck

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

We’ll start with our school’s motto, “Family, Love, Respect,” which is posted in nearly every hallway, office and gathering place in our school. We attempt to provide each student with a strong sense of each. Although ours is an alternative high school, filled with stories of trauma, neglect and despair, our students are resilient! With that in mind we have created a number of programs to encourage resilience, provide a healthy path forward, decrease student discipline, and foster student success. All of these programs, and the stories we share detailing what our students have overcome show just how resilient young …

Together Everyone Achieves More (Team) Approach To Building A High Performance School Culture, Deadra M. Faulkner, David Zimbler

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

How do you build a school-wide culture that supports students and motivates staff on a social/emotional and instructional level? This workshop will include strategies on Leadership, Culture/Social Emotional State, and Data/Results that will assist in obtaining this achievable goal! Work with a Director of Guidance and Principal that have accomplished this important goal.

The Future Of Early College: An Interview With Dr. Leon Botstein, Dumaine Williams

Early College Folio

The first public, tuition-free Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) opened in Brooklyn in 2001. Today, an entire network of Bard Early Colleges operates in partnership with public school systems to offer students affordable access to higher education in a cohesive, engaging environment. Simultaneously, alternative takes on early college (Early College High Schools, dual enrollment, early entrance) have proliferated across the United States, providing even more opportunities for younger students to earn college credit.

In December 2022, the author, Dean of Bard Early College, sat down with Bard College President Leon Botstein to examine how the pandemic made new demands …

Mathematics Tracking: Policy Brief, Melissa P. Donham

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Tracking is a long-standing practice in schools. Students are often placed in tracks beginning in upper elementary or middle school. The tracks in which students are placed in earlier grades set them up for the mathematics courses they are able to take in high school. The number of mathematics tracks for students can differ from school to school, but the policy of having mathematics tracks is common throughout schools in the United States. This policy brief will discuss the arguments for and against mathematics tracking policies, implications for educators and policymakers, and future directions.

The Landscape Of Advanced Coursework Participation: Understanding Disparities And Intersectionality, Chin-Chih Chen, Chris Parthemos, David Naff, Erica Ross, Virginia Palencia, Beth Fowler, Andrea Herndon, Beverly Fludd-Flanagan

MERC Publications

This population-based study explored students' participation in advanced coursework in elementary schools (gifted/talented programs), middle schools (Algebra I+), and high schools (Advanced Placement) to address enrollment equity. The study identified demographic disparities and the intersectionality of multiple identities to achieve two research aims: 1) to explore how advanced course-taking varies by student demographics, and 2) to understand how disparities in advanced course-taking vary by student demographics and intersectional identities. The findings indicate that disparities in advanced course-taking are related to students’ race, ethnicity, disability status, English learner (EL) status, socioeconomic status, as well as the intersection of these variables. The …

How Backstories Influence The Way Teachers Speak To And About Traumatized Students: A Case Study, Keona Nicole Griffin-King

All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

Many students experience or have experienced both Adverse Community Environments and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) (Alive and Well STL, 2021). When students come to school having experienced these ACEs they may be operating from the survival region of the brain. The four conditions of the survival brain are fight, flight, fright, or fawn. (Alive & Well STL, 2021). These conditions cause behaviors that may appear to teachers as misbehavior, classroom disruption, and rule breaking. These misunderstandings and misinterpretations may be due to teachers’ lack of knowledge about their students and specifically about their traumas, current and past (Griffin-King, 2022). Additional …

Strategies For Addressing Chronic Absenteeism In The Post-Pandemic Era, David Naff, Fatemah A. Khawaji, Morgan Meadowes, Kim Dupre, Zehra Sahin Ilkorkor, Jill Flynn, Jean Samuel, Christina Tillery, Meg Sheriff

MERC Publications

Although chronic absenteeism has been an enduring concern in PK-12 schools, it has doubled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. To explore strategies for addressing this issue, this MERC research and policy brief answers five questions: 1) What are trends in chronic absenteeism pre and post-pandemic?, 2) What factors contribute to chronic absenteeism and which student groups are particularly vulnerable? 3) What are the connections between chronic absenteeism and other student outcomes? 4) What strategies are effective in reducing chronic absenteeism?, and 5) What are policies at the state and school board level intended to help address chronic absenteeism? …

Doing The Work -- Collectively Pursuing Anti-Racist And Equitable Teaching: One High School English Department’S Journey, Sharon Murchie, Anthony Andrus, Pat Brennan, Gina Farnelli, Shelby Fletcher, Dawn Reed, Emily Solomon, Benjamin K. Woodcock

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Our district has long been heralded as a beacon school, one that delivers exceptional education in an exceptional community. Peeling back the layers, however, revealed a district that lurched towards the traditional, even with the hiring of DEI faculty and the step away from an historical indigenous mascot. In a time where teachers are exhausted and afraid of community backlash, our

English department dared to tear off the scabs of old wounds and united to push toward what is best for our changing community and students. Hard conversations, difficult topics, and months of legwork at last successfully provided the impetus …

Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Project-Based Learning (Pbl) Education: A New Mexico Case Study For Equity And Inclusion, Kimberly A. Scheerer

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This research addresses how student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) education activities encourages underrepresented minority student achievement in STEM career field trajectories. Seven New Mexico high school counselors and 12 STEM organization personnel were interviewed during this study. Their responses represent the nuanced professional voices where New Mexico public education intersects with STEM student interest and cultural influence.

For students, STEM PBL can foster deep integration across educational disciplines and enhance STEM career trajectory interest and readiness. STEM education converged with PBL methodologies has the ability to leverage community support while broadening student networks. …

Social Justice Informed School Counseling: A Conceptual Model For Promoting Academic Achievement And Equity Among Dual-Enrolled African American Students, Sylvester Hanner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To promote college enrollment, high schools may offer students the opportunity to participate in dual enrollment programs. Students who gain college credit while earning a high school diploma may be more likely to graduate college on time and at a lower cost (College Board, 2017). Despite the benefits of dual enrollment, African American students lack equitable access to dual enrollment programs. Additionally, when they are afforded access to participate in dual enrollment courses, they have a lower academic success rate when compared to White students (CCRC Fink, 2017).

This study provides insight into concepts related to African American students’ opinions, …

Perspectives Of Students With Asd And Their Parents: What Does It Truly Mean To Be Included?, Keara M. Browne

Theses and Dissertations

Though there are a number of practices identified by researchers and other professionals as inclusive, the question remains about whether the students themselves truly feel included. There has been limited research surrounding specific experiences in inclusive classrooms that students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive to be facilitators and barriers to being included in general education and co-teaching settings. The purpose of this study was to inform educational policies and school practices surrounding the inclusion of students with ASD in general education and co-teaching settings by analyzing the perceptions of students with ASD and their parents to determine what it …

Implications Of The Improvement Science Process On Swpbis Implementation At A Title I High School, Cody Rich

Dissertations

Disparities in discipline are well documented throughout our nation as the gap continues to increase (Losen et al., 2015; Losen & Skiba, 2016; Raush & Skiba, 2004; The Civil Rights Data Collection, 2014). Though Black students comprise only 16% of the student population in the United States, they account for nearly half of school suspensions and expulsions (The Civil Rights Data Collection, 2014). In the context of RHS (location of this dissertation in practice), Black students encompass nearly 20% of the student population while accounting for approximately 30% of the total number of referrals. More alarming is that administration suspended …

Promoting The Healthy Development Of All Adolescents Through An Equity Lens: Continuing Education For Secondary-Level Educators, Isabella Simone

Senior Honors Projects

American schools, as an institution, have a mission to educate society’s youth in a way that is characterized by, and promotes, equity regarding educational access, opportunities, and outcomes. Doing so promises to support the individual growth and development of all students. Unfortunately, high school students face challenges regarding healthy development — academic, social, and identity-based — during the transition from childhood to adulthood. These challenges include navigating their identity development, achieving academic success, managing school and family demands, and planning for their futures. Barriers to the successful achievement of these challenges include risk factors associated with family relationships, financial standing, …

Is Your School An A.S.S.E.T.?: Focusing On School Mental Health And Equitable Instruction, Emily Meeks Focused Minds Education Group, Taneesha Thomas

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

This workshop provides Educators classroom resources that can be used within existing curriculum frameworks to enhance the mental health literacy of both students and teachers.

The session suggests strategies to implement strategic, systemic and sustainable changes which promote academic growth, resiliency and wellness.

Thurgood Marshall Memorial Lecture Series: "A Roadmap To Educational Excellence And Equity For Rhode Island 03-03-2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

English Language Arts New York Regents Scores Among English Language Learners In Advanced Placement Courses, Maria Rosario-Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

With an increasing number of English Language Learners (ELLs) entering the American education system, one would expect an increasing number of ELLs as high school and college graduates. However, graduation rates for ELLs lag behind their monolingual peers, most likely due to a lack of college preparation provided to these students. With the implementation of AP For All in New York City schools, ELLs now have an increased chance to participate in college-preparatory and college-level courses. Therefore, an archival data correlational research study was designed to identify the association between ELLs’ participation in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and their English …

Who Takes Dual Enrollment Classes? A Research Brief, David Naff

MERC Publications

This research brief from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) explores three questions: 1) What are Dual Enrollment classes? 2) Who takes Dual Enrollment classes? and 3) What strategies promote greater access to Dual Enrollment? An accompanying podcast episode is linked in the research brief.

The Influences Of Equity And School Culture On Black, Latinx, And Mixed-Race Student Enrollment In Advanced Secondary Mathematics Courses, Fyniss Nixon

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This quantitative, descriptive analysis of three large, urban secondary schools in the South used equitable practices to intentionally increase the percentage of Black, Latinx, and mixed-race students in advanced mathematics courses. Each high school observed in this study acknowledged a disproportionately higher percentage of White students taking rigorous college and career-ready courses when compared with the Black and Latinx population. This disparity was not just isolated to the schools in this study. District, state, and national initiatives across the country are becoming acutely aware of the accessibility gap between (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) BIPOC and non-BIPOC secondary …