Secondary Education Commons^™

Preliminary Evaluation Of A Dialectical Behavior Therapy-Based Skills Training Class For High School Students, Jared T. Izumi, Bethany Walczak, Jamie K. Elizalde, Matthew Hayes

Education Faculty Articles and Research

School mental health issues have become an increasingly important issue for our youth. Schools are a vital resource for providing prevention-based services to students. This study evaluated a pilot implementation of a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) based skills intervention in a single high school in the Midwest. The sample included a convenience sample of 39 students from three different teachers across three trimesters. Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills, DBT skill use, dysfunctional coping, fidelity, and intervention attendance information were collected. We used a hybrid fixed effects/multi-level model to evaluate the effects of the intervention (McNeish, 2023). Students increased their use …

Beyond The Pipeline: First-Generation College Students’ Community Cultural Wealth And Stem Degree Pathways, Douglas Havard, Zahra Gholami, Jue Wu, Danette Y. Martinez, A. J. Balatico, Lara Perez-Felkner

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines how first-generation college students (FGCS) and continuing-generation college students navigate STEM pathways by modeling four sequential milestones in the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09): high school graduation, college enrollment, STEM major selection, and STEM degree completion. Guided by Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, we use survey-weighted sequential logistic regression to estimate stage-specific associations between academic preparation, psychosocial resources, and institutional context, conditional on prior attainment. Results reveal distinct generational patterns of STEM progression. For FGCS, rigorous high school mathematics preparation exerts a powerful influence on high school completion, while later-developing math self-efficacy and science identity …

Factors Influencing Student Motivations And Experiences In Stem Course Office Hours, Gabriella R. Dauber, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Office hours are a part of nearly all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, with many academic and affective benefits for students who attend. However, despite their ubiquity, there has only been limited past work examining the sources of knowledge students draw from to shape their perceptions of office hours, as well as the factors that influence students' experiences in STEM course office hours. Here, we conducted semistructured interviews with 20 students enrolled in an introductory STEM course to investigate what motivates students to attend STEM course office hours, the factors that shape their experiences in office hours, and …

Exploring Secondary Teachers’ Mental Health Self-Efficacy, Perceptions Of Supporting Student Mental Health And Well-Being, Sherilyn A. Kile

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Research has indicated that over half of all lifetime cases of mental health conditions begin before the age of 14 years (NAMI, 2024a), making the adolescent period a critical and formative time. The unprecedented effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been linked to more mental health problems in children and adolescent youth (Sayed et al., 2024), particularly affecting southern California school districts that implemented distance or hybrid learning models (K. Brann et al., 2022). Secondary teachers are essential referral sources and gatekeepers for linking adolescent children to mental health support (Owens et al., 2014). Given the essential role teachers play …

Intersectional Predictors Of Early Mathematics Identity Among Underrepresented Engineering-Interested Students, Douglas D. Havard, Adriana Quirós-Arauz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines the intersectional factors influencing early mathematics identity development among underrepresented secondary students (grades 9-10) with aspirations in engineering. Mathematics identity is a well-established predictor of long-term persistence in engineering, making its early formation critical to understanding student retention in the engineering pipeline. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner's bioecological framework, this study situates learning within nested layers of influence. Using data form the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), which includes over 23,000 9th-graders, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted. The analysis examined intersections of race and gender identity across 16 variables spanning individual, micro-, meso-, …

Middle School Administrators' Perceptions And Processes In Supporting Their Teachers And Students, Moses K. Ochanji, Roxanne Greitz Miller, Benjamin E. Seipel, Erika Daniels, Rong-Ji Chen

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This paper explores the perceptions and processes of middle school administrators in California regarding the support for their students and teachers. Through semi-structured interviews, the study reveals how administrators conceptualize their roles, determine student needs, and ensure the provision of appropriate support. Key findings highlight the importance of a student-centered approach, the integration of social-emotional learning, and the significance of equity and inclusion in middle school leadership. These findings have implications for policy and practice, particularly in the context of professional development for middle school administrators.

How Do Preservice Teachers Learn To Teach Integrated Computational Thinking?: Evidence From Planning, Enactment, And Reflection, Rachael Dektor, Samuel Severance, Kip Téllez

Journal of Computer Science Integration

This study examines pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) beliefs and understandings about computational thinking (CT) integration and lesson implementation over time. Utilizing a design-based research approach, 3 PSTs led the co-design of integrated CT lessons with support from researchers and enacted these CT integrated lessons with K-5 students. All PSTs participated in a whole-group CT workshop and engaged in one-on-one lesson design sessions with a researcher. We utilized a grounded theory approach to qualitatively analyze pre-surveys, semi-structured interviews, and video data of three PSTs enacting their lessons. We found that PSTs’ initial beliefs about CT instruction – including the importance of it …

Experiences Of Latine Lgbtq+ High School Students In California, Michael Gorse

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Throughout history, Latine LGBTQ+ students have experienced discrimination, bullying, a lack of safety, and a lack of support in United States schools. In the unique political and social climate of California, the Latine LGBTQ+ student population have encountered a variety of supports (e.g., FAIR Act), successes (e.g., increased graduation rates), and challenges (e.g., Proposition 227, tracking) to their existence in schools. The limited prior research on Latine LGBTQ+ students has demonstrated that Latine LGBTQ+ students in positive school climates earn higher grades, attend school regularly, experience positive mental health outcomes, and feel a sense of connectedness to their schools. However, …

Broadening Participation Of Teachers In Computing: Examining Postsecondary Educational Experiences And Prospective Educators’ Cs Teaching Interests, Robert Schwarzhaupt, Alexsandra Galanis, Joanna Goode, Kate Blanchard, Jill Bowdon, Joseph P. Wilson

Journal of Computer Science Integration

Teacher shortages in K–12 computer science (CS) education negatively impact students’ access to CS courses, exposure to CS concepts, and interest in CS-related careers. To address CS teacher shortages, this study seeks to understand factors related to expressing a preference to teach CS among prospective teachers. The study team analyzed data from 27,700 prospective teacher applications accepted into the 2016–2020 Teach For America (TFA) corps (cohorts). The TFA corps is an alternative teacher development program that recruits and prepares participants to obtain their teaching certification while they work for at least two years in underserved communities on a temporary teaching …

Pre-Service Teachers Notice Student Thinking: Then What?, Tara Barnhart, Heather J. Johnson, Miray Tekkumru-Kisa

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Research has demonstrated that pre-service teachers (PSTs) can learn to notice students’ thinking in sophisticated ways by analyzing videos of classroom interactions. What is less clear is how PSTs use what they notice about student thinking to inform how they respond. Secondary math and science PSTs from three teacher preparation programs were invited to analyze a video clip identifying noteworthy moments of student thinking and describing an instructional move they might make and why. A qualitative analysis of their responses indicates that the PSTs overwhelmingly noticed both the substance and the source of students’ ideas. However, the patterns in their …

“Just Hold On, You Can Do This”: Conceptualizing Familial Support For First-Generation Undergraduate Students Of Color, Stephany Cuevas

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study illustrates how parents, siblings, and extended family provide emotional, informative, instrumental, and appraisal supports to first-generation undergraduate students of color. Findings also suggest that families’ support is shaped by families’ understanding of the challenges first-generation college students face, their access to information about college and college life, and their consideration of students’ emerging adult developmental needs. Based on the experiences and perspectives of 12 family members, this study shows that families continue to be engaged in first-generation undergraduate students’ college education in essential ways, countering deficit perceptions of these populations, and providing new understandings of what family engagement …

A Critical Computing Curriculum Design Case: Exploring Tribal Sovereignty For Middle School Students, Kristin A. Searle, Aubrey Rogowski, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Mengying Jiang

Journal of Computer Science Integration

We report on our efforts to design an integrated computing curriculum for middle school students in Montana that is in line with the Kapor Center’s focus on culturally sustaining-revitalizing pedagogies. Montana provides a unique context for doing this work because a state constitutional mandate requires all K-12 students to learn about tribal histories and cultures through Indian Education For All (IEFA). IEFA centers around seven essential understandings about Indigenous peoples in Montana that are integrated across content areas. In addition, implementation of Montana’s CS standards began in the 2021–2022 school year. In the curricular design, we sought to bring together …

Employing An Abolitionist, Critical Race Pedagogy In Cs: Centering The Voices, Experiences And Technological Innovations Of Black Youth, Tiera Tanksley

Journal of Computer Science Integration

This paper proposes a pedagogical extension of culturally responsive praxis called abolitionist, critical race pedagogy in CS. To showcase the power and potentiality of this pedagogy, this paper examines the experiences of 2 cohorts of Black high school students (n = 30) who participated in a critical race technology course that was taught during the dual pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism. The goal of this summer course was to employ an abolitionist, critical race pedagogy in CS to foster Black students’ ability to critically examine the ubiquity of anti-Black racism within the socio-technical architectures (e.g. code, data, algorithms and …

Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Computational Thinking: Enactment In Elementary Classrooms, Victoria Macann, Aman Yadav

Journal of Computer Science Integration

Technology has increasingly permeated many aspects of everyday life and this evolution raises the need for individuals to understand how the digital world works and what opportunities and risks it brings (Nouri, Zhang, Mannila & Norén, 2019). For this to be an experience for everyone, we need to rethink how we integrate computational thinking (CT) and provide teachers with tools to center their students’ identities, experiences, and cultures in the classroom. In this paper, we present two case studies of primary (elementary) teachers from a full primary (student ages 5–13) semi-rural school in the North Island of New Zealand that …

Teacher Candidates’ Conceptions And Practices Of Computational Thinking For Equity, Heather F. Clark, Symone A. Gyles, Imelda Nava-Landeros

Journal of Computer Science Integration

This study documents novice science and math teachers’ developing pedagogical approaches to integrating computational thinking (CT) and data into their courses to support educational equity and social justice. The 10 novice teacher candidates (TCs) studied were part of an urban teacher residency program that empowered them with an asset-based pedagogy we describe as “CT for Equity.” Drawing on coursework and interviews as data, we asked three questions: What are teachers’ conceptions of CT? What are their CT instructional practices? And how did their students respond to those practices? To explore conceptions of CT, we used Kafai et al.’s (2020) articulation …

Noticing Instructional Challenges In Artifacts Of Teaching, Tara Barnhart, Elizabeth A. Van Es

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study investigates challenges of enactment teachers notice when analyzing artifacts of teaching in a professional development focused on supporting the enactment of NGSS-aligned modeling instruction. Five secondary science teachers participated in a semester-long video club. Transcripts of the segments of their meetings in which they analyzed artifacts of practice were coded to characterize what they noticed in videos and student work samples from their own and others’ classrooms of students engaging in sensemaking. Through an inductive and iterative approach, three main linguistic challenges were identified related to the teachers’ noticing of students’ disciplinary thinking: learning how to communicate with …

Asset-Based Approaches To Multilingual Students’ Computer Science Identity Development, Sharin Rawhiya Jacob, Mark Warschauer

Journal of Computer Science Integration

While computer science identity development has been examined in several studies, there is much to learn about the development of multilingual students’ computer science (CS) identities. To develop strong CS identities, multilingual students must engage in culturally and linguistically sustaining curriculum, pedagogy, and interaction that draws from their rich and varied resources. This theoretical paper is grounded in a justice-centered, asset-based framework that views the traditions and practices in students’ cultures and communities as strong contributors to knowledge construction in STEM. We draw on multiple studies exploring multilingual student CS identity development to better understand how their personal, familial, community-based, …

Wind River Elementary Computer Science Collaborative: Connecting Computer Science And Indigenous Identities And Knowledges On The Wind River Reservation, Joseph P. Wilson, Kathryn M. Rich, Jared O'Leary, Veronica Miller

Journal of Computer Science Integration

Three Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone–serving districts formed a researcher–practitioner partnership with the Wyoming Department of Education, the American Institutes for Research®, and BootUp Professional Development to advance the computer science (CS) education of their elementary students in ways that strengthen their Indigenous identities and knowledges. In this paper, we share experiences from 2019 to 2022 with our curriculum development, professional development (PD), and classroom implementation. The researcher–practitioner partnership developed student and teacher materials to support elementary CS lessons aligned to Wyoming’s CS standards and “Indian Education for All” social studies standards. Indigenous community members served as experts to codesign …

Near Peer Pedagogies For Culturally Sustaining Computer Science And Mathematics, Cliff Freeman, Eli Tucker-Raymond, Juan Gutierrez

Journal of Computer Science Integration

In this study, College STEM Literacy Workers act as co-teachers in 9th and 10th grade classrooms alongside mathematics teachers as they both learn to integrate a 30-hour integrated computer science/mathematics curriculum. As part of the curriculum for educator learning, we adapted the Algebra Project’s “Model of Excellence” for culturally relevant-sustaining pedagogies. We used the framework to explore how teachers understand College STEM Literacy Workers’ contributions in the model as well as College STEM Literacy Workers’ own experiences in the classroom. We found that while teachers and College STEM Literacy Workers did not individually instantiate the model of excellence, they were …

High School Quality Is Associated With Cognition 58 Years Later, Dominika Seblova, Chloe Eng, Justina F. Avila-Rieger, Jordan D. Dworkin, Kelly Peters, Susan Lapham, Laura B. Zahodne, Benjamin Chapman, Carol A. Prescott, Tara L. Gruenewald, Thalida Em. Arpawong, Margaret Gatz, Rich J. Jones, Maria M. Glymour, Jennifer J. Manly

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We leveraged a unique school-based longitudinal cohort—the Project Talent Aging Study—to examine whether attending higher quality schools is associated with cognitive performance among older adults in the United States (mean age = 74.8). Participants (n = 2,289) completed telephone neurocognitive testing. Six indicators of high school quality, reported by principals at the time of schooling, were predictors of respondents’ cognitive function 58 years later. To account for school-clustering, multilevel linear and logistic models were applied. We found that attending schools with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the clearest predictor of later-life cognition, and school quality mattered …

Designing An Equity-Centered Framework And Crosswalk For Integrated Elementary Computer Science Curriculum And Instruction, Carla Strickland, Andrea Ramírez-Salgado, Lauren Weisberg, Latoya Chandler, Jeanne Di Domenico, Elizabeth M. Lehman, Maya Israel

Journal of Computer Science Integration

As computer science (CS) education becomes more prevalent in K-12 instruction, it is critical for educators, researchers, and curriculum developers to identify culturally responsive and pedagogically inclusive approaches that can increase participation, access, and feelings of belonging for students from historically marginalized communities. In response, we developed an equity-centered curricular framework and illustrative crosswalk that synchronizes three distinct pedagogical approaches: culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and project-based learning (PBL). We describe the framework’s theoretical underpinnings and explain how this framework informed the development of an integrated elementary science+CS curricular unit and provide examples of its implementation. …

Comparing Boys’ And Girls’ Attitudes Toward Computer Science, Danielle Scott, Amiee Zou, Sharin Rawhiya Jacob, Debra Richardson, Mark Warschauer

Journal of Computer Science Integration

Women are severely underrepresented in computer science (CS) degrees and careers. While student interest is a key predictor of success, little is known about how elementary students from underserved groups, such as girls, develop their interest in CS. To address this issue, we examined the differences in attitudes between upper elementary girls and boys towards CS after participating in a yearlong, inquiry-based CS curriculum designed for diverse learners. Pre-and-post surveys on students’ attitudes towards CS (n = 108) were delivered before and after student participation in the curriculum. Results from the survey showed only two demonstrated significant differences between boys …

Examining Early Elementary Computer Science Identity Repertoires Within A Curriculum: Implications For Epistemologically Pluralistic Identities, Eleanor Richard, Shakhnoza Kayumova

Journal of Computer Science Integration

As computer science (CS) enters an increasing number of elementary classrooms, researchers must investigate the representations of what kinds of people are presented as doing computer science within CS curricula. In this paper, we explore a widely used, freely accessible, web-based, early elementary CS curriculum to examine the kinds of identity repertoires (behaviors, actions, skills, and socioemotional norms) that are promoted as representative of being/becoming a CS person. More specifically, we draw on identity studies and employ critical discourse analysis to examine how the kinds of norms and repertoires of CS practice made available in the curricular materials might construct …

The Efficacy Of A Key Word Signing Workshop, Krista Mcmorran-Maus

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This study examined the effect of a 1-day, 6-hour key word signing (KWS) workshop on in-service special education teachers’ and speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) (a) skill identifying American Sign Language (ASL) signs; (b) skill producing ASL signs; (c) use of KWS in the classroom or therapy room; and (d) perceived changes from taking part in a KWS workshop. Participants included five special education teachers, three SLPs, and four students with complex communication needs (aged 3 to 14 years) participated in the study. All eight adult participants participated in a pretest-posttest design with repeated posttest measures over time, survey design, and phenomenological …

Integrating Computing Into Preservice Teacher Preparation Programs Across The Core: Language, Mathematics, And Science, Lauren E. Margulieux, Patrick Enderle, Pier Junor Clarke, Natalie King, Caroline Sullivan, Michelle Zoss, Joyce Many

Journal of Computer Science Integration

This paper describes the beginning of a design-based research project for integrating computing activities in preservice teacher programs throughout a middle and secondary education department. Computing integration activities use computing tools, like programming, to support learning in non-computing disciplines. The paper begins with the motivation for integrating computing that encouraged widespread buy-in, design goals, and design parameters. The primary motivating factor for this work was preparing teachers to use technology to support learning in their classrooms. Involving computing education faculty in the preparation enabled the activities to include computer science and spread computational literacy. The paper also describes the process …

Using Positive Student Engagement To Create Opportunities For Students With Troubling And High-Risk Behaviors, Amy Jane Griffiths, Rachel Wiegand, Christopher Tran

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Only half of adolescents feel engaged in school, with almost a quarter being actively disengaged. Engagement drops as students age because older students report feeling less cared for by adults and see less value in their work. Many of the students experiencing disengagement are those who exhibit high-risk and troubling behaviors. When considering the emotional or psychological aspects of engagement, which are routinely associated with high-risk behaviors, a student must somehow conclude that, at a minimum, at least one specific person at their school truly cares about them. Be it a teacher, coach, administrator, or counselor, when this caring individual …

The Conflict Campaign: Exploring Local Experiences Of The Campaign To Ban “Critical Race Theory” In Public K–12 Education In The U.S., 2020–2021, Mica Pollock, John Rogers, Alexander Kwako, Andrew Matschiner, Reed Kendall, Cicely Bingener, Erika Reece, Benjamin C. Kennedy, Jaleel R. Howard

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"For this study, we reviewed documentation from and about the campaign’s loudest proponents, particularly national and local leaders. We analyzed anti 'CRT' websites, toolkits, Facebook groups, and media appearances to understand their shared language, tactics, and logic. We analyzed survey and interview data from educators affected through early fall 2021, drawing on survey responses from 275 members of a set of national teacher organizations that support teachers who tend toward teaching on race and diversity, as well as an interview study of 21 'equity officers' (EOs) in district diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) roles across the country. We also drew …

Preparing School Leaders To Advance Equity In Computer Science Education, Julie Flapan, Jean J. Ryoo, Roxana Hadad, Joel Knudson

Journal of Computer Science Integration

Background and Context: Most large-scale statewide initiatives of the Computer Science for All (CS for All) movement have focused on the classroom level. Critical questions remain about building school and district leadership capacity to support teachers while implementing equitable computer science education that is scalable and sustainable.

Objective: This statewide research-practice partnership, involving university researchers and school leaders from 14 local education agencies (LEA) from district and county offices, addresses the following research question: What do administrators identify as most helpful for understanding issues related to equitable computer science implementation when engaging with a guide and workshop we …

Teachers’ Engagement And Self-Efficacy In A Pk–12 Computer Science Teacher Virtual Community Of Practice, Robert Schwarzhaupt, Feng Liu, Joseph Wilson, Fanny Lee, Melissa Rasberry

Journal of Computer Science Integration

Prekindergarten to 12th-grade teachers of computer science (CS) face many challenges, including isolation, limited CS professional development resources, and low levels of CS teaching self-efficacy that could be mitigated through communities of practice (CoPs). This study used survey data from 420 PK–12 CS teacher members of a virtual CoP, CS for All Teachers, to examine the needs of these teachers and how CS teaching self-efficacy, community engagement, and sharing behaviors vary by teachers’ instructional experiences and school levels taught. Results show that CS teachers primarily join the CoP to gain high-quality pedagogical, assessment, and instructional resources. The study also found …

Equality Of Educational Opportunity In China: Factors From Family, School, And Shadow Education, Qin Xiang

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The study focused on Equality of Educational Opportunity (EEO) in China from the aspects of family, shadow education, and school. The main purpose was to find the influence of factors from the three aspects on people’s educational outcomes. The interaction effects among family, shadow education, and school were emphasized to check how the three aspects correlated with each other and how shadow education and school moderated the effect of students’ family background on the (un)equal distribution of educational outcomes. The study used PISA 2015 data to analyze the association of predictors from family, shadow education, and school with students’ achievement …