The mission of "Excelencia" in Education is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. A critical group of institutions enrolling and graduating Latino students are Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). In 2023-24, two-thirds of all Latino undergraduate students in higher education (67%) were enrolled in 602 institutions…

Service-learning is highly praised as a successful pedagogical tool for students' learning. Benefits are attributed to students, the university, and the community. However, the literature also cautions that the benefits of service-learning are largely assumed without empirical testing, warranting a closer review of this pedagogical method. The…

As the complexity of school and district contexts continue to evolve, there is a need to prepare leaders at various points along the leadership continuum. Through this survey research, we analyzed student perceptions of program effectiveness (N = 408) from 2013 to 2020 in one educational leadership program through the lens of student professional…

HBCUs have contributed to the formation of strong leaders who have challenged many assumptions of our nation's founders, defended our sovereignty when attacked by internal and external enemies, and sacrificed for the betterment of their communities. HBCU campuses include opportunities for Black students to engage in religious and community service…

Due to COVID-19, all courses at a regional comprehensive university in the southeastern United States transitioned online and were delivered remotely in the latter half of the spring semester of 2020. In this study, students' performance data from four graduate programs in social sciences and two graduate mathematics programs for the spring…

Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs have proliferated during the past two decades but research on post graduate educational pathways CCB graduates follow is limited. The purpose of this multiple case embedded design comparative study (Yin, 2012) was to describe and further understand the experiences of CCB graduates as they explored…

The current study utilized a single-group pretest-posttest design to evaluate students' self-perceived competence and comfort of using a variety of play therapy techniques and interventions with a range of client populations as a result of taking a one-week intensive course in Play Therapy. In an effort to conduct course evaluation and explore…

In this article we describe a graduate program for practicing teachers at the University of Florida. Offered in a blended format (mostly online but supported by a local faculty member), the program embeds graduate work within school reform efforts in hard to staff schools in partner school districts up to 350 miles away from campus in order to…

Social work programs in the United States (N = 74) were investigated to determine strategies used for recruiting and retaining MSW students of color. Most schools had student populations exceeding 25,000 and combined BSW, MSW, and PhD programs. Data were collected using a Graduate Recruitment and Retention Scale with corresponding and acceptably…

The demographic profile of the United States has been rapidly changing; by 2020, minority students will constitute the majority of the public school student population nationwide. This makes cultural competence a necessity for today's school leaders. Educational leadership preparation programs are responsible for preparing culturally competent…

Objective: This is a replication of a study that examined the effects of teaching foundation competencies in group work to social work students and assessed their self-confidence in applying these skills. This study improves on the first by utilizing a controlled design. Method: Twenty-six master of social work students were taught group work…

Social work has moved firmly into a need for partnership training models, as our newest Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards explicitly call for interprofessional education (IPE). Although IPE is not a new model, we have not been consistently involved in training partnerships. Three professional schools formed partnerships to provide IPE…

This applied dissertation was designed to determine the level of satisfaction with the current academic advising approaches used for foreign-born Latino adult learners enrolled in a master's degree program designed specifically for Spanish-speaking immigrants in two Hispanic-serving institutions in Florida. The data collected through this study…

In this paper we offer a model that seeks to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem as a portfolio approach to economic development through ongoing partnerships vs. one-off initiatives that may serve as a prototype for economic development in transitional economies. The model, developed by Tupperware Brands, Rollins College, and the U.S. Department…

In 2009, the second largest university in the nation was awarded a grant from NCURA to initiate a new fully-online graduate program in research administration. The Master of Research Administration (MRA) was approved by the institution's Board of Trustees in March 2011 and the first classes will begin August 2011. Currently the research literature…