In recent decades, the focus and approach to college students' development and engagement had evolved to include more holistic student developmental factors (i.e., mental, emotional, financial, social/spiritual, and physical wellness) as higher education professionals assisted students in multiple areas of development. Higher education…

This study evaluates the perceived purpose, alignment, and effectiveness of the structures and processes intended to develop teacher leaders at a suburban school in north Alabama. This teacher leader development program has three distinct, yet equally important, groups of stakeholders impacting its performance and outcome: 1) teacher leaders, 2)…

Traffic incidents caused by vehicular crashes, roadway construction, disabled and abandoned vehicles, extreme weather conditions, and planned special events, comprise about half of all traffic congestion. As the duration of traffic incidents increases, it increases the probability of severe congestion, secondary crashes, traveler delay, travel…

Problem Statement: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, students were negatively impacted academically and social-emotionally (Kuhfeld et al., 2020). Preexisting academic inequities were exacerbated, especially for students of color, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and those from low-income backgrounds (Kuhfeld et al., 2022).…

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) known as No Child Left Behind, Every Student Succeeds Act, and other school reforms, rigorous demands are placed upon administrators and educators when students do not make Adequate Yearly Progress. In trying to follow state goals to enhance students' academic…

This dissertation in practice (DIP), responsive evaluation (RE) explored relationships of the Faulkner Academic Math Excellence (FAME) Laboratory characteristics and specific perceptions of students enrolled in developmental mathematics education courses at a rural community college in Alabama's southeastern region. This program evaluation…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the perceptions of the sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade teachers in Tuscaloosa City Schools about technology-enhanced practices and student engagement as a result of the "Digital Transformation Initiative." The Pre-service Teacher's Knowledge of Teaching and Technology TPACK…

In the US, the presence of a lifetime diagnosis of either depression or anxiety rose from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2012 in children aged 6-17 years (Bitsko et al., 2018) and by 2016, 16.5% had at least one mental health disorder including depression or anxiety (Whitney & Peterson, 2019). Children and adolescents exposed to adverse childhood…

This study investigated the structured mentoring program provided to novice superintendents by the SSA (School Superintendents of Alabama). This study examined new African American superintendents' perceptions of the facilitating factors and barriers that influenced the success of the program and the benefits in terms of attaining district goals…

For nearly two decades, there has been a powerful movement for fathers to become more involved in their children's lives, resulting in an increased number of fatherhood programs. These programs focus on various outcomes and can reduce the risk of child maltreatment. Four outcomes are measured in this study: interpersonal competence, parental…

Overweight and obesity are national epidemics affecting 42.4% of adults in the U.S.; with the southeastern region exhibiting higher obesity rates than most other regions in the U.S. (National Center for Health Statistics, 2020; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). Alabama ranks 3rd…

This study examined the relationship between the effectiveness of a school's instructional coaching program and collective teacher efficacy. Instructional coaching is the concept of providing ongoing, on-site support for teachers on how to use best practice teaching methods and how to assess the effect these methods have on instruction (Knight,…

Today in the field of education, as a result of the accountability movement, public school administrators, teachers, students, and parents are faced with continuous pressure to raise standardized test scores. Test performance has become a sole criterion for measuring academic achievement, specifically, the measurement of growth of individual…

The effectiveness of the Instructional Partnership Network (IPN), a collaborative initiative that provides professional development to school principals, has not been previously measured. An investigation of the impact of this state initiative on teacher efficacy, teacher trust in colleagues and teacher trust in the principal was conducted. The…

This study applies life course theory (Elder, 1998) to understand the effect of different mathematics course progressions throughout the high school transition period. The purpose of the study was two-fold: to investigate the effectiveness of two different high school's mathematics course progressions by examining mathematics achievement…