The environmental workforce remains largely White, despite calls to diversify. There exists a narrative that environmental education programs can enact change by cultivating Connection to Nature (CTN) among individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). We contend that more work is needed to understand the full range of…

This dissertation aims to elucidate the complexities of chronic absenteeism in Head Start Programs post-COVID-19 to enhance early childhood education practices and policies. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study investigates the causes of absenteeism by surveying and interviewing 50 participants from a Head Start Program in the New York…

Child maltreatment is a serious national problem. In fiscal year 2020 alone, approximately 618,000 children in the United States experienced abuse and neglect, and 1,750 died as a result. OJJDP supports the important work of children's advocacy centers and their multidisciplinary teams of child abuse prevention and intervention professionals. In…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the work values that motivate higher education professionals, specifically those who work in TRIO programs, to persist in providing support to vulnerable student populations. Higher education professionals employed at two-year institutions are essential in assisting at-risk students with services that…

This study focuses on The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. Its mission is to increase the number of underrepresented students in STEM majors. This study will explore the interventions and support strategies in The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program that support underrepresented…

Background: Long-term care services are funded primarily by Medicaid long-term services and support in the United States, where eligibility is based on care needs of the individual with intellectual and developmental disability alone. Impact of Medicaid waiver services on self-reported caregiver needs is not well understood. Method: Caregivers (n…

At North Carolina State University (NC State), first-year master's students in the Higher Education Administration program enroll in the Foundations of Higher Education & Student Affairs (EAC 540) course that provides an introduction to the field of higher education and student affairs administration, including the historical and philosophical…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) on academic performance of non-traditional students and perceived experiences of its recent graduates at a public state college in Georgia. A mixed-methods design was employed for data collection including (1) year-to-year retention rates of 480 SSS and…

The Early Childhood Directors Leadership Institute (ECDLI) project addressed a need for effective professional development with a series of Institutes using the Program Administration Scale (PAS), the Program Management Inventory (PMI), and the Plan-Do-Study-Act model, over a 3-year period. Each of the 100 participating program directors in the…

In this report we present results from our study of the effect of SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and WIC [Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children] participation during childhood on food insecurity risk in young adulthood. We also examined the effect of parental nutritional knowledge and childhood…

The Federal Arts Project (WPA-FAP) (1935-1943) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a federally funded program designed through Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to keep visual artists at work during the Great Depression. Many of these arts programs took place through museums and exhibitions, bringing the visual arts to everyday Americans…

Wages below the living wage are poverty wages for many households. For decades, teachers have been clear about the damaging impact poverty has on childhood development in particular, as well as on individuals and communities as a whole. Teachers experience first-hand the impact that poverty has on children, how it leaves children more vulnerable…

New teacher evaluation reform efforts in the United States hold principals accountable for improving teaching and learning. Yet little is known about how effective principals are at these instructional leadership tasks or how principals experience and adapt to the demands of teacher evaluation reform over time. In the current study, principals (n…

A school facility's quality and accessibility have important impacts on schools' functionality to serve as places of high-quality education. While these challenges are familiar to most schools in the United States, charter schools are responsible for acquiring and paying for their educational facilities, a responsibility that local school…

Professional learning for teachers has become a staple in today's education continuous improvement system. Federal programs such as the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Program (RTTT), Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, Elementary and Secondary Education Act and others have supported funds over the years to account for developing…