Lack of diversity in the science community is a serious concern for social justice, scientific productivity, equity and efficacy. The first year of undergraduate education is of critical importance in increasing diversity in these fields. Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) has previously been shown to be associated with higher student achievement in…

About 70 percent of all Black students attend schools where more than half of students are non-white. By contrast, just 13 percent of white students attend predominately nonwhite schools. Such disparate enrollments mirror longstanding differences across racial groups in educational and economic outcomes, including Black-white gaps in educational…

The purpose of the current study was to test culture-specific coping strategies as moderators of the effects of race-related stress on academic self-concept for 201 African American students attending a predominantly White institution. It was expected that participants who endorsed greater use of culture-specific coping strategies would yield high…

Recent societal upheavals have highlighted stark inequalities that affect the livelihood of marginalized individuals pursuing research careers. Established scientists have a unique role to play as casual mentors, or experienced scholars who are well-positioned to serve as allies to early career researchers by informally advising on academia's…

Women comprise half of the world's population but less than half of the paid workforce, less than half of organized workers, and far less than half of union leadership positions. Women benefit from union membership by enjoying a smaller gender wage gap than women without union representation. Unionized teachers enjoy higher salaries and better…

The achievement gap and the dissonance between the educational experience of culturally diverse students and white students have persisted since educational institutions were first integrated in the 1960s. For more than four decades, the discrepancy in the placement of culturally diverse students in restricted learning spaces has been chronicled…

This dissertation study aspired to examine the stories of what internal and external supports lead Black men to pursue, and persist through, doctoral degree programs at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Arguably, advancing one's education towards a doctoral degree, involves several years of rigorous coursework, a comprehensive examination,…

Universal screeners are being used as a more systematic tool of identifying students in need of academic and behavioral supports (Raines, et al., 2012). Given that majority of teachers are white, it is essential to explore whether Black students are being scored differently on the universal screener given the school racial make-up. Implicit bias…

Using administrative data from Georgia, we provide the first study of the full set of college entrance exam-taking strategies, including who takes the ACT and the SAT (or both), when they take the exams, and how many times they take each exam. We have several main findings. First, one-third of exam takers take both the ACT and SAT. Second, we see…

Creating and sustaining a supportive sociocultural institutional ethos for academic success among first-generation, underrepresented undergraduates (FGUU) is crucial to promote equity in Christian higher education. FGUU tend to underperform at higher rates than their continuing-generation peers. Research (including the lack thereof) indicates a…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore and understand how women of color managed habits holding them back from becoming a high school principal based on Helgesen and Goldsmith's 12 habits. Methodology: The methodology of this study is a qualitative multiple-case study design to explore the experiences of women…

Graduation from high school is a commonly accepted measurement of academic achievement within the PK-12 education system. Failure to meet this academic milestone is well noted to result in unfavorable outcomes in the transition to, and throughout, adulthood; negatively impacting individuals' health and employment opportunities, while increasing…

More women than ever are earning doctoral degrees and are taking research or teaching positions at universities. However, the number of tenured women in full professorships have not yet achieved parity with the number of men in similar positions. Of the many reasons proposed for the disproportionate representation of women in the higher ranks of…

The transfer pathway from community college to university holds promise for advancing equity in STEM because it is followed by disproportionately high numbers of underrepresented students. Among the challenges these students face is cultivating belonging in multiple institutional settings. By combining belonging and validation theories, this…

This robust mixed-methods study examines ninth-grade advanced course placement in Arkansas, revealing disparities rooted in race and socioeconomic status. Utilizing a logit analysis for a five-year pooled sample (n = 163,616), we find persistent enrollment gaps for Black ninth-grade students after controlling for prior academic achievement,…