Using detailed admissions data made public in the SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC cases, we examine how racial preferences for under-represented minorities (URMs) affect their admissions to Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill. At Harvard, the admit rates for typical African American applicants are on average over four times larger than if they had been…

Over the last 50 years, the US has experienced significant shifts in its racial and ethnic makeup, making it a much more racially diverse country than it was a half century ago. The racial and ethnic composition of the higher education system has shifted too. In spite of this progress, various forms of racial bias, socioeconomic inequality, and…

The purpose of this qualitative, critical race analysis study is to explore how White faculty conceptualize and apply critical race theory (CRT) and culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) to curricula within a college of education and how the perceptions of their students' identities influence specific pedagogical decisions. The researcher sought to…

This is a dissertation focused on the presence of cultural competence themes in teacher education and special education practice, and how cultural competence potentially impacts students who have been referred for special education. The current study is important due to its consideration of over-identification of some populations in special…

Community colleges have expanded access to higher education and were early adopters of online courses. Among literature on online course performance, Black students are least successful in online learning despite being one of the growing populations at community colleges. This case study investigated the experiences of Black community college…

The concept of nanotechnology has existed since Richard Feynman's inaugural lecture at the California Institute of Technology in 1959. As a coined term, the honor went to Norio Taniguchi in 1974. Since those two epochs, like any other STEM field, there are two significant concentrations: how to teach it and what it means epistemologically as a…

Over the last decade the Bay Area region has witnessed a lack of diversity in Silicon Valley technology professions, a subject of current political and popular discourse. The California State University (CSU) system provides accessible higher education; the CSU system approach to accessible higher education affirms the distinctness of regions,…

Black, Latinx, and other minoritized students have long been overrepresented in the high-incidence, subjective, disability classifications including Learning Disability, Speech and Language Impairment, Emotional Disturbance, and Intellectual Impairment. Special education places these students on trajectories that deny them access to quality…

Gateway college science courses continue to exclude students from science, disproportionately discriminating against students of color. As the higher education system strives to reduce discrimination, we need a deliberate, iterative process to modify, supplement, or replace current modalities. By incorporating antiracist, just, equitable, diverse,…

The lack of involvement of students with disabilities in a regular classroom has remained a major concern in education. Every year, the number of special students escalates. For instance, in the United States, students with disabilities accounted for 13.7% of all students between the ages of three to 21 by 2018 (Kositsky, 2019). According to…

The low number of male elementary and early childhood teachers is problematic in the United States (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2020). Of the 1.8 million public school elementary teachers (pre-Kindergarten-6th grade) in the 2017-2018, male elementary teachers accounted for 11% of the total (NCES, 2020). Colleges of education have…

This phenomenological research project explored the experiences of Somali parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and how these parents navigated the special education system. Autism affects Somali immigrants disproportionately (Minnesota Department of Health, 2009). Recent research indicates that children of Somali descent…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: A narrative qualitative methodology was used to examine the pathway of women superintendents within Mississippi. This study explored the superintendency for women seeking to ascend. Among the nation's 13,728 superintendents (U.S. Department of Education, 2019), only 1,984 are women, and of the 142…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the phenomenon of strategies college instructors enact that support the academic success of historically underrepresented students [HUS] (i.e., first-generation, low-income, and/or Students of Color) experiencing academic struggle. A critical-constructivist epistemology was…

There is a growing demand for online education; however, online programs yield consistently lower student retention rates and student success. Students in online programs are typically nontraditional students from underrepresented populations in higher education. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to determine whether…