The debate surrounding the prioritization of services for emergent bilinguals with disabilities is an area in need of attention. The generalized belief that disability-related services must take priority over English as a Second Language services suggests that there is a critical need to develop school professionals' understanding that these…

Prior research points to a variety of factors that influence student persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree programs. Little attention, however, has been given to how STEM faculty understand these processes and subsequently frame their role in supporting students. To address this gap, this article reports on…

As workforce participation increasingly requires a college degree, ensuring that more students from traditionally underrepresented populations have the opportunity to enter and complete college is an equity imperative. To that end, high school reforms have promoted "college-going cultures" in low-performing high schools through…

As part of a longitudinal research effort that examines the influence of social capital on differential persistence and retention among undergraduate engineering majors, this study examines how engineering degree-related social capital differs for first-year engineering students by gender and ethno-racial groups. Social capital is operationalized…

Although increasing the racial and ethnic diversity on college campuses is a key component of any broad policy agenda aimed at reducing structural inequality, access to higher education does not always equate to graduation and equal labor market opportunities. For colleges, students, and society to reap the benefits of diversity, there needs to be…

Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for all families, especially those caring for young children with disabilities. Of the 24 million children under age 6 in the United States, about 5 percent (1.2 million) have a diagnosed disability, which qualifies them for early intervention or special education services through the…

This study examined whether students who left biomedical fields of study during college did so primarily because they became disenchanted with those fields or because they felt attracted to alternative fields of study. We identified 1,193 students intending to pursue biomedical fields of study early in college, collected data about their beliefs…

In the USA, women have consistently been proportionally underrepresented in science and technology (S&T). In these disciplines, as students move from high schools to colleges to graduate programs, qualified women drop out at higher rates than do men, resulting in a striking loss of talented students. Attitude toward a discipline is one of the…

We report the outcomes of a survey of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in life science academic (e.g., faculty) and nonacademic (e.g., research-related) positions seeking to ascertain variables that contribute to their success (e.g., favorable or desired outcome). Given that they had positions in research careers, all respondents were presumed…

Despite decades of research on racial disproportionality in special education, the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in services tends to be overlooked in policy and practice. Underrepresentation, however, raises the possibility of similar concerns about misidentification, bias, and racial inequality within schools as overrepresentation. Yet,…

Challenges for students who are "first-in-family" to attend university have been discussed within widening participation discourse. However, in the UK, "first-in-family" or first-generation students have frequently been conflated with those experiencing poverty or from lower socio-economic groups. This research integrated…

Bryson Valley Elementary School's population is changing, formerly consisting of students, 72% of whom identified as White, but now only 53% of students do so; 26% of its 800 students identify as Latinx,1 the largest minority group in the school. The school's new Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) teacher, Judith Hunter, notices a…

Administrative leadership, both within and outside educational contexts, remains a male-centric field. Female leaders often are evaluated based on male leadership characteristics, a practice particularly evident in India's education sector. In India, only 35% of academics are women and even fewer are represented in leadership positions. This paper…

The current study examined characteristics of natural mentoring relationships (NMRs; i.e. mentoring relationships that develop organically with adults in one's pre-existing social network) among underrepresented college students as contributors to NMR retention across the first year of college. The sample consisted of 209 underrepresented college…

Although the number of bachelor's degrees in the U.S. awarded to women has gone up, engagement of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to be low. This paper presents a project-based learning program, informed by education research best practices, designed to provide research experiences to female students…