This dissertation studies college admissions in Brazil in the past two decades, a period characterized by a decline in the socioeconomic inequality in demand for higher education. The first chapter studies an affirmative action policy enacted at a flagship university in Brazil to lower the socioeconomic inequality in college access. I find…

A "turnaround" refers to a quick, dramatic improvement in an organization's performance -- inside or outside of the field of education. In education specifically, the term describes a rapid, dramatic improvement in low-performing school brought about by a new -- or newly empowered and accountable -- leader and staff. State, local…

The commitment of veteran teachers is vitally important to schools. Their commitment to public education can be used in leadership roles to identify challenges and remove barriers of public education. The current literature is clear that teacher commitment is related to many positive outcomes, and there is a great deal about the commitment of…

There is very little extant research on in-service teachers' motivation to remain in the field of teaching. The purpose of this survey study was to test how well Richardson and Watt's (2014) model of influences of initial teaching motivations and teaching behaviors fit for in-service teachers. Seven school districts from a mid-western state were…

The increased usage of computer-based learning platforms and online tools in classrooms presents new opportunities to not only study the underlying constructs involved in the learning process, but also use this information to identify and aid struggling students. Many learning platforms, particularly those driving or supplementing instruction, are…

Previous studies have established particular patterns of inequity, micro, and macro-aggressions that affect faculty of color at U.S. universities. This article provides an autoethnographic perspective on the experiences of women of color in LIS. It focuses specifically on the ways that prioritizing comfort and civility over equity and justice can…

This paper draws on data collected from two of the most extensive longitudinal studies of care leavers in the US. The Midwest Study (2003-2011) included 732 youths in foster care in three Midwestern states, and the CalYOUTH Study (2012-present) includes 727 youths in California foster care. The paper has three objectives: (1) describe trends in…

Psychological factors such as grit and self-efficacy have been heralded as powerful predictors of performance. Their joint contribution to the prediction of early adolescents' school success has not been fully investigated, however. The purpose of this study was to examine U.S. elementary and middle school students' (N = 2,430) grit (assessed as…

Across the nation, there is a large shortage of teachers in several subject areas (Daniel, 2015; Milliard, 2015; Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver-Thomas, 2016). In agricultural education, many teachers are leaving the profession within the first five years of beginning their teaching careers (Tippens, Ricketts, Morgan, Navaro, &…

Talent management has been an ongoing focus in teaching and career development among lecturers in universities. However, this effective practice lies in the conduct of certain factors in an organisation. Some of the important factors that contribute to talent management of an organisation are; the ability of lecturers to perform, organizational…

This paper compares an innovative approach to teaching a required introductory C programming course to a traditional C programming course for electrical engineering (EE) students. The novel course utilizes hardware-based projects to motivate students to master language syntax and implement key programming concepts and best practices. In a mixed…

In this study, we examine the short-term effects of an intervention aimed at developing teachers' responsive pedagogy in mathematics. The study analyses how an emphasis on responsive pedagogy in 9th grade classrooms over a period of seven months might strengthen students' feedback, self-regulated learning, self-efficacy and achievement in…

This study explored science, mathematics, and general academic factors that predicted outcomes for community college students (N = 3052) in a regional institution. A binary logistic regression was performed to determine significant independent variables contributing to successful outcomes (graduation or transfer) vs. non-completion. Transcript…

In 2007, the Multilingual/Multicultural Teacher Preparation Center, a teacher education program, was featured in a "Teacher Education Quarterly," 34(4), special issue on diversifying the teaching workforce. Though this center has since ended due to the disbandment of the Bilingual/Multicultural Education Department, this commentary…

Many Black men interested in special education careers enroll in alternate route special education programs over traditional preparation programs. However, there is little research that focuses on their reasons for choosing special education alternate route programs and what makes these programs an effective choice for Black men pursuing teaching…