An estimated 1 million+ children could benefit from the child care and early education proposal recently released by U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) for inclusion in the federal budget reconciliation package. The new framework, which includes $72 billion in additional Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds,…

Partnerships between Early Head Start (EHS) programs and child care providers aim to increase access to high quality, comprehensive services that meet the needs of infants and toddlers from families with low incomes. Quality in early care and education matters. In prior research, high quality early care and education was associated with better…

Policymakers enacted a series of reforms in the mid-2000s that significantly expanded benefits in the federal student loan program for students pursuing graduate degrees. These reforms allow students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their degrees and use an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) program that offers loan forgiveness after 20…

Food retailers are key stakeholders in the development, implementation, and effectiveness of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) nutrition pilot programs. Qualitative interviews were conducted to gather insight from food retailers regarding the feasibility of proposed strategies to improve food choices among SNAP participants. Two…

The Recipe 4 Success preventive intervention targeted multiple factors critical to the health and well-being of toddlers living in poverty. This randomized controlled trial, which was embedded within Early Head Start home visits for 12 weeks, included 242 racially and ethnically diverse families (51% girls; toddler mean age = 2.58 years; data…

Women are the majority population in Texas that participate in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and public housing assistance programs. TANF focuses on mandatory work requirements with a time-limit on assistance and lack of education opportunities. This dissertation documents post-secondary education opportunities for Texas women…

This paper uses the author's time as a Fulbright Roving Scholar in American Studies to Norway as an entrée into exploring human rights discourse and Human Rights Education in Norway, a country that is often thought of as one of the centers of human rights work in Europe--and appreciates this association. It begins by situating human rights in…

Coaching is a popular mechanism for supporting teachers' improved use of teaching strategies. However, relatively little is known about which coaching processes are used or how those are implemented, especially in emerging formats like online asynchronous coaching. We used a multiple-case study design to examine coaching logs from an asynchronous…

Purpose: In this manuscript, we aimed to (1) illustrate the differences in school-university partnership under the school reform and renewal models and (2) describe the practice of and learning about school-university partnership by reflecting on the three large, federally funded projects, all conducted under the school renewal model.…

This quantitative study was conducted to determine if (a) there was a significant difference in the percentage of student office discipline referrals before and after Social- Emotional Learning (SEL) implementation in 3rd through 5th grade, (b) there was a significant difference in the percentage of student in-house mental health referrals before…

College campuses are responsible for coordinating support services to keep students on the success track. Student issues often inhibit or obstruct progress toward a degree. The impact of COVID-19 has affected student trajectory and persistence toward a college degree, and students are feeling this impact. Two surveys conducted of students at…

Food insecurity is widespread among college students in the United States. Food benefits delivered through the CalFresh program, California's version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), can reduce hunger by helping students pay for groceries, but may not reach all eligible students. To date, higher education systems…

Federal Student Aid (FSA), a principal office of the United States (U.S.) Department of Education (Department), is required by law to produce an annual report, which details the organization's fiscal year financial and program performance. The Federal Student Aid FY 2024 Annual Report (Annual Report) is a comprehensive document that provides an…

Head Start is a national program that helps young children from families with low incomes prepare to succeed in school. It does this by working to promote children's early learning and health and their families' well-being. In 2021, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of…

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…