This study explored the unique leadership journeys of Latinx women holding principal positions in K-12 schools across New Jersey. The research findings revealed that these women's career paths were significantly influenced by their social identity characteristics, specifically as female Latinx individuals. The study serves as a crucial reminder to…

Despite teachers being centrally implicated in teacher evaluation policy reform, we know little about the effects of its policies and procedures on teachers' work in their school district, and we see limited discussion about the possibility of teachers as policy actors to reflect upon and possibly improve or overcome teacher evaluation. Using data…

Students enter physics classes with negative attitudes towards physics compared to the other sciences. Female students are more likely to opt out of a second higher-level physics course. Thus, the broad goal of this work is to better understand how to have the most lasting positive impact on female students' attitudes and motivations towards…

This study is a critical discourse analysis of the New Jersey Opt-Out Movement. In 2015, and in response to the increasing standardization of US public school instruction, and over-use of high-stakes testing, NJ parents began to refuse to allow their children to take a key end-of-the year exam, the PARCC. We employ the concepts of master and…

For decades there has been an on-going debate regarding whether or not retention is the best strategy to use for students who are not meeting academic success--whether determined by a test, grades, or standards. Much of the research has indicated that little is gained academically over time by retaining students, but even more significant are the…

This study examined the way performance accountability culture influenced the work of public high school principals. A qualitative multiple case study design was used to discover the way principals responded to, and coped with, performance accountability culture at the local level. Interviews of nine high school principals in the state of New…

A sample of 433 university students from various institutions did blind assessments of twenty-two current New Jersey landscape images. Those they perceived as unappealing tended to be attributed disproportionately to New Jersey while those that were appealing were seldom credited to that state. In a self-assessment, these same students identified…

This participatory action research project worked with four street-life-oriented black men to document how a community sample of street-life-oriented black adolescents between the ages of sixteen and nineteen frame street life as a site of resiliency inside schools based on 156 surveys, 10 individual interviews, and 1 group interview. Data…

This study organized a participatory action research team of four street life-oriented Black men to examine attitudes toward opportunity in a community sample of street life-oriented Black men ranging between the ages of 16 and 65. Data were collected in the form of 371 surveys and two group interviews. Most of the data collection took place…