Many Black educators and principals led the nation's schools in the early-to-mid-1900's, when American public education was racially segregated. Black male principals leading predominantly Black schools was commonplace before the United States Supreme Court's decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" that ruled that the practice of…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe the experience of Millennials with a Bachelor Degree in Business Management or management related disciplines seeking employment in their field of study in NC the first three years after graduation. The theoretical foundation of the study was human capital theory. The research…

Teacher retention in rural Title I schools has declined drastically over the past several years. As more teachers leave the profession and turnover is climbs to astounding rates in these schools, the quality of education in the United States continues to decline. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the…

School discipline disparities within the U.S. P-12 public schooling system have been a staple issue for over four decades. The enforcement of out-of-school suspensions, in particular by inexperienced teachers, have traditionally impacted Black and Latinx students more than White students. Yet teachers are not the final decision-makers regarding…

To support the increasing numbers of Chinese language programs in the United States, there is a need to recruit and support highly qualified teachers. In this study, we described an online professional learning community (PLC) among a small group of Kindergarten Chinese teachers. All the teachers were visiting teachers with prior teaching…

In the present study I use teacher value added and evaluation rating data from North Carolina public schools to estimate the signaling and human capital effects of graduate degrees. These analyses consider the effects of graduate degrees, overall, and the effects of graduate degrees inside and outside teachers' area(s) of teaching. Signaling…

In this dissertation, I explore how international migration and environmental pollution shape human capital accumulation and labor market outcomes.The first chapter examines how college enrollment and major choice decisions of young adults in migrant-sending countries are affected by the removal of international migration barriers. My…

Innovation in education is vital for responding to emerging challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and for building progress on longstanding challenges in schools. The infusion of substantial, highly flexible pots of federal relief dollars created an opportunity to pilot new programs and initiatives. Many states and districts opted to invest…

The Power, Structural, and Technical Systems (PST) Career Pathway is one of eight within the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career Cluster; this pathway provides the curriculum that includes outdoor power equipment content. The perceived workforce readiness and skills needed in this pathway and related future trends were analyzed for…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how and why the human, cultural, and social capital (or lack thereof) of students from rural North Carolina counties of persistent poverty impacted their decision to attend a historically black college or university (HBCU). Students from counties of persistent poverty in their first semester…

Recent media reporting and research suggest that regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) and other postsecondary institutions may play an integral role in the welfare of rural regions, yet empirical research on the regional service of rural postsecondary institutions is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine how a single RCU serves…

Many community college students start college in developmental education and leave before enrolling in college-level coursework or making much progress toward a degree; thus, developmental education courses represent the primary education these students receive. Using student-unit record data from two large community college systems linked to wage…