This study investigated how student participation in an authentic scientific investigation may shape underrepresented students' views of science and support students in learning science. The research centered on the instructional approach used in a fifth-grade classroom to engage English language learning students from Latino backgrounds in a…

This multiple case study relied upon a socioecological framework and the lens of resilience to investigate practices and processes that are correlated with higher academic achievement among African American, Hispanic, and English language learners. Utilizing quantitative measures for sample selection of 10 higher-performing and 5…

The purpose of this researcher was to develop an understanding of how parents are involved in their special education child's learning and to explore possible differences in parental engagement across age or grade levels (kindergarten through fifth grade) and cultural backgrounds. This researcher focused on Hispanic/Latino, Asian, and African…

This dissertation examines the student academic achievement through various mechanisms, put in place by the public school district, classroom student behavior, and negative external shocks to the students' living environment. I examine the impacts of various treatments on student short and long run academic outcomes such as math and English test…

This paper examines the effect of exposure to violent crime on students' standardized test performance among a sample of students in New York City public schools. To identify the effect of exposure to community violence on children's test scores, we compare students exposed to an incident of violent crime on their own blockface in the week prior…

Charter schools have recently emerged as popular and effective alternatives to traditional public schools. Less than two decades since charter schools first came on the scene, the nation has 4,578 charter schools dispersed across forty-one states and the District of Columbia. These schools enroll 1.4 million students, and their rapid growth shows…

Pairing dynamic out-of-school-time (OST) programs with zoos can encourage young people's relationships with and sense of responsibility for animals and the environment. The project presented in this article, Animal Rescuers, gave the authors the opportunity to examine how such a pairing can work. OST programs enable learning in settings that are…

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale (LSDS) in a sample of African-American and Hispanic-American children. Participants were a non-clinical sample (N = 186) of children ages 11 to 13 in the fifth and sixth grades in a school in the Metropolitan New York area. Confirmatory factor…