During and in the immediate years after the global COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has given school districts across the United States millions of dollars through a series of three final grants called the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) Grant to help improve education, decrease student learning losses suffered…

This quantitative study investigates the aspects of professional development that have the greatest impact on teachers' perception of and implementation of professional learning. This study explores the extent to which release time and financial compensation influence teachers' perceptions of the resources available to support their professional…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to inform local practices in the state of Oklahoma regarding the equitable allocation of resources within school districts by examining the relationship between student per-pupil expenditures at high schools located in an urban district and student outcomes. Significant efforts, both legal and academic,…

The transition from high school to college is both scary and unfamiliar to each year's new participants. For high school students attending school in underserved communities, this transition can be lonely and often inaccessible. To combat this, nonprofits and other community organizations provide additional support services to students during this…

The aim of this research was to examine the influence of fiscal determinants on high school graduation rates for African-American students in Long Island public schools during the 2019- 2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school years, within the context of various federal initiatives and educational equity policies. Utilizing ANOVA and linear…

This dissertation examined the application of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in an alternative high school, emphasizing educators' perceptions and experiences. Amid issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigated how educators addressed challenges in implementing SEL into their curricula. The study was based on Fullan's…

High schools provide schoolwide and classroom level literacy support across content area classes, especially to students who have been identified as struggling readers. These supports range from scaffolded assignments to push in support to reading intervention classes. The nature and goals of these supports is constrained and enabled by broader…

The restorative justice process utilizes various intervention strategies created by indigenous tribes throughout the world, as an alternative to procedural justice (Zehr, 2002). In modern education, restorative justice was incorporated into the public-school system, where it has evolved into a preemptive measure to combat punitive discipline…

Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities experience poor post-secondary outcomes despite the existence of research-based best practices to improve outcomes (Freeman et al., 2019; Mitchel et al., 2019). Research signifies this population as under-served and under-identified (Barnett, 2012). Additionally, funding best practices indicate…

Illinois has distinguished itself as one of the most inequitable states in the nation when it comes to state PK-12 education funding. With the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act, and more recently, the Every Student Succeeds Act, student achievement data has been thrust in front of the public, and conversations regarding equity, quality,…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: Historically, Mississippi has lagged behind the rest of the nation in student achievement and funding for education. This comparative quantitative study investigated whether significant differences in student achievement as measured by mean composite ACT scores of high school juniors in Mississippi public…

The purpose of my study is to explore the stories of the ethical tensions K-12 educational administrators navigate when implementing high-stakes assessment policy in a culture of measurement during testing season. Some educational leaders, in particular K-12 school and district administrators, struggle with the tensions existing between their own…

Despite efforts to positively impact educational outcomes for underrepresented youth, the achievement gap persists in the United States. Underrepresented youth are students representing lower socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, or language minority populations that are underrepresented in higher educational attainment relative to their numbers in the…

The purpose of this study was to explore high school principals' perceptions, perception formation, and resultant behavior toward student online learning options. Using the theory of cognitive dissonance as the theoretical foundation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school principals in a large, suburban school district. The…

This mixed methods study analyzed school resource allocation patterns of a single Hawaii school complex with four elementary schools, one intermediate school, and one high school in the Leeward district on Oahu. This study aimed to determine whether the sample complex's resources could be reallocated using the Evidence-based Model as a comparative…