In the United States, recent research has indicated an increase in adolescent stress, and higher levels of stress are associated with a negative impact on the mental health of adolescents. However, there is currently limited research about effective interventions to target stress in adolescents, particularly within high-achieving high school…

This research captures the experiences of high school graduates who were labeled English Learners while they were enrolled in a public high school in the greater Sacramento area of California. The study examined what these bilingual high school graduates report as beneficial and detrimental experiences faced while completing the course…

School personnel are accountable for the academic "achievement" of students with and without disability labels (Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015). In Wisconsin, "achievement" is measured via performance on standardized academic assessments (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction [DPI], 2019). The use of these…

This study explores the impact of implementing a peer mediation program in a middle school setting through an action research framework, presented as a series of case studies. The group of students receiving the intervention are on one "team" in the middle school, sharing the same group of teachers. The team is on a lower academic track,…

A large body of recent research calls for expanding what it means to teach literacy in the content areas. This includes movement away from conceiving of content literacy instruction as generic literacy strategies superimposed on content-area text. Instead, the focus is on the discursive literate practices of the disciplines, including ways of…

Stigmatization of students with disabilities is related to a variety of adverse long-term effects and many teachers experience challenges implementing empirically-based practices to address this stigma. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that predict teachers' efforts to address stigma in the classroom and barriers to…

This is a case study about giving voice to a neurologically diverse (ND) community of high school students in a life skills classroom. It is about their lived experiences while involved in a collaborative drama production with a regular education drama class. The research of this study was driven by the assumptions, beliefs, and philosophy based…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine the effects of school and students improvement interventions. The first chapter investigates whether, for whom, and under which conditions high school mathematics and science course graduation requirements (CGRs) affect student achievement and educational attainment. Drawing on data from…

The purpose of the study was to explore the current perceptions of adults who were enrolled in the gifted program of the St. Louis Public Schools in the fall of 1959 or spring of 1960. At this time in history the Cold War was a reality and the U.S. enacted the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) to find talented young people and give them the…