Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which the rates of students who did not persist or graduate had changed from the 2014-2015 academic year through the 2019-2020 academic year for first-time in college students by their ethnicity/race (i.e., Hispanic, Black, White, and Asian) and enrollment…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which economic status was related to the number of days that students were assigned to an exclusionary discipline consequence. In the first study, the effect of economic status (i.e., Not Poor and Poor) on the number of days that Grade 5 and 6 Asian,…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation centered on community college students in Texas, was to determine the degree to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates. The first specific purpose was to establish the degree to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to describe the racial/ethnic demographic characteristics of students and teachers in Texas public schools. The first specific purpose was to describe the ethnic/racial demographic characteristics of students and teachers in Texas elementary public schools for the 2010- 2011…

Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to examine the extent to which differences were present by student demographic characteristic in the reading achievement of Texas Grade 3 students. In the first article, the extent to which the economic status (i.e., Poor, Not Poor) of Grade 3 underrepresented boys in Texas is related to…

Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the extent to which differences might be present in discipline consequence assignments by student demographic characteristics in Texas middle schools. In the first investigation, the degree to which discipline consequence assignments differed by the degree of student economic…

Children's literature serves as mirrors and windows for the students we teach today. Through literature, children should be able to see their own reflections as well as the world around them. Yet despite their long history in the United States, Asian Americans have not always been represented in children's literature. This study analyzed the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the college-readiness rates of Black, Hispanic, White, and Asian graduates of public secondary schools in Texas using archival data from the Texas Education Agency Academic Excellence Indicator System. Data examined were the average ACT and SAT scores for the past 10 school years (i.e., 2001-2002…

Online learning, or e-learning, has become popular and grown rapidly in the past few decades, especially in higher education. In 2007, 66% of postsecondary degree-granting institutions in the United States reported offering online education. With advances in technology and the Internet, online education has the potential to reach a diverse group…

Purpose: The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was to examine the effect of Texas' Closing the Gaps by 2015 college readiness plan on graduation and persistence rates in community colleges. Specifically examined in this study were the graduation and persistence rates and the 4-year and 6-year graduation rates of Texas community…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the ethnic representation of full-time faculty and the ethnic membership of the student body at 4-year universities in Texas. A second purpose was to ascertain the relationship of faculty diversity to student diversity with respect to student academic success. This descriptive analysis will…

This study investigated the lived experiences of first-generation college students and the perceived influence of taking high school Advanced Placement (AP) courses on their college education. The following research questions were addressed: (a) what motivated students to consider going to college, (b) what was their experience in taking AP…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine advanced coursework completion rates, Advanced Placement (AP)/International Baccalaureate (IB) testing rates, AP/IB exam passage rates, and the percentage of AP/IB exam scores at or above the criterion that may exist among Texas public high school students from 2001 to 2012 to ascertain (a) the…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of rhythm and tonality on an academic memory task by comparing three different treatment conditions: a poem, a rhythmic chant (or rap), and a melodic rhythm (or song). A quasi-experimental experiment was designed and implemented, specifically a pretest-posttest-posttest control-group design.…

In Texas, fifth grade students are required to pass both the reading and math sections of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in order to be promoted to the next grade level. The purpose of this study is to describe parents' perceptions of the influence of the high-stakes TAKS test on the family lives of at-risk fifth grade…