There is a lack of research on African American male adolescents who have progressed socially and academically in charter school systems under the administrative and classroom leadership of African American men. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain a deeper understanding of how adolescent African American male students in one…

African American adolescent suicidality has become more prevalent, and urban school counselors are positioned uniquely to intervene. This research studied the overarching societal factors in the sociocultural, economic, and political spheres that influence increased suicidality behaviors in African American adolescents from the perspective of…

School-based mental health treatment programs are vital for providing access to care, assessing trauma and risk to decreasing negative coping mechanisms for students attending public school in marginalized communities. This doctoral project focuses on a school-based mental health intervention program called PATHWAYS, which has been implemented in…

The ongoing phenomenon of African American males' poor academic performance has been evidenced in research data, indicating this subgroup of students tends to have one of the largest academic deficits, behavioral issues, and high school dropout rates which often leads to the school-to-prison pipeline process (Craven et al., 2020). The researcher…

This study will examine factors that contribute to the decline in achievement scores in reading and mathematics when students transition from elementary to their first year in middle school or junior high school. It will test the hypothesis that motivation is not a function of mentors, academic support, teams, parental involvement, transition…

Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides students with a full education in academic areas as well as a career area of interest, allowing students to apply their school-based learning in the real world through work-based learning. At the same time, urban CTE adolescents have historically been marginalized and placed in a deficit…

Transition from high school to adulthood for students with developmental disabilities is a monumental stage for both the individual and his or her family. Past research has shown that one of the most salient predictors of students' successful transition is their parents' involvement with transition planning, however, during this time parent…

Music education research on popular music can be characterized by its emphasis on adolescent experiences and performance practice. In contrast, this study explored the ways in which popular music listening fostered deliberation and dialogue within a group of New York City elementary school children. Recognizing that popular music listening is a…

Many adolescents struggle to comprehend text, a fact which has led educational researchers to speculate that these reading struggles might be linked with students' levels of familiarity with the vocabulary and language found in these texts. However, few studies have identified the school-relevant language skills beyond vocabulary that contribute…

This qualitative case study focused on contemporary school leadership and parental interrelationships, exploring the relationship, if any, between school leaders and the families of pregnant and parenting urban African American teen mothers in a northeastern city. The social, emotional, academic, and medical perspectives of ways families can…

This is a study that investigated the effects of Advisory program on African American high school students with specific learning disabilities. In this qualitative study the advisory program is examined through the lenses of teachers and students from a Mid East Metropolitan Area (MEMA). Three research questions guided this dissertation: (1) How…

To examine disparities in education, the researcher utilized a naturalistic approach to uncover how youth think, talk, and feel about their response to schooling. Findings are based on in-depth conversations with 12 inner city African-American kids enrolled in Urban, USA middle and high schools, rarely heard from in the scholarly literature.…

This qualitative study analyzed the meaning-making practices of urban adolescents participating in a college preparatory program featuring philosophical inquiry into cosmopolitanism and the creation of multimodal texts. In contrast to studies of composing that focus on individual outcomes, this dissertation traced group meaning making. The study…

Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice programs in schools are a new and emerging field. Meeting in Circles to build community, resolve conflict, and learn interactively are core components of these programs. This ethnographic study, which took place February 2010 to December 2011, evaluates 12 small, out-of-classroom Talking Circles for 60…

This ethnography seeks to identify the strengths that students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), a unique subpopulation of English Language Learners (ELLs), possess and explore how those strengths may be utilized in the secondary classroom. This research aims to shift the focus from "eliminating deficits" to working…