The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated school buildings to close in March of 2020 across the United States. From that time forward, many students remained in virtual learning environments, unable to step onto campus. The remote environments were isolating and struggled to support the academic or social and emotional needs of many students. The…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to notable disruptions in student learning, particularly in mathematics, impacting students from marginalized backgrounds. This quasi-experimental quantitative study examines whether the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Mathematics results from 2019 to 2024 indicate that students have recovered…

The United States is facing a high school dropout crisis. One of the early warning indicators of high school dropout is chronic absenteeism. This mixed-methods, post-hoc, hermeneutic, descriptive design study seeks to investigate the reported and self-reported attendance barriers for overage, under-credited (OU), at-risk, urban high school youth…

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus--COVID-19--a worldwide pandemic in March 2020 (Baker, 2022). Situated at a unique crossroads in that they are both social service healthcare providers and student support personnel, collegiate case managers and counselors faced the same abysmal odds as healthcare providers: an…

Obtaining a college credential can be a vital pathway for economic security in the United States. Institutions of higher education have prioritized not just enrollment, but the retention and degree completion of their students. One significant contributing factor to student attrition is the presence of a mental health condition. Prior to the…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused in-person school closures around the world that impacted student learning and academic achievement to an unknown degree for all types of students. A majority of research on out-of-school time (summer vacation, absences, weather-related events) and initial research related to the pandemic indicated a negative impact on…

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an emergency response to close businesses, shut down schools, and mandate lockdowns to mitigate the spread of the virus creating an unprecedented worldwide disruption in the family and educational environment. The problem to be addressed in this study is the unknown subjective lived experience of vulnerable…

The intention of this dissertation in practice is to provide structure to a peer-to-peer mentoring program to improve the academic success of students, while building students' engagement and social emotional skills through connections and relationships within the school district. This study is situated in a rural school community with an…

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 was a life altering phenomenon for educators across the United States. Schools and teachers had to transform their teaching practices practically overnight. Education in most schools across the country conducted distance learning in some capacity. A demographic group that was affected was economically…

This narrative study explored the experiences of teachers of color working with at-risk youth in marginalized communities during and after the pandemic. Before the pandemic, teachers faced many challenges, such as low pay, being stressed, overworked with a lack of resources, being overlooked, and not appreciated for their hard work. The Critical…

From the beginning of American history, disparity and inequity have existed in American society. This applies especially in the realm of education. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced in America. Adding to the already existing history of systemic educational oppression, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the many underserved and…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced mental health professionals (MHPs) to immediately transition to a remote therapeutic model. This transition brought challenges, but particularly so for those working in therapeutic schools with high-risk adolescents. This study sought to explore the experiences of these MHPs working in therapeutic schools in New York…

This study aimed to identify teachers' perceptions about alternative education programs and whether they are appropriate to meet the needs of at-risk students in Grades 3-5. The teachers' perception provides insight into the needs of at-risk students in the age group. Moreover, the demand for elementary education following the COVID-19 pandemic…

The purpose of this quantitative within-groups comparative study was to determine if there was a significant difference between the 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and the 2021 (post-COVID-19) third grade Standards of Learning (SOL) reading and math scores in urban Title I elementary schools in a southeastern state. The conceptual framework for this study was…

The post-pandemic return to school posed many challenges for educational leaders. Administrative teams had to come up with plans to close achievement gaps created by an extended period of remote learning. One suburban New Jersey high school identified at-risk students and created an Academic Mentoring Support (AMS) program as an intervention. Once…