Restorative practices provide alternatives to punitive practices, such as exclusionary discipline and zero tolerance policies. Restorative practices are important for elementary school counselors because they help repair the harm students do to one another while building positive relationships between and among students. A lack of understanding…

Elite private institutions, renowned for their exceptional academic offerings and rigorous selection processes, attract top-tier students and faculty; however exclusive private schooling has perpetuated social and economic disparities by granting unequal advantages to select groups, deepening educational gaps in society. This dissertation…

Suburban school districts have experienced a racial and ethnic shift within the past 10 years. School districts that once were predominantly White have pivoted to a more diverse demographic. While we have seen the shifting of student demographics the same has not manifested within school leadership. This critical qualitative study sought to…

Extracurricular programs are essential components of public schools. Although these programs are traditionally associated with secondary schools, many elementary schools now run extracurricular programs for their students. Research has shown participation in extracurricular opportunities is correlated with academic achievement (Cooper et al.,…

This research was a descriptive study in which the researcher explored the beginning phases of Ethnic Studies implementation in a Kindergarten through Eighth grade (K-8) school district in Northern California. Using a social justice lens, and through a review of Ethnic Studies, Collective Efficacy, Critical Consciousness, and School Culture…

This quantitative comparison study was conducted to determine if there is a significant difference in multicultural and social justice competencies (MSJCC) between urban and rural school counselors in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the study was to discover how school counselors in different geographical areas assess their work within a…

Defining and understanding what equity is and how to achieve it remain elusive within the field of education. As this leaves various interpretations of the concept of equity, principals are ultimately left to decide what equity is and how to provide equitable learning opportunities. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to examine how…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine six Wisconsin public elementary school principals' perceptions of their implementation of policies and practices aligned with the Learning to Teach for Social Justice -- Beliefs scale and the WI DPI's "Model to Inform Culturally Responsive Practices." Principals chosen…

The quest for greatness has produced disparate outcomes for communities of color, identifying racial and economic injustices that require a call for action. The case study examines the relationship between Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) and Title I elementary schools, as applied in a location that served an African…

During the last 60 years, national standardized testing has confirmed a gap in reading and math scores between White and Black students, often called the achievement, opportunity, equity, or race-based gap (Coleman et al., 1966; NCES, 2021). Researchers have attempted to identify factors that influence these student outcomes (Jayavant, 2016).…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand how principals who lead community schools in New York City make sense of their work and their lived experiences in advancing social justice for their students and school communities particularly during this COVID-19 pandemic. Community schools, by virtue of their design and…

This qualitative, interpretive study explored the perspectives of suburban public K-5 principals on their leadership of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. Semi-structured interviews included 13 participants who have been serving as principals of schools with at least 300 students for over two years. The study's research questions focused…

Social justice leadership that attends not only to equity of access and opportunity for marginalized students, but also to critical consciousness for all students has been largely ignored in empirical research in high-performing, high socioeconomic suburban elementary schools. To address this research gap, this qualitative study utilized a…

Over the past few decades, a growing number of same-sex parents have joined school communities nationwide as their children reached school age (Byard, Kosciw, & Bartkiewicz, 2013). The already large and growing population of LGBQT parent-headed families necessitates the need for educators to examine the ways anti-LGBQT bias and behavior…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the implementation of Restorative Practices in selected elementary schools in southeast Texas. Restorative Practices will generally be defined as a social science that studies how to build social capital and achieve social discipline through participatory learning and decision…