The purpose of this dissertation work is to investigate sustainability incorporations in undergraduate mechanical engineering curricula. Engineering decisions have deep impacts on people and the planet. Therefore, it is important for all engineers to learn engineering that integrates these important factors. This work starts with an evaluation of…

Students determined to be underprepared for college-level mathematics would be enrolled in a sequence of developmental mathematics courses before taking their college-level mathematics course. Students who started in the lowest level of developmental mathematics had a twenty percent chance of completing their college-level mathematics credits…

Postsecondary institutions are redesigning the ways in which they offer remedial courses to support students' progress and eventual success in college more effectively A corequisite approach places students assessed as marginally remedial directly into college-level courses but provides them with additional academic support. The rationale is that…

Developmental education field has been going through numerous transformations with the main focus being on an overall student success rate and transfer. The latest legislative decisions resulted in a few new approaches to developmental education being introduced to the teaching faculty in the state of North Carolina (NC), as well as around the…

A well-run introductory CS1 course is essential for all students within CS education. CS1 is necessary to keep students in the major and important to attract non-majors to the CS field. Unfortunately, there are many well-known issues that most CS1 courses have in common: high drop rates, low retention, high student stress, student struggle,…

Strong knowledge of foundational mathematics concepts is essential for success in high school mathematics courses, yet only one-third of middle school students in Hawai'i demonstrated proficiency in grade-level mathematics in 2019. Despite this problem, there are only a few studies investigating interventions aimed at addressing gaps in students'…

During the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forever changed the lives of Americans. Being an educator, I experienced the school shutdowns of March 2020 and felt the impacts on our educational system on a personal level. More students than ever failed courses needed to be promoted and to graduate high school. This led to more students at my…

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…

College courses intended to help undergraduate students understand the ideas, benefits, and challenges of diversity are required at many U.S. universities. Intended learning outcomes for these courses are often set by the institution and interpreted by faculty, whose diversity-related background preparation and support for teaching vary. Without…

In recent years, student completion of the first-year and second-year college curriculum has become a significant barrier to student success and retention especially at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Despite low pass and retention rates, many degree programs in the U.S. require at least one college-level mathematics course, and the…

My dissertation evaluates two efforts to improve undergraduate economics education---the College Fed Challenge (CFC) competition and requiring intermediate algebra as a prerequisite for taking introductory economics courses. Using survey data of undergraduate students who participated in the CFC competition and a control group of students who did…

There is a low enrollment of African American high school students in advanced mathematics. High school advanced mathematics are prerequisites to college calculus, one of the basic courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. African Americans earned only 7.6% of all bachelor's degrees in science, technology,…

The researcher conducted a quantitative study to compare the differences in scores on prescriptive and cumulative tests of high school math students between blended and online learning instructional settings. The researcher collected archival data from the district where students participated in blended or online learning instructional settings…

This constructivist study investigates and captures the lived experiences of three social studies educators as they make sense of civic education in a climate of high stakes testing and accountability. In spite of the deterioration of civic education over the years (Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, 2011), Florida was among the first…

Through using the framework of sociocultural theory, this study examined the ways in which students were initiated into an academic discourse community at a public college through the required courses of first year composition (FYC). The purpose of the study was to see how instructors assisted students to become part of the academic discourse…