African American students make up 17% of the public school population nationwide. Ironically, 41% percent of students in special education are African American (Kunjufu, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of teacher demographics on the overrepresentation of African American males in special education in a coastal school…

Do whites' views about the importance of traditional meritocratic criteria become malleable when they are confronted with circumstances in which Asians appear to be surpassing, whites under the current rules of the game? In the United States, the relative success of Asians compared to whites on various socioeconomic status indicators (college…

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 determine whether results on the English Early Assessment Program (EAP) examination predict college-level English success. Previous research indicates a relationship between EAP college-prepared status and academic achievement. The present study is unique, in that student-level community college English grades were…

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.…

Though much research has been conducted about the factors that contribute to overall college student success, little research has been conducted which ties self-efficacy, career focus, and a critical third variable, sense of life calling or purpose to race or ethnicity and the relationship of college classification to this topic. Specifically, the…

The purpose of this study was to identify and examine student perceptions of the lived experience of college and what supported or challenged their adaptation to college culture. Focus groups divided by gender and race or ethnicity served as the primary "self-contained" data collection method. Although the questions surrounding this…

The historical integration of the University of Mississippi (UM) brought both national and local attention when James Meredith was escorted by U.S. Marshals to enroll and attend classes on October 1, 1962 (Cohodas, 1997; Doyle, 2001; Eagles, 2009). Since the integration of UM, racial issues and efforts to promote racial reconciliation primarily…

This study explored the relationship between pre-college and college racial environments and post-secondary outcomes for Asian American students at selective institutions. This research utilized a sample of API students (n = 940) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshman (1998-2003) which examined the pre-college and college experiences of…

Leaving information technology (IT) management positions voluntarily can have adverse effects on productivity and knowledge retention among ethnic minorities. Despite organizational efforts to leverage diversity across leadership positions and to comply with governmental laws that protect ethnic minorities from discriminatory practices, ethnic…

Despite their educational and economic achievements in the United States, Asian Americans continue to be occupationally segregated in the labor force. Asian Americans are overrepresented in mathematics, engineering and biological sciences while underrepresented in field such as education, humanities, social and behavioral sciences (Bureau of Labor…

Despite the growing number of studies on video games, there are still gaps in video game research, especially when it comes to describing the situated (in situ) actions of gameplay. The study explores the locally-produced meaning-making practices of video game players, and analyzes gameplay as it occurs, not as a post hoc, reconstructed event, but…

Low- and middle-income students at public, two-year institutions too often do not apply for college financial aid (Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 2008; Kantrowitz, 2009a, 2011). This research first examines national data to identify what the risk factors are for not applying and compares those risk factors for students at…

This quantitative study investigated whether and to what extent the motivational and sociocultural factors affect female Asian American high school physics students' achievement, their intended major in college, and their planned career goals at work fields. A survey of 62 questions, extracted from subscales of AAMAS,STPQ and PSE, were…

Using a multi-ethnic, socioeconomically varied sample of children of immigrants attending Islamic and public schools from first through third grade, this dissertation examined the degree to which school-based family involvement predicted teacher perceptions of value differences with parents, teacher expectations, child externalizing behavioral…