Latinos comprise a significant portion of the total school enrollment in the U.S., and an increasing share of Latinos are pursuing higher education today. However, Latino students still face many educational barriers, and research has repeatedly demonstrated that Latino children lag their peers in terms of their academic achievement. In addition,…

The researcher explored empowerment, sustainability, and leadership pertaining to Texas' District of Innovation designations. House Bill 1842, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2015, allowed qualifying districts to exempt certain sections of the Texas Education Code. The aim of these exemptions was to decentralize governance in order to…

This dissertation consists of three connected studies. Each study reviews the impact of policies for practice. The policies highlight shifts that aim to foster innovation in their field of implementation. The policies analyzed are ones recently adopted by California and present implications for fiscal accountability and programmatic changes.…

Value creation is often at the core of many organizational activities and is often reflected in the exploration and exploitation of opportunities to foster organizational growth. In modern organizations, information technology (IT) plays a significant role in creating business value and building substantial competitive advantage. While in the…

Innovation has become an important phenomenon in engineering and engineering education. By developing novel, feasible, viable, and valued solutions to complex technical and human problems, engineers support the economic competitiveness of organizations, make a difference in the lives of users and other stakeholders, drive societal and scientific…

Past studies have shown that mobile learning can enhance learning performance and that the extended and emergent use of technology was a critical factor towards the realization of the potential benefits of the technology. However, studies have also shown that most teachers were still at the initial adoption stage of mobile learning technologies…

The role community college faculty play in developing and teaching asset-based, student-centered, and humanized online courses is critical to a college's ability to use online education to improve student success. The study's purpose is to examine community college faculty attitudes regarding the adoption of online education innovations and the…

Carl Jung introduced using creative expression (active imagination (AI)) to connect with contents of ourselves of which we are not aware (the unconscious mind). AI is a powerful technique in psychology and education. Approaches in American education are proving inadequate in several ways. This study applied AI to mathematics classrooms by…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is increasingly recognized as both effective and associated with high student engagement. This study sought to explore this relationship between PBL and student engagement. Cycle 1 participants consisted of PBL experienced secondary school teachers and one principal. They offered insights on its high value and…

Grounded in sociocultural notions of teaching and learning, this qualitative case study examines the practices of 10th-grade English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Language Arts (ELA) co-teachers to promote the academic language and literacy development of their shared students, including English learners (ELs), never-ELs, and fluent…

The bourgeoning scholarship on community organizing for educational change suggest positives outcomes when it comes to countering failed school reforms. Early reports on community organizing across the United States have shown an exponential grow since the 1990s and by 2010 there were 500 of 800 community organizing groups were working in the area…

The prominence of virtual reality (VR) in the educational field has grown in recent years due to increased availability and lower costs. I conducted a global study regarding how pioneering K-12 teachers use VR to engage students in learning activities. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify how and why teachers used VR for…

The overall purpose of this study was to understand the influence of selected factors on the adoption of school gardens by Agricultural Science teachers in Alabama. This study looked at how the relationships between characteristics of teachers, characteristics of innovation, and barriers to adoption affected the diffusion of school gardens. A…

Current literature on nursing education indicates curriculum design mandates that meet recommendations from the nursing legislature and accreditation bodies. Innovative curricula designs in nursing education are aimed towards resolving content saturation issues associated with traditional systems-based curricula while improving quality in pedagogy…

Multi-stakeholder collaborative networks (MSCNs) centered around innovative problem solving have become increasingly popular. These collaborations seek to pool the resources of the various stakeholders in order to address their common issue. The importance of the collaboration members' awareness of one another's resources is the basis for this…