Planning for principal succession has become necessary for school districts to improve and sustain student academic success. As a result, some school districts prepare for principal succession by building capacity through acquired experiences and increased leadership competency in potential principal candidates using the "grow your own"…

Human capital theory suggests that lifetime income and socioeconomic status is a function of investments in human capital (Becker, 1962 & 1994; Becker & Tomes, 1986; Tomes, 1981). More recent developments show that human capital accumulation depends on mental health (Fletcher, 2008), in addition to ability, and access to resources to…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: The purpose of this study is to describe the perspectives, processes, and experiences identified during the implementation of the SIG Transformation Model in a rural school district in Mississippi. The Transformation Model is one of the four approved prescriptive models identified by the federal government…

Americans often believe that a college degree is the key that unlocks the door to the middle class. However, a college degree no longer ensures stable middle-class employment. To increase their chances of post-graduation employment, many students now major in "practical arts" disciplines like Business and Engineering. Graduates of…

Chapter 1 studies the change in women's college major choices in response to the dot-com crash. Although the dot-com crash had similar labor market effects for new graduates in engineering and computer science, it had different effects on who chose each major: women disproportionately left computer science, but not engineering. I investigate the…

An extensive literature documents the instrumental role of early childhood in improving individuals' life chances. This dissertation consists of three connected chapters that study the effects of early childhood circumstances on human capital formation and its economic consequences. The first chapter examines the impact of family size on…

Human capital development is crucial for economic growth. Policymakers must understand the factors influencing human capital accumulation since they may vary by setting and sector. For example, micro-enterprise employees enhance their skills through on-the-job training or vocational programs. In educational institutions, family and school…

The convergence of a digital transformation and a growing youth population in Africa represents an opportunity to harness digital and demographic dividends to boost human capital development. Higher education institutions play a central role in this process as the demographic dividend is accrued from the rise in the proportion of educated…

The purpose of this study was to determine if implementing student response technology (SRT) and case studies into a largely populated university undergraduate course would influence student engagement. When student engagement is influenced the potential for positive learning outcomes occurs leading to a higher likelihood of student success (Swap…

This dissertation is a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) higher education professionals who hold a position in the President's Cabinet of a public university in the Western United States. The study utilized human capital theory, social capital theory, and social cognitive career…

This dissertation presents three separate essays. The first two essays explore the gender wage gap and its dynamics in urban China from 1995 to 2018. The first chapter decomposes the gender wage gap based on the observed wage for workers with a precise measure of the hourly wages. The first chapter examines the observed average gender wage gap in…

An overwhelming majority of the chief academic officers at our nation's top research universities are white men. In a time where institutions are actively trying to recruit diverse talent, enhance student outcomes, and generate revenue, this lack of diversity in academic leadership is preventing them from achieving these goals and making…

Despite the well-established benefits of technological advances, a lack of adequate tacit knowledge sharing is one of the major setbacks affecting the development of human capital in technology industries. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the experiences technology managers will need to support the transfer of…

Registered apprenticeship (RA) programs have emerged in recent years in response to the nation's critical workforce needs. Since 2015, there has been a resurgence of federal and state investments to modernize and diversify the RA system to attract new entrants and new high-demand industries. This study uses human capital theory (HCT) as a lens for…

Although the Every Student Succeeds Act sets the parameters for parents and families to be involved in their children's education, there are no specified guidelines on how that involvement should be designed to best impact student achievement. The purpose of this study was to compare Grade 3-5 students' mean Milestones test scores in English…