This dissertation explores how environmental engineering can utilize STEM education as a strategic tool, enhancing social sustainability and thereby empowering underserved Hispanic communities in West Texas. Responding to significant educational and resource disparities, this research introduces an innovative interdisciplinary framework that…

Given the critical role of mentoring in the success of African American males in college, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of how mentoring programs can best support African American male students and what elements contribute to their success (Henry, 2021). Recognizing that mentoring significantly influences the retention, academic…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to use an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach to discover generative instructional and assessment practices of teachers in the language arts classroom at a 5th and 6th grade low socioeconomic public school campus in Texas that earned five distinctions or three consecutive years. The study sought to design a…

The goal of the College of Arts & Sciences Community-aid (CASC-aid) project, a National Science Foundation grant funded study (2016-2021), is to develop, implement, and evaluate a program that fosters a community of academic success for Hispanic STEM students. This Hispanic Serving Institute continues to provide a variety of supports to…

This study evaluated the Science and Literacy Instructional Model aimed at helping primarily Hispanic bilingual/English Learners (ELs) and economically disadvantaged fifth grade students with science achievement as measured by high-stakes standardized science achievement scores. The model combined purposeful planning, innovative academic…

The National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools (NCSU) spent the 2011-12 school year conducting intensive case studies of four Forth Worth, Texas high schools to understand what differentiates higher and lower performing schools. It was found that high schools can address gaps in student achievement by developing policies and practices that…

Teacher leaders who share their specialized knowledge, expertise, and experience with other teachers broaden and sustain school and classroom improvement efforts. Teacher leaders can transform classrooms into learning laboratories where every student is engaged in relevant and well-designed curricular content, every teacher embraces the use of…

This study examines the relationship between Hispanic English learners' learning, their parents' involvement, and their teachers' empowerment through professional knowledge. It is believed that Hispanic parents' involvement in their children's school activities is more influential to academic performance and educational attitudes than is teacher…

The Financial Empowerment for Student Success (FESS) Initiative was a two-year initiative focused on increasing student success through the provision of financial services. Achieving the Dream, Inc. and MDC, Inc. joined together, with funding from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, to support three Achieving the Dream Leader Colleges to…

Since 2000 the population in McKinney, Texas, has almost tripled. Remarkably, the school system has kept apace, opening a new school building almost every year. As the population of this Dallas-Fort Worth area bedroom community has diversified in recent decades, so has the student body of McKinney Independent School District (ISD). Despite the…

In the United States, an academic achievement gap has prevented many African American students from advancement and educational empowerment. Guided by Bandura's theoretical belief, which posits a relationship between social factors and an individual's perception, this non-experimental, causal comparative, control treatment group design study…

Graduation and dropout rates are the center of the conversation about high school reform, with President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education leading the charge to boost high school and college graduation rates among our nation's students in the next ten years. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive approach to keeping teens in school and…

This article builds and explores the hypothesis that parent and community participation in school governance can have positive impacts on community development by fostering improvements in school performance and school-community relations and by acting as a catalyst for collective action around community-development issues. It does so through case…

Background: Schools in K-12 have generated mission statements as ways of focusing their efforts and energies in specific areas. These mission statements vary by institutional setting as a function of the stakeholders and constituent groups who facilitate their development. To date, no studies were located in which the mission statements of…

The purpose of this working paper is to review current literature on literacy programs for parents of English language learners (ELLs). The paper includes a summary of five literacy programs for ELL parents throughout the United States of America. Four of these were system-wide interventions affecting more than one school or classroom. Each…