Over the last century, the expected role of the classroom teacher has shifted dramatically. We have begun to move away from someone whose main purpose is to provide rote instruction to students, to a shift that educators are facilitators of learning that work to meet the needs of the whole child and not just their academic growth. An increased…

The African American population has faced adversity in the United States in many ways since the arrival of their first known ancestors in Jamestown in 1619. This narrative of systemic oppression creates obstacles and challenges for this people group even today. Using a transcendental phenomenological approach, the researcher, who has a long…

Highly sensitive students are in every classroom, but few educators know of their presence or the problems that they face in the learning environment. This group of children often struggle in silence as twice-exceptional individuals who have both significant gifts but also particular challenges to navigate a neurotypical school environment. Both…

The migrant student population in the United States has significantly increased in the last few decades. While these students are enrolled in K-12 institutions, the challenges they face as migrant children and the educational systemic barriers they encounter continue to present obstacles for their college completion. Educational agencies must seek…

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a methodology Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) utilize to help facilitate functional communication for a child who is non-verbal or limited-verbal. There are often disconnects in a student's generalization of AAC usage across the school and home environment. The purpose of this case study was…

The purpose of this research was to gain understanding and awareness of the perspectives of Black teachers who were raised in Africana Vernacular English (AVE)-speaking households and how they used their upbringing to navigate home and school settings. The specific linguistic and cultural needs of AVE speakers are not being adequately accommodated…

Despite decades of research and policy efforts, socioeconomic disparities in educational outcomes persist in the United States. In this dissertation, I examine these disparities, focusing on access to higher education during the later years and on academic achievement during elementary school. I explore the importance of family, neighborhood, and…

Translanguaging research among multilingual students has received considerable attention across different contexts of practice. The most robust contexts in translanguaging research have been the classroom contexts between teacher and students. This study examined the affordances of translanguaging spaces "between class sessions" in…

The main goal of the present work was to introduce a new conceptual framework for quantifying and classifying the environment by imposing a structure for sequencing contextual influences that echoes the study of genes. According to Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Human Development (BMHD), children's developmental outcomes are the result of…

This qualitative case study examined the role of three support advocates in an urban middle school setting when working with tier 3 students. Support advocates are support staff members who work with a specific caseload of students- identified because they are at risk of early drop out from high school- but defining their role as a wraparound…

Native American students have consistently scored less than their white peers on high school academic achievement tests, have the lowest high school graduation rates, and have the lowest college enrollment rates. Research has evidenced challenges and struggles Native American children are faced with that negatively effects their success in the…

COVID-19 forced schools to look at education differently within a matter of days. Some schools were prepared, and education flowed continuously, while others were left scrambling. Numerous initiatives have encouraged distance learning during the quarantine period to help students continue in their education. Utilizing a mixed-methods design, this…

Students in the United States are not achieving in mathematics as indicated on the NAEP (2019) exams and other measurements of student achievement (NCES, 2019; OECD, 2019; O'Dwyer, et al., 2015). Mathematically gifted and promising students are especially impacted by this phenomenon, though it is not exactly known what factors contribute to…

With the ever-changing world of education, it is important to stay current with the delivery of technology, and it is imperative that educators be aware of the social and emotional development of students during hybrid learning environments. At almost every level, administrators and teachers have discovered the rapid increase of technology and its…

The implementation of technology is inherently flawed in the field of public education, affecting the ability to operationalize technology in a way that is effective for teachers and students. This unfortunate predetermination is beholden to social, economic and political issues that are deeply rooted in bureaucracy. This autoethnographic…