In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher retention rates have declined across the country. This alarming trend shines a light on the teaching profession as there are fewer aspiring teachers who are prepared each year. One focal point is how working conditions influence a teachers intent to stay. Collective Efficacy is an extension of teacher…

The State University of Iowa held inaugural commencement practices in 1857--a mere eleven years after Iowa became a state. The flagship, now named the University of Iowa (UI), has a long and storied commencement history. Commencements have been cancelled. They have been postponed. They have been displaced. But they have never been virtual…until…

In March 2020, when public health stay home orders began in order to halt the spread of COVID-19, child care as an industry was drastically and abruptly impacted. This public health emergency highlighted the weaknesses in the child care system in the United States. This study investigated the changes in operations cost, child enrollment and…

Teacher retention has been a challenge for most schools for several years. High-needs schools have been known to have twice the trouble with teacher retention as schools not considered high-needs. The purpose of this study was to identify effective practices school principals can implement to retain teachers at high-needs, urban secondary schools.…

Because states typically fund districts based on student counts, districts reporting shrinking enrollment worry about shrinking dollars as well. The seemingly obvious quick fix is for states to hold districts financially harmless for some or all of their enrollment loss. But states have many factors to weigh when deciding whether or how to go down…

Congress passed three coronavirus relief acts within a 1-year period that provided more than $275 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus, which the President declared as a national emergency in March 2020. This included $189.5 billion for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief…

This two-article dissertation explores and exploits the heterogeneity of the social world that becomes visible at times of crisis--in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic created a portal to study the dynamics of race and capitalism. In this dissertation, I conduct critical analyses of systems of oppression at the institutional…

Investments in professional development have been more important than ever for community colleges this past year against the backdrop of the pandemic and all that it has changed. While some colleges are facing declining enrollments and less in the way of state funding, they are stretching every professional development dollar they can get their…

In March 2020, COVID-19 resulted in school closures for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year across the nation. Because of the pandemic predictions regarding the 20202021 school year, concerns regarding curricular offerings and delivery surfaced quickly. A non-experimental quantitative comparative study was conducted in two neighboring…

To address employee well-being and to attract and retain employees, some employers are exploring remote work options. The onset of COVID-19 forced many institutions of higher education to implement remote work for non-academic salaried staff. However, levels of employee well-being while working remotely have been little studied in this population…

Agricultural and extension educators frequently employ a variety of methods to provide farmers with information about conservation practices. The introduction of virtual programming brought on in response to the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for analysis of farmer outreach preferences with respect to face-to-face (F2F) versus virtual outreach.…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

This dynamic research study focused on understanding Latino fatherhood in familial and educational contexts. The sample consisted of 40 Latino fathers who resided in rural northwest Iowa. Various qualitative methods were utilized including an overarching culturally responsive ethnography, testimonios, interviews, and other qualitative inquiry.…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an array of stressors that affected college students. We hypothesized that student performance was negatively impacted by the circumstances of the pandemic and some demographic groups suffered larger decrements than others. To address this, we collected institutional grade data from all students at Iowa State…