Parent-teacher relationships are an important but understudied aspect of children's preschool experience. One important gap is understanding how parent-teacher relationships influence aspects related to school readiness, such as child self-regulation. Understanding this relationship can help highlight areas of intervention that can improve…

Objective: The beginning of college marks a decline in physical activity and racial/ethnic minorities have disproportionately lower rates of physical activity. This study examined the association between perceived stress and physical activity among an ethnically diverse sample of college-attending young adults. Participants: 2,396 students (36%…

There is growing evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic had a large and negative impact on student learning. This dissertation explores the effect of the pandemic on one of the most vulnerable student subgroups: English Learners (ELs). In this work I examine existing disparities among subgroups of ELs, and the different ways the pandemic has impacted…

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that lead to the disproportionality of the graduation rates of African American and Latinx students at College X. This qualitative case study utilized interviews with faculty, staff, and administrators, document analysis, and site observations to study a small Midwestern college, College X.…

Introductory chemistry courses tend to suffer from high failure rates. Success in an introductory course has been linked to how students approach learning. The aim of this study was to explore how students' learning approach was related to their success in the introductory chemistry courses measured by the ACS exam and the final course grade.…

When compared to Blacks, Asians, and Whites, Latinxs have lower rates of educational attainment at every level from secondary education to advanced postsecondary degrees (Ryan and Bauman 2016). This study focuses on Latinx first generation college students and uses Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) theory to illuminate the ways this…

We highlight how community colleges implement equity-oriented reform to address inequities facing Latinx students. Through counterstorytelling, we provide lessons learned on the implementation and impact of equity-oriented reform in community college. Key findings revealed that the reform is necessary, but not sufficient to improve racial equity…

This study examined the motives and drives of adult students during online degree completion, including the commonalities among and differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic adult students. Participants included 364 adult students at a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) who completed a series of reflective writing assignments, generating over…

Program evaluation for interventions aimed at enhancing diversity can fall short when the evaluation unintentionally reifies the exclusion of multiple marginalized student experiences. The present study presents a Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) approach to program evaluation to understand outcomes for Women of Color undergraduates…

Purpose: Prior work has drawn consistent conclusions about systematic racial disparities in the allocation of high-quality teachers in US public schools, such as classrooms with more students of color having teachers with fewer credentials and less experience. However, these fixed characteristics of teachers are only proxies for the quality of…

Latinx bodies challenge conventional historical, ideological, and institutional narratives that seek to fix, define, and render legible racial identities. By foregrounding difference and specificity--"differences within difference"--the authors seek to illuminate the degree to which focusing on a single narrative erases and silences…

The Latinx population is currently the largest ethnic minority group in the USA. Moreover, studies demonstrate that Latinx youth are at a higher risk for exposure to community violence and for negative school outcomes compared to their non-Latinx white peers. Though more attention has been devoted to understanding negative school outcomes, there…

Stratification in selective college admissions persists even as colleges' criteria for evaluating merit have multiplied in efforts to increase socioeconomic and racial diversity. Middle-class and affluent families increasingly turn to privatized services, such as private college consulting, to navigate what they perceive to be a complicated and…

Background: Despite overall declines in risky teen sexual activity, racial and ethnic disparities persist. This study compared abstinence-only and comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs to explore the effects of the programs on teen sexual activity-related outcomes that may differ by race/ethnicity. Methods: Program evaluation data…

Equity between racial/ethnic groups has become an important factor in education, and scholar-practitioners have focused on closing the equity gap in both student academics and discipline. Research has shown the inequity in student discipline dating back to the 1950s when schools began to integrate and Black students were allowed to attend the same…