The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between race, high school graduation, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, and four-year college-going rates. The setting included 89 school districts that were located in two adjacent suburban counties in New York State: Nassau and Suffolk. A Pearson Product-Moment correlation analysis,…

The number of students choosing to study abroad has steadily increased over the past 25 years. Immediately prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic, 10.9% of all undergraduates in the US studied abroad at some point while pursuing their degree. This rapid expansion has largely been welcomed on college campuses due to globalization and the sense that…

Schools and neighborhoods are adolescents' primary environments, and each has a significant influence on their academic success. The majority of studies on educational attainment have examined the impact of a single context--either the school or the neighborhood--suggesting mixed findings on school and neighborhood effects as well as potential…

The racial disparities in school discipline and lack of teacher diversity represent two pressing issues facing educational equity. While traditional measures of teacher quality center on experience and credentials, little extant literature situates teacher diversity as an aspect of teacher quality. To fill this gap, we explore how both teacher…

Education policy reform is often created and implemented in ways that advantage White individuals. This is even more salient when examining the intersection of race and gender identities. Using North Carolina's teacher evaluation system as a policy reform case, I examine whether there are differential observation ratings between Black and White…

I argue that local adult literacy programming involves consciousness and praxis that obscures and renders invisible the social relations of race and ethnicity, and a key mechanism that enacts these processes in Canada are the Essential Skills Framework. Race and ethnicity, as social relations, have both a muted and active presence in the…

Inequities in faculty representation and support have long been documented, though a potentially key contributor to these inequities--negotiation behavior--remains underexplored. We leverage descriptive analyses and hierarchical linear modeling with a sample of over 30,000 faculty to explore gender- and race-based differences across negotiating…

While racially minoritized students are gaining access and enrolling in post-secondary institutions at higher rates, institutionalized oppression and exclusionary practices impact students' experience and success. Colleges and universities have an obligation to create environments that are welcoming, just, and fair for all students who choose to…

This dissertation contains three essays that examine the influence of state policies on transfer enrollment at 4-year institutions. The first essay is a systematic review of 16 studies that provide an understanding of the literature on state policies and transfer enrollment at 4-year institutions. In the review I provide an understanding of who…

This study investigated whether instructional modality in an undergraduate degree program, either traditional on-campus or asynchronous online, and racial/ethnic group could predict students' reports of satisfaction with the institution, retention year-over-year, and graduation within an eight-year award rate. Data from surveys and enrollment…

This qualitative study examined the experiences of faculty members who have participated in cross-racial mentoring experiences at four-year public universities. This study explored faculty members' experiences and the impact of race on the relationship. Mentoring was an avenue that positively impacted the trajectory of the mentees' careers. This…

By 4 years of age, White children from across the United States begin to exhibit an awareness of racial inequalities, along with in-group preferences for other White children. The present study explored how the size and racial diversity of White children's social network (e.g., friends, family, and classmates) and neighborhood (zip code) are…

Despite numerous efforts to attenuate the Black-White discipline gap in U.S. schools, Black students are still suspended for minor infractions at a disproportionately higher rate than their White peers. Using a racially diverse sample (n = 1,515; M[subscript age] = 12.7; 50% boys; 72% Black, 28% White), this 3-year longitudinal study examined…

This research explores the experiences of Latina mothers residing in San Antonio, Texas, using testimonios as a form of data collection; asynchronous interviews were completed to obtain the participants' experiences as they journeyed through their respective doctoral programs. Through this qualitative study, the research provided an in-depth…

This study examined how COVID-19 impacted elementary schools' reading achievement in rural school districts in South Carolina. The study employed the comparative research design to investigate differences between reading achievement before and after COVID-19 of rural elementary schools regarding gender and racial ethnicity. The methodology of this…