This dissertation investigates whether dual credit students' academic performance in subsequent university courses is comparable to that of non-dual-credit students. The study uses data from a Midwest regional public university over a ten-year period and employs propensity score matching and proportional odds ordinal logistic regression to create…

Equity practices have expanded throughout the California community college (CCC) system. Every CCC develops an equity plan, where each institution chooses a disproportionately impacted population and focuses on improving access, basic skills completion, degrees and certificates awarded, and transfer rates. Each college is required to develop…

Community colleges have a long history of providing entrance to higher education to minority students who enroll in these institutions underprepared and deprived of basic needs. With limited resources, community college leaders are expected to assist students in academic pursuits. The Center for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (Center for EDI)…

This qualitative study assesses the influence of a college-level intervention program on its student participants' self-efficacy. Self-efficacy theory provides an essential foundational lens for this study as it provides the necessary sources to broaden an intervention program's plans from students' individualized experiences. Study participants…

Guided by critical perspectives on race and whiteness, this qualitative study explores how White campus activities professionals navigate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in relation to their privileged racial identity. Using a phenomenological approach, the findings reveal a common thread of white comfort and solidarity within campus…

This study was to assess the spoken vocabulary knowledge and its role in incidental vocabulary learning from captioned television. The participants were a total of 87 minority students learning English as a foreign language in Australia. The breadth of their vocabulary knowledge was measured with a vocabulary size test, while the depth of their…

Educators and policymakers across the country have been raising alarms about a growing teacher shortage. In Michigan, teacher shortages were so severe in the 2018-19 school year that 2,500 classrooms were staffed by long-term substitutes--nearly ten times the number placed in classrooms five years prior. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised even…

Oregon needs Black educators in the K-12 public school system. In 35 school districts throughout the state, the number of students of color has risen by over 40% in recent years (Oregon Chief Education Office, 2019). The number of educators of color in the state is under 10%. The number of Black educators is even lower. Research has shown that…

Throughout this report, we will investigate trends for administrators overall and provide further analyses on three key administrator positions: presidents, provosts, and chief human resources officers (CHROs). This report starts with an investigation of trends in representation and pay equity by gender (women, men) among administrators over the…

This exploratory, phenomenological study explored how rural community college students perceived barriers from the transfer process and the support services they had needed for their successful transfers to 4-year universities in rural Texas. Transfer shock and transfer student capital were the two frameworks employed to model sampled students'…

Purpose: Universities and colleges play a major role in facilitating the behaviors of students into adulthood. Active travel (AT; walking or bicycling for transportation) can provide substantial health benefits, though inequities among bicycling are shown in many underserved populations (racial/ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQ+, disabled,…

There are a few empirical studies that examine the portrayal of the Middle East and its people in young children's picture books. Many of these books depict Muslim life and celebrations without delving into the specificities of each Middle Eastern country. This study, which focuses on Iran as a non-Arab Muslim majority Middle Eastern country,…

The lived experiences of queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) youth are significantly influenced by the various environments they navigate -- including but not limited to their families, schools, neighborhoods, communities, and workplaces. QTPOC youth -- or queer and trans youth who identify as Asian American, Black/African American,…

Background/Context: The Holistic Oasis for Parents' Education (HOPE) Program is an on-campus summer program designed to serve the whole student with a three-dimensional support model. Low-income, Black, and Hispanic parents experienced some of the most egregious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reflects the demographics of one in three…

Overrepresentation of students of color with and without dis/abilities in exclusionary practices (e.g., suspension, expulsion) is a historically accumulating educational debt that stems from the intersection of racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression. As a historical, sociopolitical, and geospatial situated issue, addressing racial…