All high school students deserve access to experiences that will help shape their perspectives of post-secondary options. They also deserve adequate preparation for said experiences. Minimal consideration is given to how to prepare low-income Latinx high school students for success in internships. Thus, this mixed-methods action research study utilized a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) framework to investigate a semester-long internship preparation course. It explored how students recognize and develop navigational capital from the Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework as well as Career Decision Self-Efficacy (CDSE) while preparing for a subsequent internship. Data analysis and its triangulation were derived from participants’ interviews and a focus group, as well as surveys from the treatment group and control group. Results suggest that the intervention was successful in preparing participants for an internship and increasing their CDSE, but results were inconclusive on whether navigational capital was affected.

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore improving first semester training practices for graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in the Spanish program at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Tempe Campus. Adding to research on TA training in higher education, a communities of practice (CoP) framework was combined with concrete suggestions on cultivating CoPs to implement a two-part CoP principled training program intervention. Specifically, a goal of the intervention was to address the problem of practice of improving first semester TA lesson planning, communicative language teaching, classroom management, and learning management system usage. Data was collected from interviews, surveys, journals, and training activities from five new TAs who teach Spanish. Data analysis included a multi-cycle qualitative coding process to examine participants’ novice-expert positionalities and the presence of core features of a CoP. Results suggest that regardless of previous experiences, TAs need time to assimilate to the ASU culture, standards, and community. Furthermore, the CoP principled training program showed instances of the necessary core features of a CoP such as joint enterprise and mutual engagement, but also a need for continued community development to address dysfunctions. Implications for these findings point to possible positive effects of continued training through a CoP framework, and a need for reorganization of training practices to allow TAs to legitimately participate in training activities supported by community coordinators as they adjust to the ASU context before beginning their in-service teaching.

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, as part of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), it prioritized schools to include families as collaborative partners in schools’ improvement efforts. Minimal family voice existed at two elementary schools. Thus, this mixed-methods action research study investigated both schools as they applied the principles of equitable collaboration (PEC), explored how participants experienced family voice through collaboration, and whether it strengthened school-family partnerships. The Equitable Collaboration Framework, Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) Model, and Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Model were the theoretical perspectives in applying the principles of equitable collaboration (PEC). Data analysis and its triangulation were derived from family and teacher participants through surveys, interviews, observations, and field notes from a series of workshops. Results suggested there were mixed views on family voice prior to the application of PEC. Experiencing family voice during family-teacher collaboration resulted in varied outcomes: one school acknowledged families as assets and equal contributors to schools’ decision-making processes, whereas the other school, in ways, reverted to the traditional school-centric approach. Results also identified strengths as schools developed teacher-family relationships. Implications for these findings point to the concerted efforts that must occur at school sites, recognizing the importance of family voice and seeing families as shared partners in school improvement. To build strong school-family collaboration requires commitment and support in overcoming barriers, such as language and the issue of time, to ensure that all families are invited to participate and provide the power of family voice into school’s decision-making processes.

This study addresses the dynamics of U.S. and international students studying together in the United States. This study investigates lived experiences as well as the effects of a first-year foundational course on the development of intercultural connections between students. The first-year foundational course hoped to provide the ideal conditions that allowed for prejudices to decrease and friendships to form. This study draws on four primary theories and perspectives: Acculturation, Intergroup Contact Theory, Transformative Learning and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. This qualitative action research study uses multiple types of data: instructor journals, student journals, individual interviews, and photovoice. The themes identified include growth and development, independence, friendships, moments of similarities, prejudices and behaviors, superiority and apathy, and belonging to the majority or minority. The themes indicate that the research study provided a foundation for study participants to further explore how to incorporate intercultural experiences into their lives in the future and beyond.

This study addresses the problem of low-income, first-generation college students who are academically successful, but choose to leave college before finishing due to financial constraints. This study investigates their lived experiences as well as the effects of a peer mentorship program where incoming, first-year, low-income, first-generation college students are paired with a trained peer mentor from a similar background. Together the pair jointly explore available financial resources and troubleshoot barriers to access. This study draws on four primary theories: Social Cognitive Theory, Intersectionality, Community Cultural Wealth, and Critical Pedagogy. This mixed methods action research study uses multiple types of data: individual interviews, focus group, photo elicitation, demographic questionnaires, and pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Findings indicate increases in self-efficacy for and knowledge about accessing financial resources after participating in the program.

Since the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act required classifications of students’ performance levels, test scores have been used to measure students’ achievement; in particular, test scores are used to determine whether students reach a proficiency level in the state assessment. Accordingly, school districts have started using benchmark assessments to complement the state assessment. Unlike state assessments administered at the end of the school year, benchmark assessments, administered multiple times during the school year, measures students’ learning progress toward reaching the proficiency level. Thus, the results of the benchmark assessments can help districts and schools prepare their students for the subsequent state assessments so that their students can reach the proficiency level in the state assessment. If benchmark assessments can predict students’ future performance measured in the state assessments accurately, the assessments can be more useful to facilitate classroom instructions to support students’ improvements. Thus, this study focuses on the predictive accuracy of a proficiency cut score in the benchmark assessment. Specifically, using an econometric research technique, Regression Discontinuity Design, this study assesses whether reaching a proficiency level in the benchmark assessment had a causal impact on increasing the probability of reaching a proficiency level in the state assessment. Finding no causal impact of the cut score, this study alternatively applies a Precision-Recall curve - a useful measure for evaluating predictive performance of binary classification. By using this technique, this study calculates an optimal proficiency cut score in the benchmark assessment that maximizes the accuracy and minimizes the inaccuracy in predicting the proficiency level in the state assessment. Based on the results, this study discusses issues regarding the conventional approaches of establishing cut scores in large-scale assessments and suggests some potential approaches to increase the predictive accuracy of the cut score in benchmark assessments.

This study investigates Black male students' perceptions of their teachers' curricular expectations in mathematics classrooms. Curriculum in this study refers to what knowledge students are expected to learn, and the manner in which they are expected to learn it. The topic of this dissertation is in response to persisting and prevailing achievement disparities experienced by secondary Black male students in mathematics. These disparities exist at the school, district, state, and national level. Utilizing an action research methodology, multiple cycles of data collection led to the final iteration of the study, collecting strictly qualitative data and drawing from critical race methodology to address the three research questions.

The three research questions of this study seek to address how Black male students perceive their mathematics teachers’ curricular expectations, what practices they have found to be effective in meeting their teachers’ higher curricular expectations, and to determine how they view the reform practices as part of the intervention. Research questions were answered using one-on-one and focus group interviews, classroom observations, and student journals. An intervention was developed and delivered as part of the action research, which was an attempt at curriculum reform influenced by culturally relevant pedagogy, warm demander pedagogy, and youth participatory action research.

Findings from the qualitative methods, led to four assertions. The first assertion states, despite achievement disparities, Black male students care very much about their academic success. Second, a primary factor hindering Black male students’ academic success, as communicated by participants, is what they are learning and how they are learning it. Speaking to teachers’ expectations, participants believe their teachers want them to succeed and think highly of them. Additionally, participants preferred interactive, enthusiastic, and caring teachers, even if those teachers are academically demanding. Finally, participants found learning mathematics addressing a problem that affects them, while incorporating components that address their invisibility in the curriculum, increased relevance, interest, and academic self-awareness.

Colleges and universities have goals and strategies in place to fill their on-campus housing facilities with students. At Arizona State University (ASU), the goal is to fill every bedspace on campus. All first-year students are expected to live on campus their first year at ASU. In Barrett, the Honors College (BHC), students are expected to live on-campus their first and second year at ASU. This study explores the BHC upperdivision communities to better understand why students are not returning to live on campus beyond the two-year live-on expectation. In this study, the researcher created a website to better inform students of the renewal process and the benefits of living on-campus. More than 200 BHC upperdivision students participated in this study through interviews and surveys. Quantitative results of the study indicated a positive and significant correlation between students who believe it costs less to live on campus, enjoy living on campus, interact with faculty and staff outside of the classroom with intent to live on campus the next academic year. Students who felt their currently living situation had a positive impact on their overall emotional/mental wellbeing, feel a sense of community or connection to others, and feel more connected because they live on campus are more likely to intend to live on campus. Students who were surveyed after the implementation of the renewal website believed it cost less to live on campus than off campus, felt that it was easier to navigate the application, and felt that they had a better understanding of the renewal process. Qualitative results of the study indicated students were deciding to live off campus due to the limited room options and the cost of on-campus housing. Students did not feel that there was a sense of community in BHC upperdivision housing, but they did feel like living on-campus was convenient and opened opportunities to get involved. The renewal website did not have an effect on students’ behavior, knowledge and intent to renew housing, and the renewal process was easy to navigate for some of the participants and difficult to navigate for the other participants.

The purpose of this action research study was to help medical students normalize feelings of shame related to academics and to respond to these feelings in more adaptive ways. Several cycles of research informed this study, which investigated the influence of an educational innovation. The innovation focused on helping medical students understand feelings of shame, foster self-efficacy in shame resiliency practices, and encourage help-seeking behaviors. In short, the study sought to understand how these medical students responded to feelings of shame related to academic performance before and after participation in the educational innovation. A total of 14 second-year medical students participated in this concurrent mixed-method study. The educational innovation was designed by this action researcher and informed by Brené Brown’s shame resilience theory. Three sources of data were used to answer the research questions, including a pre- and post-innovation survey, interviews, and student journals. Major findings suggested that the educational innovation was effective in enhancing the study participants’ knowledge of shame, increasing perceptions of self-efficacy in the practices related to resiliency to feeling of academic shame, as well as, promoting help-seeking behaviors. The data also revealed a range of academic shame triggers identified by these medical students. This action research study validated the need to normalize feelings of shame and support medical students developing practices for resiliency to this powerful feeling.

For more than 30 years, social science researchers have studied how students in online learning environments interact with each other. This has led to the development of a construct called social presence. Studies have shown that high social presence can lead to improved student retention, engagement, and satisfaction. The literature explores how social presence has been measured by faculty or researchers, but lacks insight on how other university staff can affect social presence in online graduate students. This is an action research mixed-methods study conducted by an academic advisor and attempts to measure social presence through a webpage intervention for an online graduate business program. A pre-and-posttest were conducted in a five month span, as well as semi-structured interviews with students of the program. Results suggest that overall, the intervention did not increase social presence in the program. It also suggests that social presence is developed between students in a variety of ways, and can even be developed between their academic advisor and themselves. Overall, this study acknowledges how academic advisors can explore social presence to improve academic advising techniques and interventions for their programs, while also adding to the literature a different perspective through the eyes of a university staff member.