To assess the effectiveness of the Florida Education Governance Reorganization Act of 2000, I analyze the achievement gaps across different levels of the education pipeline: elementary, secondary, and postsecondary. This paper evaluates three objectives of Florida's new system: strengthening of foundation skills, improvement of college and career readiness, and the expansion of opportunities for postsecondary degrees, by asking: Has the introduction of a PreK-20 seamless system in Florida reduced the educational achievement gaps between students, compared to Texas, which has not instituted a seamless system? At the elementary level, the analysis looks at 4th and 8th grade National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) average scale scores, from 1998 to 2007, of White, African-American, and Hispanic students and those students eligible and ineligible for the National School Lunch Program. At the secondary level, a comparison is made between the Advanced Placement passing rates of White, African-American, and Hispanic students from 1997 to 2008. At the postsecondary level, this paper examines the proportion of professional, master, and doctoral degrees awarded to White, African-American, and Hispanic students from 1995 to 2007. Results show that although Florida has raised the level of achievement for White, African-American, and Hispanic students in the past ten years, disparities between these groups still exist in NAEP scores, AP passing rates, and the proportion of graduate degrees conferred. Therefore, while the state has made progress towards its three goals, achievement gaps still remain in several levels of Florida's PreK-20 education system.

The academic achievement gap in the State of California has been a persistent problem. In California the achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the academic performance of white students and other ethnic groups as well as that between English learners and native English speakers, socioeconomically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities as compared with students without disabilities (CDE, P-16, 2008, p. 11). Jack O'Connel, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, has identified closing the achievement gap as one of the primary goals for the State of California. Research has consistently shown that children of color and children of poverty have not experienced the academic success of their white peers. Utilizing the meta-analysis of research data from Mid-continent Research for Educational Learning (McREL), this study is a quantitative review of the 21 Leadership Responsibilities and Best Practices identified by school leaders from Ceres Unified School District, more specifically, from leaders in nine high-achieving schools within the district. The nine identified schools and leaders have experienced academic success with children of color and children of poverty based on their Academic Performance Index Similar Schools Rankings. In the study, two levels of surveys were conducted. The first survey reviewed the leadership responsibilities identified by McREL and asked the study participants to rank the leadership responsibilities based on the responsibilities that they perceive to have the most significant impact on student academic achievement. Employing the results of the first survey, a second survey utilized the top five leadership responsibilities identified by the study participants. Under the umbrella of the top five responsibilities, five best practices were listed and again ranked by the participants based on their perceptions of the leadership practices that have the greatest effect on increasing student achievement. The results of this survey identified the best practices perceived by leaders of high-achieving, high poverty schools. Additionally, a questionnaire was completed by the participants to provide additional demographic data. The study results support the findings that best pedagogical practices are complimented by effective leadership. Effective leaders and leadership practices do have a positive effect on student academic achievement.

The achievement gap is a historic and pervasive issue of social justice in education. the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further stalled student achievement in reading and math, amplifying the urgency for accelerating student learning to close the gap. The third grade is a critical year for literacy in education; if students have not mastered grade level literacy skills by then, they are likely to continue to fall behind, which can diminish academic opportunities and significantly reduce their economic potential. This study seeks social justice in education to add to the literature by elucidating strategies to improve third-grade literacy. Grounded in quantitative analysis, this longitudinal study employs a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design to evaluate the relationship between third-grade student engagement in two concurrent literacy interventions, Smarty Ants and Achieve3000 Literacy, and student reading outcomes. To this end, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied with a control for pretest scores while evaluating the relationship between engagement and outcomes. Results of each ANCOVA show statistical significance between student engagement in the literacy interventions and their Lexile outcomes. Despite the small sample size, results of the analyses verify that there is statistical significance in the relationship between student engagement levels in the programs, individually and concurrently, and their Lexile outcomes in Achieve3000 Literacy during the 2020-2021 academic year within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the strength of correlation results in the ANCOVAs and the t-tests, this was especially true for engagement in Achieve3000 Literacy and more so for combined engagement. The study concludes with a discussion of these findings, an articulation of the significance of the study, as well as recommendations for future practice and study.

The goal of this Dissertation in Practice was to design a School Improvement Plan focused on improving reading performance of African American students at Suburban Middle School (SMS). The problem of practice was that African American students at Suburban Middle School have performed significantly lower than their White peers over the course of the 2009-2013 school years in reading performance. The reading deficiencies of African American students needed to be directly addressed in a new School Improvement Plan (SIP). The literature review of this study found that there are many different components that influence the reading performance of African American students. For this Dissertation in Practice, a new School Improvement Plan focused primarily on 6 different areas will be the end result. The components that will be examined are: 1) school climate, 2) utilization of data, 3) parental involvement, 4) professional development, 5) instructional strategies, and 6) collaboration. While these are the 6 key elements of successful models, there were also additional sub groupings within each element that also had an influence on student achievement levels. In addition to examining previous School Improvement Plans at SMS, the end result and final deliverable was a School Improvement Plan designed to close the existing achievement gap in reading between African American students and their peers at SMS. Suggested use for the new model of the School Improvement Plan was to focus specifically on the 6 key elements to address the reading performance of African American students.

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There has been a considerable amount of research focused on the multicultural counseling competence (MCC) of counselors, but research examining the MCC of school counselors looking at school counselors' awareness of the national achievement gap has been quite sparse. The current study was conducted to fill this gap. One hundred and sixty five American School Counselor Association (ASCA) members participated in the current study. The study was a web survey where each participant was contacted through email and invited to participate by Survey Monkey, an on-line survey tool. Survey Monkey was used to post the survey and demographic questionnaire and collect the data. The Multicultural Counseling Competence and Training Survey-Revised (MCCTS-R) (Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004) was used to examine the perceived MCC of school counselors. A Demographic Questionnaire was also added consisting of questions regarding variables such as race/ethnicity, gender, school level, and school urbanicity and questions that examined school counselors' awareness of the national achievement gap. The results of the current study suggested that school counselors possessed a self-perceived MCC between somewhat competent and competent. The results also suggested that school counselors who had taken a Master's level or specialty course on multicultural counseling possessed a higher MCC than those who had not, school counselors of Color were found to possess a higher MCC than their White counterparts, and gender was found to have no significant relationship with MCC. In addition, the results suggested that school counselors were aware of the national achievement gap, believed in the importance of being aware of the national achievement gap, were committed to activities aimed at closing the achievement gap, and believed that it was the duty of school counselors to participate in activities aimed at closing the gap. Finally, using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-C SDS), the results suggested that social desirability may have played a small role in the results of the MCCTS-R. / Ph. D.

Demographics in American urban cities have been steadily changing over the last few decades and are on their way to becoming more ethnically diverse than ever. Cities in the southwestern region of the United States are increasingly becoming primarily Latino (Mellom, Straubhaar, Balderas, Ariail, & Portes, 2018). This demands the need for a reflective and critical view of the schooling system in this region and how it serves the needs of the Latino communities. This dissertation makes a case for the need to push against mainstream educational practices that are imposed on school systems by lawmakers, capitalist corporations, and philanthropist, and looks instead to the educators of color, more specifically to Latina principals, who work hand in hand with teachers and families in working-class Latino schools. This proposal calls for the development of a critical consciousness by educators of color as a grassroots change effort to heal the dehumanization that these educators have themselves suffered as a result of their experiences in American school (Annamma & Morrison, 2018). Educators have a responsibility to support students in the development of voice and participation in ways consistent with a democratic social order. This requires educators committed to the amelioration of oppression and the formation of an educated and empowered citizenry. Through examining the perceptions of bicultural principals who are aware of this dilemma and involved in the mentorship of bicultural educators, the study sought to identify what practices and understandings are needed in working-class Latino schools to support educators and students of color to deal with the duality of their biculturalism, which can have a negative impact on the academic achievement of Latino students. Similarly, the study brought to light the emancipatory approaches that conscious Latina principals utilize when engaging with bicultural teachers who teach bicultural students from working-class communities The goal was not to create another superimposed reform effort that closes the “achievement gap” of students of color, but to instead, close the “critical consciousness gap” that affects many educators of color, so that they can in turn create emancipatory pedagogical centers in majority minority urban schools.

The issues regarding the lack of academic progress of African American boys prompted Garibaldi (2007) to declare that the African American male continues to fall behind all racial groups, even his female counterpart, on educational performance measures or assessments and in graduation rates. Davis (2009) stated that the literature regarding the academic experiences of elementary aged African American boys in an urban school setting is rather sparse. With the knowledge that the African American male is falling behind his female counterpart, what can we do to ensure that we begin to look at the factors that contribute to the success of those finding academic success, especially those at the elementary level? This qualitative study used an exploratory study approach to explore the school factors that contribute to the academic success of African American boys in urban elementary schools. The researcher employed two face-to-face interviews with each of the 11 fifth grade African American boys identified as academically successful. Data collection included a review of students' archival, academic, and attendance records to establish a framework of each child's overall academic performance beyond the sample summative Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments administered in grades three, four, and five at the elementary level. The results of this study indicated that the success of African American boys in an urban elementary school is impacted by peer influence, teacher attitudes, environmental suitability within the school, and personal accountability of the participants themselves. / Ed. D.