Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / District leaders are under tremendous pressure to narrow disparities in achievement in an effort to close the achievement gap without tremendous guidance from policy makers, researchers or literature. Rorrer, Skrla, and Scheurich (2008) proposed a theory that district leaders enact four essential roles when engaging in systemic reform that improves achievement and equity: (1) providing instructional leadership which consists of building capacity and generating will, (2) reorienting the organization, (3) establishing policy coherence, and (4) maintaining an equity focus. This research examined the essential role of maintaining a focus on equity as a complex multiple construct. This qualitative case study explored how leaders in a Massachusetts public school district that made gains in improving achievement, attempted to maintain a focus on equity when enacting the role of instructional leadership. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews and a review of documents, this study concluded that leaders enacted the role to varying degrees in some ways that were consistent with Rorrer, et al. (2008). Data revealed that leaders attempted to address inequities through responsive leadership practices that connected with their notion of equity as it related to language, special needs, emotional wellness and poverty. Recommendations include how leaders can enact the role in a more informed, intentional, and deliberate manner through the development of Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This study investigated the impact of a culturally responsive intervention on perceived career barriers, ethnic identity, student motivation and engagement, and career decision making self-efficacy of middle school minority females. The author analyzed data from the Female Leadership Academy for Minority Excellence (FLAME) program at a local rural middle school. Data was collected from 34 Black female middle school students who participated in the program. The study was a repeated measures quasi-experimental, quantitative single group pre-test, mid-test, and post-test design. According to results from a series of repeated measures ANOVAs, significant differences were found between pre-group, mid-group, and post-group scores. Upon further analysis, significant differences were found between specific subscales of the student motivation and engagement survey. Specifically, differences were found between pre-group and mid-group and pre-group and post-group scores on the Performance Approach Orientation (ME_PerfApproach) subscale. Differences were also found between pre-group and post-group scores on the self-efficacy subscale (ME_SelfE) as well as between pre-group and mid-group and between mid-group and post-group scores for the Engagement Behavioral subscale (ME_Bx). Regarding the last research question, significant differences were found between pre-group and post-group and mid-group and post-group scores when examining perceived career barriers. The results from the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy and the Ethnic Identity scale did not yield significant results. These results provide initial support in suggesting that culturally responsive career development programs do impact career development of minority middle school females especially in the areas of student motivation and engagement and perceived career barriers.

ABSTRACT INVESTIGATING NOVICE WHITE TEACHERS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CLASSROOMS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS by Debra J. Barrineau This study deconstructed the degree to which novice White teachers in an elementary school in a rural middleGeorgiadistrict were aware of and prepared for the challenges inherent in teaching in a predominantly African American classroom. Four novice, White teachers participated in the study. The student population of the school was 72% African American, nearly 10% White, and more than 17% Hispanic. Using a phenomenological approach, data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire in order to determine the teachers’ perceived academic and non-academic needs of their students and to explore how their awareness of the needs of their students influenced the educational experiences the teachers provided in their classrooms. Classroom observations were utilized in order to determine how the teachers related to their students and the manner in which they demonstrated responsiveness to the students’ academic needs, through the activities they provided. The teachers demonstrated only a limited ability to understand the academic and non-academic needs of their students, due mainly to a lack of understanding of the cultural dynamics of the African American students residing in this rural community. Through a lack of ability to build necessary bridges within the school community, the teachers failed to establish a trusting relationship with parents, which would have helped mitigate the disconnect between the environment of the school and the environment of the students’ homes. In addition, the teachers’ efforts to support their students through multicultural activities were merely superficial. Some of the teachers were more focused on the perceived needs of the students than on using the rich heritage of students in order to build a community of learners that would foster greater levels of academic success. The findings of this study will benefit those interested in cultural responsiveness by suggesting the need for teacher preparation programs to increase the academic and experiential focus on cross-cultural teaching. It will also benefit school districts by suggesting the need for ongoing professional development and focused induction programs for teachers who are teaching cross-culturally.

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With more than 10% of all high school age students taking classes at a continuation school at some point in their high school career, this normally forgotten alternative learning environment is one that serves many of our most historically marginalized student groups: Black, Latinx, those with learning differences, and English Learners (Ruiz de Velasco et al., 2012). Leadership in schools is the difference-maker in student learning efficacy (Wahlstrom et al., 2010; Whitaker, 2020). This qualitative study was situated on the theoretical framework created by Madhlangobe and Gordon (2012), Culturally Responsive Leadership (CRL). The aim of this study was to build a professional profile of effective continuation school principals to help guide current practitioners, aid district leadership in identifying candidates best suited to lead their continuation schools, and how to train future leaders. Data was collected via interviews with nine principals of model continuation schools, the highest honor such a school can receive from the California Department of Education (2022a). Data showed that the study participants embodied many of the tenets set forth in CRL, but were not as strong in specific modeling and fostering cultural responsiveness in others. As described earlier, the opportunities for professional growth and collaboration across schools and principals is not well developed statewide. This area for growth is one of the most substantial opportunities the continuation school community has to improve professional practices and improve learning outcomes for all students across the state of California.

Faculty members from Brigham Young University's special education/ESL program participated in professional development centered on increasing multicultural competence. The primary investigator interviewed faculty members regarding their perceptions of professional development. After conducting the interviews, faculty members' feedback was coded to determine whether or not the professional development aided them in infusing more culturally sensitive practices into the curriculum and created a more sensitive learning environment for students from diverse backgrounds. Researchers also coded the faculty members' feedback to determine if faculty members felt they have changed at an individual/personal level in terms of how they view their own cultural background as well as how they view their students' cultural backgrounds. Information is summarized, providing insight into factors that strengthen professional development, ultimately increasing cultural competence. Additionally, suggestions are made to improve consultation skills and build stronger rapport with those from diverse backgrounds and at the university level, more effectively recruiting and retaining diverse students in school-based professions, including special education programs.

Family support programs serve vulnerable families by providing various forms of support, such as education, health services, financial assistance, and referrals to community resources. A major feature of evaluation involves assessing program effectiveness and learning from evaluation findings (Mertens and Wilson, 2012). Collaboration and cultural responsiveness are important topics in evaluation which remain largely distinct in the literature. However, evaluation capacity building provides a context for exploring possible intersections. Data about seven programs were collected via semi-structured interviews and document analysis. This study revealed that the program leaders feel that their programs are unique, complex, and misunderstood. The findings also suggest that program leaders believe that evaluation is important for program improvement and funding. Although participants did not anticipate evaluation capacity building and did not readily express a desire to develop their own evaluation skills, participants from all seven programs enthusiastically expressed interest in evaluation capacity building once explained. Although participants did not discuss cultural responsiveness as it relates to race, they expressed a need to overcome a community culture of reluctance to participate in programs and aversion to educational pursuits. Given the programs' shared population of interest, similar outcomes, and common challenges, evaluation capacity building in a group setting may give Roanoke family support program leaders the evaluation knowledge, skills, and peer support to engage in program evaluation that is both collaborative and culturally responsive. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

<div>Scholars in the field of gifted education have identified that summer enrichment programs can have academic and socioemotional benefits for adolescents with gifts and talents. Although some studies have pointed to the intercultural benefits of such programs, few have focused directly on the intercultural benefits multicultural enrichment programs can provide.</div><div>This mixed-methods study had three purposes: (1) to identify and adapt an instrument capable of measuring cultural responsiveness in adolescents with gifts and talents, (2) to examine if adolescents with gifts and talents change in cultural responsiveness over the course of a multicultural, residential summer enrichment program, and (3) to explore effective pedagogical strategies for teaching multicultural groups of adolescents with gifts and talents.</div><div>The Miville-Guzman Universality Scale-Short (Fuertes et al., 2000) was selected as the instrument of focus. The instrument was piloted, and the data analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis. Cognitive interviews with participants were also used to revise the items. A combination of canonical function analysis and qualitative responses were used to analyze participants’ (n=308) growth in cultural responsiveness over the course of the summer enrichment program. Finally, interviews with teachers and open-response answers from students were used to find the most effective pedagogical strategies for educating multicultural students.</div><div>Findings include a revised M-GUDS-S instrument for adolescents with gifts and talents (AM-GUDS-S), evidence that multicultural enrichment programs can have a positive effect on student intercultural relations with profiles for how those relations develop over a two-week period, and a series of pedagogical strategies that can be used by educators to facilitate learning for groups of domestically, internationally, and linguistically diverse students.</div>

Issues such as the rapid growth of the immigrant youth population and delinquency among adolescents generate public safety concerns among the U.S. population. However, delinquency intervention strategies for immigrant youth in the United States remain scant, which is problematic because these youth face acculturative challenges that increase their risk for maladaptive outcomes. This quantitative, cross-sectional study addressed a research gap regarding the differential influence of risk factors in predicting delinquency across 3 generational statuses. The theoretical framework guiding the study consisted of acculturation theory, the immigrant paradox, and differential association theory. Two research questions were evaluated using a stratified random sample of 255 U.S. adolescents from the Second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study Dataset. The bivariate correlation analyses show that delinquency was significantly related to self-control, neighborhood disorganization, and delinquent peers for the total adolescent sample, and family bonding and school climate at the generational status level. The multiple regression analyses show that delinquency was best predicted by self-control for first-generation immigrants, by neighborhood disorganization, school climate, and delinquent peers for second-generation immigrants, and by self-control, family bonding, and delinquent peers for native-born youth. The results demonstrate that immigrant and native-born youth have unique adaptive and developmental processes that impact their delinquency. By increasing knowledge of delinquency risk factors, the study findings may help advocates address public safety concerns, enhance the cultural responsiveness of interventions, and, ultimately, improve youths' behavioral outcomes.

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