The current study was undertaken to examine the effectiveness of the Rowan University-School of Osteopathic Medicine - Summer Pre-Medical Research and Education Program (Summer PREP), a postsecondary medical sciences enrichment pipeline program for under-represented and disadvantaged students. Thirty-four former program participants were surveyed (Male=11; Female=23) regarding their current vocational status, undergraduate experience, attributions of success, aspirations for advancement and satisfaction with their professional outcomes and Summer PREP experience. The 5-year undergraduate graduation rate and post-baccalaureate enrollment rate was higher than a national reference population of young adults. The group's average GPA and average MCAT score were comparable to those of other minority applicants and matriculants to osteopathic medical schools nationally. Female respondents reported lower levels of satisfaction with the program and their current academic and professional attainments (p<.05) relative to male participants. They also reported much lower expectations for remaining or advancing in their chosen fields (p<.003). Students rated the contribution of medical specialty area seminars, interactions with interns, residents, medical and graduate students, and faculty mentoring highest among the program's components. The study demonstrated that Summer PREP had a significant impact at the student level and was valued by former participants. The results were similar to other successful models of undergraduate pipeline programs designed to help prepare minority and disadvantaged students for entry into medical and graduate school. Implications for policy, future research, and program practice and administration at the postsecondary and professional school level are addressed. The value of the discourse is rooted in the need for supplemental education and training programs designed to improve postsecondary success among minority and disadvantaged students, their representation among healthcare professionals, and the expected increase in healthcare demands within minority, rural and underserved areas resulting from implementation of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. / Educational Leadership

The under-representation of racial minority students in Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)programs has been an issue with little to no resolution (Ford, 2002). These under-represented racial minority groups are experiencing the obstacles of discrimination. Ogbu’s (1987) observation offers a framework distinguishing minorities: voluntary and involuntary. Researchers report on the under-representation of “involuntary” minority groups (McBee, 2006). Researchers have offered keys to opening the gates of GATE programs to bring about racial equity. Recruitment processes: alternative assessments and teacher referrals are available to identify minority GATE students (Elhoweris, Mutua, Alsheikh, & Holloway, 2005). Retention practices: racial diversity of gate teachers, culturally responsive pedagogy, culturally responsive curriculum, and a classroom culture of caring are available to support racial minority gate students once in the program (Delpit, 2006). This mixed-methods study is of one school’s GATE program, Multicultural Middle School (MMS). The study used descriptive statistics to analyze percentages of racial representation of MMS’s GATE students and GATE teachers. The study also used questionnaires, observations, and interviews to analyze MMS’s GATE teachers’ knowledge and practices in regards to the research-based recruitment processes and retention practices of underrepresented racial minorities. This study found that the voluntary racial minority group was over-represented and one of four involuntary racial groups was under-represented. This study also found that MMS’s GATE program had achieved racial equity in three of the four involuntary racial minority groups. At the time of this study, MMS’s GATE program was trending toward equity.

Despite progress in recent years, the K–12 education system still grapples with pervasive discriminatory and inequitable practices that hinder students’ learning experiences and future success. Such practices can have far-reaching consequences, threatening students’ long-term outcomes and putting their well-being at risk. This study delved into the effects of exclusionary practices on academic performance and student withdrawal, with a particular focus on minority students with disabilities. By examining archived data, this research analyzed various exclusionary practices, including in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, Baker Acts, and law enforcement referrals. To uncover correlations and determine hypothesis acceptance, the study employedsophisticated statistical techniques such as logistic regression. Results of the study show exclusionary discipline practices significantly correlate with dropout rates for minoritized students with disabilities. In other words, students of this study who are subject to these practices are not more likely to drop out of school. The study recommends implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and providing training to educators on how to instruct students with disabilities. Further study is needed to explore the quantitative impact of specific discipline practices on learning and detrimental effects of instructional loss on student engagement. Nonetheless, this research underscores the urgency of using professional development to identify and address discriminatory and inequitable practices in the K–12 education system to ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed.

Neoliberalism operationalizes the White Supremacist narrative of meritocracy in spaces like no-excuse charter schools in order to coerce teachers to obediently turn out data that is productive for investors, at the expense of both teachers and Black and Brown students’ humanity. This dissertation defines the coercion teachers experience as a process of mechanization, whereby they are inducted into the narrative of meritocracy and threatened with material loss if they do not comply. However, contrary to current research that illustrates their repeated mechanization, I draw from my own experiences as a teacher at a no-excuse charter school to assert that teachers in these spaces do have the capacity to enact anti-racist teacher agency and resist. This dissertation therefore asks, How do educators at no-excuse charter schools engage anti-racist teacher agency to negotiate mechanization and the narrative of meritocracy? Over the course of 13 months, I engaged with six self-described social justice-oriented teachers from three schools across two New Jersey cities through a methodology I developed called critical storying. Functioning in two parts--The Spiral and Speculation--critical storying first pays attention to participants' affective tensions through dialogic spiraling in order to identify mechanizations they experience, and ways the negotiate those mechanizations. Then, using participants’ own narrative imagining, I wrote each participants’ story centering them as a cyborg protagonist confronting and overcoming a core mechanization. The findings, as well as the framework and methodology developed for this study, contribute to research concerned with no-excuse charter schools, anti-racist teacher agency, speculative fiction, and dismantling White Supremacy from school systems.

The purpose of the study was to answer the questions: Do students show greater academic success in English language arts/reading as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam scores in secondary education when their teachers are the same ethinicity? Do students show greater academic success in math as measured by the TAKS exam scores in secondary education when their teachers are the same ethnicity? Minority students' success on the TAKS test was compared to the assessment scores of White students from the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-13 school year in thre suburban school districts. This topic has been a subject of discussion since the late 10970s when Cardenas and Cardenas (1977) studied the achievement among minority students and their White peers. The conversation continued through authors such as Takei and Shouse (2008), Hays (2011), Ladson-Billings (2006), Dee (2003, 2005), and Brown (2006). To answer these research questions, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted on the data collected. Although the study verified the achievement gap between minority students and White students, the study indicated no consistent pattern corroborating that minority students were more successful when taught by teachers of the same ethnicity. In many cases, students learned better with teachers of a different ethnicity. Black students were successful with Hispanic or White teachers, Hispanic students were successful with Black or White teachers, and White students were successful with Black or Hispanic teachers. The TAKS assessment scores were the only data used to support this analysis.

The purpose of this dissertation was twofold. First, the study sought to determine if the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) Reading score predicts success on the Examination for the Certification of Educators in Texas (ExCET). Second, the study addressed the effect on individuals of color of raising the minimum TASP Reading score entrance requirement for admission to teacher preparation programs. Data were collected from the ExCET Office of a Carnegie I metropolitan university. The defined sample consisted of 961 participants who had a TASP Reading score and had taken an Elementary Comprehensive ExCET, an Elementary Professional Development ExCET or a Secondary Professional ExCET between September 1999 and January 2001. Linear Regression, Box Test, Predictive Discriminate Analysis, and frequency distribution tables were used for analyses. This investigation examined the effects of the independent variable of TASP Reading score on the performance of participants on the dependent variable, the ExCET. Four null hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. The TASP Reading score was a statistically significant predictor for success on the Elementary Comprehensive ExCET, Elementary Professional Development ExCET, and the Secondary Professional Development ExCET. However, the Predictive Discriminate Analysis indicated that a TASP Reading score of 220 predicted that no candidates would fail the Elementary Comprehensive ExCET, 6 participants would fail the Elementary Professional Development ExCET and 19 participants would fail the Secondary Professional Development ExCET. Five hypotheses addressed the effect of raising the TASP Reading score to 250. Findings of four hypotheses showed that raising this admission standard would impact the number of individuals of color granted admission to the teacher preparation program. These results call for the recommendation that governing agencies address the impact of state teacher education program accreditation that often results in the policy of relying on the TASP Reading score as one of the primary admission standards for teacher education programs. The unintended outcome of raising the reading admission standard in the anticipation of continued state accreditation is a noticeable loss of candidates of colors, especially African American candidates.

This study aims at answering questions pertaining to the performance of bilingual Arab-American students on solving word problems written in their home and school languages: (1) Does the language in which a word problem is stated have an effect on the performance of the bilingual Arab-American students?; (2) Do Arab-American students with higher levels of Arabic proficiency perform better in either or both versions of the word problems?; and (3) What are some common differences and similarities in the problem solving processes of Arab-American students as they solve problems in English or Arabic? The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze these questions. A total of 173 students from a full-time Islamic school participated in this study: 56 students in fifth grade, 56 students in sixth grade, and 61 students in seventh grade. All students were asked to solve two sets of ten word problems each. The students were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Results showed that Arab-American students performed significantly better in the English version of the word problems. Arab-American students with higher levels of Arabic proficiency performed better in the Arabic version of the word problems. Students' standardized scores on mathematics problem solving was a significant factor in explaining variances in student performance on both language versions of both sets of word problems. While students' standardized scores on reading comprehension was a significant factor in predicting the students' performance on the English version of the word problems, students' final average in the Arabic subject was a significant factor in predicting students' performance on the Arabic version of the word problems. Differences and similarities emerged in the problem solving processes of Arab-American students solving the word problems in either English or Arabic. Some students found statements involving double comparisons, problems with hidden information, and problems that required multi-step solutions or thinking backwards to be problematic in both language versions of the problems. Difficult vocabulary was especially problematic for students when solving the Arabic version of the word problems.

This study initially was designed to produce an in-depth profile of minority students at North Texas State University. After the original dissertation proposal was presented and accepted the "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974" was passed. Considerable time passed while NTSU officials developed a legal basis as to the kind of information that would be accessible to doctoral students. The problem of this study was to construct a profile of minority students at NTSU who enrolled during the Fall and Spring semesters, 1974-75. It appears, and very significantly so, that the population percentage for minority students at NTSU is quite disproportionate when compared with the minority population percentage of the State of Texas. For the period examined, one out of every four students of minority designation was Latin-American while three out of four were of Afro-American ethnicity. The average minority student is from a population center that may be designated as a medium sized city to a large metropolitan area. The average minority student at NTSU is admitted from a large urban area high school, and not much preference seems to be given to native Texans. It appears that most minority students are admitted on the same basis as students from the dominant group--Scholastic Achievement Test score of 675. Minority female students outnumber the males at NTSU. The average minority student expects to graduate on time from the university. Also, the average minority student is unmarried with a preponderance of their numbers being "Freshman" as relates to academic level.

This study examines the relationships among student socioeconomic status, school district enrollment, minority enrollment, district expenditure per pupil, and the teaching experience of faculty as these variables influence the achievement scores of secondary students in Texas. Data from a total of 1,061 Texas school districts were used to determine the effects of the indicated district-level predictor variables on three criterion variables: reading, mathematics, and writing scores for the 11th-grade Texas Education Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS). The study led to the following conclusions: 1. Low socioeconomic status of students in Texas, as in the rest of the United States, insures that test scores will be lower if all other variables are held constant. 2. Large minority populations are strong predictors of low test scores, especially in mathematics and reading. 3. Students in districts whose faculty had a high average of years of teaching experience also scored high in achievement tests, especially in mathematics and writing. 4. High average district expenditure per pupil predicts high test scores, especially in reading. 5. School district size or enrollment has low predictive value of test scores. Among several specific recommendations, this study advises that further study be done concerning the most effective ways to educate minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged student populations. The study also recommends that better ways be found to retain experienced teachers in the classroom, including monetary compensation, extra allowances for staff development, and additional resources. The study cautions against simply adding money to a district's budget to increase student achievement scores, asserting that districts should make thorough studies before higher expenditures per pupil are alone used to increase test scores.

First-generation college (FGC) students represent a small portion of the population of students on college campuses across the nation. Racial minority students are also highly underrepresented at four-year institutions. When one combines FGC students who are also racial minorities, they comprise an even smaller subgroup of students attending four-year college campuses. Research conducted to evaluate how FGC students perform their first year in college is prevalent. Additionally, research has been completed on factors that help predict a high school student's admission into and performance in college. However, very little research exists about factors identified in high school that may help strengthen a prospective FGC, racial minority, and high school student's admission into college. This study will utilize the RELATE questionnaire to evaluate individual characteristics or circumstances identified in prospective first-generation college racial minority students that may be potentially mediated for by high school counselors or college administrators to help strengthen college or university admission. Counselors or advisors could have an impact on improving the likelihood of college or university admission for this population by facilitating the process of coming to terms with family stressors and/or strengthening their flexibility or adaptability to new or different environments, learning, and people. Since the RELATE database does not include direct data regarding college admission, positive student educational characteristics such as sociability, calmness, organization, maturity, and happiness will be utilized to represent potential stronger preparation for admission into college. RELATE is a questionnaire designed for individuals in a committed relationship and provides important information regarding the individual, the partner, and the relationship. Research with the RELATE questionnaire data is generally utilized in family and social science domains. This study is unique since it accesses the individual instead of couple data for positive educational characteristics and research. This comparative study between prospective first-generation college White students and prospective first-generation college racial minority students is designed to assist educators in secondary and higher educational levels to better prepare prospective FGC students, particularly prospective FGC racial minority students, for college admission. Also, this study will distinguish between various characteristics that may assist college recruiters identify prospective FGC students who may be a strong fit for their institutions.