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This study is a phenomenological study that explores the impacts that racial affinity groups and varsity athletic teams have on the perceived sense of belonging, social capital development, and identity development of students at one New England independent boarding school. The rationale for this study comes from the notion that many independent schools are engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work in order to shift their cultures away from the White affluent culture in which they were founded. Racial affinity groups are one tool that some schools use to try to create a healthier culture for students of color but they are not widely researched nor are they widely recognized as central parts of the school programming. Because varsity athletics is a widely accepted and supported program that also brings students together around common interest, it was used as reference point to contextualize the impacts of affinity groups. This study conducted focus groups and surveys with 18 students at one New England boarding school. This study found that both programs can have positive impacts on sense of belonging, social capital, and identity development. There were key differences in the way that the programs made connections between students and adults as well as between students and the institution as a whole. This study also found that, although both programs created an environment for healthy identity development, they didn’t both capitalize on that to the same extent.

Abstract of the Study Schools are faced with the challenge of identifying creative ways to ensure the success of all students. The academic achievement gap that persists between African-American students and their counterparts along with the disparate impact of disciplinary practices are issues that educators continue to seek solutions to address. Helping all students achieve academically is difficult; however, when confronted with issues like poverty, broken families, and crime helping students succeed in school becomes even more challenging. Although some progress has been noted, it has been well-documented that African-Americans continue to underperform and lag behind their counterparts academically (McMillian, 2003). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact, if any, a school-based mentoring program had on the academic achievement and appropriate social behaviors of African-American male participants when used as an intervention. The participants in this study attended a suburban middle school, located just outside the city of Philadelphia, and attended this school from 2012 through 2015. The study examined grade point averages, standardized test results, and disciplinary data from two groups of students: the African-American male students who participated in the mentoring program and the remainder of the African-American male students that attended this school during the same period. Data from both the control and experimental groups were examined to determine if students who participated in the mentoring program at any point throughout middle school had an improvement in their grade-point averages, standardized test performance, or lower rates of disciplinary referrals than the group that did not participate in the mentoring program. / Educational Leadership

It has been well-documented that an educational gap in literacy skills exists among children when they begin school. Some students are able to make progress without support beyond regular classroom instruction, while other students require intensive intervention to remediate literacy skills in hopes of becoming proficient readers. The popularity of reading intervention programs has increased along with the increase in accountability measures. The efficacy of intervention programs is often questioned as the results within schools do not often match the research produced by the intervention company. The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the reading intervention programs provided at the participating elementary school. A number of students were not meeting grade level reading expectations and required additional support through a reading intervention. This quantitative research study was designed to explore the effectiveness of the interventions as well as the changes in self-efficacy as students develop reading skills in the intervention programs. As a result, this project will assist school leaders in making decisions about implementation of reading interventions and make recommendations based on the interventions. The research will help the participating elementary school make decisions about intervention programming, and it will add to the growing body of literature centered on improving literacy skills in elementary-aged students. Additionally, the research provides a better understanding of students’ self-perceptions as readers, and the effects of participating in the reading intervention programs. The results of the study create an increased focus on reading interventions and assist in fostering a supportive environment. / Educational Leadership

This was a multi-case qualitative study, designed to investigate teacher educators’ perception of character education in Jamaica and how they enact character education in their classrooms. The study provided a localized version to the vast amount of research that has been conducted on character education in developed countries. Against the background of the significant role of teacher education, the study provided important insights regarding how teacher educators perceived, and enacted character education. Given the abstract nature of character education, a seven-point Likert scale questionnaire and two short cases were used to guide the interviews with the fifteen teacher educators’ who were purposively selected to take part in the study. Artifacts provided by the teacher educators, provided additional data for study. The responses on the questionnaire ranged from strongly agree through to strongly disagree. The data were analysed using the thematic approach. The data generated from the instruments were collated and attributed to the themes and major research questions to which they were aligned. The findings revealed that teacher educators’ perception of character education was closely aligned to the authoritative perception. The commonly shared view among participants was that character education is a means of instilling in children and young people the traditional values of the society and teaching them good manners. It was found that the older participants hold that character education is the process of teaching young people to be respectful, caring and to have good manners, especially to their elders. The younger participants hold that character education should focus on teaching young people the values and attitudes that will help them to live successfully in community, where there is mutual respect between all members of that community. They explained that the goal of character education should therefore be to equip young people with the ability to make right decisions and excel at what they do, rather than become obedient, subservient members of the society. All fifteen respondents strongly agreed with the authoritative perception, that people do not naturally develop good character and are therefore in need of correction. Twelve of the fifteen participants also revealed that their belief that human beings do not naturally develop good character is further supported by the experiences they have gained observing and relating to other human beings. The findings also revealed that except for Guidance Counselors, teacher educators did not formally teach character education. The teacher educators described their character education activities as informal and reactive. Informal because they did not usually go to their classes with a plan to teach character education, and reactive because many of their explicit character education actions were in response to the undesirable or inappropriate behaviours of their students. Their character education actions included correcting undesirable behaviours and modeling appropriate behaviours. Most of the teacher educators supported the direct didactic approach as the more effective approach to the teaching of character education and believed that pre service teachers are inadequately prepared for the task of character education. / Educational Leadership