The benefits of physical activity (PA) for children are well-researched and extend into the realms of physical health, mental health and executive function (EF). Nonetheless, most U.S. children fail to meet the recommended target of daily PA. Although elementary schools can provide an ideal setting for PA, school-based PA time has been reduced in favor of increased sedentary instructional time. This contradicts research that supports the role of PA in enhancing students’ EF and academic achievement. Moreover, low-income and minority populations have inequitable access to school-based PA opportunities. For these reasons, researchers and public health officials have proposed integrating additional opportunities for PA during the school day, including classroom-based active breaks. This dissertation aims to study existing U.S. classroom-based active break programs, examine the feasibility of implementing a classroom-based active break program and analyze the impact of an integrated program on both PA and EF, all among underserved, minority populations. This dissertation includes four chapters in total. The second chapter is a systematic review that evaluated the impact of school-based PA interventions on children’s PA, with a focus on diverse populations. The third chapter describes a pilot study that assessed the feasibility of implementing a classroom PA program (HYPE) in a diverse urban setting. Teacher and student acceptability of HYPE were evaluated, as well as HYPE’s impact on student PA. HYPE was feasible and well-received, although time and space were challenges. Children’s median step count/day increased. The waitlist-control study presented in Chapter IV examined whether a multifaceted program (“POWER”) that incorporates both PA and EF would impact fifth graders positively. We also investigated whether POWER could assist teachers with classroom behavioral management. Overall, the positive changes in the intervention group and their favorable reception of POWER demonstrate the ability of POWER to improve children’s socioemotional, mental and physical health. Altogether, these studies highlight the potential for school-based PA interventions to improve the holistic wellbeing of children, particularly low-income, minority youth. Interventions that incorporate a teacher-led, multimodal approach to improving children’s PA and EF synergistically may be well-received by administrators, teachers and students and help children adopt healthy, lifelong habits.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of three relationships on academic achievement in mathematics in students of poverty. The three factors that were examined included: teacher-student relationships, parent-student relationships and peer- student relationships. The driving question for the research was as follows: Do external factors such as teacher-student relationships, parent-student relationships and peer-student relationships lead to academic success for students of poverty? The study employed a non-experimental, quantitative approach and utilized longitudinal data from a national database High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) used a sample of 944 public and private high schools across the USA. A total 0f 28,240 were represented in the survey. Of these 28,240 students, 2641 were used in this study as identified by parental income below the poverty threshold. The outcome of the study indicated that there was little or no correlation between the three relationships and mathematics achievement (academic success). Correlations between the dependent variable (math achievement) and the independent variables even though some were statistically significant their weights had no concrete significance. The study recommends that several initiatives can be instated in schools to support and enhance academic achievement in students of poverty.

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In this dissertation, I examined the experiences of QuestBridge Scholars attending three different elite universities that enroll more students from the top income quintile than from the lowest three income quintiles combined. The universities attended by participants in this study are among the few that are both need-blind and that fully meet students’ demonstrated financial need through grant and scholarship aid. Additionally, these universities have acceptance rates of no more than 10%. The QuestBridge organization’s mission is to match high-achieving, low-income students with elite institutions. Data from participants were collected through an audio and video recorded interview using a semi-structured protocol. Interviews were transcribed and then coded using an iterative open coding process to identify themes. The themes that emerged were: changing relationships with family and friends from before college, finding support while enrolled, the transition from family of origin to elite higher education, experiencing privilege, campus involvement, social belonging, navigating elite higher education, and academic adjustment and impostor phenomenon. These themes suggest that QuestBridge Scholars experience something akin to class culture shock when they enter the world of elite higher education. This study is significant because it focuses specifically on QuestBridge Scholars who have been successful at a highly selective subset of QuestBridge institutions with high income disparity, where success is defined by having reached second-semester junior status or having graduated. The focus on those who attend or attended highly selective institutions and who are succeeding suggests that these students might have insights that would smooth the path for others like them. This study may also have implications for practice for highly selective institutions that admit QuestBridge Scholars and other low-income students. Finally, in this study, I explored participants’ perceptions of socioeconomic class, with results suggesting that the transition from family of origin to elite higher education causes changes in self-perception and behavior.

The present study investigated the processes and factors which led to increased student achievement at a rural, high poverty, elementary school in 2014-2019. Student academic achievement was measured through the pass rates of students in third, fourth, and fifth grades on the Virginia SOL assessments in English and mathematics. In English, student pass rates increased by 22 percentage points from 2015-2019, and in mathematics, they increased 16 points for the same time period. Due to this growth, the school was recognized as one of the National Distinguished Title I Schools in 2019. Utilizing a case study methodology, interviews were conducted with building level and division level school personnel for a total of 11 participants. Other data were also analyzed such as school improvement plans, student progress monitoring data, and personnel changes at the school. Participants indicated high quality leadership, the creation and cultivation of positive relationships among faculty, staff, and students, and the implementation of the Responsive Classroom program as factors contributing to increased student academic achievement. Furthermore, 50% teacher turnover and subsequent hiring of new teachers or the transferring in of teachers new to the school was identified as a change within the school during the five years being studied. / Doctor of Education / Students in third, fourth, and fifth grades in Virginia public schools take assessments in English, mathematics, science and history, depending on grade level, at the end of each school year to determine their academic success based on common grade level standards. This study focused on a school that improved student pass rates on the English assessment by 22 percentage points and 16 percentage points on the mathematics assessment from 2014-2019. This study examined the processes and factors that went into the increased student achievement through interviews of 11 school level and division level personnel. These interviews provided administrator, teacher, and school staff perceptions of why student achievement increased, and led to the examination of other data such as school improvement plans from 2014-2016, student progress monitoring data, and school staffing changes from 2014-2019. The study found the analysis of student progress monitoring data and subsequent meetings between the teachers and literacy coaches to address student academic needs as having an impact on student achievement. Additionally, the creation and cultivation of positive relationships between faculty, staff, and students, purposeful and high-quality leadership, and the implementation of the Responsive Classroom program were identified as factors increasing student achievement. The school also experienced 50% teacher turnover from 2014-2019. In 2014, the school had 14 teachers and by the end of the study in 2019, seven of those teachers had left for various reason, allowing the building principal to hire or transfer teachers in from other schools who better fit the needs of the school and its students.

Understanding what schools can do to help low-income and high-achieving students succeed academically was one of the prime motivations of this dissertation. In Mexico, low-income students perform in the lowest quartiles of standardized tests, and their future is not promising. In order to understand what factors can help low-income students succeed at school, I reviewed the school effectiveness and resilience literature as to understand the different factors that determine academic achievement of students coming from low-income backgrounds. Through a thorough quantitative analysis of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 and the Formato 911 databases, I identified the different factors that helped low-income students succeed at school. I first analyzed the student, family, and school factors that determined students’ academic achievement in Mexico, in order to get a general idea of what determined achievement of students in Mexico, as a country. Then, I went further and focused more on my sample of interest and analyzed the student, family, and school factors that were associated with a higher probability of showing higher scores on tests, even when struggling with a lack of resources. The most noteworthy finding from the analyses conducted to understand what determined students’ achievement in Mexico, as a country, was that academic performance was mainly explained by students' individual characteristics. Characteristics, including whether the student had a low or high socioeconomic status, whether he or she was in the appropriate grade, whether the student was a girl or a boy, whether he or she attended preschool, whether the student lived with his or her mother, and the attitude he or she had toward school, seemed to be associated with how the student scored on standardized tests. The school level variables that had a positive association with the students’ performance were the schools’ mean Index of Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS), whether the school was private, and the percentage of indigenous students in the school. By estimating cross-level interaction effects, I found the interaction between ESCS and whether the school was located in a rural area and whether the school was a distance education program to be statistically significant. The aforementioned outcomes showed that one additional standard deviation of income had a very small effect on the academic achievement of students living in rural areas or attending a distance education program school. Another interesting finding is that the number of teachers enrolled in the incentives program offered by the government, Carrera Magisterial, was not statistically significant in any of my models, showing that this program was not effective in improving the education that middle school and 15-year-old students received in Mexico. I also analyzed the different factors that increased the probability of low-income students obtaining scores that were higher than would have been predicted given their socioeconomic status. I named these learners resilient students. I found a student’s attitude toward school, whether the student repeated zero, one or two or more primary school grades, whether they student attended a private or a Telesecundaria school, and the average class size of the school to be statistically significant variables. Attitude toward school seemed to have the largest contribution to increasing the probability of being categorized as resilient, almost half of a standard deviation, and remained positive and statistically significant in the analysis. The analysis showed that improving a student’s attitude toward school in one standard deviation, increased the probability of that student being resilient by 24 percentage points. However, it is hard to tell if students who are succeeding are doing so because of their attitude or if successful students have a better attitude because they are doing well in school. In any case, this variable was highly statistically significant and was similar to a noncognitive ability measure, which, according to the literature, includes skills omitted in most of the analyses of the determinants of achievement. One of most relevant findings of this study is that the number of teachers enrolled in the incentives program of the government, Carrera Magisterial, was not statistically significant in any of my models, showing that this program was not effective in improving the education that middle school and 15-year-old students received in Mexico. One of the implications is that the government should not consider the possibility of restoring that program in the Mexican education system. Preschool education, attitude towards school, gender, and time-spent in class are factors that highly related with the success of low-income students. Additional analysis and data is needed in order to perform further analysis on the impact that these determinants have on students achievement. Finally, this study revealed that Telesecundarias play an important role in helping economically disadvantaged students gain access to education in locations where no teachers or other school resources are available and are also positively associated with academic success.

This study empirically tested Benard’s (1991, 2004) theory of resilience and youth development by examining the influence of caring relationships, high expectations and opportunities for participation and contribution within the schools on the mathematics achievement and timely graduation of public high school students. Additional analyses focused on subsamples of students who were at risk of academic failure and school dropout—students from the lowest socioeconomic quartile, African American and Hispanic students, and a generic at-risk sample that includes students from these three groups plus students who had nontraditional families, had a disability, or were retained a grade in school. The study used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study: 2002, which was designed to monitor young people as they transition from tenth grade to postsecondary education and/or employment. Hierarchical Linear Models and Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models were used for the analyses. Experiences within the schools that conveyed caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution were associated with higher senior year mathematics achievement scores and increased odds of timely graduation for the overall public school sample and for the at-risk groups. Suggestions are made for increasing caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution within the schools. The limitations of this study and directions for further research are also discussed. / text

This dissertation qualitatively explores 55 Thai 4th grade students, a teacher, and 7 community members from a low-income public school in Bangkok, Thailand in order to develop a design framework for creating school-based maker experiences that are culturally relevant to lower income Thai students. Co-teaching and co designing a two-year design-based research project named, “Little Builders,” I worked with a local science teacher to engage the students in a constructionist learning experience that involved designing and building social innovations to solve problems in their community. I propose the Culturally Relevant Constructionist Design framework as a way to (1) create constructionist learning experiences that align with students’ values and goals, and (2) engage important people in the students’ lives, such as teachers and community members, in the process of making. Designing the learning experience for Thai students from 2017-2019, I draw from the life and work of the late King Bhumibol of Thailand. For 70 years, King Bhumibol was a unifying figure in Thailand and widely admired as “The Developer King” (Nicholas & Dominic, 2011) as he dedicated his life to creating inventions for the good of the country. Students “followed in the King’s footsteps” by making inventions to better their community in the midst of a nation-wide mourning period after the King’s death in 2016. This dissertation builds upon the literature from constructionism, sociocultural views of learning and identity development, community-centered making, and culturally relevant pedagogy. Little Builders provided opportunities for students, teachers, and community members to build projects and relationships. They learned about making while also learning more about each other and about how to support one another. During the Little Builders project, teachers and community members explicitly expressed new appreciation and awareness of students’ skills and strengths, gradually moving away from deficit narratives. Similarly, the students saw themselves as someone who could create and invent while helping others.

There is little diversity among earned doctorates in the United States. First-generation college students are especially at-risk for not matriculating to a doctoral degree. This applied dissertation provided an understanding of the obstacles faced by first-generation college students in doctoral programs by studying alumni of the McNair Scholars Program. The study examined the components of the McNair Scholars Program that can help ameliorate obstacles faced by first-generation college students as they enroll and persist into graduate school. This study utilized a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach to evaluate the components of the McNair Scholars Program that prepared students for successful persistence into graduate school and subsequent completion of an earned doctorate.