Autistic students are increasingly enrolling in postsecondary institutions. While studies examining faculty-student relations is rising, there are few to no studies looking at how these relations may impact academic self-concept for autistic youth. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate autistic college students' academic self-concept…

Low enrollment and high attrition of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to be an issue for postsecondary institutions. Improvements in representation of women has been seen in some of the agricultural and biological sciences; however, in many of the more math intensive areas such as geosciences,…

Despite the racial/ethnic diversity of the United States, a significant difference remains between the standardized achievement scores of White students and Black students, most commonly known as the achievement gap or the opportunity gap. Although it is recognized that the opportunity gap is rooted in structural racism, scholars have examined…

The exploration of African American adolescents' career development has gained increasing attention in light of literature describing various barriers impacting their educational and career development and goals. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) was used as a theoretical framework to help shed light on the contextual factors that influence…

Despite being faced with major barriers to overcome, local school districts and teachers must work to align their instructional practices in science and their assessment practices to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science (NJSLS-Science). As described in the literature, a…

The contemplation of the potential future gains and consequences of current behavior, known as future orientation, can be of special importance in the counseling field as it might have positive and preventive implications on physical and mental health. In its simplest form, future orientation refers to people's subjective view of the future…

This mixed-methods study explored the characteristics of a reading program at a South Central Los Angeles charter school, as well as explored the relationship between motivational and affective factors on the Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) instrument and students' reading lexile scores. Data were collected through student questionnaire…

Hispanic and Latinx students are typically an underperforming population at many colleges and universities across the country, but that is not the case at one Hispanic Serving Institution in Georgia. The Hispanic and Latinx student population at Dalton State College is an anomaly when it comes to their retention and graduation rates. This study…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between "wellness factors" and "psychological factors" on perceived stress among Licensed Professional Counselors. This study was concerned with the predictability of "wellness factors", specifically self-care, other-care, and "psychological…

Research on the relationship between socioeconomic status and educational outcomes of students is abundant, but research related to factors that are capable of mediating the effects of poverty on the education of children is lacking. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of such factors. A pilot study using The High School…

Math achievement is an important predictor of progression to later science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and careers. However, attitudinal factors also play a role, and interventions attempting to improve math attitudes may be important for increasing the number of STEM-aspiring students. To design effective interventions, it…

Research indicates that historically underrepresented college students are more likely to report alienating campus climates which can contribute to decreased sense of belonging and wellbeing. In turn, a lack of a sense of belonging and poor mental health may lead to decreased academic engagement and increased likelihood of attrition. Theoretical…

A person's reading performance is the result of a combination of various factors. The current study was to investigate the influences of student and school background characteristics on student overall reading achievement. A sample of 2,922 tenth-grade students from 140 schools was included in this study from the Programme for International…

There is an achievement gap and lack of participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by minority females. The number of minority females majoring in STEM related fields and earning advanced degrees in these fields has not significantly increased over the past 40 years. Previous research has evaluated the relationship between…

Though social comparison behaviors have been widely studied in both occupational and academic contexts, no empirical study has investigated how social comparison presents in counselor education programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between social comparison orientation, counseling self-efficacy, sources of…