Browsing by Author "Branch, Tershundrea"
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Item DECREASING BIAS BY CHANGING PERCEPTIONS: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ADDRESSING PRECONCEPTIONS AMONG SCHOOL COUNSELORS(2022-12-01T06:00:00.000Z) Branch, Tershundrea; Sullivan, Jeffrey M; Simon, Tiffany T; Wines, Lisa AThe Office for Civil Rights has well documented the presence of disparities among Black students in schools as compared to other ethnic/racial groups of students. Although policies have been mandated and implemented in efforts to close gaps between Black students and other ethnic/racial groups of students, disparities continue to exist. As vital members of the leadership team, school counselors need to design and to deliver a Texas comprehensive developmental guidance and counseling program model with the intent of improving student successful outcomes. To date, however, limited data exist regarding effective interventions that can be used to teach school counselors the skills necessary to affect the systematic changes needed in schools. To address this concern, a quasi-experimental study was completed with 39 participants to explore the use of a school counselor multicultural awareness intervention to increase the school counselor’s multicultural self-efficacy and decease the school counselor’s colorblind racial attitude. A within-between groups ANOVA revealed statistically significant interactions for time with the School Counselor Self Efficacy Scale (SCMES) Using Data and Understanding Systematic change, Multicultural Counseling Awareness, and Application of Racial and Cultural Knowledge to Practice subscales. Results, discussion, and future recommendations are included in the study.Item DIFFERENCES IN THE READING PERFORMANCE OF TEXAS GRADE 4 STUDENTS ENROLLED IN TITLE I, PART A AND NON-TITLE I, PART A SCHOOLS AS A FUNCTION OF GENDER AND EMERGENT BILINGUAL STATUS: A MULTIYEAR, STATEWIDE INVESTIGATION(December 2023) Rodriguez, Dawn; Slate, John R; Lunenburg, Frederick C; Resilla, Clare; Hemmen, Janene W; Branch, TershundreaThe purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which enrollment in a Title I, Part A school was related to the reading performance of Grade 4 students on the Texas state-mandated reading assessment. Specifically examined was the extent to which boys and girls enrolled in Title I, Part A schools and non-Title I, Part A schools and Emergent Bilingual and non-Emergent Bilingual students enrolled in Title I, Part A schools differed in their reading performance during the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years. A causal-comparative research design was present for all three studies (Johnson & Christensen, 2020). Archival data were collected through a Public Information Request form submitted to and fulfilled by the Texas Education Agency Public Education Information Management System for the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years. After conducting statistical analyses, Texas Grade 4 students enrolled in Title I, Part A schools were determined to have statistically significantly lower reading scores than Texas Grade 4 students who were enrolled in non-Title I, Part A schools. With respect to gender, boys and girls enrolled in Title I, Part A schools had statistically significantly lower reading test scores than their peers enrolled in non-Title I, Part A schools. In all three Reading Reporting Categories and all grade level performance standards (i.e., Approaches Grade Level, Meets Grade Level, and Masters Grade Level), boys and girls enrolled in non-Title I, Part A schools outperformed their peers enrolled in Title I, Part A schools. Effect sizes for the Reading Reporting Categories for boys and girls for all three school years were moderate. Regarding language status, Emergent Bilingual students enrolled in Title I, Part A schools performed statistically significantly lower on the Grade 4 STAAR Reading exam than their non-Emergent Bilingual peers enrolled in Title I, Part A schools. In all three Reading Reporting Categories and all grade level performance standards, Emergent Bilingual students enrolled in Title I, Part A schools had lower reading skills than did non-Emergent Bilingual students. Effect sizes for the Reading Reporting Categories were small for all three school years.