Virginia Snodgrass Rangel

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Houston

The internship is a crucial component of principal preparation. This systematic research review aims to build on two prior syntheses of existing research on principal internships. We employed an exhaustive review of five search engines for empirical studies on principal internships in the United States between 2010 and 2023. Our search yielded 92 s...

Using social cognitive career theory, we examine differences in the career development of men and women in nursing technician programs. We recruited nursing students from five Chilean postsecondary vocational–technical education institutions and surveyed them regarding their perceptions of supports, barriers, and beliefs. Despite male nursing techn...

The principal internship is a crucial component of principal preparation programs (PPP) in the U.S. and, increasingly, in other countries. The purpose of this study was to compare the experiences and work of principal candidates enrolled in one PRP to candidates enrolled in a traditional principal preparation program at the same university. Using a...

We examined the equity-oriented leadership experiences of 23 principal interns in one principal preparation program in Texas. Our analysis of interview and internship log data revealed that the principal interns engaged in a range of equity-related work, and they led more of that work than expected. However, their leadership work was concentrated i...

The principal internship is a crucial component of principal preparation programs (PPP) in the U.S. and, increasingly, in other countries. The purpose of this study was to compare the experiences and work of principal candidates enrolled in one principal residency program (PRP) to candidates enrolled in a traditional principal preparation program a...

Transfer students comprise half of all undergraduate students, yet their educational experiences may differ in meaningful ways from those of traditional students. Importantly, the transfer student population is diverse and not monolithic. Achievement emotions, which occur in an iterative pattern with past experiences informing current and future em...

This paper investigated principal interns’ leadership work during the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas. We used data from one-on-one semistructured interviews to document the experiences of 21 principal candidates in spring 2021 through spring 2022. Participants’ leadership work changed in four ways during the pandemic: striving, intensifying, expanding,...

In an urban elementary school serving predominantly White and Latinx students, the second-grade teachers created an assignment that asked students to share how their families migrated to the United States. The mother of a Black student met with the teacher to discuss her discomfort with the assignment given that their family descended from enslaved...

This study extends existing research on content-specific leadership for mathematics and science and educational leadership preparation. Interview data from mathematics and science education faculty reveal that principals should know what questions to ask teachers about instruction, be able to identify high-quality mathematics and science teaching i...

Women face many barriers to entry into and persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Drawing on expectancy-value theory (EVT) and using a qualitative approach, this study sought to deeply understand women’s entry and persistence in STEM-related postsecondary Vocational Technical Education (VTE) programs that le...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of schooling online and limited students’ access to informal learning opportunities such as afterschool programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how fourth-and fifth-grade students engaged in an online engineering program and what factors influenced their engagement. We drew on a four-dimensional mode...

The purpose of this study was to determine if attending a single-sex, STEM-focused school was related to science and mathematics achievement among a sample of African American and Latina eighth-grade girls in one school district. A nonequivalent group, post-test only design was utilized in the study to mitigate the effects of selection bias. We ana...

This study sought to explore the extent to which and how principals can help decrease the use of out-of-school suspension and close the racial discipline gap. This study comprised a qualitative case study of a principal in an urban school district. Data derive from in-depth interviews with current and former campus and district leaders, historical...

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to describe the roles mentors enacted as part of an afterschool STEM program and how those roles varied across three sites and to explain those differences. Design: We used a comparative case study design. We collected data primarily from interviews with program mentors and observations of the sessions. Fin...

Existing inequalities in STEM-related vocational-technical education (VTE) programs are more prevalent than within 4-year programs. Situated in Chile, this study tests whether Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) adequately explains career development among students enrolled in STEM-VTE programs. In doing so, it also examines how external factors...

Using social cognitive career theory (SCCT), we examined the career development of students in sex-typed postsecondary Vocational Technical Education (VTE) programs in the Chilean context. We assessed the moderating effects of students’ socioeconomic background, sex, membership to the sex-atypical group, and the intersection of these attributes acr...

States have introduced a range of policies and strategies aimed at boosting college readiness by strengthening collaborations between secondary and postsecondary education sectors. One popular strategy is Early College High Schools, which allows historically underserved student groups to complete college-level coursework and improve their college r...

The rapid spread of COVID-19 across many parts of the United States (U.S.) in the early spring of 2020 required universities across the country to make dramatic changes, the most visible of which was closing their campuses to faculty and students and moving instruction online. Information about how universities, engineering programs, and engineerin...

This study extends prior work on the college-going efforts of Latino boys and adolescents (Latinos) by examining the extent to which meeting with a professional school counselor is related to their college-going aspirations and whether they apply to and ultimately matriculate to college. The study utilizes social capital and social reproduction the...

Little is known about why people decide to mentor in the context of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the motivations of undergraduate student mentors working in an afterschool STEM program for underrepresented elementary schoolboys. We used self-determination theory (S...

This article contributes to our understanding of the gap in college access by examining 1) the extent to which and 2) how high school professional school counseling focused on college broadens access. We extend Engberg and Gilbert’s (2014) typology of schools based upon high school counseling norms and resources. Using recent data from the High Sch...

Though there have been multiple studies on engagement among Latinx families, less is known about Latinx parental engagement at the secondary level or about engagement at predominantly Latinx schools. The purpose of this case study was to use Yosso’s concept of community cultural wealth to demonstrate how administrators can engage Latinx parents in...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the math and science beliefs of underrepresented students, with a focus on first‐generation college (FGC) students. We do so by estimating a typology of high school students based on their mathematics and science beliefs and examining which group(s) students were more likely to be in. We used latent prof...

Across the United States, the rapid spread of “zero-tolerance” policies has generated a pipeline of youth from schools into prisons. Once youth reenter their community and home school, they often struggle to reintegrate. There is relatively little research about school reentry for juvenile justice–involved youth, and yet these students are at risk...

This study extends prior work on the college-going efforts of Latino boys and men (Latinos) by examining the extent to which meeting with a professional school counselor is related to their college-going aspirations and whether they apply to and ultimately matriculate to college. The study utilizes social capital and social reproduction theories to...

In an effort to increase college access and success rates, the state of Texas has expanded dual enrollment programs and Early College High Schools (ECHS) that provide students with the opportunity to begin their collegiate careers while still in high school. More recently, these dual enrollment and ECHS programs have tried to broaden inclusion amon...

The purpose of this study is to compare the college enrollment and STEM college major choice rates of graduates of a STEM-focused charter school system to those of students who graduated from traditional public schools in the state of Texas and the United States for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented groups. In addition, the factors...

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which traditional and alternative preparation programs differ in terms of their program components, as well as whether program type was related to different levels of self-efficacy in novice reading teachers. This exploratory study collected data from 83 novice elementary reading teachers in a...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent that there is a typology of high schools based on their orientation toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as the extent to which school‐level demographic variables and student high school outcomes are associated with subgroup membership in the typology, by ana...

This study sought to explain student success at an Early College High School. Guided by previous research on Early College High Schools as well as by the construct of educational resiliency, 28 students were interviewed in focus groups. Through the analysis, we uncovered the key role that educational resilience played in their success as the studen...

This article contributes to our understanding of the gap in college access by examining (a) the extent to which and (b) how high school counseling focused on college broadens access. We extend Engberg and Gilbert’s typology of schools based on high school counseling norms and resources. Using recent data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2...

The purpose of this study was to explore the validity and reliability of the School Participant Empowerment Scale among science and mathematics teachers. Using a sample of 257 elementary and secondary teachers, the study used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to examine the validity of the instrument. We began by trying to confirm the hy...

Among the many challenges facing public schools are high levels of principal turnover. Given the important role that principals play and are expected to play in the improvement process, concerns about principal turnover have resulted in a growing body of research on its causes and consequences. The purpose of this review is to take stock of what we...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use the literature on STEM-focused schools and instructional leadership to identify and test possible mechanisms through which a principal’s background knowledge in STEM would matter for their instructional leadership. Research methods: This study utilized data from the High School Longitudinal Study:09 (HS...

Accountability policies assume that educators will use student data to improve student learning, but data use in practice has turned out to be harder than theorized. The purpose of this paper was to examine how science teachers in grades 5-8 used data in their classrooms. Utilizing sensemaking theory, we found that teachers decided how to use data...

A key assumption of accountability policies is that educators will use data to improve their instruction. In practice, though, data use is quite hard and more districts are looking to instructional coaches to support their teachers. The purpose of this descriptive analysis is to examine how instructional coaches in elementary and middle school scie...

Web 2.0’s unprecedented capacity to distribute information has led some to postulate that social media tools, such as Twitter, also might support educator professional learning. This study utilized structuration theory to examine the factors shaping administrators’ uses of Twitter, and some of the consequences of that use. It finds that administrat...

There is a debate on students’ low science achievement in the United States, particularly among low income, African American students, and Latino students. An important part of the education community’s response to low achievement generally and in science specifically has been the implementation of high stakes accountability policies. Because of ac...

Paper to be presented at AERA, 2016

A key assumption of accountability policies is that educators will use data to improve their instruction. In practice, though, data use is quite hard and more districts are looking to instructional coaches to support their teachers. The purpose of this descriptive analysis is to examine how instructional coaches in elementary and middle school scie...

The effective use of student data has gained increasing attention in the past 10 years. Although district leaders would like to support data use and improvement, exactly how to go about such work systemically is often unclear. Accordingly, the aim of this chapter is to illuminate the inner workings of data use throughout a mid-sized school district...

Understanding how an educational intervention is implemented is essential to evaluating its effectiveness. With the increased use of digital tools in classrooms, however, traditional methods of measuring implementation fall short. Fortunately, there is a way to learn about the interactions that users have with digital tools that are embedded into t...

Here we describe the use of learning analytics (LA) for investigating inquiry-based science instruction. We define several variables that quantify curriculum usage and leverage tools from process mining to examine inquiry-based pedagogical processes. These are initial steps toward measuring and modeling fidelity of implementation of a science curri...

This case study on nine bilingual teachers in Texas during their first year in a graduate education program examines both the development of critical consciousness among the educators and the ways in which critical consciousness shapes how these teachers come to understand their roles as teachers and leaders of a sociopolitically marginalized stude...

In this paper, we discuss a scalable approach for integrating learning analytics into an online K–12 science curriculum. A description of the curriculum and the underlying pedagogical framework is followed by a discussion of the challenges to be tackled as part of this integration. We include examples of data visualization based on teacher usage da...

In this paper, we discuss a scalable approach for integrating learning analytics into an online K-12 science curriculum. A description of the curriculum and the underlying pedagogical framework is followed by a discussion of the challenges to be tackled as part of this integration. We also include examples of data visualization based on real studen...

Over the past several decades, policymakers have sought to address the problem of school failure by exposing traditional public schools to competitive market forces. In this analysis, we examine how two traditional public schools in a “high pressure/high choice” urban school cluster in Texas responded to a number of overlapping choice policies that...

For decades, policymakers and researchers have struggled to understand the reasons that schools in disadvantaged contexts have relatively more trouble responding successfully to reform demands. This analysis extends theory regarding the challenges of school change in disadvantaged contexts by illustrating how the internal resources that schools rel...

This article contributes to an emerging body of literature on the impact of high stakes testing accountability policies on implementation and teaching practice. It uses a theory of implementation, sense-making, to highlight the process by which policy and context shape teacher decision making. We focus on teachers in bilingual classrooms in an urba...