Karen Stansberry Beard
Biographic Data
| ID | 5740288 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen Stansberry Beard |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen Stansberry |
| FAMILY NAME | Beard |
| SIGNATURE | BEARD K S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6237-4022 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Interrogating school leader sense-making: An examination of the influence of leader identity on school discipline
Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the sensemaking of K-12 school leaders and how identity and student demographics factor into their discipline decisions. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative exploratory study engaged six middle school leaders across rural, suburban and urban districts. Interviews were analyzed to determine whether school administrators consider academic performance and/or race when making discipline decisi…
Sensemaking and engagement in ethical decision-making (Seed): A United States decision-making framework for educational administration and school leadership
Most studies of educator sensemaking focus on teachers. This article addresses the lack of focus on school administrators’ sensemaking in the United States context. Principals’ sensemaking guides problem-solving, policy implementation, planning, management, and resource allocation. Proposed is a framework to assist administrators to appropriately respond to the over 300 decisions they must daily make. The Sensemaking and Engagement in Ethical Dec…
Black Girls and School Discipline: A QuantCrit Examination of Discipline Policy, Racialized Female Discipline, and Academic Outcomes
This QuantCrit study examined Black girls’ discipline related to similarly situated others. We also examined the relationship between discipline and academic outcomes and race and gender as predictors of discipline. Our analyses included a Pearson correlation and a negative binomial multiple regression: finding that Black girls’ reflect an alarmingly disproportional amount of school discipline in frequency and severity, primarily for subjective o…
Family engagement efficacy beliefs of educators: Confirming a new measure
In 2022, the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement published the Family Engagement Core Competencies, providing clarity about the knowledge and skills of teachers collaborating with parents and caregivers. This study explored the nature of teacher family engagement efficacy beliefs and confirmed the factor structure of a measurement instrument, the Family Engagement Efficacy Beliefs of Educators (FEEB-E). The relations…
The Emergence and Escalation of Online Racial Discrimination in Digital Spaces: A Systematic Review
COVID-19 required educators and students to rapidly move to online learning. Simultaneously, while navigating the pandemic in lockdown, citizens were exposed to the brutal murder of George Floyd. The increased exposure to online activity and discrimination generated a hyperawareness of the potential link between the two. Our interest was to examine that linkage as we considered the prevalence and escalation of online racial discrimination (ORD) a…
Flow under threat: Stereotype threat and flow theory integration in support of marginalized student academic engagement and psychological well-being
When Day Comes We Ask Ourselves, Where Can We Find Light in This Never-Ending Shade? An Introduction to Time for Change
Using Quantitative Critical Race Methodology to Explore Teachers’ Perceived Beliefs
As critical educational policy scholarship continues to move toward transformational knowledge production, critical and contextualized quantitative methods are central to justice and equity. In this study, the authors used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), guided by quantitative critical race methodology, to examine teachers’ beliefs about their ability to instantiate critical pedagogy— critical pedagogical efficacy. We parametrized a latent pa…
Development, factor structure, and reliability of the Shared Instructional Leadership Scale in public secondary schools
Shared instructional leadership may support informed decision making on matters of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Given the various organizational processes and outcomes associated with this construct, it is important to be able to measure the degree to which it exists in schools. In this article we propose the Shared Instructional Leadership Scale and report its reliability and the validity of its factor structure. The scale was design…
Time for Change: Understanding Teacher Social-Emotional Learning Supports for Anti-Racism and Student Well-Being During Covid-19, and Beyond
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the approximately 3.2 million teachers serving 50.8 million students in U.S. schools were positioned, along with school counselors, as de facto first responders for student well-being. Teachers across the country, already struggling to transition their teaching to online platforms, had to simultaneously implement recently adopted Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards. While prioritizing the social and emotion…
Breaking Barriers: District and School Administrators Engaging Family, and Community as a Key Determinant of Student Success
This qualitative case study explored administrators’ perceptions of family and community engagement activities that enhanced student well-being and ultimately impacted academic achievement in one urban district. Template analysis of 11 semistructured interviews and observation notes employed the positive psychology well-being theoretical construct, PERMA(H). Illuminated was the administrations’ focused attention to student attendance, engagement,…
Standing in the Gap: Theory and Practice Impacting Educational Opportunity and Achievement Gaps
This case study is the first known employing flow in educational administration in the United States. Using Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory and Dantley’s purpose-driven leadership, an administrator’s practices were examined with respect to two guiding questions: (a) is purposefulness integral to closing extant gaps in achievement, and (b) are the elements of flow found in successful educational administration? The recorded interview was subjected …
Making the case for the outlier: Researcher reflections of an African-American female deputy superintendent who decided to close the achievement gap
This article presents researcher reflections of a case study of a Black female deputy superintendent who made the value-driven decision to close the achievement gap in her district. I posit that she is an outlier because she is Black and female in a predominantly white male field of practice, she effectively closed the achievement gap through her knowledge of curriculum and teacher quality, and she allowed her standpoint, life experiences, and et…
Academic optimism of individual teachers: Confirming a new construct
Trusting’ schools to meet the academic needs of African‐American students? Suburban mothers’ perspectives
According to Tschannen‐Moran, ‘Principals and teachers need to build trusting relationships with students and parents in order to accomplish their essential goal of fostering student achievement and equipping students for citizenship.’ In the context of organizational trust, this study explored such relationships with six, middle‐class African‐American mothers. The mothers openly and honestly shared their thoughts regarding the suburban public ed…
Breaking Barriers: District and School Administrators Engaging Family, and Community as a Key Determinant of Student Success
This qualitative case study explored administrators’ perceptions of family and community engagement activities that enhanced student well-being and ultimately impacted academic achievement in one urban district. Template analysis of 11 semistructured interviews and observation notes employed the positive psychology well-being theoretical construct, PERMA(H). Illuminated was the administrations’ focused attention to student attendance, engagement,…
Academic optimism of individual teachers: Confirming a new construct
Time for Change: Understanding Teacher Social-Emotional Learning Supports for Anti-Racism and Student Well-Being During Covid-19, and Beyond
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the approximately 3.2 million teachers serving 50.8 million students in U.S. schools were positioned, along with school counselors, as de facto first responders for student well-being. Teachers across the country, already struggling to transition their teaching to online platforms, had to simultaneously implement recently adopted Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards. While prioritizing the social and emotion…
Trusting’ schools to meet the academic needs of African‐American students? Suburban mothers’ perspectives
According to Tschannen‐Moran, ‘Principals and teachers need to build trusting relationships with students and parents in order to accomplish their essential goal of fostering student achievement and equipping students for citizenship.’ In the context of organizational trust, this study explored such relationships with six, middle‐class African‐American mothers. The mothers openly and honestly shared their thoughts regarding the suburban public ed…
Standing in the Gap: Theory and Practice Impacting Educational Opportunity and Achievement Gaps
This case study is the first known employing flow in educational administration in the United States. Using Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory and Dantley’s purpose-driven leadership, an administrator’s practices were examined with respect to two guiding questions: (a) is purposefulness integral to closing extant gaps in achievement, and (b) are the elements of flow found in successful educational administration? The recorded interview was subjected …
When Day Comes We Ask Ourselves, Where Can We Find Light in This Never-Ending Shade? An Introduction to Time for Change
Trusting’ schools to meet the academic needs of African‐American students? Suburban mothers’ perspectives
According to Tschannen‐Moran, ‘Principals and teachers need to build trusting relationships with students and parents in order to accomplish their essential goal of fostering student achievement and equipping students for citizenship.’ In the context of organizational trust, this study explored such relationships with six, middle‐class African‐American mothers. The mothers openly and honestly shared their thoughts regarding the suburban public ed…
Academic optimism of individual teachers: Confirming a new construct
Making the case for the outlier: Researcher reflections of an African-American female deputy superintendent who decided to close the achievement gap
This article presents researcher reflections of a case study of a Black female deputy superintendent who made the value-driven decision to close the achievement gap in her district. I posit that she is an outlier because she is Black and female in a predominantly white male field of practice, she effectively closed the achievement gap through her knowledge of curriculum and teacher quality, and she allowed her standpoint, life experiences, and et…
Standing in the Gap: Theory and Practice Impacting Educational Opportunity and Achievement Gaps
This case study is the first known employing flow in educational administration in the United States. Using Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory and Dantley’s purpose-driven leadership, an administrator’s practices were examined with respect to two guiding questions: (a) is purposefulness integral to closing extant gaps in achievement, and (b) are the elements of flow found in successful educational administration? The recorded interview was subjected …
Breaking Barriers: District and School Administrators Engaging Family, and Community as a Key Determinant of Student Success
This qualitative case study explored administrators’ perceptions of family and community engagement activities that enhanced student well-being and ultimately impacted academic achievement in one urban district. Template analysis of 11 semistructured interviews and observation notes employed the positive psychology well-being theoretical construct, PERMA(H). Illuminated was the administrations’ focused attention to student attendance, engagement,…
Development, factor structure, and reliability of the Shared Instructional Leadership Scale in public secondary schools
Shared instructional leadership may support informed decision making on matters of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Given the various organizational processes and outcomes associated with this construct, it is important to be able to measure the degree to which it exists in schools. In this article we propose the Shared Instructional Leadership Scale and report its reliability and the validity of its factor structure. The scale was design…
Time for Change: Understanding Teacher Social-Emotional Learning Supports for Anti-Racism and Student Well-Being During Covid-19, and Beyond
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the approximately 3.2 million teachers serving 50.8 million students in U.S. schools were positioned, along with school counselors, as de facto first responders for student well-being. Teachers across the country, already struggling to transition their teaching to online platforms, had to simultaneously implement recently adopted Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards. While prioritizing the social and emotion…
Using Quantitative Critical Race Methodology to Explore Teachers’ Perceived Beliefs
As critical educational policy scholarship continues to move toward transformational knowledge production, critical and contextualized quantitative methods are central to justice and equity. In this study, the authors used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), guided by quantitative critical race methodology, to examine teachers’ beliefs about their ability to instantiate critical pedagogy— critical pedagogical efficacy. We parametrized a latent pa…
Family engagement efficacy beliefs of educators: Confirming a new measure
In 2022, the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement published the Family Engagement Core Competencies, providing clarity about the knowledge and skills of teachers collaborating with parents and caregivers. This study explored the nature of teacher family engagement efficacy beliefs and confirmed the factor structure of a measurement instrument, the Family Engagement Efficacy Beliefs of Educators (FEEB-E). The relations…
The Emergence and Escalation of Online Racial Discrimination in Digital Spaces: A Systematic Review
COVID-19 required educators and students to rapidly move to online learning. Simultaneously, while navigating the pandemic in lockdown, citizens were exposed to the brutal murder of George Floyd. The increased exposure to online activity and discrimination generated a hyperawareness of the potential link between the two. Our interest was to examine that linkage as we considered the prevalence and escalation of online racial discrimination (ORD) a…
Flow under threat: Stereotype threat and flow theory integration in support of marginalized student academic engagement and psychological well-being
When Day Comes We Ask Ourselves, Where Can We Find Light in This Never-Ending Shade? An Introduction to Time for Change
Interrogating school leader sense-making: An examination of the influence of leader identity on school discipline
Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the sensemaking of K-12 school leaders and how identity and student demographics factor into their discipline decisions. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative exploratory study engaged six middle school leaders across rural, suburban and urban districts. Interviews were analyzed to determine whether school administrators consider academic performance and/or race when making discipline decisi…
Sensemaking and engagement in ethical decision-making (Seed): A United States decision-making framework for educational administration and school leadership
Most studies of educator sensemaking focus on teachers. This article addresses the lack of focus on school administrators’ sensemaking in the United States context. Principals’ sensemaking guides problem-solving, policy implementation, planning, management, and resource allocation. Proposed is a framework to assist administrators to appropriately respond to the over 300 decisions they must daily make. The Sensemaking and Engagement in Ethical Dec…
Black Girls and School Discipline: A QuantCrit Examination of Discipline Policy, Racialized Female Discipline, and Academic Outcomes
This QuantCrit study examined Black girls’ discipline related to similarly situated others. We also examined the relationship between discipline and academic outcomes and race and gender as predictors of discipline. Our analyses included a Pearson correlation and a negative binomial multiple regression: finding that Black girls’ reflect an alarmingly disproportional amount of school discipline in frequency and severity, primarily for subjective o…
Psychology (11 works) · Pedagogy (10 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (5 works) · Academic achievement (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (4 works)