The 2025 Educational Research Symposium is sponsored by Trinity University’s Department of Education and the Center for Educational Leadership. This year, we are showcasing 28 presentations conducted by graduate students from across the Department’s three graduate programs - the Master of Arts in School Psychology, the Master of Arts in Teaching and the Master of Education in School Leadership programs. Also included in the program are 4 presentations by undergraduate students who have conducted research during the academic year.
This special evening celebrates our graduating students and recognizes them for their hard work and scholarly accomplishments as Trinity researchers.
EVENT TIMING Groups
Group 1 Presentations
5:15-5:45 PM
Rodrigo Cantu, Patrick Frank, Stephanie Molina, and Gabriel Valdez School Vouchers: Are They Really a Choice?
Crystal Alvarado FW-PBIS in Juvenile Correctional Facilities
Lydia Bryant
The Power of Creation: Boosting Engagement, Confidence, and Creativity in Young Learners Through Music Composition
Ash Dreghorn
The Influence of Scheduled Check-ins on Student Motivation and Emotional Security in Upper Elementary Classrooms
Jacob Mason
The Importance of Cultural Inclusivity in the Classroom: Strategies for Teachers to Achieve It
Michaela Robinett
Pushing the Field Forward: Strategies for Recruiting Diverse Students to School Psychology Graduate Programs
Angie Salazar
Cultivating a Constructivist Classroom: Centering Student Experience and Knowledge as a Means of Negotiating Instruction
Cynthia Lopez, Rachal Ramirez, Jacquelyn Rosales, and Ydette Tovar Safeguards of Success: Why We Must Support the Department of Education
Ruby Castro
Spanish-Speaking Families’ Comprehension of the Special Education Process
Olivia Valdespino
The Mood Meter Comes to Neverland: An Exploration of Social Emotional Learning in a Male Dominated Kindergarten Classroom
Peyton Silvius
The Fight for Equality in Seguin, Texas
Group 2 Presentations
5:45-6:15 PM
Sonia Ryan
Mental Health in Military vs. Civilian Children: Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors
Jorge Alvarez, Elisa Lerma, and Maira Zamora
Educating the Children of Plyler
Addison Doherty
Supporting Striving Readers: The Value of Teaching Novels in Verse
Emily Baggett
What’s your name?: The Importance of a Communal Learning Environment in Secondary Classrooms
Corrinne Tallman
Frankie Valli Made Easy — Arranging for your End-of-Year Pop Show
Lynzie Kutsner
Impacts of Homelessness on Students: Knowledge for Service Delivery
Suzanne Smith
Reinforcing Classroom Expectations: Positive Reinforcement and Logical Consequences
Madison Habeck
The Impact of Individualized Daily SEL Lessons in Student’s Self-Regulation
Shayla Garrison
Bridging Curriculum to the Real World: Engaging Students in Project-Based Learning in a Math Classroom
Kai Velasquez
Somos De Aquí: Public Education in Edgewood ISD
Group 3 Presentations
6:15-6:45 PM
Melissa Rosario
A Multi-Year Study of Nature’s Effects on Well-Being in Undergraduate College Students
Ariana Castillo
Incorporating SEL into Classroom Routines to Support Students in Navigating Academic and Social Challenges
Tracy Baker-Sims, Nicholas Champion, Rachel Moczygemba and Donald Payne
Helping the Helpers: Supporting Teacher Mental Health through Proactive Policy
Ashley Hysten
Shortages in School Psychology and Burnout
Will Walker
“Economic Disadvantage, Race, and The SAT: A School Level Analysis of Public Secondary Schools in Bexar County”
Julissa Ramirez
‘We say that at home!’: Engaging Students through Culturally-Relevant Pedagogy
Tanner Ellsworth
Polynomials and Such Things: An Algebra II Understanding by Design Unit
Natalia Do Carmo Reis
Strategies to Promote Engagement of Timid and/or Students with Difficulties Learning
Kai Yan
Artificial Intelligence in School Psychology: A Tool for Support or a Source of Challenges?
Erin Landry
Implementing Different Methods of Grouping Students: What This Can Look Like in a Mathematics Classroom
April Himes
From Brainstorms to Blueprints: The Impact of Project-Based Learning on Engagement, Skill Attainment, and Content Mastery in a Social Studies Classroom
MASTER OF ARTS IN School Psychology
Pushing the Field Forward: Strategies for Recruiting Diverse Students to School Psychology Graduate Programs
MICHAELA ROBINETT
The field of school psychology is facing a shortage of practitioners, especially of racially, ethnically, and/or linguistically diverse (REL) school psychologists. A review was conducted of strategies used to recruit REL students to graduate school psychology programs.
Shortages in School Psychology and Burnout
ASHLEY HYSTEN
The current shortage in school psychology has many implications to include the high levels of burnout. This research focuses on the cyclical relationship between burnout and the shortage, resulting in an intensified workload and stress for those remaining. The focus is to identify and analyze solutions to break this cycle and address burnout and the shortage within the field.
Spanish-Speaking Families’ Comprehension of the Special Education Process
RUBY CASTRO
The Individuals with DIsabilities Education Act (IDEIA, 2004) emphasizes the need for parents to participate in making decisions about their child’s education. However, parents of children with disabilities report challenges in communicating with school staff and feeling that their input is considered in their children’s educational programming. Bilingual families face additional challenges in communicating effectively with schools due to cultural and language differences. A literature review examines the factors that influence Latino parent participation in the Special Education process.
Artificial Intelligence in School Psychology:
A Tool for Support or a Source of Challenges?
KAI YAN
This project explores how AI may support or complicate school psychology practice, highlighting its potential for efficiency, early intervention, and personalized learning while addressing ethical, cultural, and data reliability concerns.
MASTER OF ARTS IN Teaching
What’s
your name?: The Importance of a Communal Learning Environment in Secondary Classrooms
EMILY BAGGETT
In lower grades, creating a communal learning environment is prioritized. However, as students enter upper grades, where they have multiple classes a day, a communal learning environment becomes much less of a priority. Cultivating a communal learning experience can be a powerful tool in students’ secondary schooling.
The Power of Creation: Boosting Engagement, Confidence, and Creativity in Young Learners Through Music
LYDIA BRYANT
Encouraging musical composition in the elementary music classroom allows students an opportunity to express themselves while also demonstrating mastery of a musical concept. By integrating composition regularly into the curriculum, teachers can foster a deeper connection with music while providing students with a safe space to experiment with the possibilities of what they are capable of creating independently.
Incorporating SEL into Classroom Routines to Support Students in Navigating Academic and Social Challenges
ARIANA CASTILLO
This research examines the impact of incorporating consistent SocialEmotional Learning (SEL) into classroom routines in efforts to support students in managing academic and social challenges. Weekly SEL instruction focused on three main topics: identifying emotions, practicing kindness, and developing a growth mindset. Mini-lessons were delivered consistently at the end of each day, and anecdotal observations were recorded to track student behavior and conversation. Findings suggest that regular SEL instruction helped students communicate feelings around challenges, speak kindly toward each other, and approach academic tasks with increased perseverance.
Strategies to Promote Engagement of Timid and/or Students with Difficulties Learning
NATALIA DO CARMO REIS
This study aims to explore strategies for enhancing the engagement of students who are timid or have learning difficulties in the classroom. Student engagement refers to the active involvement of students in the learning process, where they are not just passive recipients of information, but actively participate in discussions, ask questions, and apply what they learn. The methodology used was observation and one-on-one work. Findings suggested that creating an emotionally safe environment improves student confidence and engagement.
Supporting Striving Readers: The Value of Teaching Novels in Verse
ADDISON DOHERTY
Novels in verse are engaging texts that are often especially appealing for middle-grade audiences. For striving readers in particular, the accessible format of novels in verse can help boost motivation, perseverance, and foster a greater enjoyment of reading. Novels in verse offer a meaningful way to teach poetry and support students in developing a deeper understanding of more complex literary concepts.
The Influence of Scheduled Check-ins on Student Motivation and Emotional Security in Upper Elementary Classrooms
ASH DREGHORN
When 4th grade students meet for regularly-scheduled check-ins with a teacher, overall student motivation in the classroom increases along with feelings of emotional security. Check-ins may range from 4 to 15 minutes and are conducted 1 to 2 times per week. Check-ins allow a teacher to know their students’ interests as well as allow students to feel supported by the teacher both personally and academically. When coupled with identifying and encouraging student strengths as part of the academic setting, student motivation, emotional security, and academic performance increase in the classroom.
Polynomials and Such Things: An Algebra II Understanding by Design Unit
TANNER ELLSWORTH
Polynomials, a foundational concept in secondary mathematics, are frequently viewed by high school students as abstract, irrelevant, and challenging. This project examines the design and implementation of a high school Algebra II unit on polynomials, created using the Understanding by Design framework. The created unit aims to encourage deeper conceptual understanding, relevance, and student engagement.
Bridging Curriculum to the Real World: Engaging Students in ProjectBased Learning in a Math Classroom
SHAYLA GARRISON
Through project-based learning, students expand their critical thinking and hone their problem solving skills with engaging, hands-on activities. This research explores how ninth-grade Geometry students more readily master trigonometry and right triangle relationships by designing and building a truss bridge.
‘We say that at home!’: Engaging
Students through Culturally-Relevant Pedagogy
JULISSA RAMIREZ
Culturally-relevant pedagogy contextualizes students’ cultural diversity as a strength. In an age where students are easily disengaged, designing a curriculum that reflects the cultural diversity of the classroom is one way we can engage students in their learning.
Cultivating a Constructivist Classroom: Centering Student Experience and Knowledge as a Means of Negotiating Instruction
ANGIE SALAZAR
Constructivism is a pedagogical approach that, by differentiating traditional educational practices, emphasizes the active role of learners in constructing their own understanding of the world, based on their experiences, prior knowledge and classroom interactions.
Reinforcing Classroom Expectations: Positive Reinforcement and Logical Consequence
SUZANNE SMITH
Every teacher knows how important classroom management is to students’ learning. This will detail a positive reinforcement strategy for encouraging participation in a STEM classroom, as well as a way of clearly communicating the logical consequences that result from infringing on class norms, concluding with how this contributes to creating a positive learning environment.
MASTER OF EDUCATION IN School Leadership
School Vouchers: Are They Really a Choice?
RODRIGO CANTU, PATRICK FRANK, STEPHANIE MOLINA, AND GABRIEL VALDEZ
Our group project is a policy analysis of Texas House Bill 2, which seeks to divert public funds to private education, worsening inequities. The bill harms low-income and rural communities by undercutting public schools, which are often the only accessible option for many Texas families.
Educating the Children of Plyler
JORGE ALVAREZ, ELISA LERMA, AND MAIRA ZAMORA
This educational policy project strongly supports safeguarding immigrant children’s right to free public education, emphasizing that education is a fundamental right. We call for opposition to any legislation that denies educational access or imposes tuition fees based on immigration status, and argue for equal educational opportunity in public education.
Safeguards of Success: Why We Must Support the Department of Education
CYNTHIA LOPEZ, RACHAL RAMIREZ, JACQUELYN ROSALES, AND YDETTE TOVAR
Our policy project argues for the continued support of the U.S. Department of Education. Its research-based policies ensure student safety, educator development, family involvement, and community engagement. Our analysis demonstrates how dismantling the DOE would undermine essential services that protect, support and empower America’s students and schools.
Helping the Helpers: Supporting Teacher Mental Health through
Proactive Policy
TRACY BAKER-SIMS, NICHOLAS CHAMPION, RACHEL MOCZYGEMBA AND DONALD PAYNE
Teacher mental health is a critical yet often overlooked factor in student success and classroom discipline. We researched best practices in teacher well-being and advocated for the reinstatement of the 2023 Supporting the Mental Health of Educators and Staff Act.
Undergraduate
The Fight for Equality in Seguin, Texas
PEYTON SILVIUS
This research project examines the history of school segregation and desegregation in Seguin, Texas, focusing on the Juan Seguin School, a segregated institution for Mexican students established in 1918. Through archival analysis and demographic mapping, the study reveals how statesanctioned segregation and later resistance efforts shaped enduring racial and economic disparities in the community.
Department and Program Leadership
Angela Breidenstein, Ed.D. Professor of Education
Chair, Department of Education
Secondary Director, Master of Arts in Teaching
Enrique Alemán, Jr., Ph.D.
Lillian Radford Endowed Professor of Education Director, Center for Educational Leadership
Program Director, Master of Education in School Leadership
Rocío Delgado, Ph.D. Professor of Education
Elementary Director, Master of Arts in Teaching
Jorge Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Murchison Endowed Professor of Education
Program Director, Master of Arts in School Psychology
Diana Kenney, M.A. Lecturer
Training Director, Master of Arts in School Psychology
