Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Poverty On The Achievement Of Urban African American Male Students Successfully Completing High School, Amy L. Welch

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of poverty on the achievement of African American male high school students attending the same large Midwest urban school district. Cumulative grade point average (GPA) at the tenth grade level were compared to the level of poverty provided through census data of African American male tenth grade high school students (N = 162) and compared again two years later using cumulative GPA of the same African American male students at graduation. Standardized achievement test scores, PLAN test taken in the fall of the tenth grade year and ACT test taken …

Achievement And High School Completion Rates Of Hispanic Students With No English Language Skills Compared To Hispanic Students With Some English Language Skills Attending The Same High School In An Immigrant Responsive City, Joanne M. Garrison

Student Work

The purpose of the study was to determine achievement and high school completion rates of Hispanic students (n = 13) with no English language skills compared to Hispanic students (n = 11) with some English language skills attending the same high school in an immigrant responsive city. All students were in attendance in the research school district's high school, ninth-grade through 12th-grade. Entering ninth-grade pretest Las Links Assessment scores compared to the ending high school posttest English Language Development Assessment scores of immigrant high school students with no English Language skills enrolled in the research high school's English …

Breaking The Criminogenic Code: A Frame Analysis Of Neo-Nazi And Violent Jihadi Propaganda, William Travis Morris

Student Work

This dissertation focuses on neo-Nazi and violent jihadi propaganda and its role in defining social boundaries. Frame analysis was used to gain a deeper understanding of how neo-Nazis and violent jihadis construct propaganda to neutralize objections and promote drift. Specifically, diagnostic and prognostic frames were analyzed for 10 "effective" propagandists and two "ineffective" propagandists in a comparative framework. This research uses a social psychological perspective, paying particular attention to the emotion of shame and advances the "violence as communication" model into "terrorism as criminogenic propaganda." Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze how neo-Nazi and violent jihadi propagandists incorporate …

The Tipping Point To Terrorism: Involvement In Right-Wing Terrorist Groups In The United States, Anne M. Stacey Reeser

Student Work

This dissertation focuses on right-wing terrorism (RWT) in the United States perpetrated by adherents to the White Supremacist Movement (WSM). In depth case history data were collected using a variety of sources and analyzed on 66 federally indicted WSM terrorists representing 10 different terrorist organizations in the United States from 1980-2002. The primary means of analysis was a qualitative case analysis using narrative data to uncover what influences an individual to become involved in a terrorist group. Specifically, I analyzed the influences of: 1) structural components, 2) family dynamics, and 3) non-familial relationships on the involvement process. Results from this …

The Impact Of Parental Military Status On The Achievement, Attendance, And Attitudes Of Fourth Grade Students, Melba Hooker

Student Work

Military service men and women provide security and services both locally and globally. These services sometimes require deployment and separations of active duty military personnel away from their families. These separations and the subsequent stresses could be substantial in the lives of younger children. Not only can these students be affected emotionally, but the achievement, attendance, and attitudes of these fourth grade students in this study are compared to fourth grade nonmilitary students to evaluate the differences between the two groups. How does the fourth grade military student group measure up to their counterpart?

To address this question, the researcher …

A Program Evaluation Of The Building Construction Of Bellevue Elementary School For The Bellevue Public Schools, Matthew Blomenkamp

Student Work

The purpose of this study was the identification of data to be used in creating a process to be employed in future construction in the Bellevue Public School District. Use of a process will enable the district to become more efficient, effective, and financially responsible in future construction projects.

The Effect Of Decreasing Enrollment Patterns In A Title I School Surrounded By Economic Decline On 5th-Grade Students’ Achievement, Behavior, Parent Involvement, And Teacher Mobility Rates, Carolyn L. Grice

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of decreasing enrollment patterns in a Title I school surrounded by economic decline on 5th-grade students' achievement, behavior, parent involvement, and teacher mobility rates compared to 5th-grade students' achievement, behavior, parent involvement, and teacher mobility rates in a nearby Title I elementary school surrounded by economic improvement and increasing enrollment patterns. Overall, results indicated that 5th-grade students at posttest in the increasing enrollment pattern school in a neighborhood of economic improvement had statistically significantly higher (a) Reading Total, (b) Math Total, and (c) Language Total mean achievement NCE scores compared …

The Impact Of An International Baccalaureate Primary Years Curriculum On Intermediate Grade Girls’ And Boys’ Perceptions Of Their Learned Global Citizenship Attributes, Suzanne R. Melliger

Student Work

In this study girls (n = 30) reported a statistically significantly greater capacity for caring compared to boys ( n = 30) on the caring domain of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program Student Self Assessment Learner Profile. However, the null hypothesis was not rejected for boys' and girls' reported levels of risk-taking behavior running counter to literature suggesting that boys are ipso facto bigger risk-takers than girls. However, in this study a greater advantaged classroom performance was not consistent with the research literature positing a stronger classroom performance in language arts (reading and writing) for girls compared to boys …

The Political Career Of Robert B. Crosby, Nebraska Governor, 1953-1955, Theodore J. Wehrbein

Student Work

This thesis examines the political career of Robert B. Crosby, Nebraska's twenty-seventh governor, whose early popularity ended with his efforts to comply with a State Supreme Court mandate to equalize state-wide property tax assessments. Elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1940 and re-elected in 1942, Crosby was chosen at the age of 31 as the Speaker of the Legislature in 1943, the youngest person ever to hold that position. After serving two years in the United States Navy, he successfully ran as a Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1946, and then, in a landslide victory, was elected Governor in …

Then The Burning Began: Omaha, Riots, And The Growth Of Black Radicalism, 1966-1969, Ashley M. Howard

Student Work

Throughout the 1960s, America witnessed one metropolis after another suffer from major civil disturbances. The first of these incidents occurred in Selma, Alabama, but it was not until Watts, California exploded that the nation began to take notice. As America was throttling towards a major race war, nobody anticipated the Midwestern town of 'Omaha, Nebraska to experience the same disturbances larger cities had. Although the life of average Omaha blacks was better than that of many of their urban counterparts, black Omahans still faced frequent job discrimination, lack of adequate educational facilities, and general disenchantment with Northern ghetto life. Between …

Factors That Impact Development: Foreign Aid And The Millennium Development Goals, Jill Irwin

Student Work

The topic of development in poor countries has recently gained attention and support in part due to the 2000 Millennium Declaration adopted by all United Nations members. Included in the declaration are eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which aim at improving global development and are to be achieved by 2015. Due to time restrictions it is important to find effective and efficient ways to improve the issues addressed by the goals. This paper studies foreign aid’s effect on the Millennium Development Goals by using ordinary least squares regression over a time period from 1980 to 2001. This study also investigates …

The Urban Transportation Decision-Making Process: A Qualitative Examination Of Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area, Aleksandra Georgieva Tepedelenova

Student Work

This thesis focuses on the transportation decision-making process in urban areas with a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). It recognizes the importance of transportation planning for decision-making, in that planning supports decision-making. This research is a qualitative case study, which examines transportation decision-making in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. The Metropolitan Area Planning Agency (MAPA) is the MPO of the urban area. Responsible parts for transportation planning are the MAPA Transportation Technical Advisory Committee (TTAC) and the MAPA Council of Officials. The researcher conducts a series of interviews with members of the two groups in order to address the research questions. …

The Confessions Of The Madison Henderson Gang, Mark K. Reuter

Student Work

In 1841, Adam B. Chambers, the editor of The Missouri Republican, published a pamphlet containing the texts of his interviews with four African Americans convicted of bank robbery and murder. Because these narratives cover the lives of three free men of color and one quasi-free slave, they present a view of the antebellum African American experience that has been understudied. The existing canon of African American narratives and secondary research focuses on slaves. While few studies have examined the lives of free blacks, most of those have focused on the African American elite. This project brings to light the lives …

Spatial Implications Of Urban Functional Classification: A Study Of Small Urban Places In The North-Central United States, Tyler A. Van Meeteren

Student Work

The idea that cities have diverse economic structures and social characteristics is commonly understood. Many times these differences can be traced to historical regional growth or resource availability. Recognition and better understanding of these different types of cities requires their classification. Classification is way to organize complex and diverse information in order to create a better understanding of processes and relationships. One of the ways in which geographers have classified cities, in terms of describing the external relations, is called functional town classification. The simplest way of classifying cites is to identify the distinctive role they play in the city …

Russia Shrinking : An Analysis Of Russia's Population Decline: Causes, Effects And Solutions, Michael C. Sullivan

Student Work

The author argues that population decline is the most important challenge to the Russian Federation in the twenty-first century. First explored are the causes o f the decline, including losses incurred during World War II and Stalin’s bloody purges of the 1930s. Massive health problems are reviewed and offered as leading causes of the loss o f population. Diseases such as alcoholism, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS are noted at the top o f the list. The writer points a finger at the health system as a whole, indicating that its status is of a third world country. Second, the writer examines …

Some Day A Great Harvest: A History Of The Foundation Of St. Augustine's Indian Mission, Winnebago, Nebraska, 1888 To 1945, Patrick M. Kennedy

Student Work

Controversy has shadowed Christian missionary activity among Native American peoples from its beginnings in the 1500’s to the present day. During the last two centuries, the churches have competed for the souls of Indians on reservations, in the press, in Congress and in the federal courts. At stake were access to the reservations and the use of federal funds in religious institutions. These jurisdictional conflicts reflected and reinforced the contentious relationships between Protestants and Catholics in the United States. The history of St. Augustine’s Indian Mission was shaped by a combination of national and local events. The foundation of the …

The Impact Of Explanations In Rejection Letters On Perceptions Of Fairness And Accountability, Troy A. Romero

Student Work

The present study was designed to test Folger and Cropanzano’s (1998) Fairness Theory as it pertains to perceptions of fairness and accountability in rejection letters. This study was a partial replication of Gilliland, Groth, Baker, Dew, Polly and Langdon (2001), which examined the impact of Fairness Theory variations in rejection letters on perceptions of fairness, recommendation intentions, and reapplication behavior. Participants in this study were applicants rejected in the first stage of the selection process with a large, Midwest corporation. Perceptions of fairness and accountability were collected after receiving one of four versions of a rejection letter: the company’s standard …

Latino Immigrant Perceptions About The U.S. Police: An Exploratory Study, Griselda Aldrete

Student Work

New population trends by Latino immigrants have caused much debate in the field of criminal justice. Lack of research and literature on this growing population has left the justice system looking for ways to properly tap into the Latino population. Among the many areas that have been overlooked is one about how Latino immigrants adapt to their new life upon arriving in the United States. In addition, no study has ever explored how immigrants deal with the criminal justice system, especially the perceptions they have about the U.S. police. This thesis is an attempt to fill this void in research …

Organizational Justice, Organizational Citizenship, And Group Performance In An Educational Setting, Charles Peterson

Student Work

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is a widely researched topic in the psychology literature. However, the research has failed to provide strong support for one of the most central assumptions of OCB, the assumption that it increases organizational performance. Thirty-one groups of graduate students participated in this research, which attempted to demonstrate a link between OCB and group performance within a social exchange framework. Data were collected measuring the groups’ levels of perceived trust, justice, and OCB; instructors provided grades and ratings of the performance of the groups on various class projects completed throughout the semester. Although the sportsmanship OCB sub-dimension …

Si, Se Puede: Organizing Latino Immigrant Workers In South Omaha's Meatpacking Industry, Jacqulyn S. Gabriel

Student Work

Faced with declining union density and a growing immigrant workforce, the U.S. labor movement has begun to realize the importance of organizing Latino immigrant workers. However, the “conventional wisdom” among many within the movement is that these workers are “unorganizable.” Labor scholar Ruth Milkman (2002), for example, explains that the “conventional wisdom” is that immigrants are vulnerable, docile persons, intensely fearful of any confrontation with authority, who accept substandard wages and poor working conditions because their standard of comparison is drawn from their home countries, and who therefore are extremely unlikely to unionize. Through an in-depth study of a successful …

Genuine Populist: William V. Allen In The United States Senate, 1893-1901, David W. Hoelscher

Student Work

This study examines the United States Senate career of Nebraska Populist William Vincent Allen (1893-1901). A relatively neglected figure in Populist historiography, Allen has been the subject o f widely divergent opinions on the part of those historians who have commented on his place in the movement. The dominant view reflected in the published literature is that Allen, who was elected with the help of Democratic votes in the Nebraska legislature, was, ideologically and politically, more of a Democrat than a Populist. On this view, Allen’s principal policy concern was promoting the cause of free silver coinage, and his primary …

Accessibility, Settlement Dispersion, And Unemployment In Slovakia, Pavol Hurbanek

Student Work

The thesis examines the relationship between accessibility and unemployment and the relationship between settlement dispersion and unemployment in Slovakia. The two main hypotheses are as follows: First, the settlements with lower accessibility have higher rates of unemployment. Second, because the areas of dispersed settlement most likely experience poor accessibility, these areas have also higher rates of unemployment. While Slovakia is the main study area, additional analysis is conducted in the case-study region of the Myjava and Skalica Counties in the western part of Slovakia. Several methods are used to evaluate accessibility and settlement dispersion. Container approach and distance approach are …

To Be Almost Like White: The Case Of Soon Ja Du, Augustina Jhi-Ho Chae

Student Work

This is a case study of Korean Americans’ prejudiced attitudes toward African Americans. To discuss this attitudes, I chose to examine the case of People of the State of California v. Soon Ja Du. On the morning of March 16, 1991, Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year-old African American high school girl was shot in the back of the head by Soon Ja Du, a fifty-one-year-old Korean liquor and grocery store owner after a fight. This fight started by Soon Ja falsely accusing Latasha of shoplifting. In many ways, Soon Ja Du’s negative attitudes represent a typical Korean American’s prejudice.

Fighting Jim Crow In Post-World War Ii Omaha 1945-1956, Kathleen Mary Davis

Student Work

Blacks in Omaha developed new approaches to fight Jim Crow practices in the post-World War II era. As a result, substantial gains were made in the areas of public accommodations, employment, residential segregation and education. The Omaha Star, a black newspaper, was instrumental in reporting civil rights abuses to its readers, while constantly urging them to unite and fight for their rights. Civil rights organizations played a crucial role in these efforts. The NAACP chapter was established as early as 1918, but after an initial burst it was relatively ineffective until the 1950s. The local Urban League, however, which dated …

Niobrara National Scenic River, 1985-2000: Old Arguments, New Compromises, James A. Roeder

Student Work

In May 1991, President George H. Bush signed into law the Niobrara Scenic River Designation Act, which gave federal scenic-river designation to a 70-mile stretch of this northern-Nebraska river. The successful effort to protect this river was a protracted, often acrimonious battle, pitting Nebraska neighbors against each other. Interested parties found themselves on opposing sides of a seemingly insurmountable divide, either believing that this river resource should be given federal protection to preserve it unimpaired for future generations, or arguing that the local people should be allowed to determine the fate of “their” river without federal interference. The twentieth century …

The Impact Of Apartment Complexes On Property Values Of Single-Family Dwellings West Of Lnterstate-680 In Omaha, Nebraska, Lesli M. Rawlings

Student Work

The literature concerning land use exhaustively describes why homeowners dislike apartment complexes, but fails to analyze the problem quantitatively. The objectives of this thesis were to determine if the selling price of single-family dwellings increased with increasing distance from the apartment complex and to determine if the selling price of single-family dwellings decreased with increasing structural density of apartment complexes in Omaha, Nebraska. Fifty apartments built in the year 2000 or before, and 1,665 single-family dwellings, which sold in 1999 and 2000 within 914.4 meters of an apartment complex, were geocoded by address. Data needed to test the hypotheses were …

The Prairie Grass Dividing: The History Of The Saunders County Farmers' Alliance, 1889-1897, John A. Sautter

Student Work

The Farmers Alliance was one of the most important agricultural organizations in late nineteenth century America. This thesis traces the history of the Alliance movement in Saunders County, Nebraska, where it was one of the strongest in the state between 1889 and 1892. In addition, it examines the emergence of third party Populist politics, as they relate to this farm organization. Saunders County, located in eastern Nebraska, developed a strong Alliance movement culture, that included cooperative ventures, an educational program and social activities. Several producer and consumer cooperative ventures were started by members after they joined the organization. In some …

A Comparison Of Physical And Performance Characteristics Of Ncaa Division I Football Players: 1987 And 2000, Craig A. Secora

Student Work

Few studies have established normative data on performance variables of football and fewer exist that compare results from one decade to the next. In 1985, Olson and Hunter compared the data from 1974 and 1984 on 13 Division I team's. Berg, Latin and Baechle (1990) collected normative data on 40 Division I teams and made comparisons to rankings, offensive vs. defensive players, position comparisons, and major conferences. However, this research is outdated and no current research has assessed the changes in performance variables over time for Division I football players. The purpose of this study is to compare normative data …

Antidumping And The Business Cycle: Filing Behavior And Itc Decision Making, Ke Yang

Student Work

Since the first national antidumping law was established in Canada in 1904, antidumping policy has evolved constantly as a legal trade restriction under General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) provisions. This paper studies the determinants of antidumping filings by U.S. industries from 1980 to 1995 using panel count regression analysis. The paper also investigates factors that influence the International Trade Commission’s (ITC) injury determinations over these cases. Considerable support is found for the importance of the business cycle in driving antidumping filings and affecting the ITC’s injury determinations. Other important determinants include industries’ capacity utilization ratio, industrial trade deficit, …

Correlates And Predictors Of Employee Turnover Intentions In The Postal Industry! A Case Study Of The Omaha Hub Of United Parcel Service, Carla Y. Garay

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to identify the correlates and predictors of turnover intentions among manual laborers. The study was exploratory and used a modification of the Rusbult and Farrell (1983) investment model as its theoretical framework. Simple correlation analysis uncovered no significant relationships between the fifteen independent variables and turnover intention, with one exception; there was a significant correlation between intent to retire and turnover intention. Therefore, further analysis was conducted by testing each independent variable against each item of turnover intentions. The independent variables that were found to be significantly correlated with the items of turnover intentions …