Education Commons^™

Employment Outcomes In Higher Education, Yunxia Wei

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Understanding the relationship between education, jobs, and wages in higher education is critical. It is not just about earning a degree; it is also about what that degree means for your earnings and the economy. Investigating data on jobs and wages challenges what we think we know and helps us see the whole picture. And delving into how much graduates earn based on what they studied and where they went to school by looking at Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) using data from sources like the U.S. Census Bureau and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). It's like looking into …

Extreme E-Service Learning: Remote Learning For Undergraduate Students And Telehealth Intervention For Children With Autism, Madiha S. Muzammal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Extreme e-service learning courses in higher education, in which all components of the course including the instruction and service is provided online (Waldenr et al., 2012), offer rich educational experience as well as mutual benefits to the students, community and the higher education institutes. Very few studies have examined extreme e-service learning. We examined an undergraduate extreme e-service learning course in psychology; students learned through a virtual class and provided telehealth behavioral intervention services to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Utilizing mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative measures including student observations, assignments, and self-reports) and a mixed design (single subject …

Effect Of The Virtual Simulation Paired Prebriefing-Debriefing Strategy On Nursing Students’ Self-Efficacy Perceptions And Virtual Simulation Performance In The Care Of Patients Experiencing A Myocardial Infarction, Laura M. Penalo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through the use of virtual simulations (VS) in nursing education, nursing students are exposed to a variety of clinical scenarios that may potentially improve their learning of competencies, increase their self-efficacy, and enhance their future clinical performance. Despite limited quantitative research incorporating evidence-based strategies such as prebriefing and debriefing as part of the VS experience, this educational technology continues to gain popularity. In 2020, the use of VS in the nursing curriculum exponentially increased when the global COVID-19 pandemic impacted traditional in-person clinicals, laboratory, and human patient simulation (HPS) experiences. Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) programs have benefited from the use …

No Excuses Yet No Solutions: The Inherent Anti-Blackness Of The No-Excuses Charter School Model, Tshala A. Pajibo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The No Excuses model of education has routinely been labeled abusive and harmful to students. The No Excuses model has garnered significant pushback from students, families, and stakeholders because of procedures and policies that have caused physical, mental, and bodily harm to young students. While many education stakeholders have examined how No Excuses charters and their policies have harmed Black children, not many have examined why. This paper argues that the No Excuses charter model is completely at odds with Black cultural and educational values. This paper suggests deeper studies of the educational mindsets and opinions of No Excuses …

Equitable Assessment For Elementary Dual-Language Learners, Joliette Mandel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis points out the contradictions between the goals of standardized testing and the goals of dual-language elementary education. I argue that dual-language elementary schools in the New York City Department of Education would be better served by a performance assessment model to measure student and school accountability for several reasons. Performance assessment is more equitable for students who are marginalized by their race, language, or class. Many students who attend dual-language schools in the NYCDOE fall into all these categories. I will discuss in depth why standardized testing is failing students, particularly those in dual-language elementary programs. Next, I …

Fostering College Students’ Fact-Checking Skills: Three Studies Assessing Lateral Reading Instruction In A General Education Course, Jessica E. Brodsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While online information is abundant and easily accessible, its quality varies widely. Fact-checkers evaluate online information by reading laterally, i.e., opening a new browser tab to research sources and verify claims. This dissertation consisted of three studies that used course outcomes assessment data to examine the impact of a lateral reading curriculum on college students’ fact-checking skills. The curriculum was first implemented in Fall 2018 as part of a general education civics course. It has been taught every semester since then, though the content and format of implementation have changed. Data used in the current studies were collected during the …

A Comparison Of Machine Learning Techniques For Validating Students’ Proficiency In Mathematics, Alexander Avdeev

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A principal goal of this project was to compare several machine learning (ML) algorithms to explore and validate math proficiency classifications based on standardized test scores. The data used in these analyses came from the 6th-grade students’ mathematics assessment records of the New York State Education Department’s Testing Program (NYSTP). Our approach was to test a number of competing machine learning (ML) algorithms for classifying students’ as proficient based on their test scores and other demographic information. Our samples were drawn from the 2016 test-taking cohort of 6th-grade students (N=156,800). Five classifiers including multinominal logistic regression (MLR), XGBoost, Tree-As, Lagrangian …

Measuring Alignment Between Components Of An Educational System: An Extension Of Porter’S Alignment Index, Joe Kazemi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the heart of educational systems worldwide is the idea that components of an educational system (i.e. standards, curricula, instruction, and assessments) need to be in alignment with one other for the system to produce the desired results of improving educational outcomes. Thus, a thorough and reliable methodology for measuring alignment is necessary especially given the escalating use of student assessment results as a determinant of effectiveness for districts, schools and teachers (Ananda, 2003a).

Today, there are two predominant methods for modeling and measuring that alignment: Webb’s methodology (Webb, 1997, 1999), and Porter’s methodology (Porter, 2002, 2006; McMaken & Porter …

Bridging The Educational Technology Gap: Issues Of Equity And Access In New York City Teacher Preparation, Christina Basias

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation employs the use of primary research, oral history, and narrative and auto-ethnography of my own experiences as a hybrid educator across both systems, and the extant gaps in educational technology, or ed tech, implementation across two of the largest urban public education institutions in the country: the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) and the City University of New York (CUNY).

This research unveils the complex web of barriers that hindered the ability for teachers to learn and adopt technologies and the gaps within and between the NYCDOE and CUNY’s teacher preparation priorities regarding ed tech prior …

Coalition And Creativity On The Bridges And Fringes With Immigrant Student-Contributors In Nonprofit Adult Education, Katherine E. Entigar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The nonprofit education of adult immigrants is an under-researched aspect of U.S. education. Adult immigrants, often perceived as passive and quiescent, bring voices and contributions to learning in powerful yet unheard ways. This research agenda invokes a new critical lens in education scholarship to uplift and center these contributions as a coalitional, dialogical project. Drawing upon critical sociocultural, women of color feminist, and poststructual theories, critical intersectional epistemology, and Bakhtinian dialogical thinking, this research project pursues inductive, recursive meaning making as an innovative exploration. A multiphase, sequential study including surveys and two focus groups foregrounds the complex, fluid ways adult …

Refugee Higher Education And Participatory Action Research Methods: Lessons Learned From The Field, Hadas Yanay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Refugee access to higher education is devastatingly low. Recognizing the complex barriers facing refugee learners, global educational initiatives are innovating flexible learning models which promote blended online and in-person learning modalities. This article describes the implementation of a five month, online-based internship pilot offered to 21 refugee participants in qualitative and quantitative research methods, through a participatory action research (PAR) framework in five different countries -- Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, and Lebanon. The internship is part of the Global Education Movement (GEM), which brings refugees accredited online college degree and career development opportunities. Through direct engagement, observation of the …

Rethinking Thinking About Thinking: Against A Pedagogical Imperative To Cultivate Metacognitive Skills, Lauren R. Alpert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In summaries of “best practices” for pedagogy, one typically encounters enthusiastic advocacy for metacognition. Some researchers assert that the body of evidence supplied by decades of education studies indicates a clear pedagogical imperative: that if one wants their students to learn well, one must implement teaching practices that cultivate students’ metacognitive skills.

In this dissertation, I counter that education research does not impose such a mandate upon instructors. We lack sufficient and reliable evidence from studies that use the appropriate research design to validate the efficacy of metacognitive skill-building interventions (not just evaluate their relationship to learning outcomes). I argue …

Bc Bound: A Pathway Designed To Support Non-Traditional Students, Fiona J. Chan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper reviews the creation and practices of the Brooklyn College BC Bound Program, focusing on its mission and structure. The BC Bound Program is a one-semester service at Brooklyn College that admits and supports individuals with their high school equivalency diploma. Through an interview with a coordinator of the program and students who completed the BC Bound Program in their first semester, we can understand its positive impact on college students in their first semester and beyond. Program structure is key in analyzing the process by which the BC Bound program is and can be implemented effectively. Under the …

Overcoming Challenges In The Assessment And Treatment Of Problem Behavior In Adults With Autism, Julia A. Iannaccone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Problematic behaviors, such as self-injurious behavior or aggression, demonstrated by adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), create many significant life complications, some life-threatening. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is established as an evidence-based approach to treat problem behavior for children with ASD and shows promise as an effective treatment for adults, yet little research has been conducted within the adult population. Assessment and treatment of problem behavior with adults is often challenging due to funding limitations, increased severity and complexity of problem behavior, and underqualified staff. The purpose of the present study was to overcome these challenges by (1) identifying a …

Understanding Gender Differences In Traditional And Cyberbullying: An Evaluation Of Construct Validity Of The 2013 School Crime Supplement To The National Crime Victimization Survey, Anthony Betancourt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Few measures assess cyberbullying and traditional bullying simultaneously while also reporting standards of reliability and validity. As a result, it remains unclear whether cyberbullying should be considered a separate type of bullying. This dissertation advances the literature by examining data from the 2013 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS-SCS) to provide psychometric information about the factor structure of the 2013 NCVS-SCS traditional and cyberbullying scales. Furthermore, the dissertation uses that information to evaluate if cyberbullying emerges as a unique factor. Finally, measurement invariance will determine if bullying holds the same meaning for boys and girls (e.g. …

Doing Discipline Different: Evaluating The Implementation Of Restorative Justice As An Alternative To Punitive Discipline In New York City Public Schools, Virginia Diaz-Mendoza

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given that punitive discipline practices have disproportionately impacted its poor students of color, New York City is committed to transforming school discipline and improving school climate by implementing restorative justice as an alternative. This study is an evaluation of the restorative justice pilot program funded by the New York City Council and managed by the New York City Department of Education where key stakeholders including officials at the Department of Education, school administrators, educators, school staff, and community organizations are involved in the implementation of restorative justice in schools with high suspension rates. Data was collected through interviews, observations of …

A Quantitative Examination Of Black And Hispanic Students’ Time-To-Graduation, Ferdinand A. Verley Ii

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What factors influence Black and Hispanic students’ time-to-graduation, and is it different for their special opportunity program peers? Using theoretical lenses including intersectionality, class struggle, justice, and sociological practice, this dissertation employs data from a large urban public university system to examine the relative impact of demography, academic preparedness, and financial background on students’ time-to-graduation performance.

Time-to-graduation, operationalized in this dissertation as the duration of years before a student earns a bachelor’s degree, for full-time students often represents an investment of time at the expense of earning a wage or salary in the job market. The economic gain that accrues …

The Capabilities Of Students In Poverty: Student Outcomes From A United States Department Of Education Trio Program, Arthur Valiant

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis is to describe, analyze and support the purpose, function and outcomes of U.S. Department of Education TRIO programs. Throughout the world educational attainment and escape from poverty are linked. By achieving a college degree, one increases their odds of rising from poverty; conversely, poverty reduces one’s chances of attending a higher education institution in the first place. Since 1964, TRIO programs have worked to close the achievement gap for low income and first-generation students across America by providing supplemental assistance for college access. After more than 50 years, these programs continue to foster college readiness …

Asians Applying For Postsecondary Success: Students, Schools, And Socioeconomic Status, Avery M.D. Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Higher education recruitment rates are rapidly declining as schools are stymied by dynamic demographic shifts and a competitive ecosystem. Despite the constant realities of this challenge for tertiary institutions, the complexities of the interplay for demographics, student motivation, parental influences, and school environments during the postsecondary education application process is often overlooked. This thesis analyses how these four domains impact Asian American students within the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) in terms of the number of postsecondary schools to which they apply? This study examines a sample (N = 662) of the ELS by employing multivariate regression analysis on the number …

Improving Measurement And Expanding Meta-Analytic Knowledge: Social And Emotional Learning In Elementary And Early Childhood, Dana M. Murano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the last several decades, the development of student social and emotional skills in educational contexts has received much attention, both domestically and internationally. Whereas previous school-based educational practices had primarily focused on the teaching and testing of cognitive skills, we now recognize that there are constituents of academic success beyond the cognitive skills that are traditionally taught and tested, and the field of social and emotional learning (SEL) has emerged as a result. This two-study dissertation attempted to fill existing gaps in the development of SEL practices by exploring new horizons in both intervention and measurement with preschool and …

Class Matters: School Affluence And Other Predictors Of Attainment For Wealthy And Poor Students, Alison Brockhouse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public schools in the United States are becoming increasingly segregated by socioeconomic status. Though the educational consequences of socioeconomic segregation are well researched, segregation is often ignored or exacerbated by education reform. To learn more about the wider implications of socioeconomic segregation, this study utilizes theoretical frameworks derived from Max Weber’s theory of social stratification to analyze over 10,000 students’ experiences from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) 2002, 2004, and 2012 waves of data collection. More specifically, this research explores the impact of attending an affluent high school on long-term educational attainment. It finds …

A Space To Learn, Amy R. Goods

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I explore what it means to different people, in different places throughout life’s spectrum to create a space to learn. This dissertation is a collection of work that I have written throughout my time at the CUNY Graduate Center. The chapters herein represent an arch of my learning over the past five years. The title, A Space to Learn, has multiple meanings. For one, writing this dissertation has provided me a space to explore and reflect on a variety of topics, ranging from memory loss, to teacher preparation programs, to eugenics and special education, to tracking and …

Mathematics Attitudes And Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches Towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications To Large-Scale Assessment Data, And Examinations Of Multigroup Invariance, Kalina Gjicali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic performance is predicted by a multitude of demographic, contextual, cognitive, and noncognitive constructs. The noncognitive factors of achievement in mathematics that have previously been explored in depth are study skills, collaborative problem-solving, confidence, self-efficacy, and personality traits (Kyllonen, 2012). Limited applied research has explored the predictive value of noncognitive factors such as attitudes and beliefs in mathematics achievement – even though attitudes towards mathematics are a promising avenue for understanding the variability in mathematics achievement. The current research uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain high school students’ performance in mathematics in a series of three studies. …

Reading Comprehension Instruction For Young Students With High Functioning Autism: Forming Contextual Connections, Karen S. Engel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Central coherence is the ability to perceive and connect salient information in a context such as a narrative text. Weak central coherence theory describes a detail-focused cognitive style of processing information that overlooks connections. This style of processing is a shortcoming of individuals with autism compared to typically developing individuals (Frith, 2003). A six-session instructional intervention to foster coherence processing and reinforce thinking strategies was administered to first and second graders while a control group received an irrelevant treatment. There were 10 students with high functioning autism in each condition, mean age 7.06 years, 18 males and 2 females. It …

Exacerbating Inequality: Public Schooling In The Era Of Neoliberal Standardization, Johanna Panetti Barnhart

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work is inspired by Jean Anyon’s (1981) landmark ethnographic study, “Social Class and School Knowledge” in which she detailed the differential and class-based constructions of knowledge across five elementary schools. While this research study in no way aims to be a revision of Anyon’s work, it uses her findings to set a foundational premise that curriculum and instruction often work to contribute to the reproduction of social class. Further, this research builds on these findings to examine and analyze social class reproduction in the current neoliberal policy context of standards-based reform. A key policy shift since Anyon’s research is …

Effect Of The Diverse Standardized Patient Simulation (Dsps) Cultural Competence Education Strategy On Nursing Students’ Transcultural Self-Efficacy Perceptions, Eda Ozkara San

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nursing students find it challenging to provide culture-specific care for patients representing diversity in ethnicity, race, language, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, sexual orientation, immigration history, and lifestyle and frequently lack confidence in their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Simulation has become a useful strategy for teaching nursing students assessment skills, technical skills, teamwork, delegation, self-efficacy, and professional communication. An alarming gap exists within the literature concerning innovative teaching and learning strategies that are carefully designed, implemented, and evaluated and follow a conceptual model, guidelines, and standards to enhance cultural competence development of diverse student groups, who must work with patients from …

The Narration Of Conflicting Accountabilities In The Era Of High-Stakes Teacher Evaluation, James Christopher Head

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The U.S. Government’s Race to the Top program inspired a wave of education reforms across the nation aimed at holding teachers individually accountable for their students’ “growth” on test scores. These individualized programs implemented new forms of audit technologies aimed at orienting teachers’ priorities toward the calculations produced by students, rather than towards students’ holistic growth and well-being. In so doing, these programs signify an ideological rupture for teachers in that their long-shared sense of interpersonal accountability is institutionally re-directed – and reinforced with consequences – toward calculative accountability. In this dissertation, I investigated teachers’ experiential navigation of the introduction …

Hierarchical Meta-Analysis: A Simulation Study Comparing Classical Random Effects And Fully Bayesian Methods, Nancy R. Andiloro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Meta-analytic data have a natural hierarchical structure to them, where individuals are nested within studies, and have both within-and between-study variation to model. A random-effects hierarchical linear model is useful to conduct a meta-analysis because it allows one to appropriately parse out the two components of variation that exist within and across studies to determine an observed effect. Empirical Bayes estimation considers the reliability of variance estimates; when the reliability of the effect size estimate for a study is high, substantial weight is placed on that estimate. However, problems with estimation arise when the number of studies and their sample …

Pipeline To Failure: Social Inequality And The False Promises Of American Public Schooling, Adia Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My experience as a New York City public school student was absolutely electrifying, though filled with many trials. While my mother would have preferred to put me in private school, having access to some of the world’s greatest institutions and resources offered unique opportunities and exposures. The performing arts provided me with an outlet to express myself and build skills and confidence. In particular, dance education kept me occupied and disciplined in a large city full of danger. Every so often, I witnessed hostile, or even violent exchanges between students, or students and staff. While some of my schoolmates became …

Musicalization: Early Childhood Music Access, Discourse, And Praxis In Nyc Charter Schools, 2014-2015, Andrew Aprile

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past two decades, charter schools have become a hallmark of education reform in the United States. Concurrent with this movement is the increasing prominence of high stakes testing. While much research has sought to compare the effectiveness of charter schools and traditional public schools in terms of standardized assessments, scant attention has been paid to the role of arts and music in charter schools, and little has been done to distinguish the distinct strands of the charter school movement. Given what we know about the importance of music education and the growth of charter schools, it was the …