Education Commons^™

2024 Merc Annual Report, David Naff, Jesse Senechal, Paula L. Ogston-Nobile

MERC Publications

This is the annual report of the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University for the 2023-2024 academic year. It includes vignettes depicting MERC activities in the past year that align with each of its five principles: research, relevance, rigor, multiple perspectives, and impact. It concludes with a discussion of MERC's commitment moving forward.

The Radical Relationality Of Complex Partnerships: Community-Member Experiences In Critical Community-Based Learning, Amie Riley

Dissertations and Theses

Through a radical relationality within the social-ecological systems that sustain us, critical community-based learning (CBL) in higher education offers a praxis for engaging the demanding pedagogical and community challenges we face. When CBL is implemented as both a critical and sustainability pedagogy, as a strategy for social change, the relationships created by CBL partnerships have the potential to generate transformational outcomes for all partnership agents. Using a critical complexity theoretical framework, a bricolage of complexity science and critical theory, this critical qualitative study sought to understand the systemic patterns and behaviors of a community-based learning partnership by elevating community-member voices. …

A Phenomenological Study Of Contexts Of Parent Responsibility For Middle School Student Achievement, Benjamin F. Erskine

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to describe lived experiences of parents of middle school students who are engaged in their children's educational achievement as stakeholders within the overlapping spheres of influence. Eighteen participants were selected from three middle schools in a school district in central Delaware. The central research question is: What lived experiences motivate parents of middle school students to engage in their children's educational achievement as stakeholders within the overlapping spheres of influence? Research sub-questions deal directly with the participants' understanding of the theory guiding this study, Epstein's theory of overlapping spheres of influence, as …

Partnership Between Iraqi Families With Refugee Backgrounds And School Professionals, Ashraf Alamatouri

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Research shows that partnerships between families and school professionals can be an important factor in student educational outcomes and that such partnerships exist less for families with refugee backgrounds than for native-born Americans. There are gaps in the literature around linguistic factors and advocacy styles that could influence the relationship between families with refugee backgrounds and school professionals, especially for Arabic speakers. The purpose of this study was to deeply analyze one Iraqi family’s interactions with school professionals in the U.S. to answer the following research question: What linguistic factors and advocacy behaviors facilitate and impede the formation of a …

Parental Engagement And Equitable Family Partnerships: Perspectives From Internal And External Stakeholders, Alexine Thomas-Brown

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This research study explored the critical topic of parental engagement and equitable family partnerships. The study aimed to provide holistic insight by uncovering internal and external stakeholders' combined perceptions regarding equitable parental engagement to establish a protocol for individualized support. Purposeful sampling was used to select the study’s participants. Participants were categorized into two groups: internal stakeholders, who included teachers, social workers, and administrators; and external stakeholders, who included parents and guardians. Open-ended surveys and interviews were used to collect insight from internal and external stakeholders. The data were analyzed thematically and interpreted against Epstein et al.’s (2019) and Darling-Hammond’s …

University Presidential Update- July 2022, Academic Affairs

University Updates & Communications from the University President

No abstract provided.

The Flowerings Project: A Library In Transformation, Jody Condit Fagan, Joanne V. Gabbin, Bethany Nowviskie, Lauren K. Alleyne, Aaron Noland

Libraries

This final report from the JMU Libraries and Furious Flower Poetry Center to the Mellon Foundation describes in detail the activities undertaken as part of a 2020-2021 planning grant, “Furious Flowerings: Developing a Partnership Model for Digital Library Support of a Living Center for Black Poetry,” funded by the Mellon Foundation. The grant explored and developed a partnership model for integrated library support of a living, academic center for the arts with archival, scholarly, digital, educational, and performance components. Nine key areas were addressed, including three overarching areas: development of cultural competencies, exploring how an exemplar project can be used …

Law School News: Dean's Distinguished Service Award 2021: Ralph Tavares 05/28/2021, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Understanding Volunteer Motivations To Serve, Dominique P. Wood

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

An organization’s volunteer development program can serve as a useful tool in the P-20 framework to address transitional gaps preventing smooth and consistent movement of individuals from traditional education to career attainment. Utilizing Maslow’s Theory of Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this qualitative study revealed volunteer motivation effectively resolved needs that work toward Self-Actualization. Satisfied needs, addressed by the volunteer experience, places the organization as a relevant partner in the P-20 framework to resolve career attainment goals. The volunteer makes the gift of time, skills, experience, and knowledge based on personal preferences to the organization’s work. Partnerships are achieved …

Repaying The Education Debt Through Professional Development: An Equity Audit, Jenai Choi, Britney D. Holmes, Todd Martinez-Simmons

Educational and Organizational Learning and Leadership Dissertations

Dr. Ladson-Billings has reframed the commonly understood achievement gap as an education debt that is owed to all students, especially Black and Brown students. Research suggests the difference in achievement as measured by assessment, attendance, and graduation is marked by racial lines. One-way school districts have tried to address race-based injustices is by providing equity-focused professional development (PD) for district employees. This is a qualitative critical case study focused on understanding how a school district located in Western, Washington is working toward creating a more equitable education for all students. The research team used components of an equity audit to …

Connecting Evidence Use And Practice In K-12 Education: Discovering And Planning For Research Practice Partnerships, Amy Jo Clemens

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation, I begin with a paper exploring K-12 educators’ use of evidence. I give several examples of how practitioners are delivering programming that is in direct opposition to commonly held evidence-based understandings, explore the reasons why this is happening and then offer a relatively new type of partnership between practitioners and researchers that looks promising in the ongoing pursuit of greater research engagement and use of evidence by practitioners. This paper also applies the Outcomes Based Concern Model for deconstructing the reasons practitioners do not use evidence to the degree desired by policymakers.

In the second paper I …

Fostering Inclusive Culture Through Partnerships With Nonprofits, Kevin Badgett, John Decman

School Leadership Review

NELP Standards place a particular emphasis on “the leaders’ responsibility for the well-being of students and staff as well as their role in working with others to create supportive and inclusive district and school cultures” (Preparing for the National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) Program Review: A Companion Guide, 14). This concept, that of working with others to create inclusive district and school cultures, necessarily means that school leaders are required to look at organizations and leaders in the community to foster positive growth. Because of this, there is a fertile ground upon which to investigate the benefits of partnerships with …

Playing Nice In The Sandbox: Exploring The Behaviors Of Executive And Operational Leaders In Cross-Sector Collaboration, Debra Mustain

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Educational attainment in the United States is at the highest levels since recording started, yet large numbers of students are not completing education at the secondary and postsecondary levels. This lack of education impacts their long-term prospects for living wage careers, stable housing and the ability to support both themselves and their families. A growing response to this crisis is the development of cross-sector collaborative partnerships to address educational attainment resulting in an educated and skilled workforce that will ultimately improve prosperity in a community or region. This collaborative work has expanded as a result of growing recognition that all …

Partners In Education, Health, And Safety: Development And Implementation Of Concussion Policy In Ontario School Boards, Amy E. Robinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In March 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Education was the first ministry in Canada to institute a formal concussion policy. The ministry stipulates that student long-term health and safety are essential preconditions for learning, and that concussions can negatively impact cognitive, physical, emotional, and social development. Policy/Program Memorandum (PPM) No. 158 requires all school boards and school authorities to establish a policy on concussions. Each school board in Ontario developed a concussion policy within their local context to address concussion awareness, prevention, identification, management, and training. School boards, administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents/guardians, volunteers, and community-based organizations were encouraged to …

Expanding Capacity To Serve Multilingual Learners: A University-School District Partnership, Beth Clark-Gareca, Kim Fontana

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

In a time of new teacher certification requirements in New York, school districts are grappling with how to meet the regulatory expectations imposed by Commissioner’s Regulations Part 154. One way that schools are solving staffing challenges is by forging new collaborations with university partners to expand their collective capacities to serve Multilingual learners (MLLs). In this article, we document a partnership between SUNY New Paltz’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program and the Pawling Central School District during the 2017-18 academic year. We describe the partners’ distinct roles in the university-district collaboration, and discuss the logistical considerations …

Developing A Study Abroad Program For Student Veterans, Andrea Dame

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

Universities across the nation are seeing an increase in student veterans who are taking advantage of the educational benefits offered for life after the military. These students are non-traditional and come from diverse backgrounds bringing in a unique perspective to higher education institutions (Howard and Brode, 2013). Since 2009, there have been more than 1.7 million Post-9/11 GI Bill users (Department of Veteran Affairs, 2017). This educational benefit has been instrumental in helping veterans and their dependents go to school and obtain a two or four-year degree but there is a 36-month limit to this educational benefit which reduces the …

Structures & Supports: Building A Throughline Approach To District Partnerships, Jessica Charles

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Bank Street College is committed to collaborative, systematic district reform that supports every layer of the school system so that districts are able to thoughtfully plan and implement large-scale instructional improvement initiatives to achieve maximum impact on student learning. The Bank Street Education Center “Education Center,” has developed a “Throughline” approach to district reform, designed to support districts across the system to foster conditions that enable schools to act as units of change and embed strong instructional practices through teacher leaders and teams.

Presidents' Perceptions Of Entrepreneurial Strategies In Community Colleges: A Disruptive Innovation, James Tyler Hart

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The community college, like all of higher education, has been significantly impacted by a shifting business model and changes in funding. The purpose of this mixed methods, sequential study was to examine community college presidents’ perceptions of entrepreneurial strategies in the higher education industry. The shifting business model requires presidents to look for alternative ways to innovate and adapt as community college funding models change. Community college leaders have also been proactively seeking out alternative revenue streams in order to help offset decreased state funding. Findings of this study show that community college presidents perceive that they must be entrepreneurial …

Community College And High School Partnership: College Math Readiness Program, Ernesto Oscar Reyes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study describes the partnership between an urban community college and seven high schools from its inception. The purpose of the partnership was to increase the number of high school seniors transitioning into college-level math courses through the college math readiness program, an existing community college intermediate algebra course. In addition to archival records and documents, college math faculty, high school math teachers, administrators and staff, and college students were interviewed for this study. Four major challenges were identified in the following areas: student recruitment process, data management, lack of information to students, and collaboration among math faculty and math …

The Experiences Of Stakeholders In District-University Administrator Preparation Partnerships, Jacob Mckinley Wilson Iii

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Collaborative partnerships between school districts and universities focused on school leadership development are a part of a recent effort to provide the field of public education with leadership for the 21st century. The research clearly indicates that the demand for educational administrators far outweighs the number of available qualified candidates. This qualitative research proposal, influenced by the research tradition of phenomenology, was designed to examine an important but often overlooked component of the school district–university partnership process. The stakeholders, representatives from both the school district and the university involved in the partnership, are key to the successful development and implementation …

Community College Vice Presidents' Perceptions Of Academic Partnerships, Gloria Jean Savage-Early

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Partnerships have a very important place among two- and four-year institutions as they allocate limited resources to continue to give higher education students a quality education. Community college vice presidents desire to give students options of completing degrees while maintaining jobs and supporting families along with options of pursuing advanced degrees. This qualitative study, which uses a phenomenological approach, will explore the perceptions of higher education community college vice presidents regarding the factors that affect partnerships between two- and four-year institutions of higher education. The main research question and sub-questions, to be explored are as follow: How do vice presidents …