Education Commons^™

High School Persisters And Alternative Schools, Hyuny Clark-Shim

Dissertations and Theses

In response to a "dropout crisis," over the past decade much effort was made to retain high school students. Recent years' trends indicated an overall increased level of graduation rates; however, there has been a largely overlooked student population, persisters, who did not earn a high school diploma by the expected graduation date but remain engaged and continue to work towards graduation into their fifth or even sixth year of high school.

Using exploratory CART analysis, this study examined what individual-level and school-level factors were most effective in distinguishing students who were persisters versus on-time graduates. Given that persisters …

Online Learners: A Study Of Their Advising Attitudes, Experiences, And Learning, Stephen Philip Jenkins

Dissertations and Theses

Academic advising for online learners has been identified in prior research as an important student service. However, little research exists to assist advisers in knowing how best to serve this growing group. The purpose of this study is to close that research gap by determining if and how online and on-campus learners differ in how they rate the importance of various functions of academic advising as well as determining if their frequency of access to academic advising and source of advising information differed. Additionally, the research examines if the types and levels of learning for online learners varied by frequency …

Desirable Conversations: Sexuality And Women With Intellectual Disabilities, Neera Malhotra

Dissertations and Theses

The American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD, 2011) assert that individuals with intellectual disabilities, irrespective of gender, have an equal right to learn about and experience their own sexuality. A review of the extant literature indicated that the voices of women with intellectual disabilities on the topic of familial culture, as it relates to sexuality, are rarely included (McCarthy, 1993; Shakespeare, 2000; Siebers, 2012).

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the role of familial culture and lived experiences of women with intellectual disabilities, ages 21-35, in understanding their own sexuality. Eight women participated in individual …

An Investigation Of School-Based Specific Learning Disability Identification, Bonnie Heather Bartos

Dissertations and Theses

Researchers have described the special education identification process for students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) as "muddled and confused" (Bocian, Beebe, MacMillan, & Gresham, 1999) and "haphazard" and "capricious" (Shinn, 2007, p. 603). Bocian, Beebe, MacMillan, and Gresham (1999) proposed the theory of competing paradigms as a way to explain why researchers and school-based eligibility teams identify different groups of students as SLD. This qualitative study had two research questions: a) To what extent did interviews of secondary resource teachers reveal the concepts of relativity, acceptability, and profitability as they reflect on the SLD process? and b) What other themes …

Exploring The Impact Of An Ld Diagnosis On The Self-Determination Of Women In Poverty, Cynthia Jakes Stadel

Dissertations and Theses

This collective case study explored the impact of a later-in-life learning disability (LD) diagnosis on women in poverty. The study focused on the perspectives of four women who were not identified with LD as children but accessed assessment services as adults receiving Oregon's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). All four reported painful awareness of learning differences as youths; as adults they voluntarily engaged in a "labeling event," furthering a process toward personal transformation and enhanced well-being initiated by their own awareness and curiosity. The women described critical social and emotional support systems and relationships that helped them integrate understanding …

Facilitating Master's Student Success: A Quantitative Examination Of Student Perspectives On Advising, Sarah Brooks Drummond Hays

Dissertations and Theses

Faculty advising is crucial for student success, but little is known about the specific relationship between advising and master's students' success. Given that master's student enrollment is growing and diversifying, examining the relationships between advising and success is imperative for institutional efficiency and educational excellence. This quantitative study investigated nearly 1,000 master's students' experiences with two primary types of advising--administrative and mentoring. The study looked for correlations with multiple proxies of student success (e.g., graduation, retention, institutional commitment, and GPA). As well, other potentially influential individual, educational, and organizational variables (e.g., background characteristics, peer culture, and department climate) were examined …

The Retention Puzzle Reconsidered: Second Year Student Attitudes And Experiences With Advising, Michael Edward Walsh

Dissertations and Theses

College student retention has been described as a puzzle because retention rates have stagnated, and in some cases declined, despite over seventy years of research into the problem. The magnitude of the problem is that 50 percent of college students will leave their institution before obtaining a degree (Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2011). In an effort to improve retention rates, colleges and universities have concentrated their attention on first year students. But this concentrated strategy may have simply transferred the retention problem into the second year where retention rates for many schools are as low as first year rates (Amaury, …

Academic Advising Structures That Support First-Year Student Success And Retention, Brett Leland Mcfarlane

Dissertations and Theses

Academic advising has been touted as a key to student success and retention. Today's academic advising delivery models vary considerably and little is known about the efficiency and effectiveness of these models. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between how academic advising is delivered to first-year students at a four-year public, high research activity university located on the west coast and the students' satisfaction with advising, advising learning outcomes, and retention. In the study, responses of 628 first-year students to a survey which asked them about their attitudes toward and experiences with academic …

Family Coping And Adaptation To Traumatic Brain Injury, Richard Francis Burton

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to (a) briefly describe the dynamics of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that most commonly affects the family including: injury characteristics, personality changes, psychosocial implications, and the family impact; (b) research and summarize the literature that pertains to the impact of TBI behavior; (c) review and explain considerations for families and counselors working with the injured patient and each other; (d) review published empirical studies on specific support interventions that address family adaptation and coping methods for those that are facing TBI; and (e) review compare and contrast relevant TBI materials designed to measure effective …

Exploring Collaboration: A Program Evaluation Of A Mental Health Intervention In A Public Elementary School, Joy Rhodes

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this evaluative study was to develop and implement a program evaluation design for a model of early mental health intervention to primary grade level classrooms in a public elementary school. The design reflects a formative evaluation study, providing information for current and future programming and is manageable to implement, thus facilitating longitudinal data collection.

This therapeutic model of classroom intervention stresses the integration of children’s social, emotional and intellectual development and proposes a collaborative approach between therapist and educator. Levels of intervention for collaborators include (1) children identified as requiring therapeutic approaches to social-emotional difficulties experienced in …

A Study Of Counseling At Reed College, Martin Shawn Fisher, Mark Masterson

Dissertations and Theses

The main purpose of the study was to develop information which would be useful to the counselors of the Reed College Counseling Service in their practice. Specifically, information was sought on the outcomes of one to one counseling sessions. The aim of the inquiry was to determine some of the dynamics and results of individual counseling with Reed students. The goal was to discover information about successful and unsuccessful counseling sessions which would benefit the counselors in the provision of their services.

A review of the literature on outcome research in psychotherapy suggested that focusing the study on the treatment …