Education Commons^™

Effects Of Career Courses On Career Self-Efficacy And Outcome Expectations, Celeste Spier

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine two required career courses to determine if they produced an increase in career self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and which components of the learning theory from Social Cognitive Career Theory have the strongest influence. Participants were undergraduate business students at a midsized, Midwestern university enrolled in two required career courses and a comparison group of students not yet enrolled in the courses. Students took four measures (i.e., Career Exploration and Decisional Self-Efficacy Scale, Career Search Self-Efficacy Scale, Career Expectations Survey Scale, and Career Exploration and Decision Learning Experiences Scale) at two points in …

Engagement Requires The Institution Too: A Case Study Of A California Community College Using Assessment Data To Improve Student Success Practices, Duane Brooks

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While the collection of assessment data by educational institutions is important, these activities are not sufficient to create an institution that is fully “engaged” with not only the data, but also in using data to improve decision making and student success practices within the institution. The institution must be ready to use the data for action and improvement. Understanding the process that transforms data into institutionalized knowledge is an important component of what institutional engagement looks like. This qualitative single case study explored the scope and nature of institutional engagement in the case of one California community college by examining …

Enrollment Management And Intercollegiate Athletics: A Study Of Women’S Beach Volleyball, Valerie Clem-Brown

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With college costs increasing annually and the number of high school students dropping in many areas of the country, enrollment management professionals must seek out creative strategies to appeal to a broader population of out-of-state students. This study assessed the impact of the three common faces of a holistic enrollment management plan: structural management, planning, and leadership, on the recruitment of out-of-state student-athletes to play NCAA Division I beach volleyball. Alternative explanations were explored to determine how an institution was successful in recruiting out-of-state beach volleyball student-athletes when the three common faces of a holistic enrollment management plan were not …

Implementation Of The Mtss Process In Kearney Public Schools, Chelsea Feusner

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To support multiple needs, districts have worked to enrich or remediate students through differentiated objectives, programs, and initiatives. The goal of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework is to create a system that supports all students and provides robust interventions and programs at all levels, in multiple areas of education. This cross-sectional study will investigate MTSS implementation through a self-assessment survey of school principals and teachers in Kearney Public Schools (KPS). The information collected and analyzed to support the administrative team’s planning, implementation, and measurement of effectiveness. The research will also be able to support the continued implementation of MTSS …

You’Re Happy And You Know It: Social-Cognitive And Environmental Factors’ Impact On Iraqi Student Satisfaction, Rachel Laribee Gresk

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding and identifying factors that contribute to student satisfaction is becoming more important in Iraq as competition for student enrollment among universities increases. It also can be extremely useful for educational institutions since it will help them pinpoint their strengths, assess areas for improvement, and ensure they maintain and attract students to their campus. Thus, to understand how to achieve positive student satisfaction, this study sought to identify the social-cognitive factors and institutional environmental influences that relate to student satisfaction in a private institution in Iraq, using social cognitive career theory (SCCT) as a framework.

The study found that the …

The Role Of Undergraduate Student Affairs Coursework In Aspiring Student Affairs Professionals’ Career Development, Matthew J. Nelson

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative, single case study explored the influence of an undergraduate introductory student affairs course (SA 101) on the career development of aspiring student affairs professionals. Using Lent et al.’s (1994) social cognitive career theory, the study was guided by the following questions: (1) How did SA 101 contribute to the career development of students interested in a career in student affairs? (2) In what ways did this course assist students in the development of self-efficacy in relation to their interest in pursuing a career in student affairs? (3) To what degree did students in SA 101 describe positive outcome …

Keeping The Faith: The Organizational Saga Of Anderson University From 1995-2015, Mark Hughes

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This case study tells the story of Anderson University from 1995 to 2015. During this period, Anderson transitioned from a 2-year college to a 4-year university. The institution made this transition to remain viable and went through a period of decline because of the high costs associated with becoming a senior institution. After a leadership change, a period of stabilization occurred which set the stage for an evolutionary leader who determined the institution was ready for change. As an experienced strategic planner, this evolutionary leader engaged the faculty in the process of strategic planning which achieved their buy-in to develop …

Pay No Attention To The Regulation Behind The Curtain: The Implications Of The Return To Title Iv (R2t4) Federal Aid Policy On Time To Degree, Apri Medina

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Federal aid programs and their effect on student persistence, stopout, and completion have long been studied, but current literature does not fully capture the temporal nature of these programs due to insufficient methods, imprecise data, or both. Using event history methodologies, I leverage a unique level of access to data at a public four-year, research intensive university to explore how the Return to Title IV federal aid withdrawal policy, one of the most prominent yet understudied aspects of federal financial aid policies, influences time to degree. The treatment of this policy is associated with a 58.6% reduced risk (reduced conditional …

What Influences Itinerant Teacher Job Satisfaction And Intent To Stay?, Laura Barrett

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Schools across the country are facing a shortage of qualified teachers. When they post jobs, certified applicants may be rare. The problem of teacher shortage is multifaceted, but is generally focused in two areas: recruitment and retention of teachers. Attrition is the highest among new teachers, those who have been in the profession for less than five years. By focusing on retention of teachers, schools will need to spend less time on recruiting and can devote that time to deep implementation of high-quality education.

While there have been multiple studies looking at retention of staff, there have been few studies …

Perceptions Of Stress And Coping In Traditional Age First-Year College Students, Bridgett Grant

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative research study examined the perceptions of stress and coping in traditional-age, first-year college students. This study sought to form an understanding of the participants’ lived experiences relating to stress and coping throughout their first semester of college. Five participants’ were separately interviewed twice for the purposes of data collection. The findings from the data analysis process showed that these first-year college students experienced stress as a result of new and challenging academic expectations while also trying to navigate interpersonal relationships. Further, participants’ in this study experienced stress as a result from interacting with social media. These traditional-age, first-year …

Defying The Odds, Stories Of Success: A Case Study Of Foster Care Alumni In The Community College Environment, Julia Philyaw

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the lived experiences of foster care alumni and how these experiences influenced the individual’s decision to enroll in a community college, persist, and complete a degree. The dissertation drew from two conceptual frameworks, Bandwidth (Verschelden, 2017) and Capitals – cultural, social, and academic (Bourdieu, 1986; St. John, Hu, & Fisher, 2010). Foster care alumni were selected as the population due to their underrepresentation in college enrollment and poor completion rates. Moving beyond a deficit model that focuses on identifying obstacles, this dissertation focused on success stories of the foster care alumni in …

Going The Distance: A Case Study Of One Community College's Journey Across The Digital Divide, Michael Robert Jolley

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rural communities throughout the nation continue to lag their urban and suburban peers in access to high-speed internet service. This digital divide affects rural populations in a myriad of ways, but access to higher educational opportunities may be most problematic. While the promise of technology to level the field for rural students continues to offer hope, the scarcity of broadband service lingers. This qualitative instrumental case study explores how one exceptional rural community college in the Great Plains developed the capacity to deliver distance education programming. The study relies upon Rogers's theory of diffusion of innovations to validate the extent …

School Autonomy Distributed Leadership And Teachers’ Use Of Innovative Teaching Practices, Cailen O'Shea

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The primary aim of this research is to understand how school autonomy and distributed leadership supports teachers’ use of innovative teaching practices. Innovative practices such as increasing cognitive activation and enhanced curricular activities have shown to have significant positive effects on student outcomes (Le Donné, Fraser, & Bousquet, 2016). Based on internationally representative samples including 7,436 lower secondary school principals and 117,876 teachers from 34 countries surveyed in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 data, this study analyzed the effect of school autonomy and distributed leadership on teachers’ use of these innovative teaching practices. The findings demonstrate that …

Incentives To Impact The Longevity Of Urban Special Education Paraprofessionals, Tonya Jolley

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Special education paraprofessional educators play an essential role in support of special education students from an academic and safety standpoint in public-school systems. During several years, a Midwest, urban school district, awarded a tuition reimbursement incentive to 31 paraprofessionals through an application process coordinated by District Human Resource Office. In the Fall of 2019, after three years, 16 paraprofessionals remained in the program. The experiences of the paraprofessionals during the three years are presented through the findings of this study.

Adviser: Marilyn L. Grady

First-Generation College Student Experience In The Financial Aid Process, Kristy Saunders

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

How do first-generation college students experience the financial aid process? In what ways does a first-generation status affect the financial aid process for college students? Prior literature shows that first-generation college students are more likely to navigate the financial aid process without the help of parents and are less likely to complete the financial aid process in its entirety. However, there is a gap in prior literature examining the first-generation college student experience within the financial aid process overall. The current study utilizes a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to examine first-generation college student experiences in the financial aid process at a …

Toward Supporting Nphc Students And Organizations: An Autoethnographic Critical Race Theory Story Of What Fraternity And Sorority Life Can Learn From The Multicultural Center At One Predominantly White Institution, Ashley Swift

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This is an autoethnographic study that focuses on the ways in which the office of fraternity and sorority (OFSL) can better support the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) organizations and its members at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The study examined what the OFSL could learn from the multicultural center about their approach to supporting NPHC students at Nebraska. The three questions that helped guide this study were: What does the OFSL do to support NPHC organizations at Nebraska? What are the needs of Black students in the NPHC at Nebraska? How does the multicultural center provide support for Black students at …

Structural, Organizational, Cultural Processes And Mechanisms: A Case Study Of Writing Center Marginalization And Untapped Potential, Diana Hernandez

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Universities around the country have writing centers on their campuses since writing is an important component of student success. Research has shown that many writing center professionals feel marginalized by faculty and staff. The study was designed to explore how and why writing centers become marginalized on college campuses. Many studies on writing centers focus on pedagogical aspects of writing center work as well as student and faculty views and expectations. This study explores organizational, cultural, and political structures that may help and hinder a writing center in reaching its potential in assisting in broader educational goals such as retention …

Curating The Campus Nightlife Experience: Documenting A Program Model For Late Night And Weekend Programming., Derrick Gulley Jr

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study provides a comprehensive definition of the elements that make a campus programming board. This is important to understand because it provides a framework to talk about campus programming boards as organizations and it provides a model that other organizations could utilize. While this study is specifically looking at the CNL program model for late-night and weekend programming it provides a framework for practitioners to critically review and document aspects of their organization if they choose too. The program model encompasses all of the operational, structural, and shared philosophical beliefs implemented in the approach or design of campus activities …

Speaker Of The House: The Intersection Of Faculty And Administrator Roles Among Community College Faculty Department Chairs, Miles Young

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Community colleges face significant challenges in the 21^st century due largely to the effects of neoliberalism. Shifts in governance structures and an emphasis towards productivity and accountability have put a strain on institutional relationships, particularly between the faculty and the administration. Much attention has been given to how this relationship could be restored through direct means; however, another institutional stakeholder group has largely been overlooked in terms of a resource that could help bridge the faculty and administration. The community college faculty department chair is uniquely situated between the faculty and administration within these institutions, yet little is known …

The Influence Of Principal Leadership On Teacher Collaboration: Does Effective Professional Development Mediate This Effect?, David Evertson

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

School leadership has been a topic of empirical, quantitative study for nearly four decades, and in that time a great deal has been discovered about the strategies and mechanisms through which effective leadership acts. In its modern conceptualization, leadership is seen as an organizational construct, not centered on single individuals but rather as leadership activity stretched across leaders, followers and the situation which exists in the organization. Nevertheless, principals continue to play a central role in leadership activity, and their actions, behaviors, and strategies significantly influence school effectiveness and improvement efforts.

Research clearly demonstrates that positive teacher collaboration is an …

Counternarratives Of Success: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Life Experiences Of Prior-Enlisted Reserve Officers Navigating Higher Education, Adam B. Fullerton

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The current extant literature on student veterans describes the student veteran population in monolithic terms through a deficit perspective. With reserve servicemembers making up 33% of the veteran population (VA, 2018), reservists move beyond tokenism (Kanter, 1978;1987) and need to be explored separately. This separation enhances the understanding of their experiences in working towards educational attainment and the differences from the traditional student veteran identity. To engage in the study of this subpopulation, a narrative inquiry into the lived experience of three Marine officers who obtained their degrees while serving as enlisted reservists was conducted.

This study used Veteran Critical …