Education Commons^™

School Leaders Supporting Undocumented Asian And Black Students, Lorena Tule-Romain

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

There are 5.6 million K-12 students who are either undocumented or living with at least one undocumented parent (Passel & Cohn, 2018). In 2021, FWD.us estimated that approximately 620,000 K-12 students are undocumented; 34% of these students migrated from countries in Asia, sub-Saharan African, and Caribbean countries. These students have unique needs in schools, such as support for lower frequency language services, wraparound supports, and classroom curricula that should account for their cultural heritages and traditions. While scholars have conducted research on the largest group of undocumented students, Latinx, existing knowledge of the students coming from Asian and African countries …

“Brute Force Teacher”: Outlasting The Turbulent Cycle Of Teacher Turnover, Anne Marie Light

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to debunk negative stereotypes that surround educators in urban schools and depict how high-performing veteran teachers became the resilient educators they are now. Teachers are the greatest determiner of student success (Marzano et al., 2001). Therefore, understanding our highest-performing teachers in our schools is imperative. Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2011) found that a staggering percentage of the teachers who entered the field left within their first three to five years of teaching. Understanding our highest performing teachers with five plus years of experiences through research is necessary.

This generic qualitative study utilized Polidore’s Theoretical Model …

Addressing Basic Needs Security At Santa Monica College, Brooke Guelker

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Basic needs insecurity has gained recognition as a significant barrier to completing a postsecondary credential. Research has shown that students enrolled at community colleges experience basic needs insecurity at rates higher than their four-year counterparts. Given the community college’s expansive mission, it is imperative that these institutions attempt to mitigate basic needs insecurity by identifying innovative solutions tailored to their specific student populations. The original aim of this study was to explore the utility of the planned change framework in understanding how a partnership between a postsecondary institution (Santa Monica College) and a nonprofit organization (Swipe Out Hunger) led to …

Examining How Current Higher Education Outdoor Experiential Education Program Structure Impacts Inclusion Of African American Students, Albert Mitugo

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE) in higher education is a common and important method of student learning and engagement in the curricular and co-curricular arenas. Because of its importance, many institutions have an OEE program, usually housed in campus recreation for co-curricular student engagement or in academic units for credit-bearing OEE undertakings. The importance of OEE in higher education is widely documented for its impact on college students’ change in environmental attitudes, interpersonal development, resilience, risk management, self-efficacy, self-esteem, sense of belonging, and transition in college. Little has been studied about African American students’ engagement in higher education OEE programming and …

Utility Of The Causal Inference Approach To Mediation Analysis With Binary Outcomes, Anh Thu Le

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is methodological research to inform educational researchers that the causal inference approach will produce a more accurate estimate of a mediation effect. The effect will help researchers make important and accurate decisions such as changing teaching curricula or implementing interventions.

Scholars Programs: An Institutional Enigma, Lindsay Davis

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The race to recruit high-achieving students to attend colleges and universities continues to intensify. Institutions view these high-achieving students as a benefit given the prestige associated with their enrollment, which impacts everything from rankings to reputation to resources. Some institutions use scholars programs as one means by which to attract high- achieving students to their campuses, but little is known about scholars programs, why they are created, how they operate, or the role they may play in helping to meet broader institutional goals.

This exploratory study examines scholars programs through the lens of organizational decision-making literature in the context of …

The Impact Of Principal Preparation On Student Outcomes, Tanya Shelton

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of principal preparation on first-year principals' ability to positively impact student outcomes. The study sought to understand key learning experiences that contributed to first-year principals' success upon completion of their preparation program. Using the case study method for this qualitative research study, I interviewed first-year principals to gather data on their perceptions of the learning experiences that led to their success. The research question that guided my qualitative research study was: How does one district-led principal preparation program in a large urban city increase first-year principals' capacity to effectively lead …

The Principal’S Leadership Impact Utilizing Distributed Leadership Practices That Drive School Improvement, Dr. Holly Grubbs

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Educational leadership is a major factor in achieving the goals of state and federal policymakers centered on raising student achievement for all students. Before, the focus was on how the principal is managing the school, and now it is about the process, procedures and structures, and systems in place that drive instructional improvement. With the increase of federal legislation, a principal's instructional leadership is measured by student academic achievement (Van Roekel, 2008). The assumption of the federal, state, and local policies is that instructional leadership is evident on the campus to improve schools. Consequently, there is a problem in American …

Strategic Use Of Innovation In High Research Universities: Mission-Driven Or Mission Drift? A Comparative Review Of The Top 100 International Universities Recognized For Innovation, Kate Montgomery

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

This research supports some of the mounting pressures higher education practitioners face in approaching innovation strategically while recognizing the mission-driven needs of the institution. Two research questions were examined. First, how do highly innovative universities communicate traditional missions and innovation in their mission statements? Second, to what extent do innovation strategies align as stated in their strategic plans with their mission statements? This research was grounded in institutional theory given the breadth of literature linking this theory to institutional rhetoric such as mission statements. In addition, the theory provided relevancy to assessing the debate over legitimizing tendencies, such as symbolism …

Examining The Relationship Between Principal’S Beliefs And Attitudes Towards Discipline And Disproportionate Outcomes For Minorities In Public Schools, Valerie Ludley Nelson

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1980’s, the current narrative for disparate outcomes faced by minorities in America’s public schools has been shaped by the fear of violence thus creating the increasingly punitive and exclusionary methodology for school discipline that still exists today (Noguera, 1995). The zero-tolerance ideology from The War on Drugs became the basis for addressing school discipline and the results have been catastrophic. A growing body of evidence has emerged over the past forty years for what happens when zero-tolerance policies shape and guide school discipline and are used as the sole means for creating a safe and secure learning environment- …

Evaluation Of The Utility Of Informative Priors In Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling With Small Samples, Hao Ma

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The estimation of parameters in structural equation modeling (SEM) has been primarily based on the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and relies on large sample asymptotic theory. Consequently, the results of the SEM analyses with small samples may not be as satisfactory as expected. In contrast, informative priors typically do not require a large sample, and they may be helpful for improving the quality of estimates in the SEM models with small samples. However, the role of informative priors in the Bayesian SEM has not been thoroughly studied to date. Given the limited body of evidence, specifying effective informative priors remains …

Core Tensions: An Exploratory Case Study Of Faculty Work At A Striving Institution, Molly Ellis

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from the literature on faculty culture and striving institutions, my exploratory case study sheds light on the work tensions and experiences of faculty at a striving university. As the pursuit of prestige permeates the American higher education landscape, a greater understanding is needed on how institutional striving towards prestige influences faculty work. While variation exists in the work of professors across institutional types and disciplines, one constant holds true: too many responsibilities are competing for faculty members’ time. Current research on faculty work posits that the modern professor encounters disparate demands that make achieving a balance challenging.

Using a …

A Multi-Case Study Identifying Potential Factors Related To Two- To Four-Year Transfer Student Retention And Persistence At Private Institutions, Rachael Capua

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

A multi-case study, this research was designed to address a dearth of literature focusing on undergraduate transfer students from two- to four-year private institutions. Through a quantitative and qualitative approach, the researcher completed a descriptive data analysis (n = 2,086) and semi-structured student interviews (n = 10).

The purpose of this study was to better understand the makeup of students who transfer from community colleges to private (highly selective) institutions as well as what potential factors were related to their retention and persistence at the baccalaureate level. Two private universities, both geographically located near a large community college system (also …

Faculty Satisfaction At Striving Vs. Non-Striving Institutions, Na-Li Kim

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I analyze the 2013-14 Faculty Survey data from Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), to observe whether faculty at striving and non-striving institutions have varying levels of faculty satisfaction. In addition, some of the individual-level factors such as demographic characteristics, tenure-status, STEM/non-STEM department, and career related stress are analyzed to see how these variables influence faculty satisfaction. I use a combination of OLS regression and multiple regression to present evidence, which provides support to my argument that faculty at striving and non-striving institutions have different levels of faculty satisfaction. The findings from my study show that faculty at …

The Impact Of Involvement In Meaningful Organizational Change On Organizational Commitment For University Staff, Dawn Norris

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

American higher education faces increasing pressure to contain the cost of a college degree, forcing institutions to address both costs and the resulting meaningful organizational change. As a labor-intensive industry, the most effective strategies incorporate best practices related to maximizing human resources. Organizational commitment, an employees’ connection to and affinity for their employer, offers valuable insights into organizational change programs. Employees with strong commitment to their organization demonstrate a greater propensity to endure the exertion required for success during times of significant change. This study investigated the research question, how does a university staff member’s formal involvement in a cost …

A Qualitative Study On The Practice Of Executive Coaching To Improve Leadership Capacity In Academic Deans At American Higher Education Institutions, David Bertrand

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The history and sociology of faculty career transitions to deanships is an intriguing phenomenon, given that the skill sets of accomplished scholars vary immensely from the duties and responsibilities of academic deans. On top of that, today’s academic deans face particularly challenging leadership dilemmas. Navigating the transition from a scholarly focus to adopt a more team-oriented, managerial approach may prove difficult, especially when personal interests might need to be sacrificed for the unit’s collective gain—an idea not necessarily supported or rewarded in a researcher/scholar paradigm. This exploratory, qualitative study sought to examine if executive coaching is an effective strategy to …

These Relationships Save Lives:The Association Between The Nature Of Relationships And Experience Of Support In The Workplace For The Amber Alert Training And Technical Assistance Program, Kimberly Rutigliano

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

My research looks at organizational behavior as a resource to beleveraged for human learning. Two theoretical constructs guided this research, Team Member Exchange theory (TMX) and Social Network Analysis theory (SNA). The data for this research were derived from a case study of a subpopulation of the AMBER Alert organizationin Mexico.While no results were statistically significant, there was a weak association between the perceived support on the team (TMX) and the perceived strength of dyadic relationships (SNA) based on measures of outbound degree centrality (r>0.3). Graphical SNA analysis provided a more useful observation for a small group (N=14) than …