Education Commons^™

Which Student Characteristics Correlate With Discipline Referrals? A Case Study Of A Diverse, High-Poverty Rural School District In The South, Jeannie Baltimore Monson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlates of discipline referrals in a diverse, high-poverty rural school district. The framework is based upon the Diamond (2004) study which, like this research, was built on the notion that socioeconomic inequality is a major factor for disproportionality in student discipline. This study identified the assets and deficits of the sample population and analyzed them in relationship to the referrals accrued. This study was conducted in a small, rural, southern school district. Of the population, approximately 78% are on free and reduced lunch and is made up of Caucasian students, 53%, …

An Examination Of Successful Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Males In A Northeast Tennessee Middle School, Stephen E. Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that contribute to positive educational outcomes as measured by the EXPLORE test for eighth grade males who qualify for free or reduced price lunch. In addition, this study was conducted for the purpose of improving the educational program at a Northeast Tennessee middle school. Archival EXPLORE data, as well as free and reduced price lunch data, were used to identify high school graduates, 6 males and 6 females, who had performed at or above expectation on the eighth grade EXPLORE test. Females were included …

The Negative Consequences Of Using Free And Reduced Lunch As A Measure Of School-Level Poverty: A Case From The State Of Georgia, Justus Randolph, Rose Prejean-Harris

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Poverty has long been known to be strongly correlated with academic achievement. In intercensal years, the National Academy of Sciences recommended using percent of free and reduced lunch (FRL) as a measure of poverty in educational systems. The Federal Government, the State of Georgia, and many other states have adopted the policy of reporting poverty levels at the school level by the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch. However, as we will show in this presentation, there is a severe restriction of range in the upper end of the FRL variable. This restriction in range can result in …

Raising Their Children, Janelle R. Thompson

Student Publications

This personal essay depicts the story of an after school program established in the heart of a low-income neighborhood. It details the struggle the local children face in their failing schools district, and shows how the program, known as Little Wise Child, has been instrumental in making a positive difference in their lives.

Poverty, Educational Achievement, And The Role Of The Courts, Michael A. Rebell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The large and growing proportion of U.S. students who come from poverty backgrounds explains this country’s relatively low performance on international achievement tests. These students need a broad range of comprehensive educational services if they are to have a meaningful opportunity to succeed in school. These opportunities include not only adequate resources for basic K–12 educational services but also parent engagement, health and other services, and additional early education, after-school, and summer programs. In most states, the schools attended by students with the greatest needs tend to receive the fewest resources because of the inequitable systems most states use for …

Charting Success: James Verrilli '83 Fashions A School For Inner-City Newark, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

James Verrilli '83 has heard it many times before. The suggestion is that students at North Star Academy in Newark N.J., do so well on assessment tests because they've been "creamed," skimmed from the top of the pool of thousands of kids in the city's conventional- and troubled- public schools. When the suggestion was made yet again during a recent interview, Verrilli tried not to bristle.

An Education Ceo: Robert Furek '64 Brings Accountability To Hartford Public Schools, Rick Green

Colby Magazine

Armed state troopers standing by his side, an ashen-faced Robert Furek '64 waded carefully through the jeering crowd lining the hallway of the ornate Hartford city hall.

"Racists and fascists!" some yelled. Furek, chairman of the board of trustees running the Hartford, Conn., public schools, quickly left the building, the taunts and finger-pointing. Furek and his colleagues had just voted to remove the district's superintendent of schools, an African-American woman some in this downtrodden community saw as a source of hope and inspiration.

A Ray Of Hope: Brittany Ray '93 Inspires Where She Found Inspiration, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

High school English teacher Brittany Ray '93 grew up in the tiny Down East town of Milbridge, a fishing community perched at the mouth of the Narraguagus River. Ray's father, Gary Ray '72, helped run the family business, a sardine cannery, and he made sure his daughter worked there, too, packing sardines beginning when she was 11. "He wanted me to know I needed to get out of Milbridge," Ray said. "He really questioned, 'Is teaching what you really want to do? And coming back [to Washington County]?' But I convinced him that that really was what I wanted."

Small Triumphs: Alex Quigley '99 Finds Hope And Despair In The Mississippi Delta, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

It was an hour into the school day and Alex Quigley '99 was standing in front of a room full of kindergarten students. The students were sitting on a carpet, each child assigned to a colored square. Quigley, motioning with a pointer tipped by a yellow star, looked like he was waving a magic wand.

"Who knows a word like bat?" he said. "Bat. Bah-tuh."

"Cat," a boy named Tony said.

"Good," said Quigley.

"Fat," said a little girl named Quintina.

"What letter makes the 'fuh, fuh' sound?" Quigley asked.

Quintina looked stumped.

"Fuh, fuh," Quigley said, his pointer at …

Effects Of Poverty Funding On Literacy Achievement Over Time In Arkansas Schools, Rick Gales

Dissertations

This dissertation provides additional background to the limited research regarding the effectiveness of the use of state categorical money on literacy achievement measured by the Arkansas Literacy Benchmark Exam for a cohort of third through sixth grade students and a cohort of fifth through eighth grade students in Arkansas school districts. Using a non-experimental design, the researcher tested two hypotheses using a mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). The independent variables for the two hypotheses were change over time with two levels measured in school years (2008 versus 2009 versus 2010 versus 2011) and the two NSLA funding levels. The …

Bootstrap Blues, Hannah M. Frantz

SURGE

Meet David*. In mid-January, he came to the small town Iowa elementary school where I work. David has attended more schools in the two years since he started school than I have in my lifetime. In fact, the school he just moved from only has four days of attendance listed on his record. David moves so often because he’s homeless. His situation is not what we may stereotypically think of as “homeless”—you wouldn’t see him on the streets or even in soup kitchens. Instead, David stays with his mother, and they couch surf from one home to another from week …

Improving Education Outcomes For African American Youth - Issues For Consideration And Discussion, Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt Bryant, Kisha Bird

Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt Bryant

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of A Poverty Simulation In Second Life®: Changing Nursing Student Attitudes Toward Poor People, Nancy Menzel, Laura Helen Willson, Jessica Doolen

Nursing Faculty Publications

Social justice is a fundamental value of the nursing profession, challenging educators to instill this professional value when caring for the poor. This randomized controlled trial examined whether an interactive virtual poverty simulation created in Second Life^® would improve nursing students’ empathy with and attributions for people living in poverty, compared to a self-study module. We created a multi-user virtual environment populated with families and individual avatars that represented the demographics contributing to poverty and vulnerability. Participants (N = 51 baccalaureate nursing students) were randomly assigned to either Intervention or Control groups and completed the modified Attitudes toward …

Writing A Reading And Language Arts Unit Designed To Motivate Elementary School English Language Learners (Ell) And Students Of Poverty, Kaitlin J. Carlson

Honors Program Projects

One of the biggest challenges that educators face today is what has become known as “summer reading setback.” Many students who have at or above grade level reading skills during the months when school is in session fall behind over the summer due to a lack of continued reading practice. For students of poverty in particular, many of whom do not have access to reading materials over the summer months, “summer reading setback” has become a serious problem as they continue to fall behind summer after summer. Although “summer reading setback” has become a reality for far too many elementary …

Media Portrayal Of Individuals In The Lower Class And Its Effects On Attributions Of Educational Hardships, Krista A. Burke

Communication Studies

This study investigated how media portrayals of individuals in the lower class affect people’s beliefs about educational hardships in lower socioeconomic areas. Specifically, this study looked at the attributions of these hardships to determine if media consumption had an effect on the internality of attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would be related to an increased tendency toward internal attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would lead to lower support for policy changes regarding education. A survey was distributed to assess media consumption habits and attitudes toward educational hardships in the lower class. Correlation results yielded …

A Single Case Analysis Of The Impact Of Caregiver-Student Collaborative Learning On An Urban Community, Heather Edmundson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of caregiver-student collaborative learning classes on an urban community. The study examined whether the self-efficacy of the caregivers increased with helping their children with school work due to the caregiver-student classes. The study also examined whether providing access to a resource not normally provided within this particular community led to increased self-efficacy within caregivers. The research questions that guided the study were as follows: How do collaborative caregiver-student classes that focus on collaborative strategies impact the self-efficacy of the caregivers in helping their children with school work? How does increasing …

The Relationships Between School Poverty And Student Achievement In Maine, David L. Silvernail, James E. Sloan, Chelsea R. Paul, Amy F. Johnson, Erika K. Stump

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

The goal of this study was to examine the relationships between school level poverty found in Maine schools and student academic performance. The evidence clearly shows that there is a relationship. As the percent of poverty increases in a school, student performance declines. But the poverty level alone does not explain the wide variations in performance found across the state. The level of poverty in a school is the single best predictor of average student performance, but other factors also play a role in influencing student achievement. Some of these factors include the type of school students are enrolled in, …

Design And Implementation Plan For The "I Am Potential" Financial Literacy Education Program, Tureka Louis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Financial Literacy Program Model is a proposed solution to the problem of financial illiteracy among the working poor. Over 80 percent of adults in America are not financially literate, yet more than half believe themselves to be (OECD, 2005). No community is more adversely affected by this fallacy than the working poor. Earning income, yet living below the poverty line, this group is as deceived as any other by the misconception that increased income is their sole remedy rather than a small part of the complex equation greatly influenced by financial literacy. Drawing upon a review of related literature, …

Facing Facts, Liisa Silander, Simone Solondz, Risd Xyz

RISD XYZ Fall/Winter 2014/2015: The Body

Andrew Freiband 95 FAV and a team of alumni work with USAID to humanize the impact of extreme poverty.

The Environment Of Poverty And The Limits Of Girlhood: The Struggle For The Right To An Education In North India. Gareebi Ka Mahual Aur Ladkeo Ki Hud, Imandeep Kaur Grewal

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation explored the lived worlds and educational experiences of adolescent girls living in poverty in North India. Class, caste, gender, and regionally-based inequalities result in striking disparities leading to restricted, gendered opportunities and individual freedoms. The purpose of this ethnographic study was an in-depth exploration of the lives of 20 girls living in poverty, and how their own educational futures were impacted by educational policy and practices. Illustrative case studies were used to explore the broader question of educational access. In keeping with Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the primary focus …

Academically Resilient Minority Doctoral Students Who Experienced Poverty And Parental Substance Abuse, Marcia Boatman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a lack of research on the academic resilience of minority, first-generation, online doctoral students (MFOD) who experienced poverty and parental substance abuse (PSA). The purpose of this study was to explore how MFOD who overcame poverty and PSA developed academic resilience. Resilience theory and Kember's model of attrition in online programs provided a conceptual framework for this study. The research questions guiding this qualitative study concerned how MFOD perceive and interpret their academic resilience and protective factors. A purposeful sample of 6 students participated in semistructured interviews. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted, which included a case by …

Early Childhood Perspective Of The K-12 Common Core State Standards Implementation, Anita Lesh Benson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The importance of school readiness and social-emotional development for children who live in poverty is well established. Head Start programs have championed the development of the whole child across all learning domains. The implementation of the K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) focuses instructional skills on reading language arts, and math. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore Head Start teachers' perceptions and experiences of the CCSS implementation. The study was guided by the constructivist learning framework of Piaget and Dewey. Research questions explored the understanding and effects of the K-12 CCSS implementation from a group of …

Individualized Consideration: Poverty Countermeasure, Lawrence Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite more than $1 trillion spent annually on poverty remediation, impoverishment in the United States persists unabated. With a U.S. poverty rate greater than 10% for more than 4 decades, economics are neither poverty's cause nor cure. As such, non-economic poverty remedies require exploration and expansion. Linking greater leadership and poverty theories, this non-experimental, cross sectional, quantitative, survey-based research effort correlated individualized consideration's (IC) practice with collegiate athlete graduation rates in order to identify and isolate possible leadership based social poverty remediation measures. Leveraging a two-stage random sample, this research effort correlated student athlete Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (form 5X) responses …

The Relationship Between Teachers' Perceptions Of Student Management With Out-Of-School Suspensions And High School Graduation Rates, Caryn Letcher Huber

Online Theses and Dissertations

Teachers' perceptions contribute to who is removed from the classroom (Fenning & Rose, 2007). The Kentucky Department of Education use a teacher self-report instrument called the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) survey to assess teaching conditions in eight areas to predict teacher satisfaction, employment trajectories and ultimately guide school improvement. The New Teacher Center found a correlation exists between the Managing Student Conduct construct of the TELL Kentucky Survey responses and student achievement (National Teacher Center, 2013). This study investigates the relationship between Managing Student Conduct construct with Graduation Rates and Out-of-School Suspension. Graduation Rate is one of five …

Home-Based Parent-Child Therapy In Low-Income African American, Caucasian, And Latino Families: A Comparative Examination Of Treatment Outcomes, Brittany L. Gresl, Robert A. Fox, Alicia Fleischmann

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

This study examined parent and child treatment outcomes for a home-based Parent-Child Therapy (PCT) program for 66 children from families living in poverty. African American, Caucasian, and Latino families were examined to determine if an evidence-based program would produce similar results across different ethnic groups. The results showed that caregivers across the three ethnic groups reported improved child challenging behavior, increased positive parent-child interactions, improved parental expectations, higher levels of nurturing, and less reliance on verbal and corporal punishment as a form of discipline. Practical implications for these results are discussed.