Education Commons^™

Educational Genocide: Examining The Impact Of National Education Policy On African American Communities, Christopher B. Knaus, Rachelle Rogers-Ard

The Bridge: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Legal & Social Policy

Abstract This paper clarifies the cumulative impact of the current national education policy on African-American children, which ultimately aims to limit local control of urban schools. The authors argue that urban schools in the United States are increasingly required to rely upon temporary teachers who are trained to implement a curriculum focused on standardized testing. The No Child Left Behind Act and the current Duncan administration’s approach to closing (and re-opening) schools combines to further exclude low-income community involvement in local schools. These efforts to control the development, hiring, and evaluation of local educators further expands educational racism that silences …

Examining The Association Between Teacher Political Efficacy And Educational Policy Engagement, Malinda Cobb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As state control over education increases, it is important to examine the teacher’s role in the educational policy making process. Currently, there is little research on Georgia’s educational policy systems. This study analyzed relevant variables to determine predictors of teacher participation. A 30 question instrument designed to measure teacher political efficacy and engagement was developed and administered. Demographic variables were analyzed to determine possible factors influencing efficacy and engagement. Findings showed that female teachers are predicted to participate more frequently in educational policy activities than males. Taking coursework in policy, having higher levels of internal political efficacy and having higher …

Engaging Disenfranchised Urban Youth In Science Learning, Luis Alberto D'Elia, Diane Wishart

Higher Learning Research Communications

The purpose of this work was to elicit the perceptions of science educators regarding enhancing opportunities to retain disenfranchised students in secondary schools. The article shows selective international perspectives on how teachers, university professors, and researchers in teacher education programs strive to support school completion for disenfranchised students. Interviews were conducted in Canada and Spain. Selective sampling was used in order to focus interviews on individuals with particular expertise on the topic and individuals who work in cooperation with colleagues engaged in similar work. Anecdotes, comments, and opinions from the interviews support the basic contentions in the article. The authors …

Re-Imagining Arts-Centered Inquiry As Pragmatic Instrumentalism, Leann F. Logsdon

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

Arts education must continually provide justification for its inclusion in the K-12 curriculum. This dissertation utilizes philosophical and conceptual analysis to probe the tensions, ironies, and contradictions that permeate the arts education advocacy discourse. Using evidence from advocacy materials published online, scholarly critiques of themes in the advocacy discourse, and research reports describing school-based arts programs, I construct an argument that posits generative consequences for student learning when arts-centered inquiry is reimagined as pragmatic instrumentalism. Such a reimagining of arts-centered inquiry seeks to draw a distinction between utilitarian justifications for the arts and instrumental benefits the arts provide individual students …

Global Leadership In Higher Education Administration: Perspectives On Internationalization By University Presidents, Vice-Presidents And Deans, Janice Sullivan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to identify international university administrators' perspectives on organizational strategies to support higher education internationalization. Internationalization is the conscious effort to integrate international, intercultural, and global dimensions into the ethos and outcomes of higher education (NAFSA, 2008). A descriptive survey design method was used and the instrument entitled "Strategic Internationalization Priority Scale" was developed for this research. This study is quantitative and cross-sectional. The online survey was sent to 1,043 top university administrators at 149 universities in 50 countries. These universities had active international agreements with the University of South Florida at the time of …

(De)Composing A Garden For Children's Play, Debra Jean Deverell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kindergarten has been a part of the educational landscape of the United States since 1856, when the first kindergarten opened in Watertown, Wisconsin. If we fast-forward more than a century and a half to the present, it is clear that the landscape composition of the garden-ideologically, culturally, socially, and politically for children's play has drastically changed.

The purpose of this study, (De)Composing a Garden for Children's Play, is to examine kindergartners' play set against changing school polices and practices of recent years in one Colorado school district. Four research questions guided this inquiry:

1. What does kindergarten look like …

Threat Rigidity, School Reform, And How Teachers View Their Work Inside Current Education Policy Contexts.Pdf, Brad Olsen, Dena Sexton

Dena Sexton

Asynchronous Learning Networks: Policy Implications For Minority Serving Institutions And For Leaders Addressing Needs Of Minority Learners, Janet K. Poley

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

For minority serving institutions, policies that support learners call for decisions about equity, quality, cost, impact on national economic performance and international global relationships

Literacy Education In School : Research Perspectives From The Past, For The Future, Peter Freebody

Australian Education Review

AER 52 aims to expand our understanding of the nature of literacy at a time when public and private lives have become increasingly literacy-dependent, and literacy demands more complex and sophisticated. This review of the research literature is guided by the view that what passes for effective literacy education will differ depending on language, culture, history and the technologies of communication and knowledge production. Section 1 describes the large body of research relating to the teaching and learning of literacy that emerges from a wide range of discipline bases. It details the complexities associated with defining literacy, and it outlines …

The Emergence Of Inclusion For Students With Disabilities In Ukraine, Sharon A. Raver

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Since independence in 1991, Ukraine has struggled with restructuring its Soviet style educational system. The process has been sluggish and fraught with tension, resistance, and set backs, mirroring Ukraine's efforts to revamp its economy and regain productivity levels that characterized it prior to independence (Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, 2003). One of the initiatives currently being discussed is integration of students with disabilities with their nondisabled peers in educational and social settings. The debate has prompted heated discussions and caused some to recommend a reexamination of the special education system (Zasenko, 2004). This article discusses some of the initial …

High-Stakes Testing: Can Rapid Assessment Reduce The Pressure?, Stuart S. Yeh

Stuart S Yeh

This article presents findings about the implementation of a system for rapidly assessing student progress in math and reading in grades K–12—a system that potentially could reduce pressure on teachers resulting from high-stakes testing and the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. Interviews with 49 teachers and administrators in one Texas school district suggest that the assessments allowed teachers to individualize and target instruction; provide more tutoring; reduce drill and practice; and improve student readiness for, and spend more time on, critical thinking activities, resulting in a more balanced curriculum. Teachers reported that the assessments provided a common …

Would You Like Values With That?: The Role Of Chik-Fil-A In Character Education, Deron R. Boyles

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

I explore three main lines of inquiry: (1) the specifics of “Core Essentials” as a strategy for teaching character; (2) the role (and ironies) of private businesses influencing public school curricula; and (3) the assumptions inherent in the kind of teaching of character outlined by “Core Essentials.” Girding this inquiry is a concern about the problematic enterprise of teaching character, itself, as if it were an unquestionable domain. Further, the oddly-but-related contexts of childhood obesity findings and Christian influences (both general symbolism and fundamentalist indoctrination) on and in public spheres will be considered via Theodore Brameld’s Ends and Means in …

Institutes, Foundations, And Think Tanks: Conservative Influences On U.S. Public Schools, Deron R. Boyles

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

While a complete analysis of the effects of conservative think tanks is beyond the scope of this article, we include the above passage as evidence of what, on a broad scale, the “idea brokers” have been working towards. While education is only one area where neoconservative think tanks seek to influence public policy, it has become the issue for many neoconservatives. In this article, we focus on four think tanks—The Manhattan Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation—and what they are doing to reshape public schools in ways more suitable to neoconservative and …

Handbook Containing Basic Requirements Of The Implementation And Management Of Parent Partnered Programs, Gregory Wayne Lovercamp

All Graduate Projects

This project provides school districts with background and resources to implement an alternative school program that involves parent partnership at a high level. Though resembling homeschooling, families involved in these programs in Washington State are emolled as public school students in the sponsoring district. Some homeschoolers tend to view these programs with a wary eye, while participants have found what they consider to be a godsend that enables them to educate their children the way they want with resources made available by the local school district. Applicable requirements are delineated and sample documents to meet those requirements are included.

India: Training Teachers For Children With Mental Retardation, Sharon A. Raver

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

India is a country of contradictions. On one hand, India is a modern country moving toward becoming a world leader in computer technology and boasts the second most computer literate population in the world (Babington, 2000; Kumar, 1999). On the other hand, India is a developing nation with 14 constitutionally recognized languages, 25% of the world's malnourished (Babington, 2000), and a majority that practices customs in everyday life that are 5,000 year old (Kumar, 1999). India is rich in natural resources and yet, because its population grows as quickly as its economy, it has one of the world's lowest per-capita …

Key Issues Facing The Boston Public Schools, Robert A. Dentler

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is the third examination of the six issues the author identified in "Some Key Issues Facing Boston's Public Schools in 1984," following the November 1983 election of the first thirteen-member Boston School Committee. He revisited these issues in a 1988 report and now assesses how the policy leadership of the system fared in dealing with these challenges during the past decade. He discusses other issues at the close of this article. Writing from a sociological point of view, Dentler is primarily concerned with the question of how well the public school districts and their school staff are able …

God And Government At Yale: The Limits Of Federal Regulation Of Higher Education, Robert M. O'Neil

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

A Checklist Of Democratic School Practices, Ernest L. Muzzall

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

Democratic practices in the school are based upon three fundamental purposes. These are: the developing of wholesome and well-adjusted personalities, the forming of habits of mutual helpfulness and cooperation and the furthering of conditions within the school which will encourage intelligent behavior of members of a democratic society. The purpose of this check list is to provide a means by which those engaged in the educational task may examine their practices to see if they square with what they profess to believe.