Education Commons^™

The Role Of Partisan Politics On Support For Public Institutions Of Higher Education, Jason G. Ramage

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over several decades, a greater share of the expense of earning a college degree has shifted to students and their families as appropriations to public institutions of higher education have declined as a percentage of the overall cost to educate a student. Tuition has greatly outpaced inflation during this period, while inflation-adjusted household income has remained relatively flat. Despite all the benefits that accrue to both the college graduate and society as a whole, for the less affluent, a college education is becoming increasingly difficult to attain. Many decide the financial barriers are simply too great and elect not to …

Arkansas Teachers' Grading Practices And Implications, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we assess current grading practices in Arkansas. We find teachers’ grading practices are inconsistent across the state. We suggest districts assess their grading practices and provide ongoing professional development opportunities for teachers to reflect on their grading practices.

The Usage And Impact Of Act 1240 Teacher Licensure Waivers In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Policy Briefs

Act 1240 of 2015 allows Arkansas school districts to petition for waivers allowing for the employment of teachers who are not licensed under the standard procedures of the state. Since the program’s inception in the 2016-17 school year, the number of teachers employed under Act 1240 waivers has increased, with the Arkansas Department of Education reporting 836 teachers hired using Act 1240 waivers in 69 districts during the 2021-22 school year. This represents approximately one quarter of the districts within the state, but only approximately 2 percent of the nearly 40,000 teachers employed last year.

Using publicly available data from …

Exploration Of Motivations For Adopting A Four-Day School Week Or Year Round Calendars: Evidence From Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Kate Barnes

Policy Briefs

This brief provides an overview of the motivations for Arkansas school districts adopting a four-day school week or year-round calendar. In addition to examining these motivations, this brief provides an overview of the districts adopting non-traditional calendars and policy recommendations for districts and communities considering changing calendars.

Arkansas’S 9th Grade Course Failures And Building Configurations, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Sarah R. Morris

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we examine the relationship between course failures among Arkansas’s 9th grade students and the grade levels served in their school. We find that in schools that terminate at 9th grade, 9th graders are less likely to fail one or more course during the year compared to failure rates in schools that terminate at 12th grade. We suggest an increase in awareness and examination of how we assess 9th graders in Arkansas.

Delaying College For Domestic Civic Service: The Gap Year Experiences Of City Year Americorps Alumni, Christopher John Bryson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade the concept of taking a gap year has become mainstream in the US. This idea of delaying enrollment, or taking a break from college, before beginning a bachelor’s degree, has gained popularity, especially as the cost of attendance in higher education has soared and the burden of paying for it has been placed on the student as the consumer. Similarly, the sought-after gap year experiences offered in the private sector are often costly. With the rising popularity of gap years, it is important to identify experiences that are accessible to a wide variety of backgrounds and …

National Assessment Of Educational Progress (Naep) Results 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee

Policy Briefs

The National Center for Education Statistics has released this year’s NAEP results which measure nationwide student performance in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. NAEP is administered nationally to a representative sample of students from all 50 states, so acts as a standard measure of student performance across states and time. In this policy brief will examine Arkansas’ 2022 results and examine score gaps between student groups.

Local Norms And Gifted/Talented Identification In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Bich Tran, Kathryn Barnes, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we summarize recent research from OEP examining if using school- or district-level norms from state assessments would increase the racial and programmatic diversity of Arkansas students identified as Gifted and Talented (G/T). Using ten years of administrative data to analyze the outcomes of a local norms approach compared to the current G/T identification strategies, we find no consistent evidence that using a local norms approach for G/T identification would improve racial or programmatic diversity.

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion: Three Essays In The Educational Context, James D. Paul

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many universities and K-12 public school systems express a significant, formal commitment to the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Relative to the emphasis on DEI in America’s educational institutions, however, there has been little research describing DEI trends and evaluating the efficacy of DEI bureaucracies. This three-chapter dissertation examines DEI trends that have been the subject of much discussion—but rarely studied empirically.

For example, chapter one analyzes how universities promote DEI when hiring new faculty. I audit a subset of academic job postings and present the first evidence on how many require DEI statements, as well as the …

Arkansas High School Freshmen Course Failures, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah R. Morris

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we examine course failures among Arkansas high school freshmen by different student demographic and programmatic characteristics. We find economically disadvantaged students most likely to fail a course their freshman year. We suggest policies to benefit all student demographic and programmatic characteristics

Improving Gifted And Talented Education In Arkansas: Identification, Academic Benefits, And Local Norms, Bich Thi Ngoc Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, education policies differ from state to state. Local research, therefore, is important to inform educators, policymakers, and researchers on the ground. This dissertation leverages ten years of administrative data to study three questions about gifted and talented (G/T) identification and education in Arkansas: does the current system identify the right students? Are gifted and talented programs beneficial for students? And, how can we improve diversity in gifted and talented education? Leveraging logistic regression, mixed-effects models, and descriptive statistics, I sought to provide answers to these three questions. First, are academically ready students from low-income families being …

“Implacement”: The Importance Of Place And Community In Schooling, Emily Coady

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring my overarching research question: How does sense of place shape a teacher’s orientation to their profession? My first chapter empirically answers the question: Is there a relationship between place attachment and measured aspects of teacher quality? In an attempt to qualify the strength of bond between a teacher and his or her community, I adapted a place attachment instrument developed by Raymond, Brown, and Weber (2010). Each teacher is given a place attachment score informed by their responses on the 21-item survey. Next, I correlated these scores to other aspects of teacher quality …

Effects Of Recess On Educational Outcomes In Elementary School Children, Katelyn Whitham

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction: Because physical activity is beneficial for physical and mental health, the declining opportunities to implement adequate recesses in schools are devastating for children. If educational outcomes are positively affected by increased recess time or quality, schools are more likely to receive funding for programs and resources that support this renovation to recesses, providing research in lacking topics. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to find related, academic articles for cross examination of data collected on the effects that recess has on educational outcomes so that schools may use this as a resource to receive funding to increase …

The Hard Work Is Worth It: Overcoming Unfavorable Determinants To Pass Pro-Immigrant Education Policy In A Conservative State Legislature, Megan Cardwell Godfrey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immigrants, English learners (ELs), and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD)students often lag behind their White, monolingual peers in academic achievement and English language proficiency. While there are policy solutions to improve academic and linguistic opportunities and outcomes for immigrant/EL/CLD students, such as implementing bilingual instructional models and increasing teacher diversity, these pro-immigrant policies can be hard to come by in some legislative contexts due to unfavorable economic, social, or political determinants. This qualitative case study analyzed the multifaceted political work that contributed to the passage of two pro-immigrant education policies in the Arkansas 93rd General Assembly: a bill for bilingual …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Covid Policies And Student Growth In The Nine Largest Arkansas Public School Districts During The 2020-2021 Academic Year, Jack Switzer

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

My honors thesis is a comprehensive overview of the relationship between the COVID19 response of Arkansas’ nine largest school districts on high school students’ Value-Added Growth Scores (VAS). I wrote my thesis on the intersection between districts’ COVID-19 response and the academic success of their students because the COVID-19 pandemic caused a historically significant change in education. The effects of switching from in-person, mask-free learning to virtual, semi-virtual and socially distanced learning certainly affected students’ ability to learn from the educational environment pre-COVID. I chose to utilize the VAS as the metric for student success because it measures how students …

Examination Of School Value-Added Growth By Student Population, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we assess the relationship between Arkansas’ school-level value-added content growth scores for student racial and programmatic groups. We find that on average, African American students receive lower growth scores than other student groups, and that African American elementary students demonstrated large drops in growth since COVID

Examining Arkansas' Ninth-Grade Gpas And Long-Term Outcomes, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah R. Morris

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we examine Arkansas’ students’ ninth-grade GPAs and their relationship to high school graduation and college enrollment. We follow seven cohorts of Arkansas first-time freshmen who were still enrolled in twelfth grade four years later. We find ninth-grade GPAs strongly influence future academic successes. We suggest policies to help all freshmen succeed.

The Impact Of Corporal Punishment For Timorese High School Graduates, Veronica Godinho Pereira

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the impacts of corporal punishment for Timorese high school graduates. Physical punishment is a pervasive method of disciplining students and children used in Timor-Leste because it has been such a tradition (UNICEF 2017). Few researchers have attempted to analyze the negative impacts of corporal punishment and possible gender differences; there is no known research on the impacts of corporal punishment in Timor-Leste. This study uses an in-depth interview method, where data were collected from 26 Timorese high school graduates composed of both men and women from both private and public schools in Timor-Leste. The ages of the …

International Students In The Campus Carry Debate: A Descriptive Phenomenological Inquiry, Andre Richardo Grant

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study purposefully sampled 15 graduate international students at a Southern University (SU). Semi-structured interviews were used to determine their perceptions and attitudes regarding the implementation of campus carry policies at the institution. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: How has the implementation of the campus carry policy at SU impacted international students’ perceptions of their experiences at the institution? How has the implementation of campus carry policies at SU influenced international students’ perceptions of the social ecology of the institution? and How did SU formally include international students in the on-campus campus carry policy …

A Case Study Of Eastern Region Arkansas Promise Participants And Their Expectations For The Future, Robin Freeman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of how Eastern Arkansas youth with disabilities and their parents describe their expectations for the future, after participating in the Arkansas PROMISE program. The study sought an understanding of how participants viewed themselves and their expectations for the future, for employment, for participation in higher education, for independent living, and for future financial support. The research used a case study approach, interviewing five students and five parent participants. Participants were asked a series of questions to get an understanding of their experiences, their expectations for the future, and their …

Centropoly: The Structure Of Educational Failures In The U.S., Martha Bradley-Dorsey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How did a country birthed in individual liberty and voluntary associations create just the opposite in its inflexible, layered, government-controlled public education system? Here, using public choice theory, I explain how near-sighted and unrelated reforms, often based in private motives, gave us what I call the public education centropoly – a hybrid government organization consisting of a set of monopolies layered beneath two additional government levels that especially fails disadvantaged students.

After defending the use of public choice theory (Chapter 1) and summarizing the U.S. public education system formation (Chapter 2), in Chapter 3 I examine the Elementary and Secondary …

A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Sarah Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid, Bich Tran

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we assess the relationship between being identified as gifted and academic growth among students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade. Using regression analysis controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth on mathematics and literacy achievement across the time period examined than similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted.

Gifted Education In Arkansas: A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Bich Tran, Jonathan Wai, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This study assesses the effectiveness of gifted programs in Arkansas by leveraging student-level achievement and demographic data of students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade and examine the difference between the longer-term academic performance of the students that were exposed to gifted and talented services compared to similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted. Using regression analyses controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth …

Investing In Our Future: A State-Level Analysis Of The Relationship Between Education Funding And Economic Growth, Corinna Campbell-Green

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research paper aims to investigate associations between education investments and economic growth on the state level. These relationships are measured in terms of two dependent variables: state gross domestic product output and cumulative personal incomes by state. These dependent variables, or indicators of economic growth were selected from previous supportive literature. The present study analyzes publicly available aggregate school finance data reports and aggregate GDP output reports for the year of 2018. Two hypotheses were tested to assess these associations. The results of the present study showed significant, positive associations for both tested hypotheses. This study further supports existing …

Faith-Based Education And Civic Value Formation, Matthew H. Lee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the founding of the United States, scholars and policymakers have argued that education should not merely train the minds of students, but also prepare them for active participation in a democratic republic. This dissertation, divided into three chapters, studies the leaders, schools, and content that shape students’ character.

While educational leadership in U.S. public schools is widely studied, there is much less scholarly attention to educational leadership in Protestant and other private schools. The first chapter investigates principal leadership and tests for systematic differences in educational priorities and preparation for their responsibilities by educational sector. Using a nationally-representative sample …

Understanding Gender Gaps In Student Achievement And Stem Majors: The Role Of Student Effort, Test Structure, Self-Perceived Ability, And Parental Occupation, Lina Anaya Beltran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has become a policy goal for many countries. This dissertation focuses on the origin and measurement of gender gaps in student achievement and self-perceived ability, as well as their potential role in predicting college career choices in STEM.

The first two chapters provide an international overview of gender achievement gaps and focus on issues around measurement using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). These chapters study the role of student effort in predicting gender gaps in achievement and whether or not test structure, defined as question difficulty …

Chronic Absenteeism At One Arkansas High School, Michelle Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chronic absenteeism is a fairly new concept in education. Many schools have only started tracking chronic absenteeism with the start of Every Student Succeeds Act. The following research studied chronic absenteeism at an Arkansas High School, which answered the two research questions in this study. The first research question studied the demographics of the chronically absent student which included grade level, race/ethnicity, Special Education and English Language Learner status, and free or reduced lunch status. The second research question studied the class period of the chronic absence which included the time of day and type of class. High School X …

Factors Influencing Stakeholder Support Of A Bond Referendum In A Rural Kansas School District, Joshua M. Woodward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine factors that influence stakeholder support of bond elections targeted for capital improvements in a rural school district in Kansas. The study uses existing research to identify factors that influence school bond referendum success. To better understand the factors identified in the research literature that influence stakeholder support in the focus district, data were gathered from stakeholders within the school district of focus through a perceptual survey and focus group interviews.

The availability of research on school bond referendum success and failure is plentiful. However, specific research on factors that influence rural school …

New Normal: How School Operation And Learning Changes In A Pandemic, Margaretha Audrey Stefani Cahya

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to past and present studies, pandemics impacted many aspects of society, including education. The current COVID-19 pandemic, which lasted for more than a year during the study, has brought notable educational changes at every level of education. This research was conducted to explore the extent of educational changes during a pandemic and the deviation between the education plan and its implementation in Northwest Arkansas public school districts. The study's data was collected from school district public documents and teacher interviews from school districts classified as low to high SES in suburban and rural areas. Both sources were analyzed and …

Does Affordability Guarantee Accessibility? Analyzing The Effect Of Subsidized Tuition On Diversity In University Demographics, Matthew Cole

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

During the 2020 presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden announced his initiative to make higher education free for any individual whose parents earn less than $125,000. This proposal was inspired by progressive representatives, such as Bernie Sanders, who have made a larger issue of American higher education costs (Berger). Although this initiative garnered little focus during the election – Biden has not addressed it since being elected and the proposal was even removed from his campaign website – his endorsement shows just how much the notion of “free” college has grown amongst Americans in recent years. This growing sentiment …