Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Special Focus Programs, Magnet Programs And Schools, And Early Childhood Education Centers: Equal Access In Portland Public School's Elementary Options, Nancy Seidule Hauth

Dissertations and Theses

As parents and educators demand more choice programs in their school districts, it is important for district officials to govern issues around equal access. When specialty programs are designed by grassroots groups and school staff without district-level guidance or funding, as it is in Portland, Oregon, equal access provisions can be overlooked resulting in lower ethnic and socio-economic diversity.

The purpose of this study was threefold: to determine if all families in Portland Public School district have equal access to special focus/magnet programs at the elementary grades; to better understand the link between Portland's past desegregation policies and current choice …

Community Schools: Planning Space For Democracy And Civic Engagement, Jamey L. Dobbs

Masters Theses

American society in the twentieth century has been characterized by a decrease in voter turnout, a decline in membership in civic organizations, decreasing volunteerism, and a decline in several other indicators of civic engagement and social capital. Enhancing democratic civic engagement and civic space is worthy issue that has not typically been at the forefront of the agenda of planning. This study investigates the role of community schools as a catalyst for enhancing citizen interaction and community planning, and for creating civic space. While school space represents one of the largest investments of public tax revenue in most municipalities, it …

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit : A Case Study Of Policy Learning, Coalition Building, And Paradigm Expansion, Terri Hinson Silvis

Dissertations and Theses

The goals of policy analysis include understanding the objectives of public policies, ascertaining how to structure policies to influence behaviors and fulfill stated policy objectives, and creating improved policy-making processes. Identifying underlying values that influence the behaviors and attitudes of policy makers and stakeholders is crucial to fully understanding public policies, and analysis procedures that seek to explore values should be operationalized within policy-making processes.

The intent of this study is to explore the potential for infusing value considerations in the policy assessment process by analyzing the federal low-income housing policy known as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit [the Credit]. …

Urban Terrorism: Strategies For Mitigating Terrorist Attacks Against The Domestic Urban Environment, John J. Kiefer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study identifies strategies to mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks against the domestic urban environment. It uses multiple qualitative research methods to identify patterns of attack used by terrorists against urban targets in the United States and suggest ways for policymakers to mitigate the effects of a terrorist attack through not only physical, but also organizational, political, legal, and social strategies. It uses case analysis, literature review, and interviews with experts in domestic terrorism preparedness to develop and suggest solutions.

Terrorism, as with other criminal acts, can best be met by implementing strategies to mitigate the impact of this …

An Analysis Of The Changes In The Proportional Distribution Of Poverty Between Metropolitan Statistical Areas And Their Central Cities, Billy W. Godair

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study examined Wilson's hypothesis that economic restructuring accompanied by spatial redistribution of employment opportunities coupled with rising skills requirements for employment provide an explanation for the increasing concentration of metropolitan area poverty in its central city. This study also assesses the influence that racism, represented by racial residential segregation (Index of Dissimilarity), may have on the distribution of metropolitan poverty (Massey 1990, 1994; Massey, Gross and Shibuya, 1994; Feagin, 1999, Orfield, 1992). Additionally, this study will expand Wilson's hypothesis by examining the influence that these variables (economic infrastructure, skills mismatch, and racial residential segregation) have on central city income …

Bulding 6 October City, Dalia Essam Wahdan

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Running Water Cuts Deep: An Action Research Study Of At-Risk Students In A Rural High School, Lara K. Dial

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

As a high school teacher, I have formulated a standing comeback for the complaints of my students who whine, “That’s not fair!” My retort is the very cliche, “Life’s not fair”. I tell my students they might as well get used to things that are unfair because they simply cannot go through the rest of their lives whining about it. If life is indeed unfair, students who choose to drop out of school are reducing the chance that they will experience their fair portion of “The good life”. While it is true that the dropout rate in the United States …

Selling America: The Boy Scouts Of America In The Progressive Era, 1910-1921, John Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Created in 1910 during the Progressive Era the Boy Scouts of America was a civic reform, middle-class, professional organization intent on building the characters of America's juvenile boys, believing that America's transformation from a rural and small town culture to an ban society had removed some of the traditional character building opportunities from the boy's normal daily routine. The BSA was mass-oriented and commercial in nature, utilizing a sophisticated advertising program through which it sold itself as the nation's premiere patriotic character building organization and communicated a nationalistic political mythology. The BSA's emphasis on advertising, not just as a method …

The Regional Public-Private Civic Infrastructure Of Hampton Roads And Its Impact On The Implementation Of Economic Development Initiatives, James Andrew Probsdorfer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study analyzes the effectiveness of a network of five regional organizations to promote economic development in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Using a case study methodology, data collected from organizational documents, media reports, and personal interviews was categorized and triangulated to determine how many regional economic proposals were implemented from 1990 to 2000. This analysis created a regional timeline from which was produced a regional inventory of economic proposals. This study concluded that the regional economic development organizations in Hampton Roads have a fragmented network and their output has been influenced by regional factors.

Specifically out of a total of nineteen …