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Three Essays On Rural Education: Descriptive Studies Focused On Federal Rural Definitions And Policy Changes, Kyung Ha Oh

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Rural education issues in K-12 public schools are understudied despite a large rural student population in the U.S. This dissertation studies how different federal definitions of rural change how rural school districts and their diverse communities are portrayed, in comparison to their non-rural counterparts. This study also explores the recent federal rural policy changes on rural district revenue and student academic outcomes.

This dissertation consists of three descriptive essays. The first chapter shows how we choose to define ‘rural’ changes what differences are accentuated between rural and non-rural districts. Definitions of ‘rural’ is closely related to who gains access to …

Politics And The Criminal Enforcement Of Superfund, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

An Inquiry Into Students’ Use Of Space And Time On Campus, Nahide Gelgec

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study has explored student’ use of space and time on campus at a public, urban research university in the northeast region of the United States. The study aimed to uncover how students spend time in classrooms and, separately, in public spaces (other than classrooms) on campus. The study complements prior work on the use of space in higher education in two ways. First, it extends what is known about how much time students spend (hours per week, times visited per week) in different kinds of campus space. Further, its focus on behavior – the decisions of students on where …

A Comparison Of Teacher Evaluation Systems In New York State And Finland - Are There Alternatives To Appr?, Lindsay Tresansky

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) system in New York State (NYS) has been called into question by educators since its adoption nearly 10 years ago, yet it remains the mandated evaluation system in NYS schools today. Much of the concern has been over changes such as assigning teachers final evaluation scores, as well as for the added emphasis of students’ state assessment results on teachers’ individual final evaluation scores. In fact, the US Secretary of Education continues to promote the importance of administering high-stakes standardized tests, in spite of educator feedback expressing concerns on the impacts of the COVID-19 …

Official Development Assistance (Oda) For Education In Middle East, North Africa (Mena) And South Asia (Sa) : Exploring Allocation Patterns Of Two Major Donor Agencies, The World Bank And United States Agency For International Development Between 1990 And 2015, Maria Ishaq Khan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores the allocation patterns of the official development assistance (ODA) by the World Bank (WB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in eighteen developing countries of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Asia (SA) for the time-period, 1990-2015. Differing perspectives have been offered by researchers on donor motivations for ODA allocation such as ethical drivers, influence of endogenous country characteristics (educational, socio-political factors of recipient nations) and exogenous considerations (interest of the donor agency) as well as the role of international commitments. This study uses exploratory data analysis (EDA) techniques to evaluate relevant …

Calling Time: How To Remove Fossil Fuel Sponsorships From Sports, Arts & Events, Ashlee Morgan, Sophia Nimphius, Genevieve Stewart, Jennifer Rayner, Ashleigh Croucher, Simon Bradshaw

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Sports, arts and major events are deeply embedded in the Australian way of life. Weekend matches, concerts and festivals bring us together - to cheer, to share pride and excitement, to feel connected to each other and to keep building our national story.

When we barrack for our beloved teams, discover the work of a new local artist or laugh until our cheeks hurt at a comedy show, we are taking part in a ritual that has shaped social and cultural life in Australia for generations.

Climate change – driven by burning coal, oil and gas – is putting all …

Presidents And Media During Initial Federal-Level Hurricane Relief: A Study Of Presidential Crisis Communication Efforts, Emily A. Ball

Honors College Theses

Public relations serves a huge role in almost every sector, including politics. Crisis communication, a subset of public relations, is very important in a setting that constantly undergoes crises. The response to these crises matters a great deal on the federal level because the outcomes can affect such a wide variety of policies and even elections. Because of this, I wanted to focus on one type of crisis that every president is almost guaranteed to face: hurricanes. To examine the effectiveness of federal-level crisis communication, I look at Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden’s responses to the worst hurricane during their …

Qualitative Analysis Of The Lived Experience Of Tornado Survivors And Factors Affecting Community Resilience: A Case Study Of An Ef3 Tornado In Jacksonville, Alabama, Chongming Wang, Erin Rider, Scott Manning, Jacob Fast, Tanveer Islam

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Residents in the Southeast region of the United States are frequently threatened by tornadoes. Previous research indicates that it is important to study the experience of tornado victims to better understand individual risk perception, preparedness, protective action, response, and recovery strategies that contribute to overall community resilience. In this study, we employ an oral-history approach and analyze the lived experience of survivors of an EF3 (on the enhanced Fujita scale) tornado in Jacksonville, Alabama. Using snowball sampling, we conducted in-depth interviews of 25 residents of Jacksonville, Alabama, who experienced the EF3 tornado on 19 March 2018. The recorded interviews were …

Assumptions And Understanding Of Success In Home Buyout Programs, Simon Manda, Alessandra Jerolleman, Elizabeth Marino

Research, Publications & Creative Work

In the US, the role and importance of voluntary buyout and property acquisition programs (buyouts) as a policy tool to relocate property owners out of flood risk riverine and coastal environments has increased since the 1990s, but how federal and other agencies frame success remains less understood. This review paper uses the case of an early implementation of a buyout program that encompassed a portion of Valmeyer to illustrate how success has been framed, and why. Analysis shows definitions of success by different actors emphasized acquisition of properties, construction of new residential and business areas including the incorporation of sustainable …

Centering Consumer Dignity Within Volunteer Operations, Meghan Loftus

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Volunteerism has become so commonplace in the United States that it is often considered the third sector of our economy. To maximize output and stretch every dollar, many nonprofit agencies rely on volunteers to assist with the provision of their direct services. This unfettered access to their service population, without the same trainings and safeguards as implemented with paid staff, potentially create the opportunity for these volunteers to violate the dignity of the nonprofit consumer, either intentionally or unintentionally. The purpose of this study is to explore this phenomenon and determine if it is in fact a shared experience. Through …

A Case Study Of Cross-Sector Collaboration In Community Schools In Central Pennsylvania, Jesscia Knapp

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

As societal problems become increasingly complex, organizations are more frequently embracing collaborative problem-solving methods to address issues that a single organization could not successfully solve alone. One such wicked problem is the state of education in the United States, particularly in low-income communities and school districts. The community school model is a method of education reform that requires cross-sector partnerships in order to be successful. This study examined the factors that led to successful cross-sector partnerships between Communities in Schools of Pennsylvania (CISPA) and two partner school districts in the implementation of the community school model in Pennsylvania. The results …

Economic Impact Of Land Use Planning (Transit-Oriented Development): A Comparative Analysis, Sam M

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The problem explored in this mixed-method research is that many cities are unprepared for urban growth, which can only increase poverty and crime. The traditional transportation system is inadequate to support the increase of urbanism; it is responsible for polluting the air, increasing greenhouse gases, and losing thousands of lives annually due to car crashes and road-related accidents. The transportation sector is responsible for 28% of the overall greenhouse gas emissions (Environmental Protection Agency, 2018), and the economic costs of vehicle crashes in the United States totaled $340 billion (Department of Transportation, 2019).

This study aimed to measure how Transit …

Integration Of Public Policy Into Civil Engineering Undergraduate Curricula: Review Of Civil Engineering Body Of Knowledge And Course Application, Michelle R. Oswald Beiler

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

The field of civil and environmental engineering directly ties with serving the needs of the public through infrastructure development and improvements in sustainable environments. Integrating this reciprocal connection between public policy and civil engineering into undergraduate civil engineering education is critical for the preparation of the next generation of engineers. This project, first, reviews the guidance of public policy in civil engineering programs, such as ASCE’s Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge. Then, a pedagogical application is presented that focuses on the integration of public policy concepts, methods, assessment tools and techniques in a required, upper level course in civil and …

The Linear Evolution Of Local Emergency Management Training In Response To Domestic Terrorism, Jeffrey Januchowski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThis paper presents a research study in the field of emergency management. The study aims to identify training or educational needs for the emergency manager at the local level of government to effectively handle disasters. The study uses phenomenon theory with semi-structured interviews that gather data from emergency managers that have experience with major disasters and training requirements. Participants were experts in the emergency management profession with the ability to speak appropriately about the phenomenon. Research questions identified the training methods that produce the best results along with the specific hazards emergency managers may encounter. The research design used questionnaires …

Space Debris Mitigation: A Unified Policy Framework, Forrest Randall Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Space debris is a growing problem that impacts the ability to maneuver and conduct space missions, creates hazards for people on Earth, and has the potential for severe environmental damage. Clean-up efforts are not viable in the modern era due to a lack of viable, affordable, and safe technology conducive to such lines of effort. This leaves mitigative and preventative policy measures as the most effective way to proffer a solution to the problem. Public policy has largely failed to address space debris mitigation effectively due to the fragmentation of policies standards and a lack of horizontal integration of policies …

Cross-Sectional Collaboration In Florida's Emergency Management System, Christopher Stephen Kirkland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Florida faces a unique set of emergency management hazards prompted by the state’s geography, high volume of tourism, and position as a hub of international trade. The state has developed a highly adaptive emergency management system to deliver humanitarian assistance to Floridians affected by natural and other disasters. Despite the importance of collaboration in delivering humanitarian goods and services to Floridians in times of crisis, little is known as to how collaboration occurs, what impediments exist, and how organizations adapt to the dynamics of natural and other disasters. In this qualitative case study, the integrative framework for collaborative governance was …

Heart Attack Related Firefighter Fatalities And Compliance With Nfpa 1582, Ernest Lindqvist

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Heart attacks have been the leading cause of on-duty firefighter fatalities for many years. Firefighters are subjected to health risks due to occupational practices and exposure to hazards. Firefighter fatality investigative reports suggest that comprehensive medical screenings consistent with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1582 standard would reduce deaths from heart attacks. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which fire departments comply with the NFPA 1582 standard. Using contextual interaction theory and a generic qualitative inquiry design, data were collected from fire departments that had a heart attack-related firefighter fatality incident. Semistructured interviews were …

The Social Construction Of Performance Enhancing Steroid Policies And Their Impact On U.S. Army Service Members, Trevor Scott Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States military has seen a continued rise in the use of illicit performance enhancing substances, particularly androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS), by service members in highly demanding occupational specialties. Despite these rising trends, there remains a lack of understanding of how U.S. Army substance abuse policy impacts service members’ motivations to use banned performance enhancing drugs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the motivations of service members who use performance enhancing AAS, as well as the impacts of substance abuse policies on those individuals. This study’s questions asked how social constructs and Army policy impacted service …

Barriers To Effective Public Secondary Education In Rural Areas In Haiti, Marjorie Calixte-Hallworth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The limited access to public secondary education in rural regions of Haiti has impacted children who want to pursue their education beyond the primary level. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of informed Haitian educators and other educators who were knowledgeable about the lack of access to public secondary education in rural Haiti, specifically through the framework of polarities of democracy theory. Data were gathered by conducting semistructured interviews with 20 educators who were situated in both Haiti and the United States. NVivo 14 was used to organize, code, and analyze the data. Thematic …

Improving Financial Resiliency To Provide Accessible Community Services During Emergency Conditions Through Strategic Planning, Maria Elisa Colmenares

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The study site organization lacked financial resilience to ensure the provision of social services to populations reliant on these services, including before, during, and after emergency conditions. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to provide strategic planning recommendations to increase financial resilience and describe the unique partnership between the client agency and the nonprofit arm. The study addressed strategies to increase the financial resilience needed to sustain the organization’s core mission, and strategies the agency can use to provide community services before, during, and after emergencies such as COVID-19, hurricanes, or severe storms. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and …

Discrepancies In Race, Occupational Prestige Score, Socioeconomic Index, Income/Wealth, And Social Class Between Blacks And Whites, Queensley Udofia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An argument that has gained prominence recently is that race is/will no longer be a significant factor in explaining any Black - White gaps. The argument is that in the post-Civil Rights era, the implementation of affirmative action and antidiscrimination policies at local, state, and federal levels has closed, if not almost erased, the gaps between Blacks and Whites. Research, however, has disputed the claims of proponents of color-blindness that issues of race are on the decline and will no longer be a factor in explaining racial inequalities between Blacks and Whites. This study used General Social Survey 2021 data …

Retention Of Foster Parents For At-Risk Youth In Tennessee, Marvin Amos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Federal legislation with the Family First Prevention Service Act (FFPSA) of 2017 required Tennessee to increase foster parent retention strategies. Tennessee does not have enough available foster homes for adolescents. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore foster parent retention in Tennessee and to inform policymakers on how to adapt policy to increase the retention. The theoretical foundation for this study was based on the policy feedback theory, to identify the policy scope in Tennessee, and the two-factor theory, to guide the data analysis in the context of employee satisfaction and retention measures. Purposive sampling techniques were …

Quantifying Stranded Assets Of The Coal-Fired Power In China Under The Paris Agreement Target, Weirong Zhang, Yiou Zhou, Zhen Gong, Junjie Kang, Changhong Zhao, Zhixu Meng, Jian Zhang, Tao Zhang, Jiahai Yuan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Coal-fired power plays a critical role in China's compliance with the Paris Agreement. This research quantifies China's stranded coal assets under different coal capacity expansion scenarios with an integrated approach and high-precision coal-fired power database. From a top-down perspective, firstly, the pathway of China's coal-fired power capacity consistent with the global 2 degrees C scenario is outlined and then those stranded coal-fired power plants are identified with a bottom-up perspective. Stranded value is estimated based upon a cash flow algorithm. Results show that if coal capacity stabilizes during 2020-2030, China will only incur a sizeable yet manageable stranded asset loss …

The Green Revolution In California: The Real Costs And Benefits Of Changing Electricity Production, Joseph James Hoffman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In recent years democratic societies have added concern for the environment to the perennial problems of inequality, economic growth, and law and order. What is often called the Green Revolution has focused on the effect of industrial growth on the health of the individuals living in that society and on the effects on climate. In the United States, the State that was the first to see this problem and the first to make changes to deal with it, was California, where geographical factors ensured that the effects of industrial change on the air were much more severe than anywhere else …

Nonprofit Social Service Employees’ Perceptions Of Barriers Or Facilitators To Voting Registration Among Previously Incarcerated Individuals, Anthony J. Nixon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Most U.S. states have applied permanent restrictions on incarcerated individuals in custody for crimes more serious than misdemeanors. After the time is served and limitations are removed, the right to vote may not be restored to previously incarcerated individuals. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore what nonprofit social service employees perceive to be barriers or facilitators to voter registration among previously incarcerated individuals. The social acceptance model provided the theoretical framework to support the study. Data collection was completed through a brief demographic survey and individual interviews with 15 nonprofit organizers in Ohio. Data were analyzed …

Local Leadership Strategies To Mitigate The Effects Of The Public Charge Rule And Covid-19 Among Undocumented Immigrants, Amos Onyango Oketch

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractScholars have focused on the effects of implementing the federal-level Public Charge Rule (PCR) and COVID-19 on undocumented immigrants' health and socioeconomic well-being. Researchers have demonstrated that many federal assistance programs that benefit the general population in the wake of the pandemic exclude undocumented immigrants due to PCR restrictions; thus, they are disproportionately affected and suffer social and socioeconomic disparity. Researchers have yet to establish consensus strategies and interventions at the local and state levels to fill the gap and support disadvantaged communities during the pandemic to ensure equitable care and mitigate harm. Thus, this study aimed to identify the …

Colorism And Women Who Self-Identify As Black In Leadership Roles, Alyse Poitier Gardner-Kennedy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractWomen who self-identify as Black in executive director leadership roles in a nonprofit agency are still experiencing colorism in the workplace. Color-based bias, also called colorism, within the Black community centers on advantages and disadvantages for people of the same race. Colorism typically allows more benefits for lighter-skinned individuals who self-identify as Black than darker-skinned individuals who self-identify as Black. This study explored the lived experiences of women who self-identified as Black in executive director leadership roles in nonprofit agencies and who have experienced colorism (i.e., intragroup discrimination) in the workplace. The research question investigated the emotional effect on women …

Effect Of Managerial Conduct On Retention And Job Satisfaction In Criminal Justice Public-Sector Organizations, Alexis Makayla Mceady

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managers who lack support and training can exhibit conduct that leads to low rates of employee retention and job satisfaction. It is common in the United States for employees working government public service jobs to earn low wages. Managerial conduct impacts day-to-day operations for these low-wage positions. The purpose of this quantitative, nonprobability, correlational study was to examine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between managerial conduct, employee retention, and job satisfaction. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, it was hypothesized that employees with bad managers were less likely to be retained and more likely to have low job satisfaction. …

The Prison Reentry Experience Of Justice-Involved Veterans, Latta Roosevelt Thomas Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prison reentry programs attempt to equip justice-involved veterans with life skills necessary for their transition out of prison. This qualitative study addressed the scant understanding of the impact pre-released prison reentry programs have on justice-involved veterans’ transition and reintegration back to the community. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the perceptions of justice-involved veterans regarding prison reentry programs that have impacted their transition out of prison. The well-being development model and Castro’s military-to-civilian transition model provided the conceptual framework for this qualitative study, using semistructured questions to interview 11 justice-involved veterans regarding their participation in prison reentry …

Juvenile Delinquency: The Effectiveness Of The Juvenile Direct File Law, Kimberlee Nicole Taggart

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The juvenile direct file law stands firm among Florida laws despite lacking research to show its effectiveness in the prevention of juvenile delinquency. In Florida, juvenile delinquency and the juvenile direct file law cause significant concern due to the uncertainty surrounding the law. The Florida juvenile justice system fosters a vital position in the lives of many children, young adults, and families. Florida’s direct file law has a negative impact on the health, mental health, education, and brain development of juveniles and their ability to separate from a criminal lifestyle. Identifying the direct file law’s effects on the future of …