Digital Commons Network^™

A Sociological Perspective Of The American Education System, Duskin Hobbs

Social Sciences

The intension of this research project is to provide a critical analysis of the modern American school system, the policies that created and maintain it, the extensive effects of its practices, and the future of education under such a system. I will begin by tracing the evolution of the current order and discuss the impacts of government educational initiatives such as No Child Left Behind (George W. Bush) and A Race to the Top (Barack Obama) among others. To support these examples I will use secondary statistical research data, scholarly journals, government sources, and other forms of evidence. In this …

Will They Stay, Or Will They Go? Teacher Perceptions Of Working Conditions In Rural Alaska, Alexandra Hill, Diane Hirshberg, Craig Kasemodel

CAEPR Presentations

Teacher turnover in rural Alaska schools has been a significant problem for decades. Why do we care? National research indicates a strong correlation between high turnover and poor student outcomes (Ronfeldt, Loeb and Wyckoff, 2012), and we see this in Alaska. Out of the 25 rural districts with high teacher turnover rates, ten graduated fewer than 60% of their students between 2008 and 2012, and 5 graduated fewer than half their students.

Alaska Career Pathways: A Baseline Analysis, Dayna Jean Defeo, Diane Hirshberg, Cathy Lecompte

CAEPR Reports

This report details the findings from a 2013 statewide study of career pathways (CP) and programs of study (PoS) in secondary districts in Alaska. Twenty-seven of Alaska’s 54 districts provided data around the maturity of their CP/PoS, the availability of different CP/PoS, how career planning is addressed, and the availability of courses and PoS in the Health Sciences cluster. The differences between urban and rural communities are often noted in conversations around education, programming and policy in Alaska, and the data in this report reflect this established phenomenon. The contribution of this report is in helping to demystify and contextualize …

Navigating With Trust: A Proposal For Transforming Public Sector Schools Towards Learning Organizations In Pakistan, Zubeda Bana

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

While working with teachers, teacher educators, educational leaders and principals of schools and teacher education colleges throughout the country, I am informed that the most significant factor for transforming public sector schools is winning the trust of teachers. Teachers, no matter how they are recruited and what their current competencies are, have become part of the work-force in public sector schools. It is observed that the school administrators have exhausted their trust and treat all kinds of teachers including good and committed teachers, with the same administrative approach which places them in odd situations, wherein they start losing their own …

Gender Equality In Primary Schools In Sub-Saharan Africa: Review And Analysis, Robert Osadan, Irish A. Burrage

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Developing countries like those in Africa’s Sub-Saharan region struggle with gender inequality issues in primary schools, an impediment that keeps these countries from progressing economically as well as socially. Despite the struggle, international awareness coupled with continuous initiatives of various international groups like United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, UNESCO’s Education for All, plus other government organizations, find concrete ways to permanently and effectively address gender disparity in education.

Beliefs About Substance Abusing Clients Among Social Work Students, Seidy Jhosselyn Soto, Marry Jean Stuart

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study was a quantitative survey and explored beliefs about substance abusing clients among sixty-three social work students. The study focused on the extent to which social work students display bias toward clients with a substance abuse disorder. The study also explored the attitudinal domains of permissiveness, treatment intervention, non-stereotypes, treatment optimism, and non-moralism. The study found that social work students who have taken a substance abuse education class are less like to attribute substance abuse addiction to a weak will in the client. The study recommends that future studies on beliefs about substance abusing clients among social work students …

Constructive Visualization, Samuel Huron, Sheelagh Carpendale, Alice Thudt, Anthony Tang, Michael Mauerer

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

If visualization is to be democratized, we need to provide means for non-experts to create visualizations that allow them to engage directly with datasets. We present constructive visualization a new paradigm for the simple creation of flexible, dynamic visualizations. Constructive visualization is simple—in that the skills required to build and manipulate the visualizations are akin to kindergarten play; it is expressive— in that one can build within the constraints of the chosen environment, and it also supports dynamics — in that these constructed visualizations can be rebuilt and adjusted. We describe the conceptual components and processes underlying constructive visualization, and …

Identifying The Impact Of Universal College Testing On State Academic Testing At The Eleventh Grade, Kristi N. Thompson-Gibbs

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the Universal American College Test (ACT) administration as part of a required high school assessment program on eleventh-grade students’ achievement on state level assessments. The study focused on four groups of eleventh-grade students. The first group, eleventh-graders who scored met on the 2010 NeSA Reading assessment and did not participate in the district implementation of the Universal ACT but took the 2010 ACT (n = 103). The second group, eleventh-graders who scored exceed on the 2010 NeSA Reading assessment and did not participate in the district implementation of the …

The Relationship Between School-Based Mental Health Services And Academic Achievement, Jessica Ramirez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between school-based mental health services and academic achievement. The study focused on (N=38) students in elementary and middle school, who participated in services from the 2012-2013 school year. The test scores before and after they received services were gathered from an existing database to determine how effective school-based mental health services were. The results indicated there was not a significant difference in measures of academic achievement before and after school-based mental health services. However, results demonstrated a positive relationship between test scores before and after school-based …

Agricultural Producer Perceptions Of Climate Change And Climate Education Needs For The Central Great Plains, Amber Campbell Hibbs, Daniel Kahl, Lisa Pytlikzillig, Ben Champion, Tarik Abdel-Monem, Timothy Steffensmeier, Charles Rice, Kenneth Hubbard

Journal of Extension

The Central Great Plains Climate Education Partnership conducted focus groups throughout Kansas to gain a better understanding of farmer perceptions and attitudes towards climate change education. Results indicate concern about climatic changes, even if producers are unsure that "human caused climate change" is occurring. Participants indicated they would like access to information through Web-based programs that allow them to manipulate variables relevant to their area and situation. Participants prefer locally relevant information and identified Extension agents as trusted educators. The study provided an expanded understanding of agricultural producer perceptions that will be valuable to individuals or organizations providing climate education.

2014 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference: General Education, Academic Affairs

Spring Great Expectation Faculty Conference

The 2014 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference features a keynote speech by José Antonio Brown. José Antonio Bowen is the new incoming president at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently is the Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, Algur H. Meadows Chair and Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University. Bowen began his teaching career at Stanford University in 1982 as the Director of Jazz Ensembles. In 1994, he became the Founding Director of the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (C.H.A.R.M.) at the University of Southampton, England. He returned to America in 1999 …

Farming: It's Not Just For Farmers Anymore, Jennifer Schmidt

Pomona Senior Theses

Agricultural education, originally the province of land grant institutions, has recently entered the liberal arts curriculum. This represents a profound shift from the origins of agricultural education, when it was intended primarily as vocational training for future farmers, and has important implications for the future of the American food system. The first chapter of this thesis addresses the history of agricultural education: what was it originally like, and why did it come to be heavily criticized in the late twentieth century? Formal agricultural education changed significantly in response to these criticisms, making it more environmentally sustainable and bringing it into …

Guardians Of Historical Knowledge: Textbook Politics, Conservative Activism, And School Reform In Mississippi, 1928-1982, Kevin Boland Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the role cultural transmission of historical myths plays in power relationships and identity formation through a study of the Mississippi textbook regulatory agency and various civic organizations that shaped education policy in addition to textbook content. A study of massive resistance to integration, my project focuses on the anticommunism and conservative ideology of grassroots segregationists. Civic-patriotic societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Legion, and Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation formed as the major alliance affecting the state’s education system in the post-World War II era. Once the state department of education centralized its …

Critical Analysis Of The Kenyan Healthcare System And Models For Improvement, Justin Wellum

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Global epidemics such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS plague developing countries in Africa. International aid has been given to these countries from public and private organizations in an effort to eradicate these health crises. My research focuses on Kenya as a model for assessing the current state of health care in these developing countries. The effectiveness of Kenya’s health care system was investigated at every level, including central, provincial, district, and rural, by visiting the country and performing specific research. Based on my research, I propose a model that I believe Kenya or any African developing country could adopt to …

Learning Together: A Case Study Of A Cooperative School’S Approach To Education, Ariana M. Ali

Master's Theses

This thesis is based on an in-depth case study of one cooperative pre-preschool and preschool in San Francisco. Qualitative research methods, such as observation and one-on-one interviews, were used to study the structure, culture, and community at the school. Cooperative schools have not been well researched or documented in academic literature and this study hoped to shed some light on this model of school organization. The parent-initiated and community-oriented nature of cooperative schools make them stand out as unique among the large, bureaucratically-run schools and daycares typically found in the United States. The results of this study highlighted four themes …

The Experiences Of Nurses Returning To School For The Baccalaureate: A Metasynthesis, Linda M. Perfetto

Nursing Education Research Conference (NERC)

Session presented on: Friday, April 4, 2014

Aim/Purpose: This metasynthesis assists the interpretation of qualitative research performed to explore the experience of registered nurses who return to school to pursue a baccalaureate degree. Understanding these experiences can assist achievement of the national goal of 80% BSN by 2020.

Background: As few as 21% of all RNs prepared at the associate or diploma level go on to earn a baccalaureate degree (DHHS, 2010) and experts believe that enhanced academic/clinical partnerships can result in improvement (Niederhauser, et al., 2010; Tanner, 2010).

Methods: The method of Noblit and Hare (1998) was followed to …

Nutritional Ergogenic Aid Use In Male College Students, Megan Elizabeth Solloway

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The perceived need of nutritional ergogenic aids among college students produces concern regarding the safety and efficacy of such aids. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the rationale and use of nutritional ergogenic aids in male college students ages 18-25. Students participated in an anonymous survey assessing nutritional ergogenic supplementation and rationale behind use. There was no significant difference in supplement use between competitive and non-competitive athletes (p=0.708). However, a significant difference in nutritional ergogenic aid use between heavy and light exercisers was noted, with heavy exercisers more likely to use supplements than light exercisers (p=0.041). The primary …

The Effect Of Shared Medical Appointments And Education On Hemoglobin A1c Levels, Gina L. Moore

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Type II diabetes affects millions of people worldwide. Approximately 25.8 million or 8.3 percent of the United States (U.S.) population has type II diabetes. The number of adults in the United States developing diabetes has been projected to double by the year 2030 (World Health Organization, 2013). Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and blindness, as well as the major cause of heart disease and stroke which is the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S. The purpose of this evidence-based project was to determine the effects of education during shared medical appointments with type II diabetic …

Community Health News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Community Health: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• Sport Education

Brief Of Amici Curiae Food Allergy Research & Education, & Council Of Parent Attorneys And Advocates In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellants And Urging Reversal, T.F., A Minor By His Parents And D.F. And T.S.F., On Their Own Behalf V. Fox Chapel Area School District, Marc Charmatz, Caroline Jackson

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Effects Of An Osteoporosis Educational Intervention: Knowledge And Self-Efficacy Of Prevention In Young Adult Collegiate Females, Valerie A. Bollenbacher

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Osteoporosis is a silent and potentially debilitating chronic illness. In 2012, the CDC reported that 4.5 million women over the age of 50 were diagnosed with osteoporosis in the United States. Within the next 20 years, 41 million women worldwide are projected to have osteoporosis. The annual financial burden of osteoporosis is estimated to be 19 billion dollars. The objective of this evidence-based practice project was to answer the clinical question: In young adult collegiate females, how does an osteoporosis educational intervention compared to current education effect osteoporosis knowledge and self-efficacy of osteoporosis prevention over a one-month time period? The …

The Use Of Stress Reduction Techniques In Nursing Education, Jennifer S. Bauer

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Stress is a complex phenomenon that has significant effects on students which may disturb their physiological, psychological, and spiritual health and well-being. Nursing students have been identified to be at high risk for stress during their education. Stress can arise from new clinical experiences, academic load, and personal stressors (Jones & Johnston, 2006). This increase in stress can lead to the student’s inability to assimilate and learn within the classroom and clinical settings. A review of the literature provided evidence that reported a positive relationship between guided imagery and a decrease in stress and anxiety. This evidence-based practice (EBP) project …

Effects Of A Parish Based Heart Healthy Education Program, Kristin A. Kilinski

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. Some risk factors for cardiovascular disease can be modified which include: diet; physical activity; smoking; hypertension; diabetes; and weight. Various national programs, such as “Go Red for Women” and “Let’s Move,” have been implemented to address this growing epidemic. Community programs are needed as an adjunct to these national initiatives. Thus, a parish based cardiovascular disease educational program would provide for a unique socially and spiritually supportive environment for education at the community level. Research findings indicate that parish based educational programs are effective in increasing …

Higher Education Institution Choice Behaviors Of International Students On U.S. College Campuses, Anil Tan

Theses & Dissertations

The economic, social, and personal value of education has been realized as motivating factors for seeking a better education overseas by individuals. In addition, political, economic, and educational conditions of home countries impact individuals’ decisions to study abroad. There were over 4 million tertiary students studying outside their home countries in 2011. Nearly 820,000 of those students were studying in higher education institutions in the United States. Students from China, India, and South Korea comprise nearly 49% of the international students in the United States. The increase in the number of students studying overseas and their valuable contributions develop a …

Antonio T. De Nicolás: Poet Of Eternal Return, Christopher Key Chapple

Research Resources

This book includes essays in honor of Professor Antonio de Nicolas.

Strengths-Based Leadership: Seeking A Connection Between Strengths-Based Leadership Domains And Women Leaders In Higher Education, Sarah Engel

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This exploratory study examines the leadership styles of a small sample of high level women leaders in the profession of higher education. In this study, high-level is indicative of directors, assistant/associate deans, deans, assistant/associate vice presidents, vice presidents, provosts or presidents. Due to the disparity of women leaders attaining high level leadership roles within higher education professions, this sample study discusses the connections between strength-based leadership domains and high-level women leaders. Additional connections between other leadership competencies and leadership styles are also considered, including Northouse leadership styles, Level 5 leadership, resilient leadership, emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. Results are discussed …

The Effects Of Universal Design For Learning On The Academic Engagement Of Middle School Students, Kimberly M. Johnson-Harris

Dissertations

A multiple baseline across participants design was used to examine the impact of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), implemented as a total framework, on the academic engagement of middle school students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD), and students who are at-risk for academic failure due to behavior problems, who are included in general education classes. Five teachers from two middle schools participated in professional development on UDL and UDL lesson plan design and then implemented UDL lessons in their classes. Data were collected on the fidelity of UDL implementation, student academic engagement during lesson plan implementation, and teacher acceptability …

Connecting With Families Of Poverty Handbook, Rebecca Christine Oren

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to create a handbook describing services available in the Sumner School District and researched based practices for elementary administrators and teachers to use when working with students and families of poverty. The McKinney-Vento Act in the United States protects families to ensure that all students have immediate access to school-linked services, including free breakfast and lunch, as well as transportation needs for getting to and from school. This handbook includes descriptions and contact information for local support organizations that administrators and teachers can additionally partner with to create supportive learning environments within their school …

Competency-Based Education In Public High Schools, Angus M. Cantwell

Senior Honors Projects

Recent government-backed programs such as Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind have increased competition in schools in an effort to improve student and teacher performance. However, these programs have not had as drastic an impact as many had hoped, and the United States continues to toil in the middle of the pack educationally when compared with the rest of the world.

As many students have continued to struggle in school, many different ideas have been introduced into different levels of the education system in an attempt to raise scores and boost performance. One such idea is competency-based …

Promoting Diversity In The Universal : Rethinking Universal Design For Learning., Jill Sadowski

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.