Education Commons^™

Educational Experiences That Lead To Transition And Postsecondary Programs For Students With Intellectual Disabilities And Complex Needs, Alison A. Gauld

Doctoral Dissertations

This study researched Tennessee self-contained teacher perceptions of educational experiences that lead to students’ applying to Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSIDs). This quantitative study utilized a survey, completed anonymously by Tennessee self-contained high school teachers to investigate what self-contained teachers do and what educational experiences lead a student to apply to a TPSID. A chi-square test of independence resulted in one significant result; students are more likely to apply to a TPSID if they participated in non-academic school events and/or activities. There was no significant result for any of the nine events or activities included …

"It's Relationship Building": A Case Study On The Institutional Work Of Postsecondary Disability Services Directors., Taylor L. Pratt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 21% of undergraduate students reported having some type of disability according to the most recent data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) for the 2019-2020 academic year. Changes in federal legislation have increased college access for disabled individuals over time; however, college students with disabilities persist at lower rates compared to their peers without disabilities. At the same time, little is known about the work of postsecondary disability services (DS), which are the primary support services for students with disabilities on college campuses. I addressed this gap in the literature by conducting a qualitative, single case study …

Is Online Course-Taking Helping Or Hindering Students With Disabilities In U.S. Community Colleges?, Francisco Expression Narciso Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Students with disabilities in U.S. community colleges continue to disproportionately experience lower degree attainment compared to students without disabilities. Furthermore, students with disabilities are twice as likely to choose community colleges for postsecondary education compared to four-year colleges. Students with disabilities in postsecondary education endure learning barriers including inflexible instruction, inaccessible content, and intimidating and unsafe learning environments. The purpose of this study is to address the increasing achievement gaps for students with disabilities in community colleges. Specifically, this study intended to answer the question to what extent, if at all, does online course-taking impact degree attainment for students with …

“We All Fly Together, We All Fall Together”: A Fourth Generation Evaluation Of The Experiences Of Students Of Color In A Strengths-Based Postsecondary Access Program, Allyson Gunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most persistent barriers within the education system preventing students of color from accessing and persisting in higher education is the deficit lens that the education system uses to judge college-worthy students. To combat this deficit lens, strengths-based programming has shown promise in validating the strengths and students bring to their postsecondary journey. This fourth-generation program evaluation amplifies the experiences of students of color within a strength-based postsecondary access program in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Through interviews and focus groups, students, and alums of color in the Cornerstone program shared the experience that was most meaningful to them, and …

Postsecondary Students With Disabilities: The History Of Higher Education Legislation, Toby Tomlinson Baker

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Legislation for SWDs led to the enrollment of postsecondary students with disabilities (SWDs) in higher education, but it has also created the increased prevalence of dropouts among postsecondary SWDs (NCES, 2020) Although postsecondary disability status has garnered attention, it continues to be neglected as a political need in higher education. Historically, postsecondary students with disabilities were discouraged from attending higher education settings (Madaus & Shaw, 2004). Disability laws were amended decades later, and therefore impacted the progress of students with disabilities. Thus, SWDs did not attend college since there was minimal activism by individuals seeking greater access to colleges and …

A Survey Of Faculty Perceptions Of Community College Career And Technical Education, Thomas Gauthier Dr.

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Community colleges are the leaders in facilitating career and technical education (CTE), and faculty help develop program offerings on campus. This study explored faculty perceptions of community college CTE programs using the survey research method. Participants included 36 faculty members from various disciplines from 15 state colleges in Florida. Participants were sent a digital survey and asked to use a scale from 0 (do not agree) to 8 (agree) to score their agreement level with 43 statements of opinion. Data revealed that community college faculty perceive CTE as beneficial, but CTE programs must include the habits of mind and support …

Culturally-Responsive Canadian Postsecondary Performance Measurement, Alana Hoare

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Student success has multiple meanings; however, the postpositivist bias prevalent in Canadian postsecondary education restricts how student success is defined and measured. When we standardize measures of student success we assume that the student experience is homogeneous and risk implementing policies and programs based on insufficient information. Unless new evaluation approaches are adopted, it is unlikely postsecondary institutions will generate the knowledge and wisdom needed to serve their regional, national, and international learners and communities. Postsecondary education leaders must be cognizant of the legacy of colonialism and consider cultural congruency between performance measurement systems and local context. This organizational improvement …

Fostering The Academic Transition Of International Students Who Are Ethnoculturally And Linguistically Diverse In Postsecondary Education, Kacia Whilby

Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse International Students in Open or Online Learning Environments: A Research Symposium

The need for more services and support for international students’ academic transition is evident as their numbers continue to increase in postsecondary institutions. There is also a need for educational leaders to have a better understanding of how they can support international students’ academic transition and success. A phenomenological research design is being used to problematize academic transition by examining the experiences of international students who are ethnoculturally and linguistically diverse. The focus is on the students from cultural and educational backgrounds that are divergent to the Canadian educational system and their adjustment to postsecondary academic writing and teaching strategies. …

Postsecondary Educational Attainment And Health Among Younger U.S. Adults In The “College-For-All” Era, Anna Zajacova, Elizabeth Lawrence

Sociology Faculty Research

Population-health research has neglected differentiation within postsecondary educational attainments. This gap is critical to understanding health inequality because college experience with no degree, vocational/technical certificates, and associate degrees may affect health differently. We examine health across detailed postsecondary attainment levels. We analyze data on 14,750 respondents in Waves I and IV of the nationally representative Add Health panel spanning adolescence to ages 26 to 34. Multivariate regression and counterfactual approaches to minimize the impact of confounders estimate multiple health outcomes across postsecondary attainment levels. Compared to high school diplomas, we find significant returns to bachelor’s degrees for most health outcomes …

Support For Students With Disabilities: How Awareness And Accommodations Differ Across Faculty Members Within The Postsecondary Context, Toby Tomlinson Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This case study sought to determine the most salient needs of higher education faculty who instruct and accommodate students with disabilities (SWDs). Therefore, the faculty were analyzed as a community in a university setting. Currently, the accommodations that faculty provide for SWDs vary from institution to institution. Additionally, certain variables, such as faculty’s years with the university, budget, size, and location of the institution impact the level of support provided and what specific accommodations SWDs receive.The purpose of this qualitative case study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the current level of knowledge that faculty obtain for accommodating SWDs. …

Examination Of Online Accommodation Information For College Students With Disabilities In New England, Emily Rakers

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study is to report on the status of information available to college students with disabilities on the websites of New England colleges’ centers for students with disabilities. Primarily, this study focused on information about the application process for a student to receive accommodations. Data was generated by compiling a list of common factors on the websites of centers for students with disabilities at colleges not in New England, and then searching the New England websites to see if they included these factors on their own websites. Three separate categories of schools were included in the study: …

Connecting Evidence Use And Practice In K-12 Education: Discovering And Planning For Research Practice Partnerships, Amy Jo Clemens

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation, I begin with a paper exploring K-12 educators’ use of evidence. I give several examples of how practitioners are delivering programming that is in direct opposition to commonly held evidence-based understandings, explore the reasons why this is happening and then offer a relatively new type of partnership between practitioners and researchers that looks promising in the ongoing pursuit of greater research engagement and use of evidence by practitioners. This paper also applies the Outcomes Based Concern Model for deconstructing the reasons practitioners do not use evidence to the degree desired by policymakers.

In the second paper I …

Bridging The Gap: Effects Of Dual Credit College Algebra On Postsecondary Education Outcomes, Karen S. Heavin

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The contraction of the blue-collar economy is slowly rendering the high school diploma obsolete as an entry-level requirement for middle class employability. Over the last 40 years, jobs requiring some sort of postsecondary education or post-high school credential increased from 28% to 62%, while lower-skilled jobs, traditionally filled by high school graduates or those without a high school diploma, decreased from 72% to 38%. As automation slowly replaces the blue-collar workforce, it is critical that our educational system provides all students the necessary tools to successfully complete a postsecondary degree or credential.

This study examined two groups of graduating high …

Failure To Launch?: Advancing The Case For Financial Literacy Interventions In Postsecondary Education, Cathleen Snyder

Dissertations, 2014-2019

For college undergraduates, the thought of managing money is often new, exciting, and terrifying in the same breath. Some students have learned well from their parental and prior academic influences, and yet others may be overwhelmed by a lack of those same resources. As postsecondary institutions endeavor to level the proverbial playing field, helping college graduates launch into meaningful, financially independent lives, it begs additional consideration on the intervention methods that might be most impactful.

This study examined a for-credit, curriculum-based intervention specific to personal finance topics. It attempted to answer several key questions: How knowledgeable are students relative to …

Comparing The College Persistence Of Dual-Enrolled 11th And 12th Grade High School Students Based On Gender And Mode Of Course Delivery, Joseph Lawrence Depenhart

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine if a statistically significant relationship exists between the level of postsecondary persistence (DV) of dual-enrolled students based on student gender (IV) and the mode of course delivery (IV). This study used Tinto’s and Bean’s Student Integration Theories to explain how gender and participation in the different modes of course delivery in a dual-enrollment program affects the college persistence of 11th and 12th grade high school students as measured using the College Persistence Questionnaire (CPQ). This study examined the relationship between a student’s gender and mode of course delivery and the …

Promoting College And Career Readiness With Middle School Youth With Disabilities: Lessons Learned From A Curriculum Development Project, Meg Grigal, Lori Cooney, Debra Hart

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Engagement and academic success in middle school is critically important to ensure students with disabilities complete high school and have a viable path to and through postsecondary education. Although most middle school students say they want to pursue postsecondary education or training, a significant proportion are not actively engaged in college and career readiness (CCR) activities in middle school. This transition in practice article highlights the importance of early CCR instruction for middle school youth with and without disabilities. Lessons learned from developing an online CCR curriculum and implementing it with middle school youth in inclusive middle school settings will …

Socializing In The Halls? Chinese First-Year Experiences Of Residence Climate, Jamie Chong Brown, Nasser A. Razek

Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education

Composing the largest nationality of international students at American universities, Chinese undergraduate students in the United States have dramatically increased over the previous decade (Institute of International Education, 2014). Despite the extensive research on the challenges facing Chinese students in the American classroom, in-depth research on the residence hall socialization process for Chinese students remains lacking (Briguglio & Smith, 2012). This mixed methods study assessed first-year Chinese students’ perceptions of racial climate and community in residence halls at a mid-sized Midwestern private institution. Quantitative data indicated that the students’ attitude toward floor acceptance and racial harmony correlates with their perceived …

Student Attributes Related To Dual Enrollment Baccalaureate Degree Outcomes In A Rural State, Charles Scott Inghram

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A decrease in West Virginia in-state college-going and graduation rates and a need for additional postsecondary degrees in the workforce in the state by 2020 require the support and implementation of an evidence-based intervention to ameliorate the pressing issue. This study considers the outcomes in regard to persistence and completion of West Virginia students enrolled in public baccalaureate degree granting institutions in the state who entered as first-time, full-time freshmen during the 2010 academic year with dual enrollment credit. The population of the study was drawn from preexisting data provided by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Propensity score …

Experiences That Predict Employment For Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities In Federally Funded Higher Education Programs, Meg Grigal, Clare Papay, Frank Smith, Debra Hart, Rayna Verbeck

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

The Transition and Postsecondary Program for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSID) model demonstration program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education was implemented initially from 2010 to 2015. During this time, 27 institutions of higher education were awarded grants to develop programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to access higher education. TPSID programs were charged with developing model demonstration programs that would lead to gainful employment. In this article, we identify predictors of employment while in the program and at exit for students who completed a TPSID program between 2010 and 2015. Results …

Experiences That Predict Employment For Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities In Federally Funded Higher Education Programs, Meg Grigal, Clare Papay, Frank Smith, Debra Hart, Rayna Verbeck

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

The Transition and Postsecondary Program for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSID) model demonstration program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education was implemented initially from 2010 to 2015. During this time, 27 institutions of higher education were awarded grants to develop programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to access higher education. TPSID programs were charged with developing model demonstration programs that would lead to gainful employment. In this article, we identify predictors of employment while in the program and at exit for students who completed a TPSID program between 2010 and 2015. Results …

The Importance Of Recruiting And Retaining International Students, Bill Mckibben

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

A steady decline in enrollment among postsecondary institutions and cuts in educational funding, both at the state and federal level, have caused these institutions to look for alternative sources of revenue. With postsecondary institutions struggling to financially survive, international enrollment has become the focus of higher education. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding on the importance of recruiting and retaining international students. This study used a phenomenological approach and epistemology was used to provide the conceptual framework of the study. Qualitative methods were used to conduct this study. A series of semi-structured interviews provided the …

Lgbtq Mid-Level Administrators Of Color In Student Affairs: Experiences Of Support And Resilience, Saby Leimomi Labor

Culminating Projects in Higher Education Administration

Existing literature provides an insufficient understanding of the lived experiences of LGBTQ Student Affairs Mid-Level Administrators and particularly from a strengths-based approach. This study applied a life story interview approach to the exploration of the support and resilience experiences of mid-level Student Affairs administrators who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two spirit and/or queer (LGTBTTQ) and a person of color or indigenous (POCI), using a theoretical framework comprised of the ecological systems approach (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), queer theory (Jagose, 1996; Plummer, 2005; Watson, 2005) and intersectionality (Collins, 1998; Crenshaw, 1991; McCall, 2005). Findings of this study include a wide range …

Students With Intellectual Disabilities Accessing Postsecondary Education Settings: Promoting Education Equity: Seeing Students For Their Ability First And Supporting Their Development As Contributing Members Into A Diverse Society, Kathleen N. Mercier

Dissertations

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine and describe the lived experiences of seven students with intellectual disabilities (ID) participating in two postsecondary education (PSE) settings in Southern California that were aligned to the Think College Standards-Based Conceptual Framework for Inclusive Higher Education.

Through a qualitative approach of ethnography, the researcher examined various stakeholders’ awareness and ability to support students with ID in higher education settings in an effort to support future development of PSE programs for students with ID. Methodology tools included classroom observations, individual interviews, and examination of artifacts from the sample of PSE settings in …

Persistence To Graduation Of Students In The Teacher Preparation Program At Murray State University, David Meinschein

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on persistence, and graduation rates of traditional students attending four-year public institutions. The study highlighted the complexity of persistence and degree completion by examining risk factors that impact persistence and degree completion. The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, the study sought consensus from a group of stakeholders, graduates from Murray State University’s (MSU) Teacher Education Program (TEP), to determine a list of specific expectations of a postsecondary institution in persisting to degree completion. Secondly, the study gathered data from the stakeholder of how each expectation was met while enrolled in the TEP at MSU.

This …

Transition For Students With Disabilities: A Case Study, Brittania Schreurs, Elizabeth Chase

College Student Affairs Leadership

This case study is intended to help student affairs professionals understand what their responsibilities are in assisting postsecondary students with disabilities who are facing transition issues. An overview of the K-12 and postsecondary laws are outlined to inform readers of these transition issues, particularly the responsibility of a postsecondary student to self-advocate. Information is also provided on Autism Spectrum Disorders, which are prevalent in college-aged students today. Overviews of a fictional institutional setting and disability office are provided to give context for analyzing the given case scenario. The responsibilities of key stakeholders, including the disability office, the student, the parents, …

Changes To Primary Education To Increase Postsecondary Hispanic Enrollment Rates In Tennessee, Shelby L. Moses

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To The Higher Education In Transformation Proceedings, Brian Campbell, Bill Hunter

Introduction

This paper is an introduction to the proceedings of the 2016 Higher Education in Transformation Symposium (HEIT) that was held November 2 to 4, in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. The overall theme for HEIT 2016 was Designing Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century. This theme addressed the many ways that colleges and universities are actively reinventing and reinvigorating higher education. The papers in this collection cover a broad spectrum of research and experiences in both Canada and Ireland. In this paper we review the main themes that arose …

The Effect Of Stress And Perceived Social Support On Job Satisfaction: A Comparison Between U.S Born And Foreign-Born Faculty, Lisa Owen

Dissertations

Research indicates that academic work-stress is a significant and growing problem for faculty members. General work-stress studies suggest that social support may buffer the negative impact of stress on faculty job satisfaction. To date, little research has been conducted in this area. Even fewer studies have examined the potential differences between U.S.-born and foreign-born faculty members regarding these variables. This quantitative, non-experimental multivariate study utilized a survey to assess academic stressors, perceived departmental social support, and job satisfaction at a large U.S. university. The surveyed institution consisted of 807 full-time faculty members. The three-week survey yielded a response rate of …

The Effects Of A Technology-Driven Science Application On Postsecondary Chemistry Student Achievement And Self-Efficacy, Darrell Byrum

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to establish if distinction exists in both student achievement and self-efficacy through the application of technology-based instructional approach in the laboratory environment of undergraduate chemistry courses. The achievement of 52 college students in the southeastern region of the United States was measured through one posttest assessment. Following this assessment, students were examined through a self-efficacy scale to determine preexisting thoughts of working in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory environment, as well as peer interaction. Accordingly, three separate college chemistry I courses were used to generate data via a nonequivalent control group design. From the three …

The Effectiveness Of An Academic Literacy Intervention To Help University Freshmen Recognize And Resolve Inconsistencies Across Multiple Texts, Patty Baldwin

Doctoral Dissertations

Students must independently complete academic literacy tasks--including reading analytically to identify problems, resolving problems that arise, and using writing to demonstrate advanced knowledge acquisition--if they are to be successful in courses across their university careers. However, a significant portion of students arrives at the university underprepared to meet these expectations for academic literacy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an instructional intervention to help developmental-level freshmen acquire the academic literacy skills that experienced academic readers demonstrate in order to promote independent learning. The four-week instructional intervention focused on two aspects of advanced academic literacy: 1) …