Education Commons^™

Is The J-1 Trainee And Intern Exchange Visitor Program Still Fulfilling Its Original Purpose As An Educational And Cultural Exchange Program?, Rachael Ropkey

Capstone Collection

The J-1 Trainee and Intern Exchange Visitor program came out of the legislation of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961. This policy was brought forth at the end of World War II. The J-1 is a “non-immigrant visa category … for individuals approved to participate in work-and study-based exchange visitor programs” (U.S. Department of State, J-1 Visa Basics). The J-1 has many subcategories, including Au Pairs, Summer Work Travel, College and University Student, Intern, Trainee and many more. The J-1 visa subcategories that will be the focus of this capstone paper are the …

Peace Education In Kenya: Tracing Discourse And Action From The National To The Local Level, Kathleen Louise Zanoni

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent Presidential elections in Kenya (2017) resulted in a contested re-run election and demonstrated the presence of systemic corruption, a culture of impunity, and a continued rift among civil society. Deep wounds were awakened during this recent election triggering past grievances from the post-election violence in 2007-08. It is critical and timely to explore various cross-sectoral peacebuilding approaches at the national and local levels to increase the capacity of individuals to act as agents of peace. However, peacebuilders often overlook the possibilities that exist within formal education to foster spaces of resistance against direct, structural, and cultural forms of violence. …

Pipeline To Failure: Social Inequality And The False Promises Of American Public Schooling, Adia Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My experience as a New York City public school student was absolutely electrifying, though filled with many trials. While my mother would have preferred to put me in private school, having access to some of the world’s greatest institutions and resources offered unique opportunities and exposures. The performing arts provided me with an outlet to express myself and build skills and confidence. In particular, dance education kept me occupied and disciplined in a large city full of danger. Every so often, I witnessed hostile, or even violent exchanges between students, or students and staff. While some of my schoolmates became …

Cybersecurity In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Computer Access And Online Safety, Andrew Malecki

Cyber Security Capstone Research Project Reports

According to ISACA, there will be a global shortage of 2 million cybersecurity professionals worldwide by 2019. Additionally, according to Experian Data Breach Resolution, as much as 80% of all network breaches can be traced to employee negligence. These problems will not solve themselves, and they likewise won’t improve without drastic action. An effort needs to be made to help direct interested and qualified individuals to the field of cybersecurity to move toward closing this gap. Moreover, steps need to be made to better inform the public of general safety measures while online, including the safeguarding of sensitive information.

A …

Warrior Women: A Phenomenological Study Of Female Veterans Transitioning Into And Through College, Alma Sorensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current research and theory primarily focuses on identifying holistic challenges of the veteran student demographic and does not focus on challenges specific to female veterans when transitioning into and through college. Additionally, current research and theory does not focus on positive and negative experiences of female veterans within four key areas of academia: courseware, faculty, staff/administration, and student services. As a result, current research and theory do not adequately explain why female veterans may or may not successfully transition into and through college, resulting in a lack of resources available for female veterans, and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). This phenomenological …

Public Policies Involving Pregnant And Parenting Secondary Students From Perspectives Of Educators, Tomecole Hilliard-Carlton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a significant drop in the number of pregnant adolescents and reforms to fight

gender discrimination under Title IX, teen pregnancy and risk factors including poverty,

stigma, and substance abuse, which may lead to different negative outcomes, such as

depression, social isolation, and lowered self-esteem remain a persistent problem in the

United States. Due to these factors, pregnant and parenting teens have been noted to drop

out of high school prematurely. Using incrementalism as a theoretical framework, the

purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore and describe Title IX

compliance and local policies and practices of educators …

Increasing The Career Longevity Of Teachers Of Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Leroy V. Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have among the highest attrition rates of any teaching discipline in the United States. High attrition rates affect EBD teachers, school districts, and students with EBD. Through the theoretical lenses of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Eisenberger's organizational support theory (OST), this study sought to determine if there was a difference in college preparation, job support, and job benefit/amenity factors identified by EBD teachers who intended to leave the discipline (n = 6) and those who intended to stay (n = 9). This quantitative, survey-based study yielded data from 15 …

Exploring Value Of Perceived Problem Resolution In Success Of Online Doctoral Students, Vanessa S. O'Neal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

How doctoral students view their institution's ability to resolve problems may be directly related to their overall satisfaction of the institution. Challenges such as barriers to communication could have a negative effect on the students' ability to be retained by the institution. Policies to address issues relating to retention; high default rates on student loans and student services are increasing and more constraining. While the literature indicates the formation of federal policies to monitor recruitment practices of for-profit online institutions, it is not known to what extent these policies have influenced the quality of postrecruitment services. Using the theoretical framework …

Understanding Experiences Of The Bermuda Government's Youth-Serving Professionals In Transformational Coaching, Nicola Feldman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public administrators and civil servants working with vulnerable youth have the challenging yet critical job of supporting their young clients in overcoming adversity and achieving optimal life outcomes. Public administrators and civil servants work with vulnerable youth to help shift their trajectories toward positive life outcomes; however, if these professionals are not thriving in the workplace, they may not have the best possible positive influence on youth. Little was known about how to support the ability of professionals to experience professional thriving, defined as the experience of feeling energized at work and motivated toward professional growth and success. The purpose …

Schools Uniting Neighborhoods: Sustainability And Racial Equity In A Community Schools Initiative, Rachel Geller

Scripps Senior Theses

Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN), a collaborative initiative in Multnomah County, Oregon, combines the increasingly popular community school model with an innovative organizational structure to further two key goals: sustainability as an initiative and furthering racial equity. This thesis situates SUN within the context of American public education reform and existing literature on the positive outcomes, organizational structures, and leadership components of community schools. Building on past reviews of SUN and its outcomes, I use results from qualitative interviews with key stakeholders to provide insight into how its organizational structure contributes to the goals of sustainability and racial equity. I discuss …

Missing In Action: A Critical Narrative Study Of The Absence Of Black Female Secondary Science Teachers, Nadia Despenza

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Despite the increasing research that lists cultural incongruence in the classroom among the top factors that speaks to the disproportionate numbers of Black females obtaining STEM degrees there is limited research on the actual number of Black female science teachers at the secondary level in education and the impact this plays on Black females in science, technology, engineering, and math classrooms (STEM). The consequence of all this is that we find ourselves with Black female science teachers “missing in action,” and only 5% of Black females receiving a STEM degree. I employ critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and Black feminist …

The Efficacy Of Formal Sexual Education In Lgbtq Adolescents: A Review Of The Literature, Candice P. Dressel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this review of review was to determine if inclusive and comprehensive formal sexual education is effective in promoting safer sex behaviors compared to abstinence only until marriage sexual education, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents. Peer reviewed articles were retrieved from Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), Elton B. Stephens Co. Host (Ebsco Host), Medical Literature On-line (Medline), Psychological Information Database (PsychINFO) and government released statistical information that was published from 2000-2017. Inclusion criteria of synthesized articles were based on formal sexual education aimed at adolescent …

Relationship Between Policy Expectations And Education Outcomes In A Midwestern School District, Latonya Latamore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A financially secure public school district can provide children with an educational foundation that will eventually transition them into self-sufficient employed adults. These adults will become tax-paying citizens who will contribute to their local economies. The problem with one midwestern public school district is that a history of financial insecurity has affected the district's ability to provide students with all of the programs to which they are entitled. Using Baumgartner and Jones' conceptualization of punctuated equilibrium as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relationship between aspects of the Local Financial Stability and Choice …

Variations In State Higher Education Grant Programs: Potential Reforms From A Case Study, Rachael Johnson

Honors Program Theses

As higher education costs continue to rise across the nation, students are increasingly needing financial assistance. State grant aid programs play a vital role for millions of students across the nation when paying for their postsecondary education. This case study looks specifically at Iowa’s, Nebraska’s, and Wisconsin’s state funded grant aid models to understand how Iowa could restructure their current grant aid program to better serve both the students and taxpayers of the state. Specifically, for Iowa’s grant aid programs, four changes are recommended.

1. All higher education sectors should be eligible for the state’s primary grant aid program.
2. At minimum, …

Priorities For School Safety: The Alignment Between Federal And State School Safety Legislation And Safety Needs As Perceived By Education Stakeholders In Florida Private Schools For Exceptional Students, Anthony D. Mortimer

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the apparent threat assessment priorities of potential risks to safety in the school environment in the United States and whether stakeholders in Florida private schools that serve exceptional students agree with the priority given to specific identified potential threats. Faculty and staff, high school students, and the students’ parents and guardians at four Florida private schools for exceptional students rated their perceptions of the severity and likelihood of occurrence of nine potential threats identified in a review of federal and Florida state school safety laws and national and state government surveys of incident occurrences. Results showed that …

A Lesson In Learning: Improving Learning Outcomes In India Via Pedagogical Innovation, Rhea Handa

Scripps Senior Theses

When delivered well, education is key to addressing a host of individual and societal ills, from poverty and disease to crime and poor voter engagement. India has demonstrated considerable progress in improving various aspects of its primary education system, including infrastructure and buildings, teacher-student ratios, and school enrollment. However, student learning outcomes remain consistently low across the country. A review of the literature surrounding learning outcomes has highlighted gaps in school instruction and has shown the dire need for innovations in pedagogy and curriculum to improve student learning. This paper assesses the long-term impact of one such pedagogy, called Teaching …

Law Enforcement Formal Academic Educational Hiring Requirements And Deputy Sheriff Disciplinary Issues, Chase Dennis Wetherington

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a lack of research as to what impacts law enforcement disciplinary issues. This is important due to the recent emphasis of officer performance and accountability. In 2008, the Southeast Sheriff's Office (SSO) increased their formal academic educational hiring requirement from a high school diploma to 60 college credits. The impact of this increase has never been analyzed. The purpose of this study was to determine through the theoretical lens of Kohlberg's 6 stages of moral development if an increase in the formal academic educational requirement influenced the number of deputy sheriff disciplinary issues. A quantitative nonexperimental study was …

Engagement Factors Impacting First-Year Persistence Of Hispanic And Non-Hispanic Students In Idaho Community Colleges, Kimberly May Scheffer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although minority students are enrolling in community colleges at increasing rates, these students also leave at higher rates than their non-minority counterparts. The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand the relationship between selected antecedents of educational engagement and student persistence and to examine how persistence varied for first-year Hispanic and non-Hispanic students in Idaho community colleges. Drawing from Kahu's holistic approach, which conceptualizes students' engagement as arising from an interrelationship between institutional and student characteristics, this study surveyed 132 first-semester Idaho community college students. A MANOVA was used to identify the relationship between variables representing aspects of student …

The Relationship Between Georgia Public School Educational Funding Sources And Academic Achievement, Rosalind Ray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, state educational finance systems are required to ensure that every student obtains an adequate and equitable education. The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate the financial management aspect of public funding and the consequences of Georgia's reliance on local property tax revenue for financing its public school districts and attaining student academic achievement outcomes. The research questions examined whether there was a difference in student academic achievement levels of economically disadvantaged (ED) students based on the total 8th grade student population, annual property valuations, and median home sale prices during the 2006-2014 school terms. …

Comparing Job Satisfaction Between Certified And Noncertified Substitute Teachers, Katie Schkolenko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A rural, mid-sized district is experiencing great difficulty in the recruitment and retention of substitute teachers despite increased recruitment efforts. Such difficulty has resulted in numerous disruptions to the educational process. Despite their integral role in the educational process, research on substitute teachers remains absent from the literature. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the job satisfaction of substitute teachers with regard to differences between the two subgroups of certified and noncertified substitute teachers. This study was based on the two-factor theory. The research questions addressed the overall job satisfaction of substitute teachers, whether teacher job satisfaction …

The Relationship Between Education Levels And Public Opinion Before The Iraq War, Damion Steele

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found that higher education is known to stabilize political opinions and thought to enhance critical thinking skills. The role that an individual's level of education plays in shaping public opinion during a foreign affairs crisis, within the context of repetitious and uniform news media coverage, has yet to be determined. The theoretical foundation of agenda-setting explains how salience is created by emphasizing certain messages and influencing public opinion and may bypass education and political knowledge. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between education level and public opinion immediately before the Iraq War. The …

Critical Peace Pedagogies At The American Center For Civil And Human Rights And The Canadian Museum For Human Rights: A Comparative Case Study, Ion Vlad

Doctoral Dissertations

The struggle for racial equity in the United States and Canada is ongoing. Troubled historical legacies in both countries have present-day implications. African Americans and Indigenous Canadians are still two of the most marginalized populations from the standpoint of socioeconomics and political representation (Giroux, 2013; Vickers, 2012). In order to redress these problems, human rights and peace education have to pose structural questions and expose systemic unbalances. In the recent past, neoliberalism has had a major influence on the organization and content of American and Canadian formal education, obscuring some of these structural questions (Ravitch, 2013). In this context, human …

Evaluating The Impact Of State Policies On Charter School Success, Leah Byers

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since their inception in 1991, charter schools have become a widely-adopted school choice policy intended to increase educational outcomes through competition and innovation. The details of how states structure their charter school laws are diverse across states, which raises the question of whether certain law parameters are better than others at attracting and maintaining high-quality charter schools.

Charter schools are designed around the basis of market accountability; they must attract students in order to remain in operation. The threat of closure is an incentive built into the charter model that is intended to increase school performance. For this reason, I …

Colorado Middle School Principals' Transformational Leadership Characteristics And Colorado's Standardized Test Scores, Wayne Wolf

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have documented that high expectations do not always result in higher achievement, but the reason for varying results has not been clearly understood. This correlational study was done to find out if the degree of presence of principal leadership characteristics can predict when high expectations are effective and when they are not. Expectancy and transformational leadership theories provided the framework for identifying 9 principal leadership characteristics that might influence student scores on Colorado statewide testing. Existing student testing data were considered the dependent variable, while survey data on the leadership behaviors of Colorado middle school principals were used for …

Influences Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On Ethical Financial Operations In Nonprofit Organizations, Stephanie Powell Works

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, approximately 7% of nonprofits' annual revenue is lost as a result of a lack of ethical financial operations among nonprofit executive directors (EDs). This represents $85 billion in estimated annual losses in available operating funds. This study addressed the problem of ineffective leadership in nonprofit organizations from the perspective of EDs responsible for ethical financial operations. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of nonprofit EDs who self-reported the use of 1 of Burn's and Bass' 3 leadership styles and whether leadership style influenced the use of the Sarbanes Oxley Act …

Kenya's Constituency Development Fund, Free Secondary Education Policy, And Access To Secondary Education, Charles Kyalo Nzuki

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The effects of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Free Secondary Education Policy (FSEP) on access to secondary school education in Kenya's Yatta sub-county have not been adequately explored in available public policy literature. Hence, this qualitative multiple-case study was designed to understand the effects of the 2 policies on both enrollment and dropout among secondary school age children in Yatta. The study was conducted in 1 mixed-boarding secondary school and 1 secondary day school in Yatta. The study was built on an adapted Huisman and Smits' theoretical model on dropout among students in developing countries. The data were …

Teacher Assessments Of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports, Gequana Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Discipline is of increasing concern to school stakeholders in districts around the world. It is especially concerning in a district of a southern U.S. state, where a zero tolerance policy calls for the removal of disruptive students from the classroom. Students, teachers, administrators, and other district officials may benefit from effective implementation of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a positive discipline program that includes educators using data for instructional and discipline decision making. In the local district, little is known about the teachers' opinions regarding the PBIS implementation. The purpose of this project study was to gain insight on …

Data-Driven Decision-Making In Urban Schools That Transitioned From Focus Or Priority To Good Standing, Danielle Ware

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the importance an urban school district places on data-driven decision-making (DDDM) to drive instruction, implementation continues to remain a challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate how support systems affected the implementation of DDDM to drive instructional practices in three urban schools that recently transitioned from priority or focus to good standing on the State Accountability Report. The study aligned with the organizational supports conceptual framework with an emphasis on data accessibility, collection methods, reliability and validity, the use of coaches and data teams, professional development, and data-driven leaders. Through the collection of qualitative data from one-on-one …

Vocational Instructors Experience And Practice Teaching In The Hybrid Environment, Christine Cusano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At a technical post-secondary school in the Northeast United States, campus leaders lacked formative data of faculty skills and knowledge needed for instruction in a hybrid format involving both face-to-face instruction and on-line instruction. Therefore, the delivery of appropriate professional development (PD) programs for faculty whose duties include hybrid format instruction has not been provided. The purpose of this study was to identify the faculty experiences of teaching in a hybrid-learning environment, and their perceived PD needs to provide effective instruction in a hybrid-learning environment. This study explored vocational teachers' experiences and perceived PD needs related to teaching in a …

Low-Income Households' Perceived Obstacles And Reactions In Obtaining Affordable Housing, K Mark Leonard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low-income affordable housing remains an issue for the town on Martha's Vineyard where this study was conducted, in which an estimated 54% of low-/moderate-income households spend more than 50% of monthly income on housing. Using Schneider and Ingram's work regarding the social construction of target populations as the foundation, the purpose of this qualitative research was to assess how the perceived social standing and political power contributed to determining the benefits and burdens allocated to the town's low-income households. Data for this study consisted of 14 individual semistructured interviews with members of low-income households who were seeking or in affordable …