Education Commons^™

Through The Eyes Of Urban Students: Educational Inequality And Socioeconomic Disparities In Santiago, Chile, Hillary Sapanski

Honors Theses

This project explores student perceptions of educational inequality in Santiago, Chile. Educational inequality in Santiago is statistically well documented; this study is novel in that it gives voice to the students. Despite a major emerging middle class, across all classes there is an overwhelming awareness of inequality. The results in this study are two-fold: not only do the diverse student experiences illustrate the stark divisions in the Chilean education system and society, but their experiences also demonstrate the development of a critical consciousness empowering students to act. Although there are limitations, student contributions to the ongoing conversation about inequality and …

The Impact Of School-To-School Transitions On Academic Achievement : An Analysis Of Various Grade-Span Configurations Utilized By Public School Districts In New York State, James J. Delviscio

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were essentially two types of organizational structures for primary and secondary education in the United States. There were either one-room K-12 schools or in larger systems K-8 buildings feeding into four-year high schools. Despite numerous experiments since then in reconfiguring schools resulting in a wide variety of grade-grouping combinations, there continues to be no consensus on one preferred organizational model for schools within districts. More importantly, there has been relatively little empirical research done to determine whether the way schools are configured or whether the number of schools a child attends, which …

The Impact Of Demographics, Resources, And Training On The Quality Of School Crisis Plans, Erin Elizabeth Gurdineer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As our nation has become more aware of severe, yet usually rare, crisis events in schools, the need for crisis planning is more evident. Although the severity of crises can differ greatly (e.g., school shooting versus physical assaults), crisis preparedness is an essential component of schools' responsibilities in order to effectively respond to a variety of situations. A total of 70 participants, from multiple states across the United States, completed an online questionnaire about demographic characteristics, resources for school crisis planning, and training on crisis topics. Participants also submitted a copy of their school's crisis plan to be evaluated using …

Exploring The Impact Of Program Structure On Student And Faculty Scholarly Communities In Interdisciplinary Ph. D. Programs, Lenore G. Horowitz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Information Science doctoral program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, faces many of the same challenges found in highly interdisciplinary programs across educational institutions worldwide such as complex curricula development, abundant discipline languages and cultures, and stakeholders clinging to the traditional, single-discipline university system. In 2006, the University at Albany Information Science Ph.D. program faculty redefined the program's structure in hopes of addressing the challenges it was facing. Program structure is a social process shaped by community participation and is influenced by many factors including students, faculty members, and both informal and formal knowledge production.

An Implementation Study Of The Science And Technology Entry Program (Step) In New York State, Susan C. Perkins

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As global demands for workers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields persist, there are increased opportunities for historically underrepresented African-American and Latino youth to fill STEM career pipelines. African-American and Latino youth have long faced disproportionately high unemployment rates. Joblessness has been complicated by lower high school graduation rates for African-American and Latino youth. Significant federal and state funding has been allocated to address this state of affairs. Research findings on STEM career development programs for historically underrepresented youth can inform public policy and resource allocation.

School Psychologists' Awareness, Involvement, And Perceptions In Servicing Gifted Learners, Monica Pires

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

School psychologists are comprehensive service providers asked to help with all students in assessing their needs, providing intervention strategies, and consulting with others. However, the role of school psychologists in gifted education is unclear, as more attention is given to students perceived to be disadvantaged. This underserved population experiences a wide-range of challenges that can be assisted by school psychologists (Brown, 1982; E.L. Robinson, 2002). To date, there has been no study to investigate school psychologists' awareness, perceptions, and involvement in gifted education. This study assessed potential service delivery differences in gifted education, examined current practices and awareness of related …

Fraud Prevention And Employee Rationalization In New York State Public Schools, Kathleen M. Slezak

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Prompted by frequent media reports of school fraud and a lack of relevant K-12 literature, this research study was designed to investigate current fraud prevention practices in public school districts in New York State. Using a "fraud triangle" model, an analysis of existing legislation and professional practice guidelines reveals that an integral element is being overlooked in current fraud prevention efforts, namely employee attitudes (more formally rationalization).

Emerging Adults : Analysis Of Learning Patterns In Collegiate Classrooms, Joan Ann Swanson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Emerging adults, who are transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, often spend a significant amount of time on college campuses preparing for their future endeavors. Today's educator is facing many options for addressing the educational needs of their students, as well as a myriad of learning resources and tremendous advances in technology. Their emerging adult students are dealing with multiple distractions, adjustments and transitions. This study examined preferred emerging adult learning styles in light of an information processing framework using grounded theory qualitative analysis. The study also explored students' reported preferences for optimal learning experiences and engagement within the collegiate classroom, …

A Study Of The Associations Between Conditions Of Performance And Characteristics Of Performers And New York State Solo Performance Ratings, Elizabeth Curran Vonwurmb

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation undertakes an analysis of 1,044 performance evaluations from New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Spring Festival solo adjudication ratings of student performers from a large suburban school district. It relies on results of evaluations of observed performances, and takes these evaluations as assessments of what the student performers know and are able to do in this field. The analyses undertaken in this study seek to uncover patterns in performance ratings by identified conditions of performance (time of day of performance, level of music performed, and performance medium) and characteristics of performers (gender, race/ethnicity, and grade level). The …

Program Innovation In Higher Education : An Exploratory Study Of The Creation Of New Degree Programs In Chilean Universities, Gonzalo Zapata

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Many researchers have studied differentiation in higher education systems, considering the multiplicity of new programs as one of its relevant features. In Chile, as well as in Latin America, there is ample literature on emerging higher education institutions and their growing differentiation, but very little or almost none devoted to emerging programs and the program dimension of differentiation.

A Case Study Of The Adoption And Implementation Of Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports (Pbis) Tier 2 In Two Elementary Schools, Kathleen Emma Affigne

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study was designed to explore four primary research questions. Why do schools and districts adopt PBIS? Which stakeholders were included in the decision-making process to adopt PBIS? Do these adoption dynamics influence PBIS Tier 2 implementation? With PBIS Tier 2 implementation fidelity as a desirable outcome, what are the relevant facilitators, constraints, and obstacles?

Impact Of An Extended-Day Kindergarten Intervention On School-Related Variables : A Longitudinal Study, Catherine Bauer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Increased awareness regarding the effectiveness of educational programs has been generated from recent legislative mandates. Given the significance of kindergarten as the foundation for academic learning, it is critical to evaluate whether district-created programs for entering students who are identified as at-risk are effectively meeting their needs. The current program evaluation study investigated the immediate and long-term effects of an extended-day intervention for kindergarten students identified as at-risk in one school district. Through archival data analysis, students who participated in the extended-day kindergarten (EDK; n=26) intervention beginning in the fall of 2000 and 2001 were compared with a control group …

Mediational Effects Of Desktop-Videoconferencing Telecollaborative Exchanges On The Intercultural Communicative Competence Of Students Of French As A Foreign Language, Veronique Marie Martin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since the early 2000s, foreign language practitioners and researchers have shown an increasing interest in exploring the affordances of multimodal telecollaborative environments for the linguistic and intercultural development of their students. Due in part to their inherent complexity, one-on-one desktop-videoconferencing contexts have not been widely explored. To this end, this study investigates if and how American students of French engaged in a telecollaborative exchange with a class of French students are able to develop their Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) through online interaction and the completion of a collaborative task. Adopting a case study approach, the video-recorded sessions of three dyads …

Realizing Federal Policy Outcomes Of The Post-9/11 Gi Bill: Veterans' And Active Duty/Reservist Perceptions, Lydia Leporte

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (Public Law 78-346), generally referred to as the GI Bill, provided any veteran, who had served for at least 90 days from the time period of September 1940 to July 1947, paid full-time education. The original Act also called for the creation of a central agency dedicated to the administration of all veterans' benefits, which ultimately became the Veterans' Administration (VA). The GI Bill has been revamped five more times since its initial inception, with the most recent iteration, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, being hailed to be potentially as powerful …

College Women And Body Image Perception: The Influence Of Peers, Television, And Print Media, Sarah J. Knapp

Masters Theses

This study sought to identify how college women's image of self and their bodies are impacted by their peers, as well as by television and print media. The findings were based on qualitative research methodology by conducting in-depth interviews with four college-aged women at a rural, Midwestern university.

The findings were not substantially different from other researchers findings on women in previous literature. The women in this study faced similar problems that other women had encountered before them: peer influence, body image dissatisfaction, their own college development path, and how they perceive their body image in comparison to other women. …

A New Model: Improving Adult Experiences In The Holy Land With Effective Pre-Departure Information, Resources And Procedures, Sarah A. Loan

Capstone Collection

Since September 11, 2001, Group Travel Directors (GTD) has noted an increase in self-reported anxiety among adult travelers preparing to depart to the Holy Land. This observation has been made by long-term employees both objectively and subjectively by comparing evaluation scores, cancellation percentages, tracking numbers of phone calls from anxious travelers and through staff accounts of conversations with travelers. GTD staff reports that clients often are inclined to make rash decisions based on perfunctory judgments influenced by media coverage.

GTD has collected evaluations from adult travelers for more than twenty years in an effort to better understand traveler perceptions of …

Faculty Sense Of Academic Optimism And Its Relationship To Students' Achievement In Well Performing High Schools, Michael Tyrone Cromartie

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The aim of this study was to determine the organizational characteristics and behaviors that contribute to sustaining a culture of academic optimism as a mechanism of student achievement. While there is a developing research base identifying both the individual elements of academic optimism as well as the academic optimism construct itself as contributors to student achievement, little information exists to assist school leaders in identifying specific organizational practices that sustain collective teacher efficacy, academic emphasis, and trust in students and families. This study employs case study methodology to investigate faculties' interpretations of academic optimism by examining the organizational and instructional …

The Inmate Code: The Stories Lived And The Stories Told Of Men Behind Bars, Pauline Matthey

Masters Theses

Using Coordinated Management of Meaning, this study links socialization and identification with the intricate levels of the inmate code that male prisoners live by, or live with anyway, while being incarcerated. In doing so, the research showed that the more highly identified to the inmate code a prisoner is, the less likely he is to have a desire to coordinate the meaning of his stories lived with the stories told of others. Furthermore, this project uncovered a characteristic of metamorphosis, the TRAP, or Temporary Relapse Alluding to the Past. TRAP takes place when prisoners who have developed the ability to …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The All Power Labs Power Pallet As A Training Tool For Biomass Gasification Education, Christopher Che Frederick

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of classroom training with regard to renewable energies. A lecture series and survey were developed by the principle researcher and presented to students in the Alternative and Renewable Energy Systems class and Machine Design class at Eastern Illinois University. The lecture series introduced students to biomass gasification and its application at Eastern Illinois University. The survey analyzed participant's level of knowledge of gasification technologies. The survey's pre and post test scores were used to validate the effectiveness of the training.

The All Power Labs Power Pallet was utilized as …

Positive Workplace Dynamics: A Qualitative Exploration Of Exceptional Performance In Community College Units, R. Michael Stapleton

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

In this companion dissertation findings are reported of applied case study research on four community college organizational units that consistently meet or exceed standard performance measures. Ample prior evidence confirmed that performance extended significantly beyond what might be explained by available tangible resources alone. The case study contexts are common in higher education in general: a) an external partnership, (b) an ad hoc team, (c) a traditional, cross-divisional service unit, and (d) a grant-funded student service unit.

Emerging positive organizational theory and research shows promise for revealing performance-influencing phenomena and behaviors that are not adequately represented in standard measures. Therefore, …

Choosing Home: International Pushes And Pulls For Malaysian Alumni Of U.S. Graduate Programs, Pauline Chhooi

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Malaysians’ journeys to pursue graduate education in the U.S. generate more than just degree attainment. This dissertation looks at how experiences in the U.S., both in graduate school and in the workplace, influenced highly educated Malaysians, especially in their exploration of push and pull factors that influence their decisions to remain in the U.S. or to return to Malaysia. This study focuses on twenty-two participants comprised of those who have returned to Malaysia, those who are working in the U.S. on non-immigrant visas, those who became Permanent Residents and those who are naturalized U.S. citizens.

The first major finding demonstrates …

Perceptions Of Dimensions Of Service Quality And Recreational Benefits In Collegiate Recreational Sports Programs, Christopher Berne Denison

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

An enduring and essential element of collegiate recreational sports programs is an emphasis on providing high quality, high impact programs and services. In addition, participants in collegiate recreation settings have an expectation to receive benefits as a result of their participation. If recreational sport programs cannot meet the expectations of participants in their pursuit of these benefits, continued participation is unlikely. As collegiate recreational professionals work to continually improve their programs and services, they should also understand the needs and wants of their participants. Understanding what participant needs and wants are should allow leisure service providers to improve the programs …

Integration Of School Psychology And Neuropsychology: An Inquiry, Megan Colleen Moerke

All Master's Theses

A state level survey was conducted to examine interest regarding the integration of a neuropsychological perspective into school psychology practice among practicing school psychologists in Washington State. Potential respondents were contacted through e-mail and invited to participate in the original survey developed by the author. The 25 question survey sought to answer questions regarding neuropsychological training, attitudes and beliefs toward the incorporation of a neuropsychological perspective, current professional practices, interaction with neuropsychologists through referral and consultation, and potential barriers to the incorporation of a neuropsychological perspective. A total of 433 school psychologists completed the online survey for an approximate response …

The Impact Of Religious Commitment And Motivation On African American Male Academic Achievement, Beverly Cabble Logan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed method, pragmatic, research study was to determine, from successful African American college age students, what influences have contributed to their academic success. Quantitative data were collected using two survey instruments, the Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) and a researcher created demographic instrument for data collection. Qualitative data were collected through five researcherconducted focus group discussions with 10 African American students enrolled in a four year university located in the southeast region of the United States. The guiding questions were: How does religious commitment impact academic achievement among minority male college students? What relationship exists between religious …

Housing Patterns, Academic Performance And School Choice: An Inquiry Into The Relocation Experiences Of African-American Families, Courtney Jones-Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative inquiry explored the educational relocation experiences of AfricanAmerican families residing in predominately-White and northern Gwinnett County, Georgia, who relocated to pursue improved educational opportunities for their children. For poor families or African- American families with limited resources, school choice is determined largely by where one lives. Historical oppression at the local, state and federal level has encouraged the concentration of African-American families into segregated communities and segregated housing patterns (Massey & Denton, 1998; Rice, 2009; Squires & Kim, 1995), which are often associated with educational inequality (Royce, 2009). The historical oppression and racial injustices in society challenges us …

How Many Barack Obamas Does It Take: An Analysis Of The Effect Of Charter Schools On Real Estate And Crime, Aananditaa Kakkar

CMC Senior Theses

This study looks at the relationship between charter school presence and neighborhood quality in Los Angeles. Using data from the Los Angeles Department of Education, Zillow Real Estate, and the Los Angeles Sheriff, this paper attempts to find whether changes in charter presence influence the price of surrounding real estate or the occurrence of serious and petty crimes. The results find that charter schools tend to be associated with a decrease in home sale prices. The results on crime imply that crime increases upon the opening of charter schools, however they are statistically insignificant.

Diversity Among Latino/A College Students And Its Impact On Student Organization Involvement, Enmanuel Mercedes

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

A Review Of A School Psychologist's Roles In The Implementation Of An Rti System, Leigh Ann Thul

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

As schools continue to move into this era of accountability, they must consider system level changes that will address the needs of students as a whole. Using the problem solving model through a system of Response to Intervention (Rtl), schools can use data to monitor discrepancies between expectations of learning and actual student outcomes. Not only can individual student data be used to problem solve about students but also, aggregated data as a whole can help inform system level decision making to reach accountability goals.

Moving to a system of Rtl takes many system level changes that can be daunting …

Experiences And Perceptions Of Mental Health Professionals Considered Effective In The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Adults With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Bonita H. Erb

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that has been documented in medical and mental health literature for over 100 years (Still, 1902). ADHD is a neurobiological based disorder characterized by three major symptoms identified at clinical levels and validated by diagnostic criteria established for the diagnosis of children before the age of seven (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 th edition-Text Revision; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The three diagnostic criteria are inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity that have been observed at clinical levels.

Because many signs of the disorder were believed to discontinue …