Education Commons^™

Complexity And Chaos Theories As Metaphoric Lenses: An Alternative In Exploring The Voices Of Marginalized Populations, Dannielle Joy Davis

Essays in Education

Through the metaphoric lenses of complexity and chaos theories, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation’s (CIC) Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) is evaluated in terms of its breadth of influence within and without institutional walls, as well as social dogma that pervades this program and its various host institutions. Application of these theories as metaphoric lenses, unveil patterns of influence and dogma at both programmatic and individual levels. Such an application promises to assist in understanding the effectiveness of the SROP program. For decades, minority enrichment programs have sought to promote equity within education through programs such as SROP. By examining …

A Taxonomy Of Finance Theories, Grace S. Thomson

Dr. Grace S. Thomson

Finance Theories Taxonomy This document presents a taxonomy of selected finance theories developed in past 5 decades by academics, practitioners and scholars in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. A total of 14 theories and models are synthesized in this work, organized in five tables with the same structure: Theories of capital structure; capital budgeting and cost of equity; asset valuation, financial behavior and international finances. Each table contains theories organized alphabetically with an indication of its germinal or current character. The description of the theory is accompanied by current examples of empirical research that updates or contradicts …

Marin County Youth Focus Group Project: Youth Perception Regarding Access And Barriers To Equitable Education And Careers, Julia Van Der Ryn, Jenny Bray, Mea Chavez, Beverly Kit, Tamara Nance

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This collaborative project between the Workforce Investment Board of Marin and Dominican University of California emerged through the DUC Service-Learning Director’s involvement in a subcommittee of the Workforce Investment Board of Marin. The subcommittee’s mission is to identify needs of jobseekers, employers, and the future workforce. Youth voice and perception are vital to understanding how to create, maintain, and evolve towards greater sustainability and a thriving workforce with equitable opportunities for everyone. We purposely targeted youth of diverse ethnicities who participate in county and non-profit programs aimed, in a variety of ways, at their empowerment.

The purpose of the youth …

Mind The Gaps: Exploring The Use Of Technology To Facilitate Parental Involvement, Particularly For Historically Underserved Populations, Jonathan D. Becker

Educational Leadership Publications

Decades of research establishes positive associations between parental involvement and a number of important student outcomes, including student achievement. Furthermore, a number of technological innovations make facilitating parental involvement more possible than ever. Those possibilities, however, require varying levels of technological sophistication and infrastructure developments in the homes and communities. That a well-documented digital divide exists between low-income and more-affluent communities means that students and families who live in low-income communities--generally, people of color--can be denied access to opportunities for meaningful involvement in and engagement with the schools. To avoid creating an opportunity gap, school leaders must therefore understand and …

Facilitating Identity Formation, Group Membership, And Learning In Science Classrooms: What Can Be Learned From Out Of Field Teaching In An Urban School, Stacy Olitsky

Stacy Olitsky

This paper explores both the obstacles and the possibilities for students developing identities associated with science by engaging in solidarity-building classroom interactions. Data come from ethnographic research conducted in a diverse eighth-grade urban magnet school classroom in which the teacher taught out of field for part of the year. Contrary to expectations, more students participated and reported enjoying science when the teacher was out of field. Analysis of classroom interactions indicated that while in field, the teacher primarily engaged in “front stage” performances that hid her struggles with the material and accentuated students’ views of science as an elite status …

An Analysis Of National Educational Assessment Policy In The People's Republic Of China And The United States, Guofang Yuan

ETD Archive

Ongoing changes in educational assessment policies within China and the U.S. are complicated. On the one hand, educational assessment policies seem to be diverging, with the U.S. moving towards more standardized testing and China moving away from it. On the other hand, the policies and the reforms seem to converge, with both nations utilizing standardized testing for educational improvement. In China, after the reinstallation of college/university entrance examination in 1977, a series of testing policy reforms and measures were implemented. The goal was to achieve a quality education to best serve China's economic development in a global market. Since 1983, …

Accountability, Equity, And Practitioner Learning And Change, Estela M. Bensimon, Rueda Robert, Alicia Dowd, Frank Harris

Frank Harris III

Accountability and evidence-based decision-making have become the mantra of government polilcymakers, and even private foundations. Yet most attempts to foster cultures of evidence have not brought about change in Practices, notably because they are treated as management tools rather than learning processes. Equity for All is an approach to accountability that is grounded on the principles of practice theory and sociocultural theories of learning. The authors provide empirical evidence to illustrate practitioner learning.