Education Commons^™

Carousel: Performance And Ritual Of A Child's Play, Erik Maniscalco

Theses

Carousel is a series of oil paintings inspired by my seven year old

daughter, as well as my work towards becoming a childhood educator. My

aim with this project is to explore the performative and ritualistic nature of

children’s play: focusing on the creative ways children stretch and reshape

their reality through imagined play narratives. Upon the carousel’s stage,

children select a character and take part in a performed ritual. I’ve long felt

connected to the visual vocabulary found within baroque and renaissance

styles, and I am fascinated by the mixture of amusement, tradition,

religion, and distortion imbued within the …

Becoming His Own Boss, Reginald A. Blake Jr.

Capstones

Sports and Academics have long been linked. If an athlete's grades aren’t up to par they can’t play, but when an athlete practices in the morning and at night, travels for games, how much learning can they actually do? There are cases however when an athlete uses sports as their ticket for higher education because their grades wouldn’t cut it. 16-year-old Deon McLaughlin is one of those students. For all his success on the court he’s battled with maintaining his school’s rigid academic standards. As good as he is, he knows the NBA isn’t a possibility, for him basketball is …

Despite Overcrowding, School Siting Process Stalls New Buildings, Megan Conn

Capstones

More than half of New York City’s 1.1 million students attend an over-utilized school, where the number of students enrolled exceeds the official capacity. But for years, the School Construction Authority has been slow to identify and acquire sites to build new schools. When City Council ordered a task force to review nearly 30,000 potential sites, the SCA excluded parent representatives from the analysis process, then reported that only two sites could potentially be used for schools. Though the SCA contracts with commercial real estate brokers to identify sites, the agency has declined to specify how many sites the brokers …

Discipline Or Destiny: A School-To-Prison Pipeline Story, Trayonna Hendricks, Kourtney Webb

Capstones

The school-to-prison pipeline is a phenomenon by which students, mainly students of color, are pushed out of schools and into juvenile detention centers and through the criminal justice system. This documentary series explains and displays what "the school-to-prison pipeline looks like through a personal story.

https://readymag.com/u1985351703/1646028/

Class Matters: School Affluence And Other Predictors Of Attainment For Wealthy And Poor Students, Alison Brockhouse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public schools in the United States are becoming increasingly segregated by socioeconomic status. Though the educational consequences of socioeconomic segregation are well researched, segregation is often ignored or exacerbated by education reform. To learn more about the wider implications of socioeconomic segregation, this study utilizes theoretical frameworks derived from Max Weber’s theory of social stratification to analyze over 10,000 students’ experiences from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) 2002, 2004, and 2012 waves of data collection. More specifically, this research explores the impact of attending an affluent high school on long-term educational attainment. It finds …

Transforming Through Power: Teachers And The Negotiation Of Authority In Schools, Madhu Narayanan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Schools are unique institutions where structural and cultural dynamics shape the actions of humans. Teachers work within structures of power to establish themselves as legitimate figures of authority worthy of the right to command respect. Such efforts are complicated by the multi-faceted and swirling relationships of power that exist everywhere in schools, defining and guiding individuals. In this study, I interview and observe the practice of seven secondary teachers working in New York City public schools. All in their third year of teaching, they were at an interesting time in their development, not novice teachers and not quite veteran. Using …

Adults Formerly In Foster Care Narrate Schooling Experiences, Danielle Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Roughly 400,000 children are in foster care in the United States (Lash, 2017, p. 5). These youth are less likely to graduate high school than their non-foster peers (Barnow et al., 2015). While several barriers contribute to the poor educational outcomes for children in foster care, research has noted that the label “foster child” is associated with negative connotations and differential teacher treatment (Altshuler, 2003; Finkelstein, Wamsley, & Miranda, 2002). In spite of such observations, little research has emphasized the perspectives of those in foster care. To fill this gap, this qualitative study posed the following question: How do adults …

The Equal Right To Sing: The American Zeitgeist And Its Implications For Music Education, Youngeun Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

According to music educators and proponents of arts education, music education in U.S. public schools seems to be in jeopardy. This thesis brings attention to several issues in current music education. It is a case study of music education in New York City public elementary schools. First, it shows that music education is not equally distributed to all students in the public-school system and is especially unequal among elementary schools. Next, it investigates possible causes for this inequality, from the current system’s limitations to more fundamental causes including the cultural perception of music among the U.S. public. The consequences of …

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs Pick Up The Pieces After Defunding Scare, Camille Danielle Smith

Capstones

The Trump administration attempted to cut $200 million dollars from the Obama administration’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs. About 81 TPP programs across the U.S. would have had their funding end in June of 2018 instead of the original end date of June 2020. Many organizations sued the Department of Health and Human Services and the courts ruled the cuts illegal and ensured the funding until 2020. But now many programs across the U.S. are trying to cope with life after the defunding scare.

Link to capstone project: https://medium.com/@camille.smith/teen-pregnancy-prevention-programs-picking-up-the-pieces-after-de-funding-scare-6dd2f7ab00bf

Finding Light In The Caves: Achieving Professional And Personal Bliss On A Journey In Cheeseworld, Mitchell Bleier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The most common approach to educating the populace places learners in contrived, curriculum-centered learning environments that are characterized by uniformity, standardization, and incessant high-stakes testing. The primacy of efficiency, an externally imposed and shifting set of non-negotiables, and top-down management dominate schooling. This set of circumstances tends to marginalize learners whose particular attributes, needs, wants and goals locate them far from what can be considered representative of the average student. In other words, efficiency trumps difference and leaves many learners in need of alternative paths to happiness and fulfillment (Callahan, 1962).

This system works for some, but for many it …

Educational Attainment Of Immigrant Students In The United States: Generational Struggle Towards Success, Robin Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Known as the land of opportunities, United States has always been a key attraction to outside world as the place where people can live up to their potential dreams. People migrate from far lands to settle down and find the missing link that was absent in their native country. Among numerous reasons, financial inefficiency and social and political insecurity at homeland, new immigration policies in the US, expectation of a better socio-economic lifestyle and a secure and prosperous future for their children are some key reasons why immigrants move out of their motherland and travel to America. They hope and …

Teachers Have Emotions Too: An Intra | Interpersonal Approach To Exploring Emotions In Teacher Preparation Courses, Shequana Wright

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The essential focus of this dissertation is the exploration of emotions in response to stressors that may emerge as preservice teachers interact in teaching and learning spaces. My experiences as a teacher and teacher-educator | researcher have influenced an interest in presenting autoethnographical studies. In each autoethnography, I explicate my personal journey in exploring emotional responses with preservice teachers during teacher preparation courses.

I describe this work as an autoethnography for two reasons. First, to avoid the false claim that my research is an objective approach to investigating emotions. Second, to illuminate the intra- and interpersonal dialectic that is embedded …

Education And Civil Conflict: The Negative Effects Of Intolerant Curricula In Kosovo, Pakistan, And Sudan, Nicholas A. Jaspers

Dissertations and Theses

Education has long been used as a tool for national identity formation and social cohesion. However, in diverse communities across the globe, the question must be asked: are educational institutions creating citizens with a narrow view of “us vs. them” or an identity built on multiculturalism and acceptance? Through past research, it is obvious that education has either acted as an instigator or mitigator of civil conflict, though to what extent is still largely unknown. In this thesis, I argue that both the extent and quality of education in a country can instigate or, at least, exacerbate the outbreak of …

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.

The Technocratic Politics Of The Common Core State Standards In History, Kate Duguid

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper shows that the explicit aims of the American educational standards for public schools, the Common Core State Standards to teach history to create “college and career ready” students, marks a shift from preparing students for political participation to preparing them for market participation. I trace the intellectual and pedagogical origins of the Common Core’s pretense of technocratic apolitical values back through the previous two major American curricular reform efforts. In the first section I discuss the origins and development of the National History Standards and show how Cold War anxiety prompted a shift in evaluating students as potential …

Closing The Teacher Diversity Gap, Emily Holzknecht

Capstones

In New York City, 43 percent of boys in the public school system may never have a teacher who looks like them. Recruitment initiatives have brought more men of color into the classroom, but challenging work environments are driving these much-needed teachers to find more profitable work in a less stressful environment.

Nationally, minority and non-minority teachers are leaving the profession at an increasing rate. In New York, men of color represent about 8 percent of the teachers, while boys of color make up almost half of the student population. Taking aim at this disparity, the de Blasio administration plans …

Community Schools: A Public Health Opportunity, Catherine Diamond

Dissertations and Theses

Community schools link students, families, and communities to educate children and strengthen neighborhoods. They have become a popular model for education in many U.S. cities in part because they build on community assets and address multiple determinants of educational disadvantage. Since community schools seek to have an impact on populations, not just the students enrolled, they provide an opportunity to improve community health. It has been proposed that community schools influence the health and education of the area residents through three pathways: building trust, establishing norms, and linking people to networks and services. However, no research has been published exploring …

Cognitive And Affective Aspects Of Personality And Academic Procrastination: The Role Of Personal Agency, Flow, And Executive Function, Marc Graff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic procrastination is a prevalent issue that affects school-related and other experiences of many students, with some studies identifying as many as a third of college students sampled as‘severe’ procrastinators. This study investigated some of the factors previous studies have identified as potential contributors to procrastinating in the academic arena. In defining procrastination as a self-regulation issue, it is proposed that distinct executive function processes play a role in one’s efforts at academic task engagement and completion and resisting the tendency to procrastinate on these tasks. It is also proposed that the frequency with which one experiences ‘flow’, a state …

Centralized, Decentralized, Distributed: Disruptive Technology In Distance Education From "Sunrise Semester" To Present-Day Moocs, Rosanna Flouty

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lessons from early academic television courses from the 1950s guide an assessment of current disruptive technologies that shape Massive Open Online Courses (known as MOOCs) and other informal online learning opportunities today. This dissertation explores some of the unique contributing factors that led to the creation of Sunrise Semester (1957-1982), a popular network television program co-produced by New York University and CBS that offered college credit to viewers. Despite the fact that the show aired at dawn and rarely included one-on-one interactions with professors, Sunrise Semester aired for nearly twenty-five years and attracted a devoted viewership of over two million …

Socio-Economic Inequalities, Academic Failure, And Institutional Interventions: What Cuny Is Doing To Help Its High Risk Populations, Cynthia Constant

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a lack of adequate research of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) school-based programs and services that are designed to aid and empower students in achieving academic success. These programs serve an urban based student population. A substantial number of these students are of low income and from historically underrepresented cultural and ethnic backgrounds. A significant portion of these students also attend a community college like Kingsborough Community College (KBCC) in the CUNY system. For most of this student population academic success is not easily obtained. This study examines the rationale behind student failure, as well as, …

Bullying And Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence From The National Longitudinal Survey Of Youth, 1997, Jessica Lum

Theses and Dissertations

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 (NLSY97) is used to study the effect of bullying on human capital accumulation. Findings suggest that adolescent bullying has a significant and negative impact on the highest educational level attained, as well as income earned as an adult.

Expecting Success: Factors Influencing Ninth Graders' Science Self-Efficacy, Elizabeth Donahue

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What factors influence ninth grade students’ expectations for success in science? Using social cognitive theory and bioecological systems theory as theoretical frameworks, this dissertation employs data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) to examine the relative impact of teacher practices and their perceived attitudes on students’ science self-efficacy. Further, as they relate to this broader issue, the relative impact of student subjective task value and teacher characteristics is also investigated.

It has been well documented that U.S. students are not achieving at satisfactory levels in science. Education policy has focused on improving science teacher quality as one …

Health, Education And Children’S Rights: A Comparability Analysis Of Kenya And Brazil, Charlette Lopez

Dissertations and Theses

Developing adequate health care and education systems has been an ongoing struggle for the governments of both Kenya and Brazil. Despite moderate improvements in health and education statistics for both of these countries, there is clear evidence that these states will have to be actively engaged in order to overcome the challenges that lie ahead. Kenya and Brazil may differ in geographical location, history, culture, and socioeconomic status, but both countries are congruent in the challenges they face to provide sufficient access to quality health care and educational resources to the upcoming generations of children who are being failed by …

A New Charter Challenges Popular Paradigms, Levi Sharpe

Capstones

Many popular charter schools in New York City, which are highly rated, are known for being heavy on test prep and rigid in structure. Success Academy, the largest charter network in New York City, is the paragon of this type of model. But these models, known as "no-excuse" charters can burn out teachers. Critics also say they squelch students' creativity and their desire to be in class. A New York Times article from April 2015 described Success’ “polarizing tactics," which lead to high teacher turnover. Six months later, The Times also reported on a Success Academy charter in Fort Greene …

Battle Over School Choice, Bianca Flowers

Capstones

The debate over school choice continues to intensify among New York's education leaders and communities. As the mounting tension over education inequality and reform permeates though households to the steps of City Hall, one Brooklyn family feels caught in the cross hairs.

Two-Way Street: A Parent-Child Approach To Learning Could Close The Nation's Inequality Gap, Rebecca Bratek

Capstones

While most modern school reforms argue that good schools can fix academic barriers kids face at home, many experts worry that investing in childhood education is not enough for society’s poorest children and families. Studies show that if parents’ education or job level is raised, the success of the child is raised, too. Through dual-generation strategies – programs that teach and support parents and children simultaneously – those living in poverty have a better shot at success.

Rethinking School Discipline, Gwynne Hogan

Capstones

How schools maintain order in the halls can be just as important as what they teach in the classrooms. The way students are disciplined teaches them what consequences their actions will have not just in school, but as they grow into adulthood. This project examines the role of the NYPD in city schools and the impact it has on school discipline. It will also look into one school in Far Rockaway whose principal has managed cut suspensions by shifting attitudes towards discipline.

Iron Tower, Laura Bult

Capstones

The current state of higher education in prisons in the U.S., as a reflection of our changing attitudes about the purpose of incarceration, as told by the story of Clyde Meikle, a man with a life sentence in Connecticut who is a student in Wesleyan's Center for Prison Education, a liberal arts program.

Your Brain On Art: Art Therapy In A Museum Setting And Its Potential At The Rubin Musuem Of Art, Laura Sloan

Dissertations and Theses

Art therapy-based programs could open the doors of the museum to another population of visitors with disabilities, particularly those suffering from mental illness and in need of healing and wellness. The above statement serves as the core of this thesis with the ultimate goal to analyze and research the place of art therapy in a museum setting. Investigation of existing literature, interviews with professionals, and case studies, reveal the ways in which art therapy can be facilitated in a museum setting in order to better reach this population. Furthermore this thesis explores how collaboration between museum educators and art therapists …

The Social Construction Of Authorship: An Investigation Of Subjectivity And Rhetorical Authority In The College Writing Classroom, Johannah Rodgers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although we use the term author on a daily basis to refer to certain individuals, bodies of work, and systems of ideas, as Michel Foucault and other critics have pointed out, attempting to answer the question “What is an Author?” is by no means a simple proposition. And, starting from the position that there is no single, or definitive answer to this complex question, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the genealogy of authorship by investigating the ways in which conceptions of the author have informed models of the writing subject in the field of rhetoric …