Education Commons^™

An Investigation Of Middle School Mentoring Relationships Through The Lens Of The Developmental Assets Framework, Christopher Thomas Reinsma

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

School-based mentoring is a popular but relatively unstudied support intervention for students entering middle school. Mentoring research more generally reveals that relationship quality between student and mentor is foundational for achieving positive student outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, the 20/20 Vision Project explored mentoring relationship quality and student outcomes for a group of 15 fifth and sixth grade students at an intermediate school in the upper Midwest. Students and mentors were matched in developmental relationships that focused on building developmental assets over the course of one school semester. Matched pairs met for 40 minutes, one time per week for …

The Relationship Between Instructional Strategies And Teacher Evaluation In Michigan Public Schools, Stephen D. Laatsch

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether teachers altered instructional strategies based on their local school district’s teacher evaluation framework. Further, if changes were made to their use of instructional strategies, specific factors that influenced the changes were explored. This information is important because school districts across Michigan spend time, energy, and money for new teacher evaluation frameworks. Thus, it is essential to know if these frameworks change the use of instructional strategies in the classroom.

Teachers in 10 southeastern Michigan public school districts were surveyed to determine use of research-based instructional strategies before and after the …

An Analysis Of Successful Charter School Operations, Margaret Helen Ameel

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study adds to the literature specific practices and systems that contribute to successful charter schools. Nine open ended interviews were conducted, which were then read and coded to identify themes. Using a process consistent with the constant comparison method, codes were transferred into a separate document. To ensure novel code development, constant comparison involved a recursive check of the code list. The code list was considered complete after reaching a point of theoretical saturation whereby novel codes were no longer necessary to interpret uncoded interview content. Codes were then assembled into higher order themes based on shared meaning and …

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Black High School Students In The Mathematics Classroom: A Qualitative Study, Jennifer Banks

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

For the past 30 years, there has been a significant “achievement gap” between the mathematics academic performance of Black and White students. This “achievement gap,” has been used to validate deficit thinking frameworks and portray Black students as unmotivated and deviant. This study suggests that it is necessary to change the national conversation of the achievement gap to one that Milner (2012) refers to as the opportunity gap.

Using the stories of Black high school students’ experiences in the mathematics classroom, this dissertation displays the various opportunity gaps that Black students experience within the classroom. This study utilizes qualitative research …

Forecasting Competencies For College And University Chief Housing Officers In The United States: A Delphi Study, Brian L. Fitzgerald

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study started with the simple proposition that it would be useful to forecast the competencies that will be required for chief housing officers in the future. Housing and residence life is a relatively young profession and began with the rise of what is commonly understood to be college personnel work and now known as student affairs.

Student affairs as a profession within higher education began to gain recognition in the 1940s. The identification of governing ethics, standards and competencies gained momentum and clarification in the succeeding year. Housing and residence life as part of the student affairs enterprise was …

Parent Voices Revisited: American Indian Relationships With Schools, Catherine A. Herzog

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study duplicated the survey research of Robinson-Zanartu and Majel-Dixon in their 1996 article "Parent Voices: American Indian Relationships with Schools" published in The Journal of American Indian Education. Two hypotheses were investigated in this study. The first hypothesis was that due to the increase in multicultural education training that teachers receive as pre-service teachers and in professional development, there would be an increase in Native American parent/community satisfaction with the schools that service their children. The second hypothesis was that due to this multicultural education training there would be a reduction in referrals of Native American students to …

Laying The Foundation: An Investigation Of Bachelor's Degree Attainment Rates Of Early College High School Graduates, Ellen Lea Fischer

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This quantitative study explored the post-secondary success of the graduating classes of 2010 and 2011 from one early college high school in Washtenaw County, Michigan. The Early College Alliance (ECA) program is located on the campus of Eastern Michigan University (EMU), a public four-year university. It is a consortium program providing a unique and supported dual enrollment opportunity to high school students. After mastering both the academic and socioemotional skills required for success in college, ECA students earn up to 60 undergraduate credits at EMU and graduate from high school with both a high school diploma and a significant head …

A Study Of The Effect Of School Management Upon 4th And 8th Grade Math And Reading Results In Relation To Market Driven Theory, Reginald Kirkland

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There are several types of organizations that propose to educate students living within a large urban city in southeastern Michigan. These organizations manage portfolios of schools and differ in a variety of ways. Some of them are for-profit corporations, and others are nonprofit. There is a portfolio of schools directly managed by the traditional public school system, and yet another managed by a state agency. In addition to the aforementioned, there are several that are empowered by state law to authorize charter schools to founding boards of directors, who who in turn contract with management companies or attempt to manage …

Information And Communication Technology (Ict) Literacy: Refining A Construct For Assessment, Louis Michael Verdusco

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research effort conceptualized, developed, implemented, and examined the psychometric properties of an Information & Communication Technology (ICT) literacy assessment instrument designed for students entering college. This process began with the development of a working definition of the ICT literacy based on the literature and the input of a panel of experts regarding the proposed literacy sub-constructs and the individual test items. A pilot test was conducted to identify areas for improvement. Once these improvements were incorporated, the final assessment instrument was administered to the freshmen class at a private Midwestern comprehensive university with religious affiliation.

The psychometric aspects of …

Female Student Veterans' Resiliency In Their Role Transitions, Michael Dennis Parise

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined female student veterans as they pertain to Schlossberg's Theory of Transition (1981), which asserts that many life events influence one’s ability to adapt when transitioning from one role to another in a linear fashion. The results of this study reveal that the participants viewed change not as a transition, but that they faced conflict from competing roles and stressors. Their attainment of their goals resulted from their ability to be resilient.

An Examination Of The Effects Of School Choice On The Financial Integrity And Demographic Mix Of Traditional Public Schools, Jacqueline Abbey Johnston

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to study how the controversial yet expanding use of school choice affects traditional public schools' finances and socioeconomic and racial/ethnic student demographics. This mixed-methods study analyzed traditional public school districts in two Michigan counties in 2009/10 and 2013/14, answering three research questions: 1) Are the finances in districts with greater concentrations of student poverty and diversity more affected by choice than districts with lesser concentrations of student poverty and diversity? 2) Is there a relationship between choice impact and the socioeconomic and racial/ethnic concentration of student populations? and 3) What are superintendents' perceptions of …

The Impact Of Font Type On Reading, Stephanie Hoffmeister

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Significant differences in brain activation patterns exist between readers with and without dyslexia (Shaywitz, 1998). One possible area of difference involves font style that has led to the development of specific fonts to help individuals with dyslexia. Recent studies of dyslexia-specific fonts provide no specific evidence that they improve an individual's reading ability or speed of reading.

Mobile Device Acceptance In Nursing Education, Deanna Gapp

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are being used in healthcare settings for better patient outcomes. By laying the foundation for mobile device use in the educational setting, students can be better prepared for nursing practice in this technology-rich environment (National League for Nursing [NLN], 2008). The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the mobile device acceptance (MDA) model that guides nursing students’ decision to use mobile devices as educational tools. The MDA model also guides the measurement development and psychometrics testing for the MDA constructs in order to understand mobile device use and to examine correlates …

Voices Of Perseverance: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Life Histories Of Female African-American Registered Nurses, Marva E. Brooks

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There is a demand in the United States for a representative body of registered nurses to meet the needs of an ever-growing, aging, and increasingly diverse population. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the aging and retirement of the majority White nursing workforce created a need for a diverse body of competent and culturally-sensitive nurses to care for the aging baby boomers, an increasingly diverse population, and to counter healthcare disparities. Lack of diversity in nursing has been compounded by the high attrition rate of minorities in nursing education programs, particularly African Americans, the largest minority group in …

Crossing Jordan: An Exploration Of Academic Optimism In The Schooling Experiences Of Low-Income African American Female Students And Their Perceptions Of Their Academic Lives, Cristal Nichols

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation study explored the construct of academic optimism and its manifestation in the schooling lives of low-income, African American females who have obtained post-secondary educational status. The study also examined the facilitators and barriers the participants have encountered on their academic journeys towards the attainment of a fouryear college degree. The construct of academic optimism has previously been applied to schools and educators. This research explored the construct of academic optimism as it related to students, in this instance, low-income, African American female college students. The research study also explored what factors contributed to low-income, African American women’s …

Fragmented Lives: A Qualitative Study Of The Experiences Of Black Youth Who Have Aged Out Of The Foster Care System, Dawn L. Stewart

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Each year, growing numbers of black foster youth, ages 18 and older, are emancipated from the child welfare system. Prior to termination, they are provided with a montage of independent living services aimed at teaching self-sufficiency skills. Nevertheless, many of these youth find themselves alone without the necessary aptitude, resources, and support needed to assume the intimidating responsibilities of adulthood. Although the literature regarding emancipated youth and their outcomes is extensive, there has been minimal research conducted on the unique experiences of Black youth as well as the factors that contribute to their success or failure in their transition to …

Ann Arbor And The Ann Arbor Public Schools: A Cultural Geography, Lisa R. Anglin

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the persisting disparity in academic achievement between Caucasian and African American students within the Ann Arbor Public School District. This research analyzed the historical and geographical evolution of the city of Ann Arbor, specific to the organization of its public schools. This study sought to define the dominant cultural groups of Ann Arbor, how they evolved, as well as how they migrated to the region. In addition, a critical component of this study was to explain the relationship between the cultural geography of Ann Arbor and structure of the school organization, which …

Voices Of The Invisible: A Critical Ethnography Of Youth Put At Risk In An Age Of Disposability, Lena Boraggina-Ballard

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The original intent of this study was an endeavor to learn from the experiences of youth put at risk who created and engaged in a social justice-oriented civic engagement project that speaks to the context of their lives. More specifically, the objective was to gain an understanding about the qualitative meanings the youth ascribed to their experiences both inside and outside of school; how they experienced resistance; and how a critical pedagogical approach to learning and participating in a social justice-oriented civic engagement project impacted their learning experience. However, as the study unfolded the circumstances were such that the study …

Digital Badges For Stem Learning In Secondary Contexts: A Mixed Methods Study, Angela Elkordy

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The deficit in STEM skills is a matter of concern for national economies and a major focus for educational policy makers. The development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has resulted in a rapidly changing workforce of global scale. In addition, ICT have fostered the growth of digital and mobile technologies which have been the learning context, formal and informal, for a generation of youth. The purpose of this study was to design an intervention based upon a competency-based, digitally-mediated, learning intervention: digital badges for learning STEM habits of mind and practices. Designed purposefully, digital badge learning trajectories and criteria …

Applying Distributed And Transformational Leadership Theories To Increase Opportunities For Women In Senior Educational Leadership In Saudi Arabia, Refah Aldawsari

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In Saudi Arabia, the lack of representation of women in senior educational leadership is a problem that continues to plague the quality of K–12 educations in girls’ schools in the nation. In this paper, I will address the likely causes and outcomes of this issue and will suggest strategies for change that focus on the implementation of distributed and transformational theories of leadership to encourage renovation in Saudi girls’ school curricula. This paper also analyzes and compares some aspects of the Saudi boys’ and girls’ K–12 curriculum and conducts a survey that will present current opinions of the roles women …

Why And How Teachers Transform Their Instruction, Barbara J. Light

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In his 2011 book The highly qualified teacher: What is teacher quality and how do we measure it? Strong argues that as a profession, education has struggled to measure teacher quality and therefore cannot provide a proven system to consistently develop high-quality teachers. In order to move toward an operational definition of teacher quality, Kennedy, in her 2008 journal article entitled “Contributions of qualitative research to research on teacher qualifications” suggests that the causal mechanisms of the development of teachers who are identified as high-quality teachers must be researched, documented, and then used in teacher preparation and development. Instructional ability …

"You Are Coming With Me": A Phenomenological Exploration Of Urban Speech-Language Pathologists, Audrey Michelle Farrugia-Bernard

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Using phenomenology and symbolic action theory as a theoretical framework, this qualitative study explored the experiences and practices of urban, school-based speechlanguage pathologists (SLPs). The study focused on the assessment, certification, and service of students in urban schools, a majority of whom are members of minority groups in light of the disproportionality of students of color in special education. This study aimed to capture the urban SLP’s point of view and illuminate the power that they may use or abuse in a school system. The understanding of the lived experiences and practices of 11 White, female SLPs practicing in urban …

Capabilities Eroded And Childcare Dilemmas: A Phenomenological Study Of Low-Income Single Student Mothers In Higher Education In The United States And Germany, Katja Robinson

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lifeworlds of low-income, single student mothers in two contrasting welfare regimes, the United States and Germany, to understand how their individual experiences as students and as mothers at the micro-level were shaped by policies regarding childcare and financial support at the macro-level. As single mothers represent a marginalized constituency, the capabilities approach in combination with the concept of defamilisation was used as an analytical framework that focused on their individual and social well-being. The objective of this cross-national study was to provide a deeper understanding of how the issues of …

Gaps In Soft Skills Of New Interior Design Graduates And Potential Employment, Diane Guevara

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Keeping abreast of the changes in skills desired by potential employers is an ongoing challenge in all fields. Gaps in those skill sets can produce a ripple effect in any industry. This study looks at the interior design industry and whether the undergraduate curriculum is keeping up with the skills desired by potential employers who require employees to have a bachelor degree in interior design. Undergraduate interior design program directors want their programs to be well known for the employment-ready graduates they produce, and that their students possess the skills requested by potential employers in the interior design field. This …

The Success Of The Education Achievement Authority: How The State Set Itself Up For Failure, Carolyn Kohls

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Ethics At Eastern Michigan University And The College Of Business: A Study Of Academic Dishonesty And Professionalism, Ashley Shahan

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.