Education Commons^™

Transformational Leadership Qualities Among Students Within Doctoral Higher Education Leadership Programs, Joshua Lee Howell

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Transformational Leadership Qualities Among Students Within Doctoral Higher Education Leadership Programs is a mixed-method study utilizing program evaluation of course descriptions and transformational leadership fostering activities, interviews with program chairs surrounding transformational leadership fostering activities, and completion of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5x™) survey results from doctoral higher education students and their programs within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Researchers in the field of Higher Education and Leadership indicated that Transformational Leadership was more apt for college and university presidency, that doctoral degrees were more preferable for college and university presidency, and as doctoral higher education programs provide students with curriculum …

Association Between Fiscal Effort Above Required Local Effort And Accreditation In Virginia Schools, Daniel C. Soderholm

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This study expands on previous research regarding the adequacy of educational funding in order to reach a desired academic outcome. Specifically, this study examines Virginia policies of Standards of Quality and Standards of Accreditation to see if local fiscal effort above the minimum required by Virginia has an association to the desired minimum academic outcome of school accreditation.

The research in this study shows that when using a linear regression analysis or an ANCOVA there is no relationship between effort above Required Local Effort (RLE) and the percentage of students attending an accredited school. However, when looking at the non-linear …

Fiscal Effort For Pre-Kindergarten Spending And Early Literacy Achievement In Virginia, Patricia S. Williams

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

There is a plethora of available early childhood education research linking participation and funding to short- and long-term benefits for individuals, society, and the economy. Educational advocates, social justice proponents, and economists agree that pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) education is the best human capital investment to spur economic growth and wealth. States are faced with choices and challenges concerning Pre-K investments as a vehicle to realizing desired literacy outcomes. Virginia, in particular, is stifled by below-average proficiency rates on national and state reading assessments, as well as declines school readiness skills and early literacy rates. For this reason, the intent of this …

The Impact Of Service-Learning On General Education Outcomes At A Community College In Virginia, Sonya Lisette Landas

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Service-learning is an instructional method designed to cultivate interaction between students and their communities in order to improve the learning process. Although there is a wealth of information available pertaining to the development and implementation of service-learning in higher education, evidence supporting the impact of service-learning on general education outcomes at a community college is minimal. The current study investigated the impact of service-learning on two general education outcomes at a local community college: critical thinking and personal growth (measured by two subtasks on the Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Assessment). The researcher used an Analysis of Variance with repeated …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Experiences Of Women In Leadership And Community At Old Dominion University From 1970 To 1990, Ann E. Wendle Barnes

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

During the 1970s college campuses in the United States were often the venue through which change occurred. Female faculty and students were assertive in their efforts to influence equality between men and women across the country (Morris, 1984). This historical phenomenological study examined the oral history of several women who advocated for women's rights at Old Dominion University (ODU) by establishing the Women's Caucus, Women's Studies Program, and Women's Center during the late 1970s through the 1990s.

Participants selected for this study took part in semi-structured interviews, and the results of the interviews were triangulated with archived documents available at …

Financial Aid As Retention Predictor: The Relationship Of Financial Aid To Retention At A Virginia Community College, Eunice Rohrer Wine

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between student financial aid awarded, unmet financial need, and fall-to-spring student retention of students at a small, public, southeastern, U.S. community college. The research hypotheses drew upon past research on retention theory, employing economic persistence theory. This study focused on three areas: the amount of grant awarded per student, the amount of loan awarded per student, and the amount of unmet need per student. These variables were then used as the predictors for student retention.

The research methodology was an exploratory, non experimental quantitative study of ex post facto data using logistic regression. The participants …

Perceptions Of Virginia Community College System Faculty And Administrators On The Purposes For And Composition Of A Comprehensive Evaluation System For Teaching Faculty Members, William H. Hightower Jr.

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

A survey instrument was developed to measure community college faculty and administrator views on the faculty evaluation process. Responses were then compared based on demographic characteristics such as primary area of instruction, supervisory responsibility, years of experience, and gender. Open-ended survey questions asked respondents to identify the strengths, limitations and changes needed for their current faculty evaluation plans.

A total of 404 faculty members and 67 administrators completed the survey. Significant differences were found between faculty and administrator responses with respect to the reasons for conducting faculty evaluations, the relative importance of including certain elements in the evaluation process, and …

Student Perceptions Of Campus Safety Within The Virginia Community College System, Robert Chad Patton

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This research examined Virginia community college students' perceptions of campus safety. A survey of 11,161 students revealed the crimes students most feared being a victim of while on the community college campus and the areas in which they felt the most and least safe. The research also demonstrated the effect certain variables had on students' overall perception of campus safety. The variables studied included student demographics, the presence and type of security personnel, and the rurality of the campus setting. The campuses with the highest and lowest degrees of perceived safety were then further studied via case studies to gather …

The Philanthropic Motivations Of Community College Donors: A Study Of The Educational Foundation Of A Mid-Sized, Multi-Campus Community College In Virginia, Linnie Smith Carter

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the philanthropic motivations of the donors of a mid-sized, multi-campus community college in Virginia as part of a plan to enhance relationships with donors and increase the amount of private funds raised. Dependence on dwindling, traditional and limited funding sources leaves community colleges vulnerable and constantly struggling to fund the ever-increasing needs of their internal and external stakeholders (Sheldon, 2003). Community colleges are attempting to address the problem by enhancing their fundraising efforts and strengthening relationships with donors.

A mixed-method, multi-step approach was used for this research study. The approach in this study involved five steps. The …

Institutional Factors Supporting The Enrollment And Persistence Of African-American Males In Virginia Community Colleges, Alfred A. Roberts

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The participation and persistence rates of African-American males in American institutions of higher education consistently trail those of other ethnic and gender subgroups. These national enrollment, graduation, and transfer statistics are reflected in the member institutions of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). The purpose of this study was to determine which of the 23 member colleges of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) have been able to enroll and graduate or transfer the highest proportional number of African-American male students and to identify the institutional characteristics and practices that best predict the enrollment and persistence of African-American males.

The …

A Program Evaluation Of Supplemental Instruction For Developmental Mathematics At A Community College In Virginia, Marilyn Lawson Peacock

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

With the current emphasis on accountability and the importance of math skills in our present economy, the success of developmental mathematics students at community colleges is critical. How to improve the success of these developmental students has become the impetus for many educational initiatives. One educational innovation in tutoring, called supplemental instruction, has been successfully applied to high-risk courses which are defined to have a failure rate in excess of 30%. Mid-Atlantic Community College, in its Title III grant which seeks to improve the success of developmental students, selected supplemental instruction as its initiative. This program evaluation investigated the effects …

The Non-Cognitive Attributes Of First-Year At-Risk Students Who Are Academically Successful And Retained At Old Dominion University, Tisha M. Paredes

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

With a decrease in state and federal funding, higher educational institutions need to focus on retaining students. However, student retention is a multifaceted problem that requires varied solutions. Traditional measures, or cognitive measures, of student success, such as pre-college knowledge (SAT and high school grade point average) have not explained how higher education institutions retained students, especially students who are considered at-risk. Since the nature of student retention is idiosyncratic, research needs to focus on other measures, such as students' non-cognitive factors. Tinto has outlined non-cognitive factors, such as pre-college characteristics, goals and commitments, and institutional experiences, which influence students' …

The Impact Of Participation In A Virginia Community College Orientation Program Course On Student Engagement, Satisfaction, Academic Achievement, And Retention, Wendy L. Tighe

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Participation in an orientation program course and several student engagement and satisfaction factors have been identified as positively related to desirable student outcomes. This study explored student engagement, satisfaction, academic achievement, and retention for students based on their enrollment in an orientation course at Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Virginia. This study used a cross-sectional, static group comparison secondary data analysis approach to explore four research questions. The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) data used for this study came from the TCC spring 2005 Community College Student Report (CCSR) this study determined whether or not participation in an …

An Examination Of Differences Between Occupational-Technical Student And Transfer Student Engagement At Small Community Colleges In Virginia, Janet T. Laughlin

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the differences in levels of student engagement between occupational-technical students and transfer students in an attempt to gain insight into why so many students fail to attain their educational goals. Students' engagement or involvement with their educational institution and program of study is considered a major contributor to persistence and graduation. Research on student engagement as it relates to persisters and leavers includes the five student engagement variables benchmarked by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE): (a) active and collaborative learning, (b) student effort, (c) academic challenge, (d) student-faculty interaction, and (e) support for learners. …

Workforce Investment Act Services: Effect On Dislocated Worker Reemployment, Martha A. Walker

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The effect of WIA services on the gainful reemployment of Virginia's dislocated workers was explored using a mixed method, non-experimental, ex post factoresearch design. Analysis of variance with follow-up post hoc tests probed for statistically significant differences in hourly reemployed wage and weeks dislocated determined by (a) WIA service level, (b) impact of training, (c) characteristics of training completers and non-completers, and (d) impact of dislocated worker characteristics. Qualitative methods were used to search for trends and patterns defined by the perceptions of both dislocated workers and employers.

Between 2000 and 2004, Virginia's dislocated workers averaged 1.5 years of …