Education Commons^™

Access With Progress: A Comparative Analysis On The Co-Requisite Model Of Developmental Acceleration, Christopher Sean Wikstrom

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Students who are required to progress through a developmental education program face substantial barriers in the way of annual retention and program completion. A multitude of models exist on college campuses to improve these outcomes, one of which implements an on-time remediation approach. This co-requisite method is designed to reduce the time in developmental sequencing and stop-out points and accelerate students who are placed into preparatory classes to their gateway courses. As a form of developmental acceleration, students can concurrently enroll in their on-level and remedial courses in the same semester. A comparative analysis was performed between three student subgroups …

School Leaders’ Conceptualizations Of Teacher Care For African American Middle School Students, Violet Keene Whiteman

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to describe middle school leaders’ conceptualizations of caring teacher behaviors for African American middle school students. The qualitative case study focused on school leaders’ conceptualizations/identification of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) of care for African American middle school students. Noddings’ (1988) plan of action for implementing an ethic of care, including modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation, was used to inform the study. Data were collected through interviews, discussions of identified incidents of care, and observation documentation from the middle school leaders participating in the study.

Themes identified from the study included: build relationships, identify …

Punishment As Pedagogy: An Exploration Of The Disciplinary Alternative School, Kaitlyn J. Selman

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

As school districts across the US attempt to reduce their reliance on exclusionary punishment—and declining suspension and expulsion rates are heralded as signs of success—understanding the complexities of education and carcerality remains an urgent matter. Through a critical content analysis of a number of sources, including existing historical and ethnographic research, code of conduct handbooks, school websites, news articles, and data reports, this dissertation foregrounds an institution that is framed as an “alternative” to exclusionary punishment, yet is motivated by the same carceral logics that have long-haunted the school’s practice of managing students.

Chapter I introduces relevant literature on disciplinary …

The Effect Of The Behavioral Analysis Feedback Model On Improving Performance Of Nursing Students During Clinical Rotations, Melanie Elizabeth Ross

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the effects the Behavioral Analysis Feedback (BAF) Model had on improving nursing student’s performance. Research studies surrounding feedback primarily centered on frameworks designed as models for delivering feedback as well as the timing for delivering feedback. In addition, past research has also focused on individual elements that affect performance with little regard to environmental elements. The BAF Model was conceptualized based on the importance of providing feedback to nursing students while emphasizing three individual and three environmental elements that have the potential to influence behavior.

This multiple measure, single-case study utilized a quasi-experimental pre-post intervention study design. …

Predicting First-Year Mathematics Success At The Community College: Modifications On High School Grade Point Average And The Impact Of High School Quality, C. Caleb Marsh

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, student completion in the first-year college mathematics curriculum has become a significant barrier to student success and retention. Many states, such as North Carolina and Virginia, have been innovative in developing new strategies for placing students into an appropriate mathematics curriculum. A centerpiece of these strategies is to use student performance in high school, as measured by high school grade point average, as a predictor of course success and completion. However, in each system, what is largely absent from their placement models is an attempt to account for the quality of the institution that issued the …

Understanding Technological, Pedagogical, And Content Knowledge In An Educational Technology Course: A Case Study Of Social Studies Preservice Teacher's Beliefs And Dispositions, Mark M. Diacopoulos

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

As beliefs and dispositions form the foundation of practice, the situations in which teachers develop belief is an important factor in their development (Roth, 1999). One aspect shaping the beliefs of teacher candidates is their experience with education. Lortie (2002) refers to this as the problem of “apprenticeship of observation”, the learning that occurs from watching teachers in the 12 or more years spent in school as a student. School experiences greatly affect the preconceptions teacher candidates have about teaching and learning. Richardson and Placier (2001) state most preservice teacher beliefs consist of unexamined assumptions. These views tend to focus …

The Impact Of Performance-Based Funding On Graduation Rates At Texas State Technical College, Adam Hutchison

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

As states legislatures seek improved results and increased accountability from higher education institutions, performance-based funding is frequently used as fiscal policy to determine state appropriations. Performance-based funding (PBF) determines an institution’s appropriation by its attainment of metrics, usually student outcomes. Early versions of PBF provided incentive funding for institutions that exceeded outcome goals, but later formulas included more intermediate metrics and required institutions meet targets to receive baseline funding. Prior studies examined the impact of PBF on retention and graduation rates at institutions through state-to-state comparisons and explored the political implications of PBF policies. Researchers found states using PBF did …

Incivility As A Barrier To Embeddedness Among Engineering Students: Does Gender Matter?, Katelyn R. Reynoldson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

To meet the current demand for engineers, research has focused on how to attract and retain qualified candidates in the field, especially those that are underrepresented (e.g., women; NSB, 2016). The present study investigates incivility and embeddedness, which have been found to be antecedents of retention in both the workplace (Cortina, Magley, Williams, & Langhout, 2001; Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, & Erez, 2001) and the collegiate setting (Caza & Cortina, 2007; Major et al., 2015). To extend previous research, both constructs were examined simultaneously among undergraduate engineering students. Undergraduate, first-year engineers completed an online survey indicating the extent to which …

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 …

Community College Faculty Compensation For Online Course Development And Delivery, Radhika I. Prout

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the most common compensation practices community colleges in the United States provided to faculty for online course development and delivery. Many community colleges provided compensation as an incentive for faculty participation in supporting their online learning initiatives; however, limited research was available on fair compensation for these services. The population consisted of 980 community colleges that were identified using the American Association of Community College’s membership directory.

Data for this study were collected using a survey that contained 31 closed and open form response questions requesting demographic information and current practices for …

Predicting Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Student Success: Executive Functions And Standardized Admission Tests, Jane E. Roitsch

Communication Disorders & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Within the next three years, the number of available speech-language pathology (SLP) jobs is projected to increase by 18% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018). The most logical response to the escalating market demand would be to increase the number of students admitted into SLP graduate programs. However, this may not be as simple as it sounds.

Successful training of graduate SLP clinicians requires the professional, emotional, financial, and time commitments of the program’s clinical and academic faculty. The accreditation status of graduate SLP programs is based in part on graduation completion rates and students passing the national examination in SLP, …

Testing A Model Of Servant Leadership's Influence On Follower Outcomes: Exploring Mediation Effects Of Follower Trust And Prosocial Identity, Dante P. Myers

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Servant leadership is beginning to emerge as a premier positive leadership approach in the 21st century. However, recent theoretical propositions detailing the process through which servant leadership impacts outcomes has not been tested. Using the JD-R framework, the present study investigates follower prosocial identity and follower trust as key mediators of the relationship between servant leadership and follower job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviors, community citizenship behaviors, and turnover intentions. Research participants included 578 working adults recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) that responded to three surveys separated by approximately one month each. The hypothesized model was tested using …

An Exploration Of Faculty And Staff Mentoring On High-Risk Community College Student Self-Efficacy, Support Systems, And Persistence, William E. Ashcraft

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of faculty and staff mentoring on high-risk community college student self-efficacy, support systems and persistence and identifying the attitudes and behaviors of successful faculty and staff mentors. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, twenty-two successful high-risk students from one urban community college were interviewed and asked to identify and describe someone on campus who had been most influential in their ability to persist. The twenty-six community college faculty and staff personnel identified by these students were interviewed to learn what they do to help students succeed and persist. Four themes emerged …

Factors Influencing Student Enrollment In Career Academy Programs, Whitney Stokes Ketchledge

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Career academies are small learning communities that allow high school students to learn their core content in the context of the career field they may be interested in pursuing. This type of learning environment incorporates business and industry and postsecondary institutions so academy students receive academic curricula that prepares them for higher education and allows students to have experiences in the career field. There is considerable research demonstrating strong benefits of the academy model to students and teachers, but there is little indicating why students enroll in the academy and what methods of recruitment may work best.

The purpose of …

Predictors Of Medical Students’ Attitudes Towards Abortion And Their Changes Overtime, Rebecca Elizabeth Morales

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

As new legislation is regularly being introduced to minimize Roe v. Wade’s protection of women’s right to choose in a medical setting, it is imperative to study what predictors may have an impact on abortion attitudes within the demographic of medical students, as well as how these predictors impact one’s willingness to provide the service in the future. The current study then, uses data collected in 2000 and 2015 from a medical school located in Virginia, and in collaboration with a research university in the state to examine what factors are associated with a willingness to provide an abortion, as …

A Study Of Late Registration At Four Community Colleges, Meredith Courtney Nourie-Manuele

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

At the community college level, a debated policy is whether to keep the option for late registration. Most colleges define late registration as registration that occurs any time after the first day of the semester (O’Banion, 2012). Some community colleges have opted to eliminate late registration, believing, based on previous studies, that late registration is a barrier to students and their success (Bolt, 2013; Hale & Bray, 2011; Jones, 2015; Smith, Street, & Olivarez, 2002; Weiss, 1999). Others assert late registration remain an option maintaining that the open access designation associated with the community college demands that students not be …

A Workforce Development Study To Explore Current Demand For Industry-Recognized Credentials, Debra Kay Smiley

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

In this descriptive research study, I identified industry-recognized workforce credentials that are or will be in high demand by employers operating in Virginia. I surveyed a targeted group of Virginia workforce development stakeholders including 17 Virginia Community College System workforce development leaders who represent each local community college, 47 Virginia local and regional economic development directors, and 11 Virginia Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act directors. Due to the economic disparity between rural and urban areas, I also examined the contrast between high-demand credentials needed by employers in rural and urban areas.

The findings revealed that the top two industry-recognized credentials were …

A Single Campus Study Of The Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program, Brittany F. Hollis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sexual assault is a serious public health issue that is especially problematic on college campuses. To combat sexual violence on college campuses prevention programs have been instituted by many universities. One such prevention program, the Green Dot program, works to teach students what constitutes sexual violence and how to prevent it by increasing bystander intervention. The current study examined the effectiveness of Green Dot at a large southeastern university. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework. TPB examines how efficacy, attitudes, and norms influence behavior. Students were recruited to participate in the Green Dot program …

A Continuum Of Care: School Librarian Interventions For New Teacher Resilience, Rita Reinsel Soulen

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

School librarians occupy a unique position to offer supports for first year teachers to build resilience, reduce burnout, and ensure retention. The researcher used the psychology theory of resilience to develop the Continuum of Care model which initiates in mentoring and moves toward a collaborative partnership. Fifteen school librarians in one urban district recruited 26 new teachers in their schools to form the treatment group. All new teachers in the district were surveyed to establish their initial level of resilience and collect demographics. A comparison group of 26 new teachers were matched by scores on a resilience scale at the …

Community College Students' Deep Learning Approaches In Oer Courses, Kim Ellen Grewe

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to bridge the gap for community college students not only because they are more affordable or provide access but also because they have the potential to make learning more meaningful for these same students. Although issues related to access and affordability have been extensively researched, less is known about the ways in which OER use may impact community college students’ deep approaches to learning. More qualitative research around OER efficacy from the student perspective is needed. The purpose of this study was to describe the ways students use OER and how students’ OER …