Education Commons^™

Building Spiritual Capital: The Effects Of Kundalini Yoga On Adolescent Stress, Emotional Affect, And Resilience, Meliné Sarkissian

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

In order to integrate a mind, body, spirit approach in school settings, yoga programming such as Y.O.G.A. for Youth was introduced to one public and two charter schools in Los Angeles area urban neighborhoods. The study examined the effectiveness of the overall program and its effect on adolescent stress, emotional affect, and resilience. A survey was administered to measure the three dependent variables and informal interviews were conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of the program. The results of the mixed method approach indicated that the overall program was effective in creating a general sense of well-being and statistically significant …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Obama Administration’S Education Speeches, Adriane Kayoko Peralta

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined 45 education speeches presented by President Obama and leaders of the U.S. Department of Education from January 2009 through December 2010. These speeches were interpreted with the use of critical discourse analysis and reviewed through the lens of interest convergence theory. The first aim of the researcher was to uncover the underlying ideologies represented in the Obama Administration’s education speeches. The second objective was to understand how those ideologies impacted the Administration’s proposed reform ideas. Specifically, the researcher was interested in how the underpinning ideologies and proposed solutions affected the education of poor students of color. …

The Avoidance Of Race: White Teachers’ Racial Identities In Alternative Teacher Education Programs And Urban Under-Resourced Schools, Kelley Marie Mccann Miller

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Due to the lack of research on White teacher racial identity development and White graduates of alternative teacher education programs teaching in urban under-resourced schools, this study aimed to: examine how White graduates of alternative teacher education programs perceive race and racism in their urban under-resourced schools, explore the impact of their alternative teacher education programs on their racial identities, and evaluate their abilities to deepen their racial identities in the context of their urban under-resourced schools. Critical examination and analysis of the experiences of White teachers, through the lenses of Critical Race Theory, Critical White Studies, and Howard’s Racial …

A Qualitative Study Of Three Urban Catholic High Schools: Investigating Parent And Principal Expectations And Realizations Of Parental Involvement And The Parent-School Relationship, Karen Elayne Holyk-Casey

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated parents’ and principals’ expectations of their roles in the parent-school relationship and how they defined, encouraged, and realized parental involvement within an urban Catholic high school setting. Through pattern analysis and axial coding of the data collected from parents and principal interviews, documents, and observations at parent-school meetings and events, four patterns emerged: (a) the underlying child-centered mission, (b) the parents’ role in supporting the student, (c) the parent-school relationship created to support the student, and (d) the principals’ role in creating a trusting environment that promotes parental involvement. Further analysis was guided by the parental …

Brown V. Board Of Education (1954) An Analysis Of Policy Implementation, Outcomes, And Unintended Consequences, Carla M. Mccullough

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a significant court case fought to provide equal educational opportunities for African-American students. Though the case was fought with good intentions, there may have been unintended consequences that occurred due to the policy implementation. The purpose of this research was to explore the policy, its implementation, and assess the extent to which the goals of the original policy were met. This study used a mixed-methods approach and was set within one large urban school district. The qualitative portion of the study included interviews with a small group of educators who were directly impacted …

Stories Of Persistence: Filipina/O American Undergraduate Students In A Private, Catholic, And Predominantly White University, Angelica M. Bailon

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

At more than three million, Filipina/o Americans are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in the United States. Yet, few studies have focused on the experiences of Filipina/o Americans in institutions of U.S. higher education. Given the increasing disparity in degree achievement between first and second generation Filipina/o Americans, this qualitative study investigated the challenges to persistence that Filipina/o American undergraduates have faced in college and identified resources and strategies that have facilitated their survival in higher education. Through individual interviews and a focus group, participants shared their experiences in a private, Catholic, and predominantly White institution. This study …

Parents’ Perceptions Of Partners In Print, A Family Literacy Program, Rebecca Jane Godbey

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Partners in Print, a family literacy program, was brought to the urban elementary school in this study to educate and empower kindergarten and first grade parents to promote literacy development at home. This research aimed to explore the impact of participation in this program after consistent participation by utilizing a one-group pre-test, post-test research design. The Parent Empowerment and Home Literacy Environment Survey, which included both structured and unstructured questions, was administered before and after participation in the program to elicit notions of parent empowerment and growth in the home literacy environment. Parent participants also completed a document review of …

Becoming Unionized In A Charter School: How Charter School Teachers Navigate The Culture Of Choice, Elizabeth Montaño

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Charter schools have become a widely accepted and rapidly growing option for educational reform especially for low-income, inner-city students. In Los Angeles, the charter movement has promised teachers greater autonomy and collaboration than in the traditional public schools, yet the working conditions of teachers in charter schools have weakened the conditions for this movement to truly reform public education.

By using a neoliberal theoretical framework and a qualitative case study design, this study captured the voices of charter school teachers and documented their beliefs and experiences in an environment shaped by a culture of choice. This study uncovered a) the …

Combining African-Centered And Critical Media Pedagogies: A 21st-Century Approach Toward Liberating The Minds Of The Mis-Educated In The Digital Age, Shani Byard

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Since the slave trade, African Americans have been the most media-stereotyped race of people. From that time, multiple forms of media have been used to convince Blacks of their inevitable servitude and Whites of their supremacy (Burrell, 2010), as a means of transferring physical slavery to mental slavery (Akbar, 1998). Additionally, African Americans have been the victims of a Eurocentric educational system essentially designed to “mis-educate” (Woodson, 1933)—to further oppress and devalue African and African American contributions to our global history. This qualitative research study aimed to analyze an existing curricular model known as Rise Above the Noise, which combines …

Linking Resource Allocation To Student Achievement: A Study Of Title 1 And Title 1 Stimulus Utilization, Kati Petersen Krumpe

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

With the emphasis on high standards and fiscal accountability, there is a heightened need to inform the research linking student achievement to the allocation of resources. This mixed methods inquiry sought to study how schools utilized Title 1 and Title 1 stimulus funding from 2009-2011 to determine if correlations existed between areas of resource utilization and student achievement by studying both the use of funding and the processes that fifteen elementary and middle Title 1 schools in southern California utilized. The focus was to document resource use of Title 1 and Title 1 stimulus allocations and determine if a correlation …

Mapping Writing Development In Young Bilingual Learners, Ana M. Hernández, Ed.D., Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D.

Practitioner Journal Articles

A growing interest in Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) programs has led to increased attention to bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism. This article describes the writing development in Spanish and English for 49 kindergarten students in a 50/50 Two-Way Bilingual Immersion program. Over the course of an academic year, the authors collected writing samples to analyze evidence of cross-linguistic resource sharing using a grounded theoretical approach to compare and contrast writing samples to determine patterns of cross-linguistic resource sharing in English and Spanish. The authors identified four patterns: phonological, syntactic, lexical, and metalinguistic awareness. Findings indicated that emergent writers applied similar strategies …

The Observation Protocol For Academic Literacies: Conceptual Framework And Validation Report, Magaly Lavadenz Ph.D., Elvira G. Armas Ed.D.

Reports

The Observation Protocol for Academic Literacies (OPAL) conceptual framework and validation report describes the development of the OPAL instrument and the results of the validation study that confirms OPAL as a research-based tool to measure classroom practices for ELs.

The OPAL development began in 2006 as a research-based behavioral observation tool that measures teacher practices and classroom interactions from a sociocultural language acquisition perspective. It utilizes a six-point Likert- scale (1-Low – 6-High) to rate instruction across four domains and 18 indicators: 1) Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum, 2) Connections, 3) Comprehensibility, and 4) Interactions. The instrument allows for anecdotal notes …

Bringing Underserved Staff Online @ Lmu, Jamie G. Hazlitt, Raymundo Andrade

LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations

One tangible benefit of working at a university is the number of opportunities for continuing education. At LMU, these resources abound for white-­‐collar, professional staff. But results from a 2010 survey initiated by the library and ITS indicated that the majority of respondents from LMU Facilities employees were unaware that library and technology workshops (which take place year-­round) were offered at all. Through grassroots efforts, Raymundo Andrade and Jamie Hazlitt opened the lines of communication with facilities administration, offered basic technology and English language training opportunities for service staff, and tangibly improved the technology skills and enriched the lives of …

Preventing Long-Term English Learners: Results From A Project-Based Differentiated Eld Intervention Program, Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D., Elvira G. Armas, Ed.D., Rosalinda Barajas

Practitioner Journal Articles

In this article the authors describe efforts taken by a small southern California school district to develop and implement an innovative, research-based English Language Development program to address a growing concern over long-term English Learners (LTELs) in their district. With support from the Weingart Foundation this afterschool program served 3^rd and 7^th grade LTELs between 2008–2011 to accelerate language and literacy acquisition and prevent prolonged EL status. Program evaluation results indicated that the intervention was associated with improved English language proficiency as measured by the California English Language Development Test. Results also showed a heightened awareness of effective …

The Effectiveness Of Blended Instruction In Core Postsecondary Mathematics Courses, Anna E. Bargagliotti, Fernanda Botelho, Jim Gleason, John Haddock, Alistair Windsor

Mathematics Faculty Works

Most students in U.S. universities are required to take a collection of core courses regardless of their degree or major. These courses are known as "general education" courses. The general education requirements typically include at least one mathematics course. Unfortunately each year hundreds of thousands of students in the US do not succeed in these general education mathematics courses causing them to act as a barrier to degree completion. Low student success rates in these courses are pervasive, and it is well documented that the U.S. needs to improve student success and retention in general education mathematics courses.

In this …

Linear Rank Tests Of Uniformity: Understanding Inconsistent Outcomes And The Construction Of New Tests, Anna E. Bargagliotti

Mathematics Faculty Works

Several nonparametric tests exist to test for differences among alternatives when using ranked data. Testing for differences among alternatives amounts to testing for uniformity over the set of possible permutations of the alternatives. Well-known tests of uniformity, such as the Friedman test or the Anderson test, are based on the impact of the usual limiting theorems (e.g. central limit theorem) and the results of different summary statistics (e.g. mean ranks, marginals, and pairwise ranks). Inconsistencies can occur among statistical tests' outcomes - different statistical tests can yield different outcomes when applied to the same ranked data. In this paper, we …

Steering A Drifting Ship: Improving The Preparation Of First-Year Catholic School Teachers Through Self-Reflection, Franciso Ramos

Education Faculty Works

Introduction: Longitudinal investigation on the impact of self-reflection on the practices of novice teachers in California Catholic schools. Materials and Methods: Initial questionnaire at the beginning of their second academic semester; second questionnaire, individual interview and video of participant teaching in class at the end of the aforementioned semester; focus group with participants at the end of their second academic year. Results: Modifications in the classroom resulting in the incorporation of students' interests to the preparation and delivery of lessons, increased use of cooperative groups and more directions prior to and during explanations. Discussion: Self-reflection should become an essential component …