Education Economics Commons^™

Du Rural Summit 2025: Full Conference Proceedings, 2025 Du Rural Summit

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

Proceedings of the DU Rural Summit 2025, held June 27-27 in the Pueblo Convention Center. A gathering dedicated to addressing the unique opportunities and challenges facing rural schools and their communities.

Why Rural Matters 2025: A Preview And A Forward Look, Jerry Johnson

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

This presentation will provide a preview of the Why Rural Matters 2025 report that is currently in progress, including an overview of statistical gauges and indicators, topical essays, and key findings. Additionally, and looking forward beyond the report, presentation and discussion will engage the topic of cuts to federal programs that provide extant data essential for projects like Why Rural Matters and consider the implications for scholars, practitioners, and the general public.

Excellence Gaps: A State-Based Review Of Policies, Jonathan M. Jennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how state education policies address excellence gaps among student subgroups in gifted education. Using a multiple case study design, it examines the policy mechanisms, identification practices, and funding models employed across states to promote equity in advanced academic access. Grounded in critical policy analysis, the study highlights systemic disparities perpetuated by inconsistent definitions, underfunding, and limited accountability structures. Findings reveal that while some states adopt promising interventions - such as universal screening and dual enrollment support - many fall short in ensuring sustainable, inclusive practices. This research calls for reform grounded in transparency, comparability, and justice for …

Paycheck-To-Paycheck: How Public Service Loan Forgiveness Inhibits Generational Wealth Attainment For Black Women, Ashley Patrice-Rose Sherman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black women who attend college in the United States are more likely to borrow to cover the cost of attendance and carry the largest amount of student loan debt than any other racial and gender group. Federal student loan borrowers are encouraged to work in public service to take advantage of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), an income-driven repayment program established by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) of 2007. PSLF offers total debt relief after ten years of uninterrupted full monthly payments based on an income-driven repayment plan. The significance of this qualitative study will …

Perceptions And Practices Of Families With Economic Disadvantages Regarding Giftedness And Family Involvement, Jennifer Lemoine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This hermeneutic phenomenological research study addressed the persistent problem of practice of underrepresentation of economically disadvantaged students in gifted education by exploring the beliefs, experiences, and practices of families with economic disadvantages pertaining to giftedness and family involvement in education. Data was gathered from six participants with economic disadvantages and a gifted child through two interviews and analyzed using the hermeneutic circle to uncover patterns and themes.

Themes emerged around each of the three research questions including themes for beliefs and experiences pertaining to giftedness: resiliency, creativity, overexcitability, divergent thinking, twice-exceptionality, intelligence, asynchronous development, and negative behaviors. Findings also point …

Higher Education Student Debt & Tuition Costs, K. Harrison Maloy Jr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

U.S. higher education tuition costs have risen at nearly double the rate of inflation over the past forty years. In 2012, student loan delinquency rose to 12% and surpassed credit card delinquency rates as the top category of consumer debt delinquency. Meanwhile, recently enacted federal policies advocate for increased higher education accessibility, affordability and attainability, but simultaneously promote educational institutions to increase spending with funds fueled by student debt. The growth of $136.8 billion in student loan delinquency has triggered decreasing participation in non-student debt markets by people with student loan debt. Fortunately, Americans continue to enroll in colleges at …

It Is Expensive To Be Poor: Equity In Financing Education In Turkey (2004–2012), Elene Murvanidze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Turkish government, under the rule of Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), (2002-2017) has conducted many educational reforms. Different researchers have evaluated effectiveness of those policies differently. Some claim that policies result in a more inclusive and diverse educational system, others argue that the reforms would rekindle child labor, increase child brides and condemn girls to illiteracy. In our research we measure the effects of educational reforms on equity in financing education (i.e., out-of-pocket expenditures).

After estimating Gini, Concentration and Kakwani indices, and graphing Lorenz and Concentration curves, we find out that education financing in …

The Long And Unconventional Road: Stories Of Financial Challenges And Systemic Barriers In College Completion For Adult Women Undergraduate Students, Michele Anne Tyson

Higher Education: Doctoral Research Projects

The following doctoral research studies the experiences and stories of adult post-traditional undergraduate women through a feminist narrative inquiry. The study focuses on the financing of a college degree and will be explored through understanding the educational journey of each participant to highlight personal struggle and system barriers. Currently literature about the importance of institutional and federal assistance for this population is absent from higher education. Using a feminist theoretical framework and narrative inquiry, this study describes the importance and value of educating women to both individual families and societal good.

Teacher Perceptions Of The Factors That Influence Support For An Adequacy Model Of School Funding, Nancy L. Alex

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to determine teacher perceptions about the factors that influence support for an adequacy model of school funding and what relationships exist between specific demographic variables and those perceptions.

Using the instrument created for the study, one hundred thirty-nine teachers from the Montrose RE-1J School District where surveyed. Data was tabulated using standard descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages). As a general data analysis approach, bivariate comparisons were performed using Pearson correlations and t-tests for independent means. Multiple regression prediction equations were used to examine the relationships between specific demographics and teacher perceptions of the factors …

"The Female Entrepreneur"?, Cath Collins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I read the “Women’s Crusade” article that forms the centrepiece of this month’s roundtable with initial interest, gradually turning to a vague sense of disquiet spiced with occasional disbelief. After a few more readings, I tried highlighting the passages that bothered me and stringing them together. Countries “riven by fundamentalism”— that’s presumably the Islamic variety, rather than the Christian variant which holds such sway in the US. The suggestion that “everyone from the World Bank to the US [...] Chiefs of Staff to [...] CARE” now thinks that women are the answer to global extremism hides too many questionable assumptions …

A Few Drops Of Oil Will Not Be Enough, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn provide a rich description of the various kinds of violence, deprivation, depredation and exploitation that women experience on a vast scale in the developing world. They write of sex trafficking, acid attacks, “bride burning,” enslavement, spousal beatings, unequal healthcare (something the USA still struggles with), insufficient food, gendered abortions and infant and maternal mortality. They are right to identify the education of women and girls as part of the solution to the widespread “gendercide.” However, their approach focuses too much on the capacity, indeed the virtue or heroism, of individual women. It does not take …