Education Policy Commons^™

New York State Excelsior Scholarship Program: A Post-Implementation Analysis Of Student Success, Eligibility, And Indebtedness – An Intersectional Study Of Black And White Female Students, Marcus I. Richardson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The New York State (NYS) Excelsior Scholarship Program, introduced in 2017, was designed as a “first-in-the-nation” tuition-free initiative intended to expand college affordability for undergraduate students attending public institutions in New York State. While the program aims to increase access to higher education, its eligibility requirements, particularly the expectation that students complete 30 credits annually through continuous full-time enrollment, may disadvantage students whose academic pathways diverge from traditional enrollment patterns. This study examined the relationship between structural, financial, and academic factors and students’ ability to retain Excelsior Scholarship eligibility at the City University of New York (CUNY). Using institutional data …

Considering Moderating Forces As A Critical Lens For Understanding The Internationalization Of Higher Education, Jonah M. Otto

Critical Internationalization Studies Review

No abstract provided.

The Hypocrisy Of The Wizards—A Proposal To Correct Incentives In Higher Education Loan Financing, Caden Benedict

School of Public Policy Capstones

This paper explores the origins of the student loan debt crisis and proposes tying university incentives to graduates' repayment plans and disclosing median earnings for degrees before students apply. Specifically, while there are numerous factors explaining why the price of education has increased dramatically since the 1970s, this paper proposes solutions that will specifically target university moral hazards by requiring universities fund: (1) the current subsidies to federal student loan repayments under income-driven plans as the House of Representatives intended before the Senate removed "risk-sharing," and (2) bankruptcy law discharge amounts. Moreover, requiring universities to disclose the median earnings of …

Examining Alumni Engagement Policies Among R1 Universities: A Comparative Analysis Of Best Practices, Howayda Ackleh

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores the need to update policies and enhance practices for alumni engagement in higher education institutions. Current alumni strategic plans require evaluation and refinement, while new approaches must be developed to strengthen alumni involvement. By analyzing the challenges institutions face in maintaining alumni connections, this review seeks to identify gaps and establish effective best practices. By examining the questions, how do alumni associations at select public R1 institutions apply Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE) principles to assess and improve their alumni engagement strategies, and how does this impact their alignment with institutional goals and objectives? This study aims to evaluate …

From Deference To Dialogue: How International Gtas From High Power Distance Cultures Adapt To U.S. Classroom Dynamics, Deborah Akua Afi Appiah

Theses and Dissertations

International graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) from high power distance cultures play a significant role in undergraduate education at U.S. universities, yet they face challenges that go well beyond language proficiency. Coming from educational backgrounds where teacher authority is unquestioned and hierarchical, these GTAs must navigate American classrooms that operate on fundamentally different assumptions, where authority is earned rather than assumed, informality is the norm, and students expect to question, negotiate, and be personally known by their instructors. The present study examined how eighteen (18) international GTAs from seven (7) high power distance countries perceived and adapted to these differences while …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Faculty Touchpoint Survey 2025: Key Findings And Recommendations, Lisa A. Marchiondo, Naila V. Decruz-Dixon, Julia Fulghum

ADVANCE Reports

A Spring 2025 climate survey finds that UNM faculty remain committed to their teaching, scholarship, and collegial relationships, despite concerns about research funding, academic freedom, and graduate student recruitment and well-being. The survey also found that faculty have higher levels of stress than in a previous ADVANCE survey, worse psychological well-being, more difficulty concentrating, and more concern about tenure and promotion. A set of recommendations for academic leaders are provided.

Complicating Understandings Of Low-Income Students’ Financial Stress And Well-Being In Order To Inform Institutional Support, Khalilah R. Lauderdale, Ralitsa Todorova, Zoë B. Corwin

Journal of Student Financial Aid

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of how low-income students navigate financial stress by integrating the asset-based concept of financial well-being and including a focus on the institutional context. Data collected from 378 interviews with students from low-income backgrounds illustrate complex ways that students experience financial stress and financial well-being. By centering students’ perspectives in analysis while also accounting for programmatic and institutional contexts, the authors aim to push theory and practice toward a more nuanced understanding of how to best support students from low-income backgrounds as they navigate affording college and fostering financial well-being.

Does Teach Lead To More Teachers? Evaluating The Effects Of The Federal Teach Program, Daniel Sparks

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Teachers are critical to education production. Yet, recruiting and retaining teachers has remained challenging, particularly in high need fields, at schools serving a high proportion of students from low-income backgrounds, and from racially diverse backgrounds. To incentivize enrollment in teacher preparation programs and to support teacher candidates through degree completion, the federal government implemented the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant in 2008. The TEACH Grant offers undergraduate and graduate students up to $16,000 and $8,000 in grant aid, respectively, to pursue degrees in high need teaching fields. I use difference-in-differences analyses to estimate the effects …

Improving Equity In Financial Aid Policy For Students With Disabilities, Ryan S. Wells, S. Kate Farmer, Morgan D. Woroner

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Disabled college students face significant barriers to degree completion, including systemic inequities in financial aid policies. This Issue Article investigates financial aid policies that unfairly limit aid to disabled students, at times forcing them to choose between maximizing their financial aid and the recommended accommodations to which they have a legal right, such as a reduced courseload. We highlight how current policies, including Pell Grant proration, Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements, and lifetime funding caps, create financial and administrative burdens that disproportionately affect disabled students. By examining federal and state-level policy responses, we identify both promising practices and persistent gaps …

Language, Equity, And Power: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Student Conduct Policies At Unl, Mandi Laib

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study conducts a Critical Discourse Analysis of student conduct policies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1977 to 2003 to examine how language reflects and reinforces institutional power structures. Utilizing Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory, this research investigates how conduct policies have historically marginalized Students of Color, LGBTQ+ students, and those facing economic hardship. Through a deductive coding process, themes such as institutional control, surveillance, and punitive framing were identified across four decades of student handbooks. While there are moments where student rights and restorative justice are acknowledged, these are often overshadowed by dominant discourse that prioritizes compliance …

Investigating The State Of Graduate Education In The Philippines: Challenges, Opportunities, And Policy Implications, Anne K. Candelaria, Eric Arthur N. Dio, Jovelyn G. Delosa

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the graduate education sector, revealing that it is highly privatized, NCR-centric, and dominated by enrollment in Education and Business/Administration fields. The analysis confirms that the primary driver for this high demand, particularly in teacher education (which accounts for over half of all enrollment), is the use of graduate degrees as a key requirement for career advancement and promotion within agencies like the Department of Education (DepEd). This policy-driven demand, however, is linked to systemic issues, including the proliferation of “diploma mills” that undermine quality, extremely low on-time completion rates (averaging 18.77% for Master’s …

Student Loan Policies And Payments During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Closing The Gap Or Widening Inequalities?, Jason Jabbari, Takeshi Terada, Haotian Zheng, Stephen Roll

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Student debt was specifically addressed in the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic through forbearance polices. However, not all individuals were eligible for forbearance, and it is possible that forbearance would leave some feeling further behind. Yet, little is known about student loan debt over the course of the pandemic, especially in relationship to forbearance policies, loan payments, and household financial stability. Leveraging a representative longitudinal survey of households during the pandemic, we use descriptive regression techniques to explore changes in loan balances throughout the pandemic, as well as the relationships among student loan policies, payments, and measures of …

Board Of Trustees Minutes, May 10 2024, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

#Dusomething! A Qualitative Exploratory Study To Identify Challenges And Opportunities For Improvement In Du's Response To Sexual Harassment And Assault, Alejandro Cerón, Amanda Cali, Briana Cox, Camille Cruz, Camryn Evans, Cyndal Groskopf, Ashley Joplin, Clayton Kempf, Kēhaulani Lagunero, Jayvyn Jakai Lewis, Aili Limstrom, Gray Messersmith, Cal Quayle, Yadira Quintero, Michael Sze, Aaron Toussaint, Sami Zepponi

Anthropology: Undergraduate Student Scholarship

The purpose of this course-based research project was to identify where DU has made progress in its response to sexual harassment, identifying challenges and opportunities for improvement, with the hope that the results will support the DU community’s efforts to prevent, address, and eradicate sexual harassment.

Board Of Trustees Minutes, Feb. 16 2024, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

Intrinsic Motivators For Participation And Persistence In Intercollegiate Athletics, Kevin Saal

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Since its inception, intercollegiate athletics’ conflicting existence vacillates between a history of rich, co-curricular and developmental experiences for young people, and a multi-billion-dollar industry transformed by limitless commercialization, expense and exploitation. The “professionalization” of intercollegiate athletics and blurring of motivational factors influencing participation and persistence threatens its holistic academic and developmental purpose (Duderstadt, 2000, p. 78). This dissertation provides a review of motivational theories, in addition to summarizing numerous contextually relevant intrinsic and extrinsic regulators impacting human behavior. Through a quantitative research methodology this study proposes research broadly investigating intrinsic motivation, seeking to develop a better understanding and establish …

Older And Wiser? Relative Age And College Course Failure, P. Wesley Routon, Jay K. Walker

Economics Faculty Publications

A student's relative age in their schooling cohort has been shown related to several measures of academic and labor market success. Here, we focus on a singular outcome: the probability of college course failure. Even within a sample constrained to students with traditional academic progression and who completed their college degree program, we find evidence relatively younger students were more likely to fail courses. The estimated impact is larger for males, minorities, and those with less academic success before college. Statistical significance remains constant across the parental income distribution. Students within the sample represent over 600 colleges and universities across …

Mapping The Historical Discourse Of A Right-To-Read Claim: A Situational Analysis, Mursalata Muhammad

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim comprises the situation of the social phenomenon being studied, not the people. This research combines critical race theory (CRT) with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems and uses situation analysis to map historical discourses to conduct a study that examines the history of a present situation of inquiry as presented by this question: How does the 2016 …

Student And Faculty Diversity At Public Research Universities In The Mountain West, Maryam Raja, Riley Ruff, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet examines data on student and faculty diversity at public research universities in the Mountain West region. This fact sheet examines data from a New America report by Olivia Cheche which explores data on the 106 R1 (Research Very High) universities in the U.S. as designated by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Board Of Trustees Minutes, Oct. 20 2023, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

International Doctoral Student Experiences In Educational Administration Programs In The United States: A Phenomenological Study, Ping Robert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: In recent years, more international students are enrolling in Educational Administration (EA) programs in the United States. While EA programs wish to recruit and retain international students, more research is needed on supporting international graduate students in graduate education programs and EA programs specifically. Purpose: The present phenomenological study aims to understand the experience of international doctoral students in U.S. EA programs. The present research was guided by the question: “What is the essence of international postgraduate student experiences in EA programs in the United States?” Methodology: The present study used hermeneutic phenomenology to describe and interpret data from …

The Black Box Of Enrollment Management: The Influence Of Academic Capitalism And Values Of The Public Good, Kamala C. Kiem

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The study addresses the widening income and racial access gap in higher education resulting from enrollment management teams’ operationalization of academic capitalism. The study focuses on the local, micro level, emphasizing how enrollment management leadership teams make sense of enrollment management, recognizing that enrollment management and the work of enrollment management stakeholders exist within an organizational space encompassing the values of both public good and academic capitalism. Using a case study methodology and critical sensemaking theory, the research explored how academic capitalism and values of the public good shaped enrollment management leadership teams’ sensemaking and sensegiving as they enacted decisions, …

Board Of Trustees Minutes, Jul. 28 2023, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

Board Of Trustees Minutes, Jun. 15 2023, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

The Rural Post-Graduation Plan Development Model: Advancing Student College Choice By Centering Rural Communities, Steve Jenks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

College choice models have been used since the 1980s to try and explain the processes and influences high school students use to decide if and which college to attend after graduation. These models focused solely on college attendance and lacked attention to the nuanced needs and resources found in rural communities. In this three-paper dissertation, a new, rural-centric model is proposed, tested, critiqued, and revised. The first paper proposes a new conceptual model of Rural Post-Graduation Plan Development using a critique and synthesis of prior college choice models, Critical Rural Theory, Funds of Knowledge, and socio-ecological models. The second paper …

Is College Liberating For All Students? The Impact Of Sensory Challenges On Participation Of Students On The Autism Spectrum And With Other Neurodivergent Diagnoses, Sophia Starvaggi, Mary Smith Otr/L, Phd

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Neurodiversity describes unique ways in which an individual's brain works, impacting skills such as executive function, social interaction, communication, and sensory processing. Sensory processing describes the system which receives, processes, organizes, and responds to sensory information received in several environments throughout the day. Sensory sensitivity involves both over- and under-responsiveness to sensory information received, both causing an impact on one’s participation. An occupational area that seems to lack support for sensory challenges is that of postsecondary, or college, settings.

Several policies exist to protect the right to equal education for students with disabilities, however, these protections only last until students …

Board Of Trustees Minutes, May 5 2023, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

Where Will I Sleep Tonight? A Qualitative Case Study Of Homeless And Displaced College Students, Andria Lynn Coleman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to identify the needs of undergraduate students who are homeless or displaced, as well as examine the policies, procedures, and systems of Mountain University, a public four-year university, that may support or hinder students’ retention and progression. This study will be driven by the following research question: How do students who are homeless or displaced, but earned a scholarship, grant, or both navigate the policies, procedures, and systems of Mountain University during their first two years? Using Resiliency Theory and Hope Theory as the theoretical frameworks, this qualitative multiple case study seeks to identify …

Board Of Trustees Minutes, Feb. 17 2023, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.