Public Administration Commons^™

The Correlation Between Enrollment Status And Graduation Rates Of Master Of Public Administration Programs, Jasmine Lorraine Ferrer

Master's Projects

Statement of the Problem

The Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) is an international association of universities and colleges that grant professional master’s degrees in public policy, affairs and administration. In the academic year 2017-18 there were 301 member schools (NASPAA, 2017). NASPAA’s mission is to advocate for quality education in the field of public service (Kellough, 2014). NASPAA promotes the global standard in public service education by ensuring the quality of master’s degree programs in policy, administration, and public affairs of their member schools. This is evidenced by the association incorporating standards in their mission-based …

Leveraging The Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (Wioa) To Help Finance College & University Career Centers, Daniel Newell

Master's Projects

This research explores whether career services for the adult and dislocated worker populations of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) can be leveraged to provide career services in a college or university setting to serve students and the public while meeting WIOA’s enrollment goals. For colleges and universities without career centers, leveraging WIOA funding may be a solution to increasing career center resources and expanding existing career services, while augmenting program support through federal funding.

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Ua12/8 Violence Prevention & Response Training, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

Memoranda issued by WKU Police to faculty & staff regarding active shooter training, includes Run, Hide, Fight poster.

Institutional Theory And The History Of District-Level School Reform: A Reintroduction, Judith R. Kafka

Publications and Research

In this chapter I make my case for the utility of institutionalism for historians of education, first by explaining institutional theory and how it has been applied to, and shaped by, the study of schooling, and then by applying new theoretical developments to district-level historical research using examples drawn from earlier chapters in this volume. Ultimately, institutional theory may help us to interrogate Tyack and Cuban’s notion of institutional change in schools, by elaborating on their construction of the change process through specific, embedded, settings, and by rethinking how we determine what “counts” as change in schools and districts.

Understanding Experiences Of The Bermuda Government's Youth-Serving Professionals In Transformational Coaching, Nicola Feldman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public administrators and civil servants working with vulnerable youth have the challenging yet critical job of supporting their young clients in overcoming adversity and achieving optimal life outcomes. Public administrators and civil servants work with vulnerable youth to help shift their trajectories toward positive life outcomes; however, if these professionals are not thriving in the workplace, they may not have the best possible positive influence on youth. Little was known about how to support the ability of professionals to experience professional thriving, defined as the experience of feeling energized at work and motivated toward professional growth and success. The purpose …

Exploring Value Of Perceived Problem Resolution In Success Of Online Doctoral Students, Vanessa S. O'Neal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

How doctoral students view their institution's ability to resolve problems may be directly related to their overall satisfaction of the institution. Challenges such as barriers to communication could have a negative effect on the students' ability to be retained by the institution. Policies to address issues relating to retention; high default rates on student loans and student services are increasing and more constraining. While the literature indicates the formation of federal policies to monitor recruitment practices of for-profit online institutions, it is not known to what extent these policies have influenced the quality of postrecruitment services. Using the theoretical framework …

Colorado Middle School Principals' Transformational Leadership Characteristics And Colorado's Standardized Test Scores, Wayne Wolf

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have documented that high expectations do not always result in higher achievement, but the reason for varying results has not been clearly understood. This correlational study was done to find out if the degree of presence of principal leadership characteristics can predict when high expectations are effective and when they are not. Expectancy and transformational leadership theories provided the framework for identifying 9 principal leadership characteristics that might influence student scores on Colorado statewide testing. Existing student testing data were considered the dependent variable, while survey data on the leadership behaviors of Colorado middle school principals were used for …

Low-Income Households' Perceived Obstacles And Reactions In Obtaining Affordable Housing, K Mark Leonard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low-income affordable housing remains an issue for the town on Martha's Vineyard where this study was conducted, in which an estimated 54% of low-/moderate-income households spend more than 50% of monthly income on housing. Using Schneider and Ingram's work regarding the social construction of target populations as the foundation, the purpose of this qualitative research was to assess how the perceived social standing and political power contributed to determining the benefits and burdens allocated to the town's low-income households. Data for this study consisted of 14 individual semistructured interviews with members of low-income households who were seeking or in affordable …

Relationship Between Policy Expectations And Education Outcomes In A Midwestern School District, Latonya Latamore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A financially secure public school district can provide children with an educational foundation that will eventually transition them into self-sufficient employed adults. These adults will become tax-paying citizens who will contribute to their local economies. The problem with one midwestern public school district is that a history of financial insecurity has affected the district's ability to provide students with all of the programs to which they are entitled. Using Baumgartner and Jones' conceptualization of punctuated equilibrium as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relationship between aspects of the Local Financial Stability and Choice …

The Relationship Between Education Levels And Public Opinion Before The Iraq War, Damion Steele

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found that higher education is known to stabilize political opinions and thought to enhance critical thinking skills. The role that an individual's level of education plays in shaping public opinion during a foreign affairs crisis, within the context of repetitious and uniform news media coverage, has yet to be determined. The theoretical foundation of agenda-setting explains how salience is created by emphasizing certain messages and influencing public opinion and may bypass education and political knowledge. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between education level and public opinion immediately before the Iraq War. The …

Incorporating Stakeholder Input Into Financial Decision Making In California School Districts, Leann R. Nowlin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As of June 2013, all California public school districts are required to incorporate stakeholder input into their operational goals and expenditures to increase stakeholder trust. Trust is a belief by one party in a transaction that the other party in the transaction will act in a way that is fair and in the interest of both parties. The problem is that no guidance or direction relative to the methods or extent to which stakeholder input should be gathered and incorporated was provided within the new regulations. Lawmakers and stakeholders had no insight into the effectiveness or level of school district …

The Relationship Between Georgia Public School Educational Funding Sources And Academic Achievement, Rosalind Ray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, state educational finance systems are required to ensure that every student obtains an adequate and equitable education. The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate the financial management aspect of public funding and the consequences of Georgia's reliance on local property tax revenue for financing its public school districts and attaining student academic achievement outcomes. The research questions examined whether there was a difference in student academic achievement levels of economically disadvantaged (ED) students based on the total 8th grade student population, annual property valuations, and median home sale prices during the 2006-2014 school terms. …

Influences Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On Ethical Financial Operations In Nonprofit Organizations, Stephanie Powell Works

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, approximately 7% of nonprofits' annual revenue is lost as a result of a lack of ethical financial operations among nonprofit executive directors (EDs). This represents $85 billion in estimated annual losses in available operating funds. This study addressed the problem of ineffective leadership in nonprofit organizations from the perspective of EDs responsible for ethical financial operations. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of nonprofit EDs who self-reported the use of 1 of Burn's and Bass' 3 leadership styles and whether leadership style influenced the use of the Sarbanes Oxley Act …

Letter From The Editor, Amanda Evert

Administrative Issues Journal

The Winter 2017 issue of the AIJ begins with an invited article on the evolution of a bridge-to-college program at Idaho State University.

Invited Article: Bridging The Gap – Supporting The Transition From High School To College, Julie A. Frischmann, Kelly S. Moor

Administrative Issues Journal

Idaho State University’s Bengal Bridge is a summer program designed to help students successfully transition from high school to their first year of college at Idaho State University. All Bridge students at ISU take two general education courses, plus an additional credit of supplemental instruction focused on academic strategies specific to the disciplines represented by those general education courses, as well as a First Year Transition (ACAD) course to facilitate engagement with and acculturation to the university community—a total of nine to 10 credits in just seven weeks. Bridge students are also supported by one-to-one academic coaching, supplemental tutoring, peer …

Classical Literature Gives Life To Business Paradox And Systems Integration, Robert A. Page, Samuel K. Andoh, Robert A. Smith

Administrative Issues Journal

Professors bemoan the great difficulty students have understanding the complexity of their disciplines or functional specializations. Many non-traditional students have work and family commitments that limit the time needed to reflect professionally and to master these concepts. This disconnect has persisted despite decades of work developing more integrated, interdisciplinary curricula. One potential, partial solution is to simply start sooner and partner with liberal arts courses to introduce business students to complexity and paradox before they arrive at the business school. Grounding these concepts in the Classics embeds them in great stories of passion, betrayal, commitment, and emotion normally absent in …

Addressing Uncertainty During Workplace Change: Communication And Sense-Making, Rich Parsells

Administrative Issues Journal

Change is a commonplace occurrence in today’s organizations. A number of scholars suggest that communication strategies during organizational change are an important element to the success of a change initiative, yet such strategies are not given primacy in the research literature. The purpose of this paper is to add to the discourse on communication and workplace change initiatives by reporting on a research project that explored communication actions which were employed and viewed as useful by those experiencing a change in the workplace. This paper presents the findings that emanated from the study and explore their meaning in relation to …

How Managers Use The Stockdale Paradox To Balance “The Now And The Next”, C. W. Von Bergen, Martin S. Bressler

Administrative Issues Journal

Recent discussions of leadership paradoxes have suggested that managers who can hold seemingly opposed, yet interrelated perspectives, are more adaptive and effective. One such paradox that has received relatively little attention is the “Stockdale Paradox,” named after Admiral James Stockdale, an American naval officer who was held captive for seven and one-half years during the Vietnam War and survived imprisonment in large part because he held beliefs of optimism about the future, while simultaneously acknowledging the current reality of the desperate situation in which he found himself. This contradictory tension enabled him and his followers to emerge from their situation …

Authentic Leadership—Is It More Than Emotional Intelligence?, Phyllis Duncan, Mark Green, Esther Gergen, Wenonah Ecung

Administrative Issues Journal

One of the newest theories to gain widespread interest is authentic leadership. Part of the rationale for developing a model and subsequent instrument to measure authentic leadership was a concern that the more popular theory, the full range model of leadership and its instrument, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass & Avolio, 1985), did not sufficiently emphasize aspects of leader emotional intelligence (EI), such as self-awareness (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).

In its current configuration, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) (Walumba, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing & Peterson, 2008) measures four dimensions of leadership: relational transparency, internal moral perspective, balanced processing, and self-awareness. …

Migrating Learning Management Systems: A Case Of A Large Public University, Brenda L. R. Such, Albert D. Ritzhaupt, George S. Thompson

Administrative Issues Journal

In the past 20 years, institutions of higher education have made major investments in Learning Management Systems (LMSs). As institutions have integrated the LMS into campus culture, the potential of migrating to not only an upgraded version of the LMS, but also an entirely different LMS, has become a reality. This qualitative research study examines the perspectives of five stakeholders involved with the migration of an LMS at a major research institution in the southeastern United States. Using Lewin’s (1947) Change Management Model and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Model as analogies, this research seeks to understand the role and responsibilities …

Color-Blind Racial Attitudes: Microaggressions In The Context Of Racism And White Privilege, Jared F. Edwards

Administrative Issues Journal

Interest in institutional racism, White privilege, and microaggressions appears to be growing. We are living in times when the impact of race and racism are debated—when even the existence of racism is debated along with the appropriateness of examining the worst parts of U.S. history. This special-issue invited article includes a brief examination of historical information and current context in which racism and microaggressions exist, leading to their connections to Color-Blind Racial Attitudes (CoBRAs). Reviewed research on CoBRAs addresses teacher training, educational practices, experiences on college campuses, and organizational management.

Investigation Of Factors Relating To The Web-Based Presentation Of Policy And Information On Campus Firearm Policy And Smoking Policy, Veronica F. Mcgowan

Administrative Issues Journal

In order to explore themes of privilege in regard to policy availability, language accessibility, and underlying bias, policies related to two topics of interest to higher education campus visitors, campus firearm carry policy and smoking policy, are explored to determine how Web-based information is presented to various audiences. Implications of policy accessibility are compelling; language barriers can adversely affect access to campus events and educational services. Representative samples of policies of five states that allow some form of open or concealed campus firearm carry were studied to determine possible factors of importance. Representative samples of two additional states in the …

Letter From The Editor, Aij Editors

Administrative Issues Journal

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Rural High School Principals’ Perceptions As Social Justice Leaders, Shelly Albritton, Stephanie Huffman, Rhonda Mcclellan

Administrative Issues Journal

This multisite case study explores how rural principals in high poverty schools in a Southern state that had identified themselves as social justice leaders perceived student diversity, specifically LGBTQ students, and how they sustained a socially-just school climate for all students. Using a qualitative approach lent itself to understanding the principals’ descriptions of themselves as social justice leaders in their respective school and community contexts through their conversations (Creswell, 2007; Marshall & Rossman, 2016). The investigators drew from Theoharis’ (2007, 2009) and Bishop’s (2012) studies to serve as the theoretical framework guiding this study. The results indicated that the principals …

A Faculty Woman Of Color And Micro-Invalidations At A White Research Institution: A Case Of Intersectionality And Institutional Betrayal, Doris Carroll

Administrative Issues Journal

Faculty Women of Color should be able to thrive and grow at our best research and teaching institutions. Assuring their academic and professional success requires that an institution’s academic culture shift from a White, male-dominated, meritocratic environment to a global enrichment campus, one that values the richness and diversity of talent that Faculty Women of Color can contribute as scholars. Using CRT and Institutional Betrayal Theory as a context for understanding their experiences, this paper presents a personal narrative regarding the micro-invalidations that Faculty Women of Color face at America’s White research institutions. The outcome of this discussion offers systemic …

Factors Contributing To The Persistence Of African American And Hispanic Undergraduate Males Enrolled At A Regional Predominantly White Institution, Reginal R. Hall

Administrative Issues Journal

The purpose of this study is to explore factors that may contribute to the persistence and graduation rates of African American and Hispanic undergraduate males enrolled at regional four-year public universities in Texas. African American and Hispanic males have lower graduation rates in both secondary and post-secondary education than their White peers (Harper, 2010; Swail, Cabrera, Lee, & Williams, 2013). The qualitative research investigated characteristics that exist among African American and Hispanic undergraduate males who have persisted and were retained at the university through their senior academic year. The research problem was explored through the lens of critical race theory …

A Review Of For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood…And The Rest Of Y’All Too: Reality Pedagogy And Urban Education, Jackie Mania-Singer

Administrative Issues Journal

This literature review provides a summary and analysis of Christopher Emdin’s For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education. Emdin proposes a theory of reality pedagogy and provides a framework, the Seven Cs, for practical implementation of the approach in the urban classroom.

A Systems Theory Approach To The District Central Office’S Role In School-Level Improvement, Jackie Mania-Singer

Administrative Issues Journal

This qualitative case study used General Systems Theory and social network analysis to explore the relationships between the members of a district central office and principals of elementary schools within an urban school district in the Midwest. Findings revealed sparse relationships between members of the district central office and principals, more opportunities for higher performing schools to participate in decision making, and few opportunities for all schools to provide feedback to the district, resulting in a centralized network structure that may inhibit the transfer of knowledge and communication, and ultimately, hinder school-level improvement efforts.

Do Leaders’ Experience And Concentration Area Influence School Performance?, Kimberlin Sturgis, Brittanee Shiflett, Tyrone Tanner

Administrative Issues Journal

The purpose of this study was to examine the educational background of leaders in small, high poverty, high minority schools in an effort to determine if the leader’s concentration area and background were related to the academic success of the students. Through a causal comparative design, a modified version of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Self- Assessment (CCSSO, 2000) was used to collect data from principals and assistant principals to answer the following research questions: Is there a difference between the leader’s concentration area (counseling, mathematics, language arts, science, etc.) and school rating? Is there a difference between …