Education Policy Commons^™

Does Mission Matter? Examining The Role Of Organizational Mission And Religious Identity In Schools Participating In The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, Michael Mcshane

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For decades, theories of bureaucracy have emphasized the importance of organizational mission in thriving organizations. This dissertation will examine the role of organizational mission in schools, particularly, a sample of schools that participate in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the nation's oldest and largest school voucher program. Using teacher and school leader survey data, coupled with measures of student achievement, it will measure mission coherence and correlate it with a variety of outcome variables of interest. It will also take a particularly close look at the role of mission in religious schools.

The Effects Of Summer Reading Programs On The Academic Achievement Of Elementary Students, Renee Deshommes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with weakened academic skills face the possibility of having less access to higher education, or advanced career opportunities later in life. Such disadvantages, if not addressed, may result in a series of diminished opportunities that may affect a child's overall quality of life. Several educational experts suggest that the negative effects of the academic achievement gap are cumulative, and many educational experts also believe that the achievement gap between high and low socioeconomic students continues to be a persistent problem for which few solutions have materialized. The potential for summer reading programs to be implemented as a mechanism to …

The Las Vegas Promise Neighborhood Initiative: A Community-Based Approach To Improving Educational Opportunity & Achievement, Sonya D. Horsford, Carrie Sampson

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

Since the 1980s, the standards and accountability movement in U.S. education has focused heavily on reform at the classroom and school level, with insufficient regard for how social, political, and community contexts impact student learning and achievement (Berliner, 2006; Horsford, 2010; Noguera, 2003; Oakes, 1989; Wells et al., 2004). This emphasis on standardization and high-stakes testing has stigmatized, and in many instances, penalized low-income and historically underserved students and communities through the use of student subgroup and school designations. It also largely has ignored the research literature documenting the significant impact poverty, neighborhood context, and related out-of-school factors such as …

An Analysis Of Intradistrict Funding Equity In Rural And Urban School Districts, James Lynn Woodworth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

After a long process of judicial action, states have revised the education funding distribution systems to meet the legal requirement of providing both horizontal and vertical funding equity between districts (interdistrict) in the state. A major part of the judicially required reforms was a shift to weighted student funding or funding which provides differential amounts of education funding dependent on the estimated needs of students based on their individual characteristics. However, little research has been done to examine the equity of the funding distribution systems between schools within districts (intradistrict).

Intradistrict funding inequities are likely to persist in districts today …

Alternative Education Completers: A Phenomenological Study, Becky Lynne Murray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Billy is a bright, wide-eyed, little boy with bounding enthusiasm and wonder as he enters the doors of school on his first day of kindergarten. When the school doors open in Billy's sixth grade year the wide eyes and bounding enthusiasm have diminished only to leave behind dread and dismay at the thought of confronting yet another abysmal nine months of failure. How can we, as educators, better serve the needs of at-risk students like Billy? Shouldn't we ask them? What elements of the alternative education experience were significant to successful completion of the alternative education program? The phenomenological paradigm …

Perceptions Of High School Students Of The Impact Of A School Uniform Policy, Stacy L. Gregory

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High schools are tirelessly pondering ideas of enhancing the learning environment by increasing academic engagement and safety. This phenomenology study was designed to report and analyze the perceptions of selected students about their academic engagement and safety while attending one high school. Data for this study were obtained through interviews that were conducted on two levels: focus group and individual interviews. The results indicate that uniforms by themselves have little to do with a student's academic engagement. Students believe that their teachers play a big part in the way that they participate in educational tasks. They also believe that engaging …

The Impact Of State Characteristics On College Graduation Rates At Land-Grant Institutions, Melissa Bridges

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As our nation's economy has become increasingly knowledge-based, an educated citizenry is paramount to maintaining a competitive edge in a global marketplace. Thus, college participation and completion have emerged as the gateway to survival and growth for individuals, states, and the nation, making college completion rates a top priority. Stakeholders have begun to equate graduation rates with institutional quality and performance and often use such data to make judgments, create policies, and allocate funding. However, graduation rates are not fully understood and numerous scholars urge caution when interpreting and utilizing single outcome measures. The purpose of this cross-sectional ecological study …

Education’S Fiscal Cliff, Real Or Perceived?, Larry D. Maloney, Meagan Batdorf, Jay F. May, Michelle Terrell

School Choice Demonstration Project

What would an education fiscal cliff do to public charter school funding, not to mention overall public education funding? And what role, if any, did federal funds play in averting a funding disaster for all public education? This research team currently is looking for answers to these questions. A new research project has been funded to evaluate the revenues provided to traditional public schools and public charter schools during the FY11 school year, and a report on the findings in 30 states and the District of Columbia will be released in spring 2014. Prior to the release of this report, …

States And Multicultural Education Policies: A Multinomial Logit Analysis, Leander D. Kellogg

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This research evaluates the factors that facilitate or constrain the adoption of multicultural education policies in the fifty US state at the state legislature and state bureaucracy levels. According to the 2010 Census, the majority of children under age two—for the first time in US history—are minorities. Furthermore, 11 states and the District of Columbia already have a “minority-majority” population of children under age five. Seven more states are expected to join them in the next decade. Previous research has found that multicultural education policies have been increasingly adopted but are not yet widespread across the states. This study first …

Thrive In 5 – Boston Initiative, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) is the external evaluator of Thrive in 5 Boston. Thrive in 5 is transforming Boston into a city that values and proactively nurtures young children’s school readiness – because when our youngest children thrive, we all prosper. Thrive in 5 envisions a city where families, educators, providers, business leaders, and communities come together with the knowledge, skills, and resources to prepare children for success in school and beyond. The center is helping to identify, implement, and evaluate community interventions designed to increase Boston children’s readiness for success in school at kindergarten age.

Categorical Funding In Arkansas, Reed Greenwood, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

As a result of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Lake View v. Huckabee Decision, the Public School Funding Act of 2003 established Arkansas’ current funding system. A part of the current system allocates additional funding for districts based on need (categorical funding). In doing so, the state recognizes that it is necessary to distribute additional funding based on educational need to meet adequacy and equity standards. The system allocates funding for groups of students who face particular challenges: Alternative Learning Environment students (ALE), English-language Learners (ELL), and students in poverty (National School Lunch Act). In the current legislative session, lawmakers are …

How Disruptive Is Information Technology Really?, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

How disruptive is this technology revolution, and what does this expansion of the world of knowledge portend for higher education?

About the author: Judith A. Ramaley is President Emerita and Distinguished Professor of Public Service at Portland State University, President Emerita of Winona State University, and a Senior Scholar with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). She also served as President of the University of Vermont and as Assistant Director, Education and Human Resources Directorate, at the National Science Foundation.

Missing The Mark: Why Modern Efforts To Better Schools Through Standardization Aren't Working, Richard Knowlton

Masters Theses

In the thirty years of school reform that began with A Nation at Risk, and continues today with A Race to the Top, the United States has rapidly increased its reliance on a standardized “one-size-fits-all” policy in regard to modern educational reform. This report provides a review of the empirical and statistical evidence to demonstrate that despite lofty and well-meaning intentions, modern reform has done nothing to significantly advance the quality of education in America, and in many cases have had a severe negative impact—blocking real reform. Many schools, especially those in low-income areas, have become glorified test-prep centers in …

The No Child Left Behind Act: An Analysis Of Its Impact On The Academic Success Of Students In Cobb And Fulton Counties In Georgia, Valerie Veney

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The recent attention to the United States’ educational system has revealed that many students, especially those in underserved communities, are not receiving a quality education. The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is to ensure that all children receive a high quality education (U.S. Department of Education 2001). The purpose of this study is to determine whether the No Child Left Behind Act has contributed to the academic success of the students in Cobb and Fulton counties in Georgia.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) required all states to develop standardized tests and accountability systems …

The Relationship Between Local Wealth And Dual Enrollment Participation In Virginia's Community Colleges: Rural, Urban, And Suburban Patterns And Subsequent Postsecondary Enrollment Status, Ellen Richardson Davenport

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

In Virginia, the availability of dual enrollment classes for high school students has varied, depending on the interest of the local school division and the community college's president in whose service region the school division is located. HB 1184, which passed in the 2012 session of the Virginia General Assembly, stipulates that the opportunity must be available for all high school students throughout the Commonwealth to be able to participate in dual enrollment and either receive a Uniform Certificate of General Instruction or an associate degree. Utilizing data from 2006 dual enrollment students, this study's purpose was to determine if …

Mas Que El Apoyo Academico: La Educacion No Formal Y El Programa Servicio Pais Educacion, Leah Ewald

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation aims to analyze the operation and overall results of Servicio País Educación, an intervention-based program of the non-profit organization, Fundación de la Superacíon, offered to primary, low-resource, municipal schools in Chile. Functioning from 2010-2012 as an after-school program, Servicio País Educación provided a non-formal educational environment which provided hands-on learning opportunities for students. Children selected to participate in the program came from especially poor socioeconomic situations and often underperformed academically in the classroom or exhibited behavioral issues. Students participated in small groups led by tutors where they received not only individualized academic help but practical education in the …

More Than Just A Good Book: Employing U.S. Department Of Education Guidelines To Teach Character Education Using Literature, Suzy Besson-Martilotta

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this research study, which was conducted as a qualitative content analysis, was to discover to what extent children's literature from a popular anthology could be used to teach the tenets of character education according to U.S. Department of Education (2005) guidelines in a pre-Kindergarten through second grade setting. A team of participant-coders, which consisted of experienced early childhood educators, evaluated and analyzed each of the 44 complete books contained in the 320 page anthology, The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury: Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud (Schulman, 2005), in order to investigate opportunities to explore …

Chartering The Way To A Free And Appropriate Public Education (Fape): The Challenges For Charter Schools To Provide Fape, Michael J. Seltzer

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are an integral part of the school choice movement, following a market-model of education based on autonomy, competition, and choice. However, charter schools are also mandated to adhere to all laws and regulations in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when educating students with disabilities. The education of students with disabilities within the charter school environment can result in policy tensions. This paper will examine the salient issues surrounding special education as it pertains to the state, authorizer, and operator in the areas of transparency, processes, and outcomes.

Understanding The Role Of Social Capital And School Structure On Latino Academic Success, Jeremiah Gonzalez

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

This paper investigates the role of social capital and school structure on the academic success of Latino students. A review of the literature on previous explanations of Latino failure, research on academically successful Latinos, and the role of social capital and school structure on Latino academic success are investigated. The research shows that the way students are tracked in school plays an important role in gaining access to school agents and other academically successful peers. These relationships give access to social capital and increase college access. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Information Literacy:, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at the University of South Carolina on March 22, 2013. It is a review of the state of research, policy, and practice in information literacy.