Policies delegating control of educational policy to the local level are widespread, yet there has been little examination of the effects of such distributed decision making in the area of advanced education programming. We used propensity score matching to examine the effectiveness of locally developed policies for identifying intellectually gifted children identifying themselves as Black or from low-socioeconomic backgrounds across one large U.S. state (Florida) that has a state-level gifted education mandate. Ongoing underrepresentation of traditionally marginalized groups in gifted education was evident, even among districts with policies specifically designed to ameliorate disproportional representation. However, the presence of such a policy reduced the degree of underrepresentation.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to provide insight to the perspectives of leaders and individuals in authority within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles system of Catholic parochial schools regarding current models of governance, levels of authority, and decision-making processes. There is a lack of clearly-defined levels of decision-making authority from the bishops to the Archdiocesan Department of Catholic Schools down to the individual schools. The pastors, principals, and Department of Catholic Schools personnel shared their perspectives of current governance structures and elements of three emerging alternative governance models. Data were analyzed through a factor analysis of the survey items to explore the strength of the three categories of the governance models represented by the three groups of questions. Next, the descriptive statistics of the specific questions relating to each of the three governance models and community voice were compiled. A Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each group of questions to measure internal consistency. In order to explore relationships between perceptions among the three independent variable groups (pastors, principals, and Department of Catholic Schools personnel), a Chisquare analysis was run for each of the questions on an ordinal scale. The study showed significant differences in participant responses between the three groups surveyed. However, there was agreement that community voice must be incorporated into governance, but only in a consultative manner. There was also agreement that a strong governing presence at the central office would be beneficial.

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The level of diversity among colleges and universities is at its greatest level. This level of diversity has proven to be beneficial in several key areas for all students. With this increase in diversity, there have been other consequences as well. One form of bullying, cyberbullying, has been on the rise due to greater use of technology, increase of social media platforms, accessibility of smartphones and a shift from in-person instruction to virtual instruction. Although copious amounts of research can be conducted on cyberbullying on adolescents, there is a deficiency of information on whether cyberbullying exists within higher education as well as the impact it may have on students. This was a mixed methods study which included a survey of the undergraduate population within a university on the east coast of the United States. There were a total of 148 survey respondents and four interviews conducted. The findings indicate that that cyberbullying does, in fact, exist within colleges and universities at the undergraduate level. In addition, different groups of people experience cyberbullying at different levels and frequencies. Also, it has been noted that cyberbullying impacts these different groups in a variety of different ways. Some groups were not impacted at all, while others were impacted a great deal. The implications from this study demonstrate that there is the need for improvement in a couple of key areas pertaining to policy and practice. Those areas are the training for faculty staff and administration, support services and additional programming available for students. / Educational Leadership

Roughly 40% of first-time freshman enter college at two-year institutions (Ginder, et al., 2015) and between roughly 70 to 80% of students enrolled at two-year institutions report the intent to continue their education to earn a bachelor’s degree (Jenkins & Fink, 2016; U.S. Department of Education, 2001). However, less than half of the percentage of community college students who intend to transfer formally transfer to a four-year institution (Shapiro et al., 2017), and even fewer complete their degrees in a timely manner once enrolled at the receiving institution (Chen, et al., 2019; Berkner, Horn, & Clune, 2000; Bradburn, Hurst, & Peng, 2001). Previous research has found that students who successfully transfer from a two-year to a four-year institution often outright lose credits or discover that degree program equivalent credit does not apply to the selected major during the transfer process (Keith, 1996; Ignash & Townsend, 2000; Simone, 2014; Hodara, Martinez-Wenzl, Stevens, & Mazzeo, 2016). The loss of credits towards a student’s declared field of study has major implications, including limited financial aid eligibility, additional tuition costs due to repeated course work, additional time to degree, and inevitably, delayed opportunities for competitive employment (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2017). The study focused on Florida and used three states with varying degrees of statewide transfer policies as comparison states (Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania). The study is based on the quantitative analyses of three databases, two of which were federally collected databases and one which was constructed from data collected in this research project. The federal data sets were the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG). The other project data set, referred to as Florida College and University Surveys (FCUS), was constructed from survey responses from two- and four-year public Florida institutions. The graduation rates of transfer students were higher than those of first-time-in-college students (FTIC). Most students who earned a bachelor’s degree was a transfer student who also reported the earning of an associate’s degree. On a percentage basis, FTIC students earned slightly more bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering fields than transfer students. Transfer students were found to earn a higher percentage of bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering related fields, and non-science and engineering related fields compared to their FTIC counterparts. FTIC students were more likely to earn advanced degrees beyond the bachelor’s degree than transfer students. Based on common transfer metrics commonly used by public two- and four-year state institutions, Florida had the most comprehensive statewide transfer and articulation policies, and New York had the least comprehensive. Quantitative results indicated a strong relationship between the six-year transfer graduation rates and the states and revealed Florida had the lowest graduation rates of transfer students, while Pennsylvania had the highest. Additionally, there was a strong relationship between the six-year transfer graduation rates of Pell Grant eligible transfer students and the states, nonetheless, the graduation rates of Pell Grant eligible transfer students were measurably lower than the overall population of transfer students. Quantitative results indicated Florida and Arizona transfer graduation rates differed significantly at the .05 level. It was found that transfer-in rate and percent of full-time enrollment negatively impacted transfer students’ graduation rates. These findings provide insight to the completion rates of transfer students in states with varying levels of statewide transfer and articulation policies. Further research should examine the extent to which individual transfer policies have on student outcomes, such as locally established major/program-based institution-to-institution agreements. Additionally, to gain a deeper understanding of the variables that have a relationship with transfer student outcomes, further research should investigate the differences in the interpretation and implementation of transfer and articulation policies between the states. / Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies

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The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that lead female undergraduate students to pursue an academic major in engineering and to persist in their engineering studies. This research focuses on women who are currently studying in the fields of engineering in an effort to determine whether or not common themes emerge that impacted their decision to major in these academic programs. Specifically, this study aims to better understand what factors exist that influence women to study engineering. Despite the fact that research has been conducted in this area, the findings from these studies do not appear to have had an impact on the number of women who choose to major in engineering upon entering college, as this number has not been increasing. The goal of this study is to provide for the following: Policy makers, high school guidance counselors, and the colleges and universities involved in this study can be better informed and benefit from knowing what factors influence women to major and persist in the field of engineering at their respective institutions.

Thesis advisor: Michael Hartney / This thesis analyzes the sporadic and incoherent federal approaches to education policy over the last half century to reveal a theory of policymaking constraints that elucidates the tensions between political will for equity and implementation capacity that are intrinsic to federal education policy. I then apply this theory to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). I find that consistent with my theory of policymaking constraints, a majority of states responded to the increased flexibility in ESSA by retreating from equity concerns. I then explore possible predictive factors for cross-state variation, presenting evidence that wealthy citizen satisfaction with local schools was associated with a decrease in attention to equity in state ESSA plans and that states that evaded accountability measures under No Child Left Behind continued to do so under the Every Student Succeeds Act. These results contribute to an important debate about the retreat from equity commitments under ESSA and furthermore, the theoretical framework that explains the policy zigzag in education policy since 1965. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Political Science.

The focus of this research was to provide recent descriptive information about acceleration policies and practices in Florida elementary schools. District, school, and personal demographic variables were investigated to determine the extent to which they affected school-based acceleration options provided for students. Also, school district policies were examined to determine which types of research-based acceleration options were more frequently used and what procedures were in place to guide the decision-making process. Results from this study indicated that extant acceleration policies only included grade skipping and limited procedures for referral, screening and decision-making in the schools. The most common types of acceleration offered in Florida elementary schools were subject acceleration in the Language Arts and Mathematics provided outside of the regular classroom, continuous progress, and curriculum compacting. The most frequently selected reason for not accelerating a student listed by both school principals and district administrators of gifted education programs was concern over a student's social and emotional development. No relationship was found to exist between schools' or principals' personal demographic variables and types of acceleration offered in elementary schools. No relationship was found between elementary school principals' knowledge of gifted learners and the types of acceleration implemented in their schools.