Equity is an American ideal, one that is considered the cornerstone to good governance (Gooden, 2011). Achieving equity requires the eradication of racial disparities in opportunities and outcomes, particularly in education. Creating equitable educational experiences at community colleges is the focus of this research. The purpose of study is to examine the issue of social equity within community colleges in an effort to understand: (1) their efforts to promote student success through equity; (2) their commitment to social equity; and (3) the institutional change that is necessary to create an institutional culture that values social equity and is accountable for equitable student outcomes. Social equity is intrinsic for the promotion of student success within community colleges. The primary findings of this study are the: Leadership at the president and senior administrator level is necessary for the conceptualization and communication of an institutional vision of equity. Once leadership direction and commitment has been established, broad engagement across the institution is necessary for implementation of institutional changes needed to achieve equity. Improving student success was defined as the means for achieving equity by Round 1 Achieving the Dream colleges. It is vitally important to have the institutional research capacity that allows for analysis of student progression data, examination of achievement gaps through the disaggregation of student outcome data, evaluation of efforts implemented to improve equitable student outcomes and the overall culture of data informed decision making. Round 1 Achieving the Dream colleges are more comfortable with the “lift all boats” approach to student success versus a targeted approach based on data disaggregation and achievement gaps. To implement equity, it is important for community colleges to respond to outcome disparities on an institutional level by committing to the goal of equity. This study shows that recognizing inequity is the first step toward achieving equity. The pursuit of social equity within our public institutions and those that they serve is imperative to a nation that values democratic ideal of equality.

Although immigration is considered the responsibility and authority of the federal government, there is no clear federal policy regarding undocumented students and higher education. This leaves the power to regulate undocumented students in higher education to state governments. In Virginia, there is no specific, state-wide policy that addresses undocumented students and admission and enrollment in public higher education. Because of this, policies and practices related to the admission and enrollment of undocumented students are created at the university level. There is, however, state policy in Virginia related to legal immigration status and eligibility for in-state tuition. This creates a complex dynamic in which immigration-related practices, which are legally regulated on the federal level, are actually determined on the state and institutional level. Through interviews with admissions professionals at 12 Virginia, public 4-year colleges and universities, this research study uses a descriptive qualitative case study to explore the application of institution level undergraduate policies and practices related to undocumented students. The findings suggest that of the 12 institutions, five knowingly enroll undocumented students; six admit undocumented students but do not knowingly enroll undocumented students; and one institution does not admit or enroll undocumented students. None of the schools offers in-state tuition to undocumented students. Seven themes emerged from the 12 interviews, and these themes are grouped into two categories. The themes in the first category relate to the experiences of undocumented students and include funding challenges, fear, lack of knowledge of higher education processes, and post-graduation challenges. The themes in the second category are related to policy and practice, and the professionals who create and implement those policies and practices. The themes that emerged in this category are changing demographics, ambiguity, and professional and personal values. These themes are interpreted and discussed through the theoretical frameworks of administrative discretion and wicked problems. Recommendations for future research are provided.

More people are striving for increased levels of educational attainment as a result of a global shift towards a more knowledge based economy. Schools and communities have adjusted to this societal change by seeking alignment along the educational pipeline from preschool (P) to graduate school (20), otherwise known as P-20 reform. This reform often develops with the collaboration and guidance of specific P-20 leadership councils that exist at both the local and state levels. The main purpose of this qualitative study was to go beyond the mere descriptions of P-20 councils to examine the policy pathways chosen by P-20 councils, specifically the relationship between policy context, design, and implementation of P-20 reform. Texas and Tennessee were selected as case sites for a cross comparison policy analysis that utilized interviews and document analysis to examine leadership and contextual influences to the reform, with a focus on state and local P-20 councils. An interpretive theoretical framework helped garner the meaning-making of policy leaders throughout the movement’s existence, while Kingdon’s multiple streams model helped organize the episodic nature of policy. Findings showed varied approaches within and between states leading to mixed levels of sustained P-20 councils and leadership. Finally, best practices for P-20 councils are shared as the problems P-20 seeks to address continue to persist and the P-20 movement adapts to a changing local and national context focused on college and career readiness.

The primary objective of the study is to identify the extent to which the current school choice policy in New Orleans has afforded students in underserved neighborhoods or city planning districts the opportunity to attend quality schools elsewhere in the city. Though all students in New Orleans have access to schools outside their neighborhood, more than two-thirds (68%) of public school students attended a school within their planning district or in the adjacent planning district in the 2011-12 school year. In staying close to home, just one-fifth (22 percent) of students attended a quality school. A clear relationship existed between a planning district’s service level and its socio-economic and racial make-up as well as the performance level of its students’ schools. The results of this analysis suggest that the lack of quality schools in low-income and minority areas significantly limits those families’ access to quality schools even under New Orleans’ far-reaching school choice policy.

In 2010, the Louisiana legislature passed Act 54, a law that requires public school teachers to undergo a performance-based accountability evaluation. COMPASS (Clear, Overall Measure of Performance to Analyze and Support Success) asks principals to evaluate teachers using a rubric with components of Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching to evaluate teacher effectiveness (Act 54). Act 1, passed in 2012, ties Louisiana public school teacher’s pay and tenure to their score on COMPASS. Principals of Louisiana are now asked to evaluate teachers in a high stakes evaluation that is linked to teacher tenure and pay. A qualitative study using narrative research design was conducted to explore how principals described their roles as high-stakes evaluators through the implementation of COMPASS. Data was collected from seven participants in the form of in-depth interviews and each was recorded and transcribed for data analysis. Restorying and story mapping were used to compose narratives that describe the roles of the participants in their implementation of COMPASS. Using the theoretical frameworks of Contingency theory and Instructional Leadership theory, two roles emerged from their narratives: Instructional Coach and High Stakes Evaluator. The information gleaned from this study can help to inform future policy about possible issues with COMPASS in implementation as well as impact future practice for evaluators from the stories of the participants.

Different forms of professional development online are becoming increasingly common for teachers and the aim of the thesis is to contribute knowledge about online professional development for mathematics teachers and the relationship between professional development, educational policy, and mathematics teaching practice. In the thesis, professional development refers to organized professional development in terms of university courses. The thesis consists of four studies, each of which has been presented in the form of an article. The four studies together explore transnational and national policy discourses, meaning-making activities that can be distinguished in online professional development, discourses pertaining to mathematics teaching in the classroom and in the subsequent seminar discussions in the course, and teachers’ experience of professional development online. The different arenas have been explored using the concept of discourse with reference to Fairclough, Gee, and Sfard. The term ”discourse” refers primarily to communication and language in use. The result of the studies indicates that the participants have not been offered enough opportunities to reflect on how or whether the use of several concepts and everyday life connections really deepened the students’ understanding of the mathematical content. Moreover, the analysis of the interviews with the participants shows that it was difficult for them to deepen their reflections in the synchronous communication online. There is a lack of reciprocal participation and reflection in the conversation and it is hard for the participants to get an idea of how the others respond to their messages. When a participant has completed his or her message the next speaker continues with a new message and as a result, the communication often takes a new direction instead of allowing in-depth reflection.

Thesis describes development and current state of European Union's Education policy. It focuses mainly on Erasmus programme and its implementation in the Czech Republic on example for five universities in Prague. First part describes history of Education policy from EU's establishment to formation of strategy Europe 2020 and it pays attention to authorities and institutions that influence education in the EU. Second chapter introduces Lifelong Learning Programme and other community programmes supporting education. Moreover it deals with operational programmes in the Czech Republic. Third, last one, part focuses on Erasmus programme, its practical use in the Czech Republic, and specifically on five selected universities in the capital city.

Faculty of Humanities School of Education 0201596p m.hendricks@ru.ac.za / This thesis analyses the classroom writing of learners in their additional languages at four differently resourced schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The choice of languages on offer at schools and the medium of instruction seldom meet current language education policy requirements of additive bilingualism needed to support children’s home language and general cognitive growth. The central question of my study concerns how school writing practices contribute to the development of learners’ writing ability. The data collected and analysed in order to investigate this were all the regular classroom writing of Grade 7 children in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa, where these were additional languages, not the children’s home language. My findings were that there is no check by the Education Department on whether schools meet the official national curriculum policy requirements with regard to the amount of curriculum time allocated to language. Also, that there is a mismatch between the languages on offer at schools and the home languages of learners, and teachers, which is not monitored. My key findings with regard to writing were that there are significant differences and inequalities in the amounts that learners write at these schools across Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa. Decontextualised grammar tasks predominate in what learners write in all three languages at all four schools. Children write relatively few extended texts, and these are mainly personal expressive texts which are unlikely to develop their ability to write abstract, context-reduced genres. Teachers’ neglect of impersonal formal and factual genres at all four schools makes it difficult for learners to experience the benefits of writing these genres – that these genres set the basis for the development of abstract cognitivelydemanding language proficiency and disciplinary knowledge. In the case of English, which is the commonest medium of instruction even though it is the home language of less than 10% of the population, this shortcoming is especially serious.

It is widely agreed that effective citizenship, whether in well-established democracies or in those in transition to democracy, require some educational preparation. In post-apartheid South Africa, education policy and subsequent curriculum development placed participatory democracy and active citizenship at its centre. Although South African education policy documents have a maximalist tone in places, they collectively reflect a minimalist conception of citizenship and of citizenship education. The focus of my critique of citizenship education policy is the tendency manifest in the state policy documents to undermine democratic participation and active citizenry, conceptions first developed and put into practice in the Greek city-state of Athens. The conception of education for citizenship does not guide the practice in terms accessible to the school’s democratic community. State policy’s concept of students’ democratic participation and representation does not reflect a representative model of democracy in South African schools. Furthermore, extant policy does not envisage democratic citizenship education that is enjoyed by a significant proportion of the South African learners. This minimalist conception of citizenship and of citizenship education is not appropriate for the South African context. This thesis, further, mounts a defence of compulsion, arguing that within the theoretical framework of current theories of the Athenian prototype of democracy, deliberative and representative democracy, compulsory schooling and compulsory citizenship education can be justified on the grounds that they promote individual autonomy and build social cohesion ― towards the common good in South Africa. The recently proposed compulsory citizenship education programmes are not compatible with compulsory citizenship education that is designed to promote active, critical and inquiring South African citizens. These value-based education documents promote obedience, if not unquestioning loyalty, to the South African government. Moreover, neither the Bill of Responsibilities nor the School Pledge offer possible strategies for getting from where we are to where we ought to be. In the final analysis, post-apartheid citizenship education policy’s lack of conceptual clarity, coherence and consistency can be attributed in large part to the conflicting forms and conceptions of citizenship in South Africa. The goals of citizenship education in South Africa would be better served by cosmopolitan ideals, that is, preparing South African learners to act in a local, national and global scale.

Thesis advisor: Andy Hargreaves / Most policies and initiatives in education travel the same, well-worn path: they are designed high above the ground by elected leaders or by public officials in departments and ministries of education. These ideas soon become projects for district-level leaders and school-level staff to implement. The process of implementation is often a challenge for local educators. When schools are asked to implement several initiatives concurrently, these difficulties can be compounded. This is especially true when schools try concurrently to include students with special needs and to meet the targets of high-stakes accountability programs (McLaughlin & Thurlow, 2003; Ramanathan, 2008). This study examined two multi-level and multi-district projects that were unique in their objective and designs. Each fostered complementary restructuring and reculturing of school districts. These two projects--Essential for Some, Good for All (ESGA) in Ontario and NH Responds (NHR) in New Hampshire--sought to facilitate greater participation and achievement for students with special needs as well as to cultivate greater collaboration between general and special educators. The dissertation is comprised of four mixed-methods case studies across the two jurisdictions, looking at two districts in each country as the units of analysis. Interviews with participants from all three levels--policy and planning, district, and school--were accompanied by effect-size analysis taken from quantitative achievement data to assess achievement gaps before and after each project. Ultimately, the study proposes a workable theory for the field of policy design and implementation that would facilitate simultaneous engagement with multiple, competing policies, in particular balancing the inclusion of students with special educational needs and mechanisms for standards-based accountability. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.