This dissertation explores parent-gentrifiers’ lived experiences of the school-selection process, including the social networking and the influence of those social networks in their selection of schools. School choice and parent involvement are forms of social capital, and such social capital represents the results of social networking and parental agency. The unknown is how this scenario manifests itself in gentrifying parents’ school-selection process in Atlanta’s Kirkwood and Grant Park neighborhoods. Gentrifying children’s absence in urban public schools is of interest as residential areas integrate, while schools (re)segregate. The research paradigm is interpretivist as it investigates the qualitatively different ways in which people experience or think about a phenomenon (Marton, 1986). Purposive snowball sampling is used to reach 30 eligible participants in two neighborhoods. The methodological approach is qualitative phenomenographic interviews. The research found five options considered by parent-gentrifiers in the school-selection process that are consistent with the previous literature: public school, charter school, private school, homeschool and undecided/not yet. The forms of communication utilized in the social networking were face-to-face, phone, e-mail, social networking sites, and texting. Participants varied by work schedule, neighborhood communication infrastructure, and level of social network in their forms of communication. Parent-gentrifiers’ approaches to school selection included: activating agency, social networking, operating in social spaces, their social agenda with regard to diversity, and their educational agenda with regard to curriculum, instruction, and school characteristics. The results show that while parents espouse racial and socioeconomic diversity, their choices in the option-demand system in Grant Park resulted in racial segregation among the schools. In contrast, the lack of formal options in Kirkwood resulted in racial integration in the public elementary school. The actions interpreted and ideas constructed in the process of selecting schools as a parent-gentrifier are of practical value to district efforts to understand the urban middle-class school-selection process. In light of increasing school segregation and student attrition, continued urban revitalization efforts and the sustainability of those efforts for many major cities in the United States is highly dependent on their ability to regenerate and maintain quality schools that attract the middle-class.

Alternative work arrangements (AWA) policies allow employees to select varied work schedules that are both conducive to the organization’s goals and to employees’ personal needs. Though common in the business sector, such policies are rarely articulated within American colleges and universities. Practitioners within the student affairs profession regularly work beyond the average 40-hour week due to the fundamental nature of their work with students’ co-curricular involvement outside of the classroom; as a result, the lack of work-life balance can result in high employee turnover which can be detrimental to an organization. Utilizing grounded theory, a qualitative methodology that allows researchers to espouse new theories to explain phenomena based on data, 14 student affairs practitioners employed at a large research institution in the southeast were interviewed to examine their experiences which emanated from the institution’s AWA policy implemented in 2007. The emergent theory collectively affirmed the importance of flexibility as participants indicated that they expected variations in their work hours given the unusual hours that are commonly associated with the student affairs profession. They reported benefits such as better work-life balance, increased productivity, reduced stress, and increased job satisfaction. Conversely, participants expressed concerns that AWAs were not consistency available to all employees and awareness of the policy was limited. They also experienced feelings of guilt and often felt the need to prove that they were working. Finally, participants recommended that AWA policies should be transparent, regularly assessed, and benchmarked against existing policies at other universities. Results provided evidence of how proven strategies used in corporate human resource models can be applied in a higher education setting, and the findings further suggested that employees and employers could greatly benefit from the establishment of formal policies that allow flexibility in the workplace through the use of AWAs. Implementation of these policies may provide employees with more opportunities for work-life balance, thereby improving job satisfaction and increasing employee retention in the student affairs profession.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) college students have a history of suffering from discriminatory, marginalizing, and prejudicial attitudes and practices on American college and university campuses. Implementing a critical qualitative methodology, this study examined the lived experiences of 9 out gay and bisexual male college students at an urban research university located in the southeastern United States. The study focused on three research questions: 1) What is the college experience like for an individual who identifies as an out gay or male bisexual student? 2) What does safety mean to an individual who identifies as an out gay or male bisexual student? 3) How does an individual navigate staying safe as an out gay or male bisexual student? The study found: 1) The presence of LGTB’ness is integral to the LGBT student experience. 2) Being involved and feeling connected to campus serves as a pivotal component of the LGBT student experience. 3) Navigating masculinity is complicated given traditional gender roles. 4) Classroom climate is a major factor for the success and safety of LGBT students. Reviewing the results of this study college faculty, staff, and administrators can begin to understand the unique experiences of LGBT college students; and through this meaning making process, higher education officials can learn what is needed to improve the college experience for this historically marginalized minority. This study informed what colleges and universities can do to better meet the needs of LGBT college students and ensure they have a welcoming and safe college environment.

The institution of schooling is one of the most formative spaces in which young people learn about gender norms and expectations. Rather than being a biological given, gender identity is achieved through gender practices and gender achievements (Butler, 1990/1999; Nayak & Kehily, 2008). This study was a year-long ethnography during which I observed an all girls’ after-school club. The club included 15 girls who were in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The majority of the club’s participants were African American girls. This ethnography utilized participant observation and interviews. Club documents were also analyzed during data analysis. My primary research question was: How was girlness conceptualized, perpetuated, and performed in an after-school club for middle school girls? Using critical theory and feminist poststructuralism, I investigated the work that goes into creating and maintaining current binary gender formations, and how this is related to race, class, and sexuality.

<p>This quantitative study examined the role that metacognition and self-efficacy, through goal-setting practices, play in increasing English proficiency of middle school English learners. </p><p> The problem addressed was middle school English learners' lack of awareness of the need to be English proficient before entering high school if they want to be qualified for the A-G college-bound coursework. </p><p> A 20-question online survey was used. Students at both schools were given a preintervention survey. This was followed by an intervention at one school, which concluded with a postintervention survey at both schools. Analysis of data gathered from surveys, along with standardized assessment, culminated the study. </p><p> A McNemar test was completed to compare each variable between the pre-survey and the post-survey to test the statistical hypotheses of this study. Additionally, percentage comparisons were performed to examine relationships between pre- and post-survey responses with both Likert-scale and time options. </p><p> Findings of this study indicate that, for the experimental group, there were substantial percentage increases between pre- and post-surveys, statistically significant findings in more than one area, and a larger percentage increase in English proficiency. </p><p> Findings indicate that, for the control group middle school English learner students who did not participate in the cognitive learning intervention, there was little or no difference between the pre- and post-survey results. These findings demonstrate the critical need for metacognive and self-efficacious experiences for Latino middle school English learner students. </p><p> The overall positive trends and the statistically significant findings for the experimental group can have a direct implication for strategies used in the education of middle school English learner students. In an age-appropriate manner, cognitive learning interventions, to include increased awareness and goal setting, can be implemented for all Latino middle school English learners. </p>

Šiame darbe analizuojama, kaip Lietuvoje aiškinamas multikultūralizmo reiškinys ir kokie yra multikultūralizmo elementai Lietuvos švietimo politikoje. Šiandienos globalizacijos sąlygos atveria vis platesnes galimybes multikultūralizmo plėtrai, kultūrų dialogui ir integracijai. Kaip ir kiekvienas reiškinys, multikultūralizmas įvairių šalių skirtingose visuomenėse yra suvokiamas skirtingai, o tai lemia nevienodas iškylančias problemas ir diskusijas jas sprendžiant politiniame kontekste. Lietuvos viešojoje erdvėje multikultūralizmo sąvoka įsitvirtino visai neseniai, šiandien ją matome ir kai kuriuose Lietuvos švietimo politikos dokumentuose. Pastebima, kad Lietuvoje multikultūralizmas dažniausiai suvokiamas primityviai ir yra menkai nagrinėtas reiškinys. Pasirinkto darbo objektas – Lietuvos švietimo politika multikultūralizmo kontekste. Darbe keliama hipotezė, kad Lietuvoje iki šiol nėra nuoseklios multikultūralizmo politikos, kadangi švietimo politika formuojama tautinės – etninės politikos kontekste, įgyvendinti multikultūralizmo politiką trukdo siauras šios sampratos suvokimas. Darbe siekiama atskleisti ir įvertinti multikultūralizmo apraiškos formas Lietuvos švietimo politikoje, išanalizuoti jos ypatumus ir perspektyvas. Darbe keliami uždaviniai: apžvelgti multikultūralizmo teorijos modelius, juos palyginti su Lietuvos ir kitų šalių patirtimi, atskleisti, kaip Lietuvoje yra suprantama etninė kultūra, išnagrinėti pagrindinius teisinius dokumentus, identifikuoti, kuo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The master’s final work analyses how manifestation of multiculturalism is explained and what the elements of multiculturalism in Lithuanian education policy are. Nowadays the conditions of globalization are opening wider possibilities for the development of multiculturalism, for the dialogue of cultures and integration. For that reason every manifestation of multiculturalism in different societies of various countries is differently understood, consequently it influences various arising problems, discussions and their solutions in the political context. The concept of multiculturalism has become stronger not so long ago and it is obviously visible in some Lithuanian education political documents. Noticeably, that multiculturalism in Lithuania is perceived primitively and is rarely discussed manifestation. The studying object of this work is Lithuanian education policy in the context of multiculturalism. The framed hypothesis in this work claims that there is no consecutive multicultural policy in Lithuania as the education policy is formed in the context of nation – ethnic policy. The narrow-minded understanding of this concept hinders to imply the policy of multiculturalism in everyday life. The work seeks open and estimates the forms of manifestation of multiculturalism in Lithuanian education policy, to analyze its peculiarities and prospects. The objectives of this work are to observe the models of multiculturalism theory and compare them with Lithuanian and other... [to full text]

There is no doubt that relevant and up-to-date elementary school curriculum is vital for the adequate education and socialization of youth, however, when a society is characterized by ideological pluralism and multiple visions of morality the debates over curriculum can be acrimonious and tempestuous. These debates are particularly heated when sex education is concerned since adults in Western society have a longstanding cultural discomfort with child and adolescent sexual knowledge and, more specifically, there is a strong belief that sexual knowledge compromises the “natural” innocence and ignorance of young people. This research focuses on a debate that occurred in Ontario in April and May of 2010 after the Government attempted to revise Health and Physical Education curriculum for grades 1-8, the subject that contains sex education. Following considerable backlash, the Ontario Premier shelved the proposed revisions a mere 54 hours after the curriculum was publicized. What led to this curriculum being received so poorly by the public and what were the contributing factors that led to this abrupt reconsideration? My research examines the debate that the new sex education curriculum produced and draws attention to the ways in which the deep seated anxieties of adults regarding adolescent and child sexual knowledge were able to overpower the voices of researchers and educational experts who were promoting the revisions. Some adults were concerned about the way that the curriculum presented a particularly liberal vision of sexual morality and argued that the new content would corrupt, mislead, and confuse youth. Though there were some individuals and groups who supported the revisions, arguing that they were relevant, necessary and overdue, their voices were not as organized or influential as the religious and social conservatives who dominated the debate. I argue that the proposed revisions to the Ontario sex education curriculum failed to gain public support because of the Government’s inability to adequately prepare for and mediate the Province’s competing liberal and conservative sexual ideologies. In my defense of the abandoned revisions, I explore how they failed to gain support not only because of the vociferous opposition of conservative religious groups who did not want to see a more liberal vision of sexual morality in the curriculum, but also due to a longstanding cultural discomfort with child and adolescent sexual knowledge and an unwillingness to fully affirm non-heterosexual identities and practices within the education system. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-06-07 14:50:24.526

Darbo tema: Švietimo politika ir švietimo kokybė – Baltijos valstybių lyginamoji analizė ir perspektyvos. Šio darbo tikslas – apžvelgti Lietuvoje įgyvendinamą švietimo politiką bei aukštojo universitetinio mokslo kokybę ir palyginti Baltijos valstybių vykdomą politiką aukštojo universitetinio mokslo sistemoje. Pirmoje darbo dalyje atlikta mokslinės literatūros analizė. Analizuojamos skirtingų autorių pateikiamos švietimo politikos, švietimo kokybės sampratos, Lietuvos aukštojo mokslo teisinė pokyčių aplinka, aukštųjų universitetinių studijų kokybė, studijų kokybės vertinimas Lietuvoje, bei analizuojama Baltijos valstybių aukštojo mokslo politika ir faktiniai jų pokyčiai. Empirinėje dalyje, anketinės apklausos metodu atliktas tyrimas, kurio tikslas – išanalizuoti kaip universitetinių studijų studentai vertina savo studijas universitete. Studentų nuomonė padės įvertinti vykdomą švietimo politiką, studijų kokybę, sudaromas sąlygas ir suteikiamas galimybes studentams. Apklausoje dalyvavo 100 atsitiktinių universiteto studentų. Tyrimo problema, aktualumas: Aukštasis mokslas Lietuvos valstybei strategiškai svarbi sritis. Iki šiol atliktuose tyrimuose dažniausiai nagrinėjamos finansavimo problemos, tarptautinis bendradarbiavimas, „protų nutekėjimo“ priežastys. Paskutiniu metu reikalavimai kokybei nuolatos didėja, kokybės gerinimas, šių dienų įgyvendinamos politikos viena iš aktualiausių temų. Nuolat besikeičianti Europos aplinka ir noras įsilieti į bendrą Europos aukštojo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Thesis: Education policy and education quality – comparative analysis and perspectives on the Baltic countries. The aim of this work is to review education policy and higher university education quality in Lithuania and to compare it with the policy in the system of higher university education in the Baltic countries. Analysis of scientific literature was performed in the first part of the work. Education policies and education quality concepts of various authors, legal change environment of Lithuanian higher education, quality of higher university studies, evaluation of quality of studies in Lithuania, Baltic countries’ higher education policy and factual changes are analyzed there. Empirical part provides a research which was carried out using the method of questionnaires, the aim of the research is to analyze how university students evaluate their studies at university. Students’ opinion will help to evaluate education policy, quality of studies, conditions and opportunities for students. Research problem, topicality: Higher education is a strategically important area for Lithuania. In research which has been carried so far, the most frequently analyzed topics have been the problem of sponsorship, international cooperation, reasons of “brain drain”. Recently, requirements for quality have been increasing, and quality improvements as well as policies implemented these days are topical today. Constantly changing European environment and wishes to interblend into the space... [to full text]

<p>This dissertation consists of three essays on the topic of education policy. In the first essay, I evaluate the impacts of a teacher quality equity law that was enacted in California in the fall of 2006 prohibiting superintendents from transferring a teacher into a school in the bottom three performance deciles of the state's academic performance index if the principal refuses the transfer. The primary mechanism through which the policy should affect student outcomes is through the mix of the quality of teachers in the school. Using publicly available statewide administrative education data, and two quasi-experimental methodologies, I assess whether the policy had an effect on the district-wide distribution of teachers with varying levels of experience, education and licensure and on student academic performance. I extend the analysis by examining whether the policy has differential effects on subgroups of schools classified as having high-poverty or high-minority student populations. I find that, as a result of the teacher quality equity law, low-performing schools experienced a relative increase in fully-credentialed teachers and more highly educated teachers, but that did not necessarily translate to an increase in academic performance. I also find evidence that the dimension along which the policy was most effective was in improving teacher pre-service qualifications in schools with high minority student populations.</p><p>In the second essay, I estimate racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic differences in teacher reports of student absenteeism and tardiness while controlling for administrative records of actual absences. Subjective perceptions that teachers form about students' classroom behaviors matter for student academic outcomes. Given this potential impact, it is important to identify any biases in these perceptions that would disadvantage subgroups of students. I use longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 in conjunction with longitudinal, student-level data from the North Carolina Education Data Research Center to employ a variation of a two sample instrumental variables approach in which I instrument for actual eighth grade absences with simulated measures of eight grade absences. I find consistent evidence that teacher reports of the attendance of poor students are negatively biased and that math teacher reports of male attendance are positively biased. There is mixed evidence with regard to student race and ethnicity.</p><p>The third essay is a co-authored work in which we employ a quasi-experimental estimation strategy to examine the effects of state-level job losses on fourth- and eighth-grade test scores, using federal Mass Layoff Statistics and 1996-2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress data. Results indicate that job losses decrease scores. Effects are larger for eighth than fourth graders and for math than reading assessments, and are robust to specification checks. Job losses to 1 percent of a state's working-age population lead to a .076 standard deviation decrease in the state's eighth-grade math scores. This result is an order of magnitude larger than those found in previous studies that have compared students whose parents lose employment to otherwise similar students, suggesting that downturns affect all students, not just students who experience parental job loss. Our findings have important implications for accountability schemes: we calculate that a state experiencing one-year job losses to 2 percent of its workers (a magnitude observed in seven states) likely sees a 16 percent increase in the share of its schools failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind.</p> / Dissertation

<p> The cry continues with A Nation at Risk, No Child Left Behind, and now the Common Core State Standards. There are groups of students who are finding success within public education and groups who are not. The groups who are not finding this success continue to be minority students who continue to run into the public education system rather than running with it. African American males seem to experience running into the system at greater number than other racial and gender groups. However, there are African American males that are finding success in public education. This study looks at the schooling and educational perspectives of twenty-four African American male K-12 public education students. Using grades and standardized assessments as a criterion, fifteen of the students were considered academically successful and nine were not. Twenty-two of the males were 18 years of age and two were 12 years old. Nineteen participants were high school seniors, one was a sophomore, and two were in middle school. Looking through the lenses of Critical Race Theory and Resiliency Theory using qualitative inquiry and data derived from interviews, data was collected to determine what contributed to the success of some participants. First both successful and non-successful groups were able to speak about having goals for the future and the importance of working hard in school. Secondly, relationships were also seen as essential to academic success, whether these relationships were with parents, teachers, or mentors for academic success to occur. Racial stereotypes were seen as something to overcome by the academically success. Race was viewed as a road block difficult to overcome by less successful participants. Having a father and mother or frequent access to more than one caring adult increased an African American male&rsquo;s ability to be academically successful. Even having two parents that may not have been supportive of the African American male appeared to be more beneficial than having supportive friends.</p><p> Recommendations to help African American males to be academically successful include starting early with relationship support and mentoring, life skills courses, and increased interaction with successful African American males. </p>