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Preschool television is a growing segment of children's media, but there is limited research examining the structure of the top preschool content producers. The vast majority preschool programming is promoted as educational by the networks; however no show explicitly lists media literacy education as a primary learning goal even though children 2-6 spend, on average, more than two hours a day exposed to media. This thesis examines preschool programming through political economic theory to determine whether the business models of the top three preschool television networks influences their approaches to media literacy education in media themed episodes of their most popular series for preschoolers. The thesis first examines whether educational media works for preschoolers and how media literacy education can undermine attempts by media institutions to influence behavior. It also examines the history of the preschool series on PBS, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel to determine how the development of preschool programming on each network has contributed to the content they produce for preschoolers. The thesis then moves onto a study comparing media themed episodes from the top series from each network and a media themed episode from a series that has presented media literacy episodes throughout its history to help compare and analyze the current state of media literacy in preschool television. This study helps build a foundation for future research so we can recognize the best strategies to introduce young children to media literacy education in this increasingly media saturated society. / Mass Media and Communication

This dissertation develops a theoretical model of educational peer effects and then empirically tests whether or not they exist. In the theoretical model, each student selects an effort level to maximize utility; this effort choice depends on his peer group's effort and race. The students' equilibrium effort expression results in hypotheses that can be directly investigated empirically, a definition of the social multiplier, and conditions under which a social multiplier exists. The empirical model uses student-level data with observations on complete classrooms and two measures of effort, self-assessed effort and time spent studying, to investigate whether or not peer effects exist. The estimation results of the empirical model, interpreted using a simulation-based technique, find a positive relationship between the amount of time a student spends studying and time spent studying by peers who share his race; for self-assessed effort, the results are ambiguous. Simulations of policy experiments show that effort is higher in more racially homogeneous classrooms and that a social multiplier exists for both a reduction in the time a student spends working at a part time job and an increase in the student's socioeconomic status. / Economics

This dissertation study compared the three most common pathways of traditional preparation for novice middle level teachers (elementary, middle level, and secondary) and attempted to answer the central question of which group felt best prepared for middle level teaching. Selected novice teachers from each of the three pathways were interviewed and asked to reflect on their preparation program. All participants were graduates of the same large, urban, public university. Data were collected using an interpretivism paradigm and analyzed using the constant comparative method. The state has recently redesigned its certification structure and teacher education institutions have redesigned their programs to reflect these changes. This study sought to discover if the restructuring resulted in greater feelings of preparedness among novice teachers. This study was exploratory, but initial findings indicate that there was very little difference in feelings of preparedness among the three pathways for teaching at the middle level with respect to program components and understanding of the needs of middle level adolescents. There was limited difference among the three pathways with respect to content preparation. This poses an interesting policy question: If the state’s intent in restructuring the certification tiers was to ensure more prepared teachers for the middle level and this exploratory study shows little difference in feelings of preparation, was the decision to restructure teacher certification a worthwhile endeavor? The study offers possible programmatic changes to increase feelings of preparedness as well as ideas for further research around this topic. / Educational Administration

This qualitative case study examined the Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) program in a high-achieving, suburban high school using the foundation of social capital theory. The researcher investigated how students' participation in AVID, specifically their relationships with their AVID teacher and other AVID students, affected their behaviors and achievement in high school along with their plans for attending a post-secondary institution. Five years ago, Bill Gates called America's high schools "obsolete," and, more recently, he testified before the Congress that "every student in America should graduate from high school ready for college, career, and life. "Every child," Gates stated, "no exceptions" (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2007). This notion of preparing every child in America and overcoming their demographics, family backgrounds, and economic hardships is continuing to burden America's public high schools. In this era of accountability, high schools are faced with the monumental undertaking of graduating all of its students and preparing them for post-secondary success while at the same time meeting the requirements set forth by the federal mandate No Child Left Behind (NCLB. To achieve both of these lofty goals, high schools must provide all of its students, especially those who are labeled at-risk, with an appropriate and rigorous instructional program coupled with effective safety nets and interventions designed to provide students with the support they need to be successful academically. Many schools, even those that are high-achieving and positioned in affluent, suburban communities, have pockets of students who are in need of additional support from the school setting in order to succeed. Nationwide, high schools are implementing various programs and intervention systems to enhance student achievement, improve graduation rates, and increase college enrollment. One program that has received recent attention and documented success in numerous high schools is the Advancement via Individual Determination program or AVID. AVID was created especially for students who have historically failed in the educational system by providing them with a core of academically challenging courses and a comprehensive support system at school. The primary data source for this qualitative study was semi-structured interviews with 12th grade AVID students. Additionally, the researcher observed the students on multiple occasions in their AVID class. These interviews and observations provided an in-depth look of the AVID program and how it has influenced the students' educational experiences during high school. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gather the perspective of the AVID program through the lens of the students who were part of the program. The goal was to investigate the AVID program with a focus on the students' acquisition of social capital in the school setting from adults and their peers. Recently, social capital is receiving educational policy attention relating to how it can be a collective resource that can facilitate the academic success of students in schools. This study analyzed the AVID program and the possibility of utilizing the ideas associated with social capital to improve educational outcomes in a high school setting. The qualitative nature of the study contributed to the body of literature about the AVID program by providing data directly from the students' perspectives and experiences. This case study was intended to provide insight to other school districts that are similar in makeup to the one that was studied. The outcome of this study, regarding the implementation of the AVID program in a high, achieving, suburban high school, can provide similar schools with information about a possible intervention program to improve the educational success of at-risk students who have historically failed in the school setting. / Educational Administration

Teacher attrition is a widespread problem in the United States and is most severe in urban and rural schools. High rates of teacher attrition and discontent contribute to budget problems and decreased educational school quality. The purpose of this study is to examine how a variety of environmental factors and teacher background characteristics contribute to teacher attrition and discontent. The school system along with the relationship between teacher background and school organization will be considered. The core research questions guiding this study are: To what degree do school environmental factors and teacher background characteristics explain teachers' discontent and ultimate attrition? What is the relationship between teacher discontent and departure? Logistic regression was used to analyze data from the School and Staffing Survey and the Teacher Follow-up Survey collected by the National Center for Education Statistics to answer the research questions. Significant predictors that increased the odds of teacher discontent include: middle school setting, urban locale, rural locale, teacher perceptions of student problems, and teacher perception of community problems. Significant predictors that decreased the odds of teacher discontent include: school salary, highly qualified status, union membership, classroom control, and principal/colleague support. Predictors that increased the odds of teacher attrition include: certification type, school size, rural locale, teacher perceptions of student problems, and classroom control. Predictors that decreased the odds of teacher attrition include: teacher race and ethnicity, highly qualified status, and minority student enrollment. / Urban Education

Beginning teacher attrition is a problem that exacerbates the inequity of opportunities for all students, especially for those in schools that are already challenged by poverty. This study makes use of the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (covering the period between 2008 and 2012) and U.S. Census data to identify which teachers leave and to explain why. Beyond that, it also offers a look into the characteristics of those teachers who stay at the same school for five years. The empirical investigation is embedded in a conceptual framework that draws from motivation and identity theories and brings in insights about the importance of geography and of neighborhood effects from works on poverty and education. The study utilizes a dataset with survey responses from approximately 1,800 full-time teachers from a sample designed to represent the overall population of beginning teachers in the United States. By combining individual-level longitudinal data with information about communities, it makes an important contribution to the study of new teacher placement, attrition, and retention. The evidence is presented using a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics, and the analysis includes factor analysis and logistic regression models. The results show that indicators of leaving the profession before the fifth year become apparent early on, as factors measured at the end of year one have significant effects on early career outcomes. Most prominently, higher degrees of burnout reported by teachers, which includes factors such as decreased enthusiasm and increased fatigue, are associated with increased risks for leaving the profession without the prospect to return to it and with transferring to a different school district. Several other factors on the individual and school-level emerge as relevant to career outcomes. Teachers who have Highly Qualified Teacher credentials and report a supportive school climate are at less risk to leave the profession. On the other hand, teachers with alternative certification and master’s degrees are more likely to move to a different school or districts in the first five years. In terms of socio-geographic factors that help explain teacher retention and attrition, the only significant variable in the regression models used in the analysis is the percentage of White residents at the Census tract of the Year 1 school. When everything else is held constant, decreasing this percentage from 100 to 0 increases the predicted probability of leaving the profession by approximately 20%. Considering that a vast majority of beginning teachers both in the sample and in the overall population are White, this findings fits in with theories about “the pull of home” and cultural habitus. The magnitude and significance of this finding suggest that it warrants further exploration, as racial composition of the communities is likely a measurement proxy for complex processes of inequality. / Urban Education

This research will examine graduation rates from the 1999-2000 school year until the 2012-13 school year, which will shed light on the long-term impact of neoliberal policy on inequality. I begin with a discussion of the history of school reform in NYC, starting with the Brown v. BOE verdict and finishing at the current neoliberal reform era, to understand how various reform strategies have aimed to reduce segregation and inequality. I then use a dissimilarity index to examine changes in racial segregation by performance between 2000 and 2013, using high school graduation rate quartiles to measure performance. In the last empirical chapter, I use growth curve modeling to understand the factors that are associated with changes in graduation rates. I model the impact of several factors that measure the presence of neoliberal reform and inequality on graduation. These measures include: racial and socioeconomic composition, the impact of mandatory regents, being a small school and failing on NYC school accountability report. This research finds that policies aimed at desegregation have been unaggressive and poorly implemented, and this has resulted in persistent segregation. Neoliberal policies assume that by increasing individual choices and accountability, that all students will make the choices that are in their best interest, and inequality will be reduced. This indirect strategy proves to be ineffective. White students have experienced increased access and isolation amongst the best performing schools, while Black students have become increasingly segregated in the worst performing schools. Growth curve modeling shows a consistent increase in graduation rates over this time. This increase is lessened for schools that serve above average black, Hispanic, and free-lunch eligible students. These schools have the lowest graduation rate. / Sociology

Educational decision-makers influence the opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for all invested in public education. Given the increasingly complex social, cultural, political, and economic landscape within the United States in the 21st century, it seems more important than ever to better understand and appreciate who educational decision-makers are and the process by which these public education stewards make decisions. But while scholarship pertaining to educational decision-making is vast, only scarce research focuses explicitly on the decision-makers themselves. Specifically, extant research tends to overlook the way educational decision-makers understand their role and how they engage in educational decision-making. Therefore, this study set out to inquire into educational decision-makers’ meaning-making of themselves, their role, and the process by which they make educational decisions. This study’s guiding question was: how do educational decision-makers’ role-identity(ies) manifest and frame their educational decision-making? The study followed a phenomenological approach to investigate educational decision-makers perceptions and actions: the content, meaning-making, and process by which the participants construct their educational decision-maker identity and understand their decision-making process. The guiding theoretical frame for this study is the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017). The DSMRI conceptualizes decision-making to emerge from people’s contextualized and dynamic role interpretation—their role identity. According to the DSMRI, four interdependent multi-elemental components comprise role-identities: ontological and epistemological beliefs, purpose and goals, self-perceptions and self-definitions, and perceived action-possibilities. These components emerge within social-cultural contexts and function in a non-linear, non-deterministic, emergent manner to guide decision-making. The study investigated the content, structure, and process of formation of educational decision-makers’ role identities and how these elements frame the meaning of impactful decisions they made in their role. Seven educational decision-makers (5 women, 2 men) participated in this study. Each held either a state or a municipal educational decision-making position, with all positions located in the same educational context. Each participant partook in three life-story phenomenological interviews. The interviews followed Seidman’s (2013) protocol focusing on their past to the present (interview 1), their decision-making role (interview 2), and their insights from the previous two interviews (interview 3). Interviews were transcribed and analyzed with Kaplan and Garner’s (2016) DSMRI Codebook and Analysis Guide. The findings highlighted the complex and dynamic constellation of role-identities and role-identity elements that framed each educational decision-maker understanding of him- or herself and their decision-making. The findings depicted the participating educational decision-makers as unique individuals; highlighting their varied lived-experiences, socioeconomic backgrounds, educational degrees, professional expertise, and interpretations of their present self. Yet, the findings also highlighted the very similar process and content the participants engaged in for constructing their educational decision-maker role-identity. Specifically, despite their differences, all the decision-makers construed their current role-identity as grounded in perceived stable value-based personal aspects from their past role identities. In addition, all used similar cultural materials, meanings, and strategies to form their decision-making identity. This manifested most clearly in the shared underlying theme of their varied and dynamic role-identities as educational decision-makers who are “advocates.” The findings across these educational decision-makers paint a collective educational decision-making landscape within which the different decision-makers shared cultural themes and means for interpreting past personal events as forming their identity and decision-making. These insights may provide researchers, public education advocates, and even students and their families better insights into the way educational decision-makers approach their role and tasks. It may further guide stakeholders in strategies to engage these educational decision-makers by considering the fit of their agenda within the life-story educational decision-makers construe as foundational to their role identities and decision-making. The findings may also provide educational decision-makers a framework for reflection on their role and actions, and for further developing their identity and decision-making. Fundamentally, this research contributes to the efforts to improve educational experiences and opportunities for students attending public schools. / Educational Psychology