There has been limited evaluation to show the perceptions of student participants in school-to-work programs about the impact of school-to-work program participation as being beneficial to their postsecondary educational and career plans, and no research to determine whether perceptions differ significantly across race and gender. In addition, the minimal research conducted to date did not study student participants' perceptions about the impact of the program on their understanding of the relevance of the academics to the worksite and their overall academic success. Nor did the research address the actual change in grades and school attendance of students in school-to-work programs. Students are a major stakeholder group in the school-to-work initiative, and therefore, consulting with them about their perceptions about the impact of school-to-work program participation is an important aspect in school-to-work evaluation. Students have not been consulted in educational program evaluation and have not had a significant voice in the school-to-work arena (Hollenbeck, 1996). It is important to assess the opinions and perceptions of students who are currently participating in school-to-work programs, because they are the major focus of the school-to-work initiative and information that they provide can be used by program administrators and policymakers in making future decisions about school-to-work programs. Such assessment should seek to determine their perceptions about the impact of the program on their overall academic success and future postsecondary education and career choices. It is also important to assess the impact of the program on students' academic success and school attendance. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher and distributed to site coordinators in three school-to-work sites. Site coordinators worked with school staff to administer the questionnaire instrument. One-hundred twenty-four twelfth grade student participants in school-to-work programs, in these three sites, were asked to participate; 62% responded to the survey. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were made. • The findings on students' perceptions that school-to-work program participation improved their overall academic performance, increased their acceptance of responsibility, increased their self-confidence and motivation can be an indicator of the success of the school-to-work program. • The positive attitudes of students regarding the school-to-work program as being beneficial to their future education and career plans is important in promoting the concept of "life-long" learning. • The use of measures to determine students' perceptions about understanding the relevance of school-to-work, improvement in academic performance, and overall satisfaction with the school-to-work program can be used as measures to evaluate the success of a school-to-work program. • School-to-work program participation can be instrumental in influencing students to continue their education beyond high school. • School-to-work program participation does not appear to negatively impact any group (gender or race). / Ed. D.

Environmental education (EE) programming has been found to lead to positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in student participants. Among a variety of factors, the characteristics of EE program instructors have been found to play a role in driving these outcomes. This thesis investigates the specific motivators of EE instructors and the links between instructor autonomy, prior experience, and program outcomes. I used a multi-methods approach to investigate these themes and have organized the results between two chapters that are manuscripts intended as separate journal publications. Chapter 2 presents a qualitative study that identifies the salient motivators of EE instructors, as well as organizational practices that affect EE instructor feelings of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and the meaningfulness these instructors feel within their jobs. Chapter 3 presents a quantitative study analyzing the impact of autonomy and prior experience on program outcomes by linking instructor and student participant survey responses from a sample of 166 EE programs performed throughout 57 different organizations across the US. Results led to the following recommendations for EE organizations: (1) promote job enrichment elements for their instructional staff, including the implementing of participatory evaluation processes; (2) encourage instructors to take "ownership" of programming, such that they continue to practice and develop competence over time; (3) increase instructor autonomy as they gain further experience. / Master of Science / Environmental education (EE) programming has been found to lead to positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in student participants. Among a variety of factors, the characteristics of EE program instructors have been found to play a role in driving these outcomes. This thesis investigates the specific motivators of EE instructors and the links between instructor autonomy, prior experience, and program outcomes. I used a multi-methods approach, employing semi-structured interviews and surveys to investigate these themes, and have organized the results between two chapters that are manuscripts intended as separate journal publications. Chapter 2 presents a qualitative study that identifies the salient motivators of EE instructors, as well as organizational practices that affect EE instructor feelings of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and the meaningfulness these instructors feel within their jobs. Chapter 3 presents a quantitative study analyzing the impact of autonomy and prior experience on program outcomes by linking instructor and student participant survey responses from a sample of 166 EE programs performed throughout 57 different organizations across the US. Results led to the following recommendations for EE organizations: (1) promote job enrichment elements for their instructional staff, including the implementing of participatory evaluation processes; (2) encourage instructors to take “ownership” of programming, such that they continue to practice and develop competence over time; (3) increase instructor autonomy as they gain further experience. This research provides information to better EE organizational management in the aims of promoting motivated employees and ultimately effective program outcomes.

Transfer articulation is an important policy issue in Virginia. With increasing economic strains on federal and state budgets, pressure on key actors in higher education, and critical teacher shortages, an opportunity presented itself to investigate state transfer policy and articulation agreements designed to facilitate student transfer. Articulation agreements are policy instruments designed to facilitate a seamless transfer of both students and credits from the community college system into senior institutions. Over the last decade increased articulation activity has taken place in the Commonwealth of Virginia driven by higher education costs and articulation specific to teacher preparation due to teacher shortages. This study is an effort to add to the literature by linking the presence of one articulation agreement to increased enrollments of Virginia Community College System (VCCS) associate degree holders into a 5-year teacher preparation program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Select academic outcomes of associate degree holders, students who took coursework in the VCCS, and native students were also examined for comparative purposes. The study engaged a quantitative, nonexperimental, cross-sectional research methodology using existing data related to the 5-year teacher preparation program at VCU. The data collected for the study originated from the initial teacher licensure Master of Teaching (M.T.) programs which include early/elementary, and secondary (6-12) programs in English, foreign languages, history/social studies, mathematics, sciences, and special education. A master file containing 2,349 observations was created from which samples were then drawn for hypotheses testing. Ordinary Least Square regression, multiple regression, and binary logistic regression were used and the results indicated the presence of the 2004 VCU/VCCS Teacher Education Provision Admission (TEPA) articulation agreement had no impact on enrollment likelihood. Earning an associate degree was a strong predictor of graduation likelihood in the teacher preparation program and associate degree holders could also expect to earn fewer cumulative hours in the program—a potential savings of time and money. Total community college credits earned was a strong predictor of teacher licensure likelihood. Race had no impact on elapsed time spent in the teacher preparation program. The findings of this study suggest the mere presence of an articulation agreement does not guarantee increased enrollments into an academic program, in this case, a 5-year teacher preparation program. Student outcomes also suggest earning the associate degree had significant effects post transfer, almost doubling graduation likelihood. Licensing likelihood is positively affected by total community college credits earned. Results of the models testing common measures of student academic success—cumulative GPA, Praxis I performance, and GRE performance had no impact on graduation likelihood. Since the extant research is not robust on 5-year teacher preparation programs, further research is recommended specifically on 5-year programs related to the effectiveness of articulation agreements on enrollments—in addition to post transfer student outcomes.

abstract: Community colleges, like all higher education institutions in the United States, have not been immune to the increased national focus on educational accountability and institutional effectiveness over the past three decades. Federal and non-governmental initiatives aimed at tracking and reporting on institutional outcomes have focused on utilitarian academic and economic measures of student success that homogenize the goals, aspirations, and challenges of the individuals who attend these unique open-access institutions. This dissertation, which is comprised of three submission-ready scholarly peer-reviewed articles, examined community college students’ conceptualizations and valuations of “student success.” The research project was designed as a multiple methods single-site case study, and the data sources consisted of a large-scale student e-survey, follow-up semi-structured interviews with a heterogeneous group of students, semi-structured interviews with faculty and administrators, and a review of institutional documents. The interviews also incorporated two experimental visual elicitation techniques and a participatory ranking exercise. Article One introduces and operationalizes the author’s primary conceptual perspective, the capabilities approach, to develop a more comprehensive framework for understanding and evaluating community college student outcomes. This article documents the methodological process used to generate a theoretical and an empirical list of community college capabilities, which serve as the basis of future capabilities-based research on community college student success. Article Two draws on the student interview and student visual elicitation data to explore the capability category of “refuge” – a new, unexpected, and student-valued purpose of the community college as a safe escape from the complexities and demands of personal, home, and work life. In light of recent efforts to promote more structured and prescriptive college experiences to improve graduation rates, Article Three explores students’ perceptions of their pathways through the community college using the participant-generated and researcher-generated visual elicitation data. Findings indicate that students value the structure and the flexibility community colleges offer, as well as their own ability to be agents and architects of their educational experience. Taken together, these articles suggest that student success is less linear and more rhizomatic in structure than it is currently portrayed in the literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2015

This study sought to observe the trends in physical therapy faculty members over time and to understand how those trends correlated with changes in program outcomes. Accreditation data from 231 programs between 2008 and 2017 was used in a panel analysis using fixed effects and random effects models to estimate the effects that faculty characteristics, program characteristics, and program budgets have on graduation rates, first-time licensure examination pass rates, and the percentage of graduates of color that a program produced. Results show that for a 1% increase in faculty time devoted to scholarship, a program could expect graduation rates to rise by 0.17%. For a one percentage point increase in grant-funded faculty, a program could expect a 1.7% increase in graduation rates. Results also indicated a negative linear relationship between the number of publications and graduation rates. First-time licensure exam pass rates had an association with different variables. For a 1% increase in part-time faculty, a program could expect a 6.4% decline in first-time licensure examination pass rates. Similarly, a 1% increase in tenured faculty was associated with a 1.2% decline in first-time licensure examination pass rates. A 1% increase in faculty of color was associated with an increase in graduates of color by 33%. This research study provides data to better inform interested parties on how changes in faculty makeup and program budgets can impact PT graduation rates, licensure pass rates, and the percentage of graduates of color that a program can realistically expect to produce.

Purpose: To determine the differences between PT program NPTE 3-year ultimate pass rates (3YUPR) based on program length and faculty scholarship. To explore relationships between 3YUPR and quality faculty behaviors. Subjects: A total of 112 CAPTE accredited PT educational programs in the United States and Puerto Rico during 2013. Method: A quantitative design method was used to retrospectively test differences between program and faculty traits and student NPTE 3YUPR using data from the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), PT Annual Accreditation Reports (AAR) and Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) score reports. A self-generated faculty survey was used to prospectively obtain faculty behavior data in programs with high versus low NPTE outcomes. Results: The final survey had an acceptable Cronbach alpha score of 0.701. All survey items yielded a high percentage of correct classification above 75%. Eighteen faculty behaviors were consistent with high rated NPTE PT programs (p-values between >0.001 to 0.034 α level 0.05). Use of Independent t-tests found a significant difference between means of scholarly activity performed by faculty at high (22.54 ± 11.63) and low (14.77 ±8.47) ranked schools, t (70) = 2.99. p = 0.004. No statistically significant difference was found between PT program lengths in higher ranked programs (121.52 ± 12.16) compared to low ranked programs (123.96 ±18.80), t (37) = - 0.595. p = 0.555. Conclusions: This study found the sum of scholarly activity performed by faculty differs between high and low 3YUPR. No differences found in total program lengths when assessing by program 3YUPR. A survey tool was created that tested faculty behaviors consistent with programs that score high on the NPTE. Recommendations: Testing should be performed on a greater number of constructs representing faculty behaviors of quality programs for survey development. Correlations should be performed with faculty data from the same year and NPTE first time pass rates for an assessment of predictive relationships. Also, a repeated longitudinal design study is recommended for PT educational programs with high versus low NPTE scores using the self-generated survey to see how faculty behaviors impact student first time pass rates.

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Tiered intervention models have evolved in the last two decades as growing research emphasizes shifting from single-focused tiered systems such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) and Response to Intervention (RtI) to the integrated Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework. In 2015, federal leaders included the general term multi-tiered systems of support in the reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act. However, little is known about how states interpreted this inclusion into their plans or selected the integrated MTSS framework as a highly effective practice. The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive case study was to conduct a comprehensive review of all 52 state departments of education's ESSA Consolidated State Plans to determine the level of inclusion of MTSS in state policy. Specifically, the study identified the inclusion of MTSS as an evidence-based intervention that state educational agencies use to support school divisions in implementing to improve school conditions for learning, improve educators' skills, and provide effective transitions for students. The study examined the degree to which state leaders included technical assistance in implementing MTSS for schools identified for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement. Data collection consisted of downloading approved ESSA plans from state departments of education websites and reviewing each plan using an identical process. Data were categorized and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The analysis found inconsistency and variability in the tiered systems states selected to include in their state ESSA plan. Most states have not fully shifted from using single-focus tiered systems to the integrated MTSS framework. / Doctor of Education / Tiered intervention models have evolved in the last two decades as growing research emphasizes shifting from tiered systems focused on behavior or academics to an integrated framework called Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). In 2015, federal leaders included the general term multi-tiered systems of support in the reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act. However, little is known about how states interpreted this inclusion into their plans or included the integrated MTSS framework as an effective practice supported by state leaders. The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive case study was to conduct a comprehensive review of all 52 state departments of education's ESSA Consolidated State Plans to determine the level of inclusion of MTSS in state policy. Specifically, the study identified the inclusion of MTSS as an effective practice that state educational agencies use to support divisions in implementing to improve school conditions for learning, improve educators' skills, and provide effective transitions for students. The study examined the degree to which state leaders included targeted support in implementing MTSS for consistently underperforming schools as defined by the state. Data collection consisted of downloading approved ESSA plans from state departments of education websites and reviewing each plan using an identical process. Data were categorized and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The analysis found inconsistency and variability in the tiered systems states selected to include in their state ESSA plan. Most states have not fully shifted from using single-focus tiered systems to the integrated MTSS framework.

Skolor i Sverige ska kontinuerligt arbeta med skolutveckling. Enligt Skolverket är rektor ytterst ansvarig för att leda skolutvecklingsarbetet på respektive skolenhet. Skolutveckling innefattar många olika delar och innehåll där den inre organisationen på respektive skolenhet till viss del kan avgöra vilken inriktning utvecklingsarbetet bör ha. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka rektorers föreställningar om skolutveckling på den lokala skolenheten i relation till verksamhetsintegrerad grundlärarutbildning. Studiens ansats är kvalitativ, där det empiriska materialet utgörs av intervjuer med rektorer. Den  teoretiska utgångspunkten i denna studie grundar sig i ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv med en förståelsebaserad orientering. Resultatet av studien visar att skolutveckling bedrivs på många olika sätt. Exempel på skolutvecklingsarbete har utkristalliserats i olika teman såsom aktuell forskning, systematiskt kvalitetsarbete, samverkan och elevernas resultat. Den inre organisationen påverkar riktningen i detta utvecklingsarbete i form av den kultur som råder samt vilket utvecklingsområde det fokuseras på. I relation till skolutveckling upplever rektorerna den verksamhetsintegrerade grundlärarutbildningen positiv utifrån flera aspekter men framförallt att teori och praktik tillämpas vecka för vecka. Utbildningens utformning kan bidra till skapandet av gemensam kunskap och skolutveckling på arbetsplatserna. Dock har rektorerna en föreställning om att studenterna kommer bidra mer och mer  till skolutvecklingen under utbildningens gång. / Schools in Sweden should continuously work with school development. According to the National Agency for Education the principal is ultimately responsible for leading the work with school development. School development includes many different parts and content where the inner organization at the school units should prioritize the development work. The purpose of this study is to research principals’ notions around school development at the local school unit in relation to a work-integrated teacher education. The approach of the study is qualitative, where the empirical material consists of interviews with principals. The theoretical outset in this study is based on a social constructivism with understanding-based perspectives. The results show that school development is being carried out in many different ways. Themes that have emerged in the study in terms of school development are current research, systematic quality work, collaboration and the students’ results. The inner organization affects the development work by way of the existing culture as well as which area of development is being focused on. In relation to school development the principals experience the work-integrated teacher education in a positive way from several aspects but above all that theory and practice are carried out week by week. The formation of the education contributes in generating common knowledge and school development at the workplace. However, the principals have an idea that the students’ contribution to the school development increases during the education.