Since 2002, the rules and regulations of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have dictated state and local education policy, influenced state and local reform efforts, and led to significant investments in building the capacity of state and local education agencies to meet its mandates. Using a nationally comprehensive data set on school- and student subgroup-level NCLB outcomes, these three studies are the first national studies exploring the ways in which state officials’ interpretations of NCLB policy led to significant cross-state variation in school and subgroup outcomes across the country. I also investigate the extent to which NCLB accountability pressures and incentive structures led state and local officials to use school closure as a remedy for schools’ persistence poor performance. I conduct the latter analysis for all U.S. public schools and separately for a subset of U.S. public schools, all U.S. charters schools, in order to account for the idiosyncrasies of charter school governance and oversight. I find that significant cross-state variation in the share of schools identified as “failing” according to NCLB rules can largely be explained by variation in states’ NCLB implementation decisions, and that schools determined to have “failed” according to NCLB rules are more likely to close than schools that never “failed.” For all public schools and for charter schools only, a school determined to have “failed” according to NCLB rules is significantly more likely to close than a school determined to have never “failed.” Combined, these studies provide insight into the ways in which states’ NCLB implementation decisions had significant and lasting impact on school outcomes and state and local reforms.

This study examined the degree of perceived teacher self-efficacy between early childhood preservice teachers and elementary education pre-service teachers. There were 88 participants: 44 elementary education pre-service teachers and 40 early childhood pre-service teachers. Participants were mostly white, female pre-service teachers enrolled at East Tennessee State University. Using Bandura's 30-item "Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale" pre-service teachers rated their perceived self-efficacy on 7 subscales: decision-making, influence on school resources, instructional efficacy, disciplinary efficacy, enlisting parent involvement, enlisting community involvement, and creating a positive school climate. Significant differences were found between groups for 3 of the 7 subscales. Early childhood education pre-service teachers reflected higher levels of efficacy in influencing decision making, t(86)=3.36, p<.001; enlisting parental involvement, t(86)= 2.14, p < .05; and creating a positive school climate, t(86) = 3.01, p < .01. No significant differences between groups were found in overall perceived teacher self-efficacy, t(86)=1.44, n.s.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka några föräldrars upplevelser kring bortförandet av deras barn och hur stöd och hjälp från samhället upplevs. Tidigare forskning pekar på att kvarlämnade föräldrar drabbas svårt av ett bortförande då det orsakar emotionell stress. En del av forskningen som inriktar sig på riskfaktorer och kännetecken för bortföranden visar att bortföranden ofta äger rum i samband med vårdnadstvister och föregås av hot. Kvarlämnade föräldrar drabbas också ekonomiskt av ett bortförande. Forskning tyder också på att det finns brister i stöd och hjälp för drabbade föräldrar. Denna forskning utgår från en internationell kontext och myndigheter i engelskspråkiga länder. Då antalet bortföranden fortsätter att öka i Sverige finns anledning att uppmärksamma och studera frågan då det finns väldigt lite svensk forskning om bortförande av barn. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av intervjuer med fem föräldrar som drabbats av ett bortförande, där den andra föräldern bortfört barnet till utlandet. Intervjumaterialet har bearbetats genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Aaron Antonovskys teori KASAM – Känsla av sammanhang, utgör studiens teoretiska referensram.Studiens resultat visade att föräldrarna upplevde bortförandet som en kris. Majoriteten av föräldrarna hade upplevt varningssignaler med bland annat hot från den bortförande föräldern innan bortförandet. Föräldrarna upplevde även skuldkänslor relaterat till detta. De reagerade på olika sätt på bortförandet. Reaktionerna innebar bland annat sömnsvårigheter, oro, chock, panik, ångest, sorg och saknad. Vidare visar resultatet att föräldrarna upplevde att svenska myndigheter inte gjorde tillräckligt för att hjälpa dem. Bortförandet innebar stora ekonomiska kostnader de själva fick betala och de efterfrågade även bättre psykosocialt stöd. Slutsatsen är att föräldrarna upplevde bortförandet som en kris som de kände sig maktlösa i då de upplevde att de inte fick det stöd och den hjälp de behövde från det svenska samhället. / This bachelor thesis aims to investigate a few parents' experiences of the parental abduction of their children and how they experience support and help from society. Previous research indicates that left-behind parents experience emotional stress and that the abduction of their children can be traumatic. Parts of the existing research focouses on risk factors and shows that parental abductions often occur in connection to a child-custody case, and with threats from the other parent. The abductions affect the left-behind parents' economic well-being. Research about parental support and authority responses also indicates that support needs to be extended and improve. This research was conducted in international contexts and related to authorities in the English-speaking world. Because of the increasing cases of parental abduction in Sweden, and that little research has been conducted about the left-behind parents' experinces in Sweden, there is a reason to investigate this in this bachelor thesis. Interviews have been carried out with five parents whose children have been abducted by the other parent to another country. The theoretical framework of the study is Aaron Antonovsky's theory Sense of Coherence (SOC). The analysis suggests that the parents experienced that the abduction of their children was a life crisis. The majority of the parents had seen alarming signs, and gotten threats from the other parent before the abduction. These findings confirmed previous research. The parents experienced feelings of guilt related to the alarming signs. The parents also felt powerless and stated that the Swedish authoritys, and society, did not do enough to help them.

History of African American underclass community in northwestern DeKalb County, Georgia, from its settling in the late-1920s to its present displacement through gentrification. Thesis is that black underclass communities are the result of America's historic racism and subordination of blacks, whose members are left little choice but to engage in illegality as survival strategies. The work reveals the hard-work routines of people relegated to the bottom of American society, as well as their fun-loving leisure activities and embracing of vice as pleasurable. Established during Jim Crow segregation, Lynwood Park cultivated a reputation for danger and toughness to keep out outsiders, so that its children could have some semblance of a "normal" upbringing. The community's color line was then patrolled by dangerous men who created somebodiness for themselves as tough protectors, which ensured that they would be emulated as heroes. The work records the social and cultural history of the community as recalled and interpreted by residents in an oral interview project. Covers community organizations and institutions, such as churches and schools, as well as tensions within the community and tensions against both the white and black outside. Records social life of partying, hog killings, barbecues, baseball, drag racing. Includes culture of illegality and vice, school desegregation, racism, and the community's relationship to DeKalb County, its affluent white neighbors, and the various dynamics that eventually led to the displacement of the traditional black residents. The work challenges the golden-age-of-the-ghetto argument and demonstrates that Lynwood Park suffered from intragroup tensions and was not a safe cocoon for all its residents. The interviews also reveal that many children were left behind in the community's school during segregation because institutional caring generally rallied around only those children who demonstrated academic potential and a desire to eschew the negative dynamics of the enclave's street life. The work also demonstrates the ways in which whites were implicated in promoting, and profiting from, the community's illegality, which led to the eventual displacement of the traditional black residents.

Examining teacher attitudes about the impact of Standards-Based Reform (SBR) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on current teaching practices in kindergarten classrooms was the focus of this mixed-methods study. The investigation was designed to survey classroom teachers concerning activities and opinions about enactment of governmental policy, One hundred-nine kindergarten teachers responded to a questionnaire about beliefs, educational level, years of kindergarten teaching, and classroom practices. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten teachers to gather information on attitudes, beliefs, and implementation of policy. Quantitative analysis was used on practices and subject changes. Qualitative analysis was used to report attitude, procedural changes, and predictions concerning SBR and NCLB. Triangulation strengthened the study by examination of classroom practices and teacher reporting through plan book inspection.The quantitative research was conducted to measure changes through chi-square analysis to the questionnaire responses, Developmental teaching practices and subject changes were examined. Outcomes demonstrated that teaching practices had become more "blended" but more developmental than teacher-directed. Significant differences were noted in subject changes, confirming that language arts dominates the curriculum. Subjects not tested for NCLB were presented less,Ten teachers who had taught prior to initiation of SBR in Indiana (2000) were interviewed and their plan books were examined. Along with an open-ended question from the questionnaire, these responses provided the qualitative methodology. Analysis created six categories concerning the impact of SBR and NCLB on the child, the classroom, the family, the teacher and profession, and the future of education. Theories were developed that addressed the conflict educators feel between the Structure of legislation and the Humanistic components of teaching. This personal balance that teachers have created between Structure and Humanistic was influenced by a sense of independence garnered by support of principals. Teachers who taught in schools with structured, embedded programs aimed at raising test scores exhibited the most stress and lack of autonomy.This study resulted in five recommendations. They were: encourage developmental practices that support the individual child, increase the role of the parent in the educational partnership process, to support teacher inclusion in decision making to foster autonomy, and the need for professional organizations and teacher preparation programs to heed current teaching practices while supporting the developmental needs of the child. / Department of Elementary Education

This thesis explores the political economy aspects of the provision of local public goods by higher levels of government. Chapter 1 focuses on local public goods as instruments for special interest politics at the supra-local level, with an emphasis on public infrastructure. To capture the implications of long-run relationships between political parties and their loyal supporters, I set out a dynamic probabilistic voting model which predicts that the geographic pattern of spending depends on the way the government balances long-run `machine politics' considerations with the more immediate concern to win over swing voters. To assess the empirical relevance of both forces, I analyse rich data on road spending from a panel of electoral districts in Québec. Empirical results exploiting the province's linguistic fragmentation provide robust evidence that partisan loyalty is a key driver of the geographic allocation of spending. Chapter 2 proposes a theoretical framework to analyse the coexistence of multiple tiers of government in local public good provision. I study the effects of such partial decentralization on accountability using a two-period political agency model, in which two levels of government are involved in public good provision and voters are imperfectly informed about each government's contribution to the public good. The model predicts that the net effect of a departure from complete centralization (or decentralization) balances the benefits of vertical complementarity against the loss of accountability following from imperfect information and detrimental vertical interactions. Chapter 3 investigates the impact of partial decentralization on local electoral accountability in the context of California's school finance system. I exploit the peculiarities California's school finance system and the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to estimate the extent to which politicians are punished or rewarded for observed policy outcomes, and how this channel is affected by the degree of centralization. Results show that voters are responsive to differences in dropout rates and pupil-teacher ratios, and that incumbents are less likely to be reelected when a district's degree of centralization is high. Increased federal involvement after 2001 is associated with sharper local electoral accountability.

This thesis explores the political economy aspects of the provision of local public goods by higher levels of government. Chapter 1 focuses on local public goods as instruments for special interest politics at the supra-local level, with an emphasis on public infrastructure. To capture the implications of long-run relationships between political parties and their loyal supporters, I set out a dynamic probabilistic voting model which predicts that the geographic pattern of spending depends on the way the government balances long-run `machine politics' considerations with the more immediate concern to win over swing voters. To assess the empirical relevance of both forces, I analyse rich data on road spending from a panel of electoral districts in Québec. Empirical results exploiting the province's linguistic fragmentation provide robust evidence that partisan loyalty is a key driver of the geographic allocation of spending. Chapter 2 proposes a theoretical framework to analyse the coexistence of multiple tiers of government in local public good provision. I study the effects of such partial decentralization on accountability using a two-period political agency model, in which two levels of government are involved in public good provision and voters are imperfectly informed about each government's contribution to the public good. The model predicts that the net effect of a departure from complete centralization (or decentralization) balances the benefits of vertical complementarity against the loss of accountability following from imperfect information and detrimental vertical interactions. Chapter 3 investigates the impact of partial decentralization on local electoral accountability in the context of California's school finance system. I exploit the peculiarities California's school finance system and the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to estimate the extent to which politicians are punished or rewarded for observed policy outcomes, and how this channel is affected by the degree of centralization. Results show that voters are responsive to differences in dropout rates and pupil-teacher ratios, and that incumbents are less likely to be reelected when a district's degree of centralization is high. Increased federal involvement after 2001 is associated with sharper local electoral accountability.

The impact of migration on the family is increasingly discussed in academic sphere in recent years. The form of the family changes during the migration process, mainly due to the feminization of migration. This phenomenon entails several problems, one of them is the phenomenon of "children left behind" in the country of origin. Moldova, as the poorest country of Europe, has been struggling with the problem "children left behind" for many years. Since this theme has been discussed many times in the literature, the aim of this paper is to shift the knowledge of the subject a little further. The aim of the thesis is to describe and understand how the parental emigration affects their children during the childhood and what is the influence of this experience on their own planning of the future in relation to migration. The research was conducted in the form of semi structural interviews, a qualitative approach that allows understanding of the issue in depth was used. The theoretical approach of this thesis is based on the theory of cumulative causation. Generally, this theory says that migration generates migration. I have only focused on the influence of parental emigration in this process. Plans are also linked to the orientation of values. Important is not only the opinion on the country in which...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:21:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea.pdf: 2250624 bytes, checksum: 33dd44c7d63479272ceb3b537a60e4a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The belief in the rapture of the church is part of a fundamentalist eschatological system that is often called premillennial dispensationalism. Its appearance is noted to start in the XIX century through the teachings of Jonh Nelson Darby, a british evangelical preacher founder of the Plymouth Brethren. His teaching incompass the coming of Christ in two steps. One in secret for the church, taking it to heaven and saving it from seven years of tribulation that will follow, the second, a glorious return at the end of seven years for establishment the millennial kingdom on earth, the teaching of Darby were popularized in the footnotes of the Scofield Reference Bible published in 1909 by Cyrus I. Scofield, and it is still set in the eschatological beliefs of the majority of the evangelical fundamentalist churches, both in the EUA and Brazil. In 2002, the film was produced: Left Behind for portraying this belief as well as its update to recent times. However, further study of this belief exposes its doctrinal construct character in which biblical texts from different perspectives of the old and New Testaments are united to form an eschatological framework about to be fulfilled.(AU) / A crença no arrebatamento da Igreja faz parte de um sistema escatológico fundamentalista que costuma ser chamado de dispensacionalismo pré-milenista. Seu surgimento se dá a partir do século XIX, pelo ensino de John Nelson Darby, um pregador evangélico britânico, fundador dos Irmãos de Plymouth. Seu ensino aguarda a vinda de Cristo em duas etapas: uma, em secreto para a Igreja, há de levá-la ao Céu e poupá-la dos sete anos de tribulação que se seguirão; e outra, num aparecimento glorioso, ao final dos sete anos há de instaurar o reino milenial sobre a terra. O ensino de Darby foi popularizado nas notas de rodapé da Bíblia de Referência Scofield, publicada em 1909 por Cyrus I. Scofield, e ainda hoje se configura na crença escatológica da maioria das igrejas evangélicas fundamentalistas, tanto nos EUA quanto no Brasil. Em 2002 foi produzido o filme: Deixados para Trás que retrata esta crença bem como sua atualização para épocas recentes. Contudo, um estudo mais aprofundado desta crença expõe seu caráter de construto doutrinário, em que textos bíblicos de perspectivas diferentes, do Antigo e do Novo Testamento, são unidos para formar um quadro escatológico em vias de se cumprir.(AU)

Public school choice education policy attempts to create an education marketplace. Although school choice research has focused on the parent role in the school choice process, little is known about parents served by low-performing schools. Following market theory, students attending low-performing schools should be the primary students attempting to use school choice policy to access high performing schools rather than moving to a better school. However, students remain in these low-performing schools. This study took place in Miami-Dade County, which offers a wide variety of school choice options through charter schools, magnet schools, and open-choice schools. This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the decision-making process and school choice options utilized by the parents of students served by low-performing elementary schools in Miami-Dade County. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of students served by low-performing schools. Binary logistic regression models were fitted to the data to compare the demographic characteristics, academic achievement and distance from alternative schooling options between transfers and non-transfers. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to evaluate how demographic characteristics, distance to transfer school, and transfer school grade influenced the type of school a transfer student chose. A geographic analysis was conducted to determine how many miles students lived from alternative schooling options and the miles transfer students lived away from their transfer school. The findings of the interview data illustrated that parents’ perceived needs are not being adequately addressed by state policy and county programs. The statistical analysis found that students from higher socioeconomic social groups were not more likely to transfer than students from lower socioeconomic social groups. Additionally, students who did transfer were not likely to end up at a high achieving school. The findings of the binary logistic regression demonstrated that transfer students were significantly more likely to live near alternative school options.