Dropout rates among American Indian students have not shown significant improvement since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. While extensive research exists on the dropout phenomenon, no studies were found that addressed why some Navajo girls leave school and the role education narratives play in their decision. Accordingly, this study examined the narratives shaping federal and Navajo education policies in order to understand how these influence school programs. The research questions dealt with three elements that could induce Navajo girls to leave school, the institutions and programs offered by federal and tribal government entities, and the dichotomies between school and home environments. The narrative policy analysis, grounded in social construction theory, included provisional and secondary coding of the NCLB of 2001 and the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act of 2005. Interviews with administrators from the Department of Diné Education, and a young Navajo woman who had left school, supplemented the documentary analysis. The data were triangulated and a modified network analysis conducted to glean areas of convergence and discrepancy between federal and Navajo policy constructs, based on problem statements and proposed solutions. Results indicated that school programs aligned with federal imperatives might not engage or interest many Navajo girls, leading them to abandon their studies early. The implications for social change include the need to develop programs that increase self-direction and engagement among Navajo girls, and granting indigenous peoples autonomy in deciding which educational approaches most closely align with their cultural norms and long-term objectives.

Title I federal regulations provide funding to school districts to support Supplemental Educational Service (SES) tutoring services to qualified economically disadvantaged K-12 students and that these services should be monitored by school districts to determine its effectiveness. However, a school district in Southern California that is the focus of this convergent parallel design study has not provided sufficient oversight of the SES tutoring program resulting in ambiguity about policy implementation effectiveness. Using a theoretical framework of policy implementation as the foundation, the purpose of this study was to explore the role that quality of service played when administrators implemented the No Child Left Behind Act to evaluate tutoring services supplied by SES providers. Data were collected through a series of interviews with 10 school district administrators who also completed the EDUSERV survey. Data from the interviews were inductively coded and subjected to thematic analysis and descriptive information from the survey were calculated. Findings indicate that SES providers work diligently to support student learning improvement, but the inconsistent oversight by the school district has resulted in disparity in performance scores in educational attainment. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations to school district leadership to engage in consistent training for leadership in oversight of the SES program as well as improvements in oversight of SES performance in order to enhance outcomes for economically marginalized students

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is designed to help create a national minimum standard in the United States‘ public education system by requiring states to implement accountability systems. I examine the effect of No Child Left Behind on private school enrollment using a difference in differences model. Using data from the Private School Universe Survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, which is a survey conducted every two years and is mandatory for each American private school‘s administration to complete, I can evaluate the movement between public and private schools during the period when the requirements of No Child Left Behind were being implemented. I hypothesize that public schools have moved resources away from high achieving students toward the marginal students causing the high achieving students to enroll in private schools. Hence, private school enrollment will have increased due to No Child Left Behind. I find through my regressions that this hypothesis is true; the percentage of school-aged children in private schools increases after the signing of the No Child Left Behind Act.

As America's public schools become more diverse, the achievement gap between white students and students of color persists. These gaps are even more apparent in urban areas that serve large numbers of poor students of color. Because the population of aspiring teachers is increasingly white and middle class, theorists and teacher trainers often recommend multicultural education as a solution to working successfully in these schools. Multicultural education theorists claim that their suggestions for K-12 practitioners have not been infused into classrooms and schools, and so maintain that additional training opportunities should be provided for teachers. Although there is ample literature regarding multicultural education, there is scant research discussing teachers' perceptions and experiences with multicultural education, especially experienced teachers at the secondary level post-No Child Left Behind (NCLB). While one of the main purposes for the accountability measures in NCLB is to eliminate the achievement gap, these current political policies are at odds with the ideals of multicultural education. Further, historical and sociological analyses indicate that teachers have not been able to systematically alter school practices or outcomes in urban schools. Therefore, there is a gap between multicultural education theory and practice, as well as a gap between multicultural education theory and policy. The purpose of this study was to further investigate teacher perceptions of the factors in schools that affect the gaps between theories, practice and policy. Seven teachers who embrace multicultural education and work in urban secondary schools serving large populations of students of color were interviewed to further explore their experiences when implementing multicultural practices in their classroom. The results of this research suggest that multicultural education theory may be flawed in the way it approaches teacher training and the unique conditions of urban secondary schools, especially in the high accountability NCLB era. Teachers in this study understood the theoretical foundations of multicultural education, but believed that the goals of multicultural education were beyond what could be accomplished in classrooms. The findings of this study address some of the theoretical inconsistencies related to the institutional contexts of urban schools, teacher retention, and multicultural education teacher training models.

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African American and Hispanic students and students from families with lower income are particularly at-risk for differential academic achievement and dropout. When students underachieve at school or dropout, they often face severe consequences such as increased risk of incarceration and unemployment. School social workers strive to prevent poor academic achievement and the associated negative outcomes. In recent years, federal and state education policy has focused on reducing disparities in academic achievement through the creation of policies that use high-stakes testing requirements to hold schools accountable for student learning. Research studies on teacher perceptions of high-stakes testing indicate that it is having a negative impact on their job tasks and on school systems. However, there are few studies that examine school social worker perceptions about the impact of high-stakes testing. This study examines school social workers’ perceptions about high-stakes testing. Specifically, it assesses school social worker perceptions about the impact of high-stakes testing on school systems and how school ratings and student performance might influence these perceptions. It also examines school social workers’ perceptions about the impact of high-stakes testing on their abilities to perform their work tasks. The study sample is drawn from respondents to the Texas School Social Work Survey (n=177). Data were analyzed through secondary data analysis using factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings indicate that school social workers perceive high-stakes testing as having a largely negative impact on school systems and their job tasks. School social workers who predominantly worked with students from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to have negative opinions about the impact of high-stakes testing on their job tasks. School social workers from schools with lower school ratings and those who felt that the students on their caseload tended to struggle on high-stakes tests had more negative perceptions about the impact of high-stakes testing on school systems. Results indicate the need for school social workers to become more involved in education policy and macro practice, to connect their services to improved academic outcomes for students, and to find new ways to provide school social work services in the “age of accountability.” / text

Federal legislation, No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001), has brought the call for high quality and excellence into every aspect of education, including professional development. The links between teacher learning and student learning are well documented. teacher skill is one aspect influencing student growth; hence, professional development provides a path to the goal of NCLB - increased student achievement. However, it is a long way from policy decisions to implementation in local districts; hence, the professional development requirements of NCLB face challenges to implementation. One of the factors affecting NCLB policy implementation at all levels is the capacity of schools and districts to implement policies as they are intended (Cooper, Fusarelli, & Randall, 2004; Heck, 2004; Odden, 1991). Especially in rural districts, factors of isolation, poverty, and size may restrict the implementation of policy requirements (Jimerson, 2004; Reeves, 2003). This policy impact study used qualitative methods to look at the question, "How Do Factors of Arizona's Rural Districts Impact the Implementation of Models of Professional Development Required by NCLB?" Information was gathered through the use of document analysis, site-visits, and semi-structured interviews.

Thesis (M.A..)--Marshall University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains vi, 71 p. Includes bibliographical references p. 57-60.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Comparative Religion, 2004. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-77).

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