<p> The purpose of this study is to highlight the narratives of Native American youth to develop an understanding of social practices supporting and hindering educational achievement and attainment for Native American youth from their own perspectives. In this study, young adults who have recently completed K-12 education in a small rural school district tell their story of their schooling experiences. Understanding their lived experiences contributes to the body of research regarding Native American schooling in the Pacific Northwest. </p><p> This study adds to our understanding of schooling for Native American students who attend public schools in rural borderland settings. Though limited in scope, the personal retrospective accounts contain rich descriptions of the lived experiences of the five participants from which to gain directions for educational practice and educational research. Tribal Critical Race Theory analysis of in-depth individual semi-structured interviews with five young adults ages 19-24 from a confederation tribal organization in the Columbia Plateau yielded four major themes. These themes are: The legacy of colonization still present in schools, schooling, and social contexts, importance of school credentials/credentialing to move on with life, power of relationships to shape our realities, and forging our own reality.</p><p> Future leaders from public schools and tribal education agencies in rural borderland settings can use this research to inform educational practices for Native American students. Future researchers may wish to replicate this study increasing the scope, range of participants, and locations to further our understanding of schooling practices supporting and hindering educational achievement and attainment through strengths based explanations.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-02, Section: A, page: 0486. Adviser: George D. Kuh. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed March 13, 2007)."

<p> This thesis examines the trend and problems surrounding Chinese students studying in the US in general and Chinese students studying at University of Hawaii at Hilo (UH Hilo) in particular. The first chapter provides a review of the Chinese student enrollments in US colleges and universities, as well as the University of Hawaii at Hilo's participation in the Sino American 1+2+1 Dual Degree Program. The second chapter reviews research in the fields of Globalization, Internationalization, and Dual Degree programs. It provides a brief history on government sponsored higher education initiatives between China and the United States. The third chapter is a case study of the UH Hilo's Participation in the Sino American 1+2+1 Dual Degree Program. The historical context of the program's initiation, its administrative structure, course articulation process, individual student academic planning, financial system, language requirements, participating colleges and departments, and reasons for the slow growth of the program will be analyzed. Changes in academic policy over the life of the programs will be discussed in detail. </p><p> The fourth chapter provides projections of the student enrollments in China and Chinese students attending colleges and universities in the US using a univariate approach. Several projections using the univariate techniques of double moving average, double exponential smoothing, and ARIMA procedures will be presented. Evaluations on these alternative techniques and their applications are discussed. The fifth chapter provides projections of the Chinese students studying in the US using a multivariate approach. Regressions will be performed, and the results will be compared with those in the fourth chapter. Based on the results in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters, the final chapter will summarize the trend and problems concerning Chinese students studying in the US, analyze policy implications at UH Hilo, and provide suggestions for future Dual Degree programs specific to this university.</p>

<p>Keywords: special education directors, workload, job satisfaction, special education administration </p><p> The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to investigate employee characteristics, workload, and job satisfaction of special education directors employed by local education agencies in North Carolina (N=115). This study illuminates the complex nature of this leadership role and identifies factors influencing the job satisfaction among this population of special education directors. While these leaders have many years of experience in public education, the majority report fewer than five years of experience in special education administration. Findings identified these administrators have an immense workload that often requires reporting to work early, staying late, and/or working on weekends to fulfill job duties. While findings showed these leaders derive satisfaction when they apply strategic and instructional leadership, collaborate with stakeholders, and put forth efforts to improve outcomes for children with disabilities, this group has ambivalence toward their jobs. Areas of greatest dissatisfaction with regard to special education administration included demands from the state and local education agency, scarcity of resources, addressing conflict, and inadequate salaries. Findings of this study support earlier studies in that special education administration is inundated with turnover. Attrition is likely to continue until state and local education agencies take steps to improve the working conditions of special education administrators. </p>

<p> Attrition of special education teachers is a national problem resulting in lost monetary resources, school climate discontinuity, and lower student achievement. Within a small, rural district in southern Indiana, special education teacher attrition has risen since 2008 and continues to rise. District administrators want to retain teachers to ensure a continuity of instructional services for students with special needs. To explore this problem, an intrinsic qualitative case study was employed, guided by a research question that investigated the factors that special education teachers and administrators perceived as influencing special educators' career decisions. Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and Billingsley's schematic representation of special education attrition and retention comprised the conceptual framework. Data collection included one-on-one semistructured interviews with 7 teachers and 5 administrators and teacher retention documents. Data analysis involved in vivo coding and an inductive process to collapse data into the 3 following themes: (a) daily challenges, (b) retention factors, (c) transfer or leaving factors. A project arose from the study. Using salient interview data, a professional development plan was designed to address teachers' needs of relevant professional development (PD) and collaboration. The PD plan will establish a professional learning community and utilizes free evidence-based online training modules to support reading comprehension of students with special needs. Positive social change may result from improvements in PD support provided by the district to retain its special education teachers, resulting in greater continuity of instruction for students with special needs who depend on high quality, experienced educators.</p>

<p> The purpose of the study was two-fold: (a) to analyze the historical pattern of substance or weapon abuse incidents by students with different types of disabilities from 2001 to 2011 using the Data Accountability Center data sets (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Data, 2013) and the information from the National Center for Education Statistics about the number of students with disabilities receiving special education services under IDEA (2013) (http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64); and (b) to explore underlying causes of substance abuse or weapons offence incidents. </p><p> Regarding the historical pattern, the analysis showed that a significant and consistent pattern exists in the relationship between type of disabilities and frequency of substance or weapons offences. Students with emotional disturbance had been more likely to have substance abuse or weapons offences when compared to students who were in the categories of specific learning disabilities, traumatic brain injury or an intellectual disability from 2001 to 2011. Whereas specific learning disability students' incidents ranked second, those with traumatic brain injury or intellectual disabilities showed the minimal number of offenses for substance abuse or weapons offences in the years 2001-2011. </p><p> During the interview portion of the research, most interviewees perceived that students with emotional disabilities would be at risk for higher substance or weapons offence referrals compared to students with other types of disabilities. This finding was consistent with the statistical analysis found through Chi-Square tests. When asked about a causal relationship, a range of personal factors including being lonely, being bullied, seeking attention, being disrespectful or being impulsive were the key factors for the student having either substance abuse or weapons offences referral. Most of the interviewees addressed that such personal contexts seem to be more critical factors for students with disabilities to have discipline referrals for substance or weapons abuse rather than the type of disability itself, noting that the issues of substance or weapon abuse are not limited to students with disabilities but applied to students without disabilities. The interviewees' responses supported the historical pattern from 2001 to 2011 that showed that a very small percentage of students with disabilities&mdash;less than 1% of students with disabilities with a range from .01% to .39%, had been involved in substance or weapon abuse across the nation. </p><p> The results of this study suggest that diverse stakeholders including educators dismiss any beliefs that students with disabilities often have substance or weapon abuse problems. Instead of having the prejudice against students with disabilities, this study urges to ensure all students with disabilities are fully inclusive in their classrooms and community.</p>

<p> The role pharmacists play on the healthcare team is important to the health of the nation and society. Pharmacists are the medication experts whose role is to optimize their patient's health. Today's student pharmacists are prepared through pharmacy education to play this role on the healthcare team. This requires pharmacy schools to identify the appropriate students to enroll in professional Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) programs. The purpose of this research is to examine healthcare related experience as a factor used to predict admission as well as success (academic and clinical performance) in the first and second professional year of the Pharm.D. curriculum. </p><p> The study sample consisted of the Pharm.D. applicant pool for the 2010-2011 application cycle, which included 12,288 complete applications. A subset of this sample was combined with success markers (cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) in the first and second year, and Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) GPA for the first and second year (P1 and P2 years)) for a second sample that included 389 applicants. The methodology used for this research was binary logistic and multiple regression analysis. </p><p> Statistically significant study findings showed that healthcare related extracurricular experience is a predictor of admission, but not of academic or clinical performance in the first or second year of the Pharm.D. curriculum. The study findings held practical significance for prospective applicants through explanation of the variables as predictors of admission, in order for prospective applicants to properly prepare for the pharmacy school admissions process. The findings are also relevant for admissions officers and will inform their admission processes. Limitations include confounding variables that impact cumulative and IPPE P1 and P2 GPAs, generalizability to all pharmacy schools, as well as a lack of variance in the outcomes measures. Future studies should be conducted at the institutional level and in other health professions to evaluate these admission characteristics in terms of student performance and success at the institution level and in other health professions programs. Future studies should also explore other holistic admission factors (e.g. leadership, community service, etc.) to see if they contribute to appropriate success markers in the pharmacy curriculum.</p>

<p> This study explored perceptions of Public Relations (PR) among graduate higher education publics regarding distance learning as contrasted with face-to-face learning contexts. The research questions assessed student, faculty and administrator perceptions of characteristics of PR: trust, communication, quality, respect and rigor. </p><p> Participants included students and professors who had experienced both online and face-to-face learning, as well as administrators from two private universities. The larger of the two schools was in the Midwest region of the United States, and at the time of this study, was relatively new to online instruction. The smaller school was located in the Southeast region and offered an established online instruction program. Survey responses were collected from 69 students and 108 faculty, staff, and administrators. Out of those surveyed, six students, seven faculty, and six administrators were interviewed. Furthermore, I interviewed three human resources administrators from educational establishments who had experience hiring people with graduate education degrees. In addition, I analyzed student evaluations of courses taught both online and face-to-face at the smaller university. </p><p> Following completion of qualitative coding of interview data, examination of numeric descriptive trends within survey responses, and analysis of course evaluations, the findings revealed overall positive perceptions with strengths identified in online communication, respect, and rigor and weaknesses in trust and quality. Recommended improvements included strengthening academic integrity efforts through the consistent use of anti-plagiarism software and implementation of a rigorous culture of ethical enforcement. There is also a need for proactive provision of professional development for online teaching to provide the most student-efficient distance learning environment. Additionally, results of this study indicated a need for restructure of student evaluations of teaching to ensure assessment of the unique dynamics of online coursework. </p><p> The significance of these findings is two-fold: First, the data can potentially help university administrators effectively connect with internal and external publics and possibly foster collaboration between administration, faculty, and PR staff. Secondly, the insights reported from the analyzed data may be useful in rationalizing institutional beliefs and subsequent needs when writing departmental or institutional strategic improvement plans.</p>

<p> In this study, the factors that influence special education teachers to remain in their profession for at least five years were identified and analyzed. The study involved a mixed-methods design including a survey and interviews with experienced special educators. The survey items and their categorizations as relational support or organizational factors were based upon Billingsley's (2004) landmark research. The population consisted of special educators who remained in their current teaching positions for at least five years. The sample group for the survey included 35 veteran special educators from eight school districts in Missouri, and the stratified interview sample of five educators was gleaned from the survey participants. Survey and interview data were collected and analyzed. Quantitative findings indicated no significant difference existed at a 5% probability level between the response data modes for relational support factors and the response data modes for organizational factors. The four most influential retention factors included enjoyment gained from job, ability to make a difference in the lives of students, support of district-level special education administrators, and support of fellow special education teachers. Four themes emerged from the interview data gathered: making a difference was of utmost influence, relational support factors were more influential than organizational factors, and the actions of both building-level and special education administrators promoted an increase in special education teacher retention. The data collected in this study may assist administrators as they address influential teacher retention factors in order to increase the retention of experienced and qualified special education teachers.</p>

<p> This study focused on the California State University system's enrollment management activities. For schools in California who rely on state funds, managing enrollment has to be balanced with competing campus priorities, limited resources, volatile economic times, and the primary mission of the system which is serving students whose goal is to achieve a college degree.</p><p> Hossler and Bean (1990) defined enrollment management as the activities a campus conducts and how it organizes itself in order to influence student enrollment. Enrollment management components consist of marketing, admissions and recruitment, academic advising, career planning and placement, academic assistance programs, institutional research, orientation, financial aid, retention programs, and student services and activities (Hossler, 1984).</p><p> Individuals in leadership roles ranging from the presidents to administrators in various academic and student affairs areas were invited to participate in the study. A survey that inquired about campus enrollment management activities and perceived effectiveness of those activities was distributed through the campus system with support from the Chancellor's Office. Responses were received from each of the 23 campuses with a range of 1 to 6 respondents per campus. </p><p> A total of 90 surveys revealed the most prevalent enrollment management activities included the use of current students in the recruitment process, campus visits by prospective students, and the use of recruiters making visits. Also, the utilization of professional advisors in the advisement of students was used at a majority of campuses. Almost all the campuses had academic assistance programs in reading and study skills as well as used student tutors. Orientation activities were prevalent amongst all the campuses though student dropout follow-up, services addressing non-traditional students, and programs focused toward commuter students were found to be inconsistent amongst the campuses. </p><p> From this study, the following conclusions were determined. Certain components of enrollment management, such as recruitment and institutional research, could be standardized. Enrollment management components such as academic advisement and learning assistance must stay within the choice of campus so they can have the latitude to meet the needs of the students they serve. Enrollment Management activities focus on the goal of student retention and persistence </p>