Thesis (M.S. in anthropology)--Washington State University, May 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-108).

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2006. / "March 2006." Thesis Advisor(s): Stephen L. Mehay, William D. Hatch. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62). Also available online.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the reasons for attrition of doctoral candidates in the College of Human Resources and Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Graduate students granted candidacy status have fulfilled the following requirements: successful completion of course work, successful completion of the written and oral preliminary examinations, and completion of the residency requirement. The population for this study was students, identified by the Office of Graduate Studies, who attained doctoral candidacy between 1983-1992. During this period, 94 students out of 354 attaining candidacy did not complete the degree. From the 94 students identified, 55 students were eliminated by the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies faculty for one of the following reasons: the student is presently working on dissertation with faculty member, the student was advised not to continue after preliminary examination, or the student was not in the EDAD program, thus leaving 39 candidates. By limiting the study to doctoral candidates who have not completed the degree, it is possible to focus on the experiences of candidates who most likely will not obtain a doctorate. The focus of this study was to develop a picture of how the doctoral degree attrition evolves over time. This was to be accomplished by allowing candidates the opportunity to expound on the doctoral degree experience in a semistructured interview setting. Responses from semistructured interviews were analyzed in order to reconstruct the experiences of those candidates who did not complete the degree and also to determine which barriers were dominant in the process. Results of the interviews were analyzed first for differences between candidates' opinions in general, and then to identify factors that each candidate perceived had promoted, had no effect on, or had impeded degree completion. Also, factors that most affect the decision not to complete the doctoral degree as ranked by the candidates were analyzed. Candidate responses revealed that time and financial management along with professional obligations and personal reasons were the most significant factors in degree non-completion. A secondary factor was that of financial concern and inability of how to obtain information and resources to address this concern. Findings of this study permitted the researcher to identify several factors affecting doctoral degree completion at one institution; the next step might be to operationalize these factors by describing the patterns of attrition, desegregating attrition by the stages of study, and identifying connections between the levels of attrition at various levels. / Ed. D.

Attrition, employee turnover, self-selection, and withdrawal all refer to an employee’s exit from an organization, or from an organization’s recruitment or selection process. When individuals with the desired knowledge, skills, abilities, and other qualities (KSAOs) attrit, it represents lost productivity to an organization (Barrick & Zimmerman, 2009). Therefore, organizations should seek a selection program that screens out unwanted characteristics while minimizing the voluntary withdrawal, or quitting, of those who would be a good organizational fit. A military selection context amplifies these two aims because of the limited number of qualified individuals relative to the organization’s personnel needs, and because of the high potential cost of a bad hire. However, there are few studies of attrition during a selection process, and even fewer in a military context that combines physical, cognitive, and personality components as relevant performance dimensions. The purpose of the study was to model attrition from a military special operations selection through training program to determine what combination of physical abilities, cognitive abilities, and personality scales best predicts success. The study examined archival data from 748 candidate records spanning eight different classes during 2019. Secondary purposes of the study included comparing differences in attrition from the first week of the program to the remaining seven weeks, and comparing the predictive validity of a personality trait profile model to a model using personality scales T-scores. In conducting the analysis and modeling, exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the sample Jackson Personality Inventory-Revised (JPI-R) personality scales, finding both similarities and differences with previous study samples (Detwiler & Ramanaiah, 1996; Paunonen & Jackson, 1996). The result of the study was a logit prediction model with a ROC AUC of .784, and an F1 score of .69, that incorporated three physical predictors, performance IQ, and three personality variables: JPI-R T-score for sociability, and two composites created from the factor analysis—a Conscientiousness Composite and an Openness Composite (negative relationship with candidate success). Models for week 1 attrition and attrition from weeks 2-8 differed from the 8-week attrition model, and from each other in the significance and the importance of the personality variables and of cognitive abilities. Physical predictors: run score, pushups score, and sit-ups score, were significant and strong predictors of success for each of the time periods. Verbal IQ was not significant for any time period, while performance IQ was significant in predicting 8-week success, and for success during the week 2-8 time period. Personality predictors varied the most by timeframe, although some component of Conscientiousness predicted strongly for each timeframe. Whereas Openness-related facets predicted for 8-week success and success from week 1 with a negative relationship, Openness factors were non-significant in weeks 2-8. In contrast, Anxiety, a related sub-facet of Neuroticism, predicted moderately (negative relationship) for success from weeks 2-8, but was non-significant for week 1 and for the 8-week program. Unexpected findings included the sample’s different factor structure on the JPI-R, the dominance of the physical predictors in all models, and the strength of personality predictors relative to cognitive abilities. Implications for military and similar types of selection contexts, where selection through training includes a significant physical component, are discussed. / M.S. / The study analyzed attrition from a military special operations selection program to determine what combination of individual differences measured before the program best predicted attrition during the program. The individual differences measured prior to the program were physical abilities, cognitive abilities, and personality. Archival data from 748 candidate records spanning eight different classes during 2019 was analyzed. Attrition is the departure of an individual from an organization, or from a hiring process. This study dealt with attrition from a hiring, or personnel selection process, which is less commonly studied than attrition from within an organization. Secondary purposes of the study included how attrition from the first week of the program differed from the remaining seven weeks, and determining if a specific broad personality profile best predicted attrition. The study found additional results that were not anticipated, specifically, that the military sample differed meaningfully on important dimensions of the Jackson Personality Inventory-Revised (JPI-R) personality scales, in comparison with previous study samples (Detwiler & Ramanaiah, 1996; Paunonen & Jackson, 1996). The practical result of the study was a mathematical prediction model that incorporated a candidate’s scores on pushups, sit-ups, 2-mile run, performance IQ, and three personality variables, and calculates a candidates’ probability of success. The three personality variables that predicted success were scores for sociability, and two composites—a Conscientiousness Composite and an Openness Composite. Mathematical models for week 1 attrition and attrition from weeks 2-8 differed from the 8-week attrition model, and from each other, suggesting that attrition during different timeframes is due to different reasons. Physical predictors: 2 mile run score, pushups score, and sit-ups score, were strong predictors of success for each of the time periods. Verbal IQ did not predict for any time period, while performance IQ predicted 8-week success, and success during the week 2-8 time period. Personality predictors varied the most by timeframe, although a component of Conscientiousness predicted strongly for each timeframe. Openness-related personality facets predicted for 8-week success and success from week 1 with a negative relationship. In contrast, Anxiety, a related sub-facet of Neuroticism, predicted moderately (negative relationship) for success only from weeks 2-8. Unexpected findings included the military sample’s different factor structure on the JPI-R, the dominance of the physical predictors in all models, and the strength of personality predictors relative to cognitive abilities. Implications for military and similar types of selection contexts, where selection through training includes a significant physical component, such as police or firefighters, are discussed.

All students deserve the opportunity to receive a high quality education that will enable them to reach their full potential and become productive members of society. Teachers play a vital role in the academic development of students and therefore school districts across the country need to do all they can to ensure that all students have highly qualified teachers in their classrooms. Many school districts across the country are having major difficulty retaining the very best educators. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that impact teacher attrition in two small school districts in Southeastern Virginia. This study through survey responses gathered data from teachers who left both districts after the 2007-2008 school year on the factors that impacted their decisions to leave and the challenges they perceived both school districts face that impact teachers attrition. Other data from the survey responses identified characteristics of the teachers who left both school districts after the 2007-2008 school year. Additionally, 2007-2008 demographic data on the total teacher population in both school districts were collected from the Human Resources departments of both school districts. Results from the study revealed that 54 out of 240 (22.5%) teachers combined left both school districts after the 2007-2008 school year. Of the 54 teachers who left, 52 were mailed surveys. A total of 40 responses were received from the survey population of teachers. This represented a 77% survey response rate. A variety of reasons for leaving were given by the teachers who left both school districts, but a major reason given for leaving was student discipline. The biggest challenge that both school districts face that impacts teacher attrition as perceived by teachers who left was geographical location. Of the 54 teachers who left both school districts, the majority were White and female. The majority of teachers who left both school districts combined had five years or less of total teaching experience. The majority of the teachers who left indicated they entered the teaching profession with the desire to impact the lives of children. / Ph. D.

No description available.

This study reports on language contact phenomena among the Italian-Venetian communities of Anglophone Canada. The analysis perspective is twofold: on one hand it studies language maintenance/attrition comparing two cohorts of migrants, those already well researched who migrated during the period of mass migration (1945-1967) and those who did so in the following four decades (1970-2009). On the other, it investigates language maintenance/attrition taking an intergenerational perspective on three generations of speakers. The corpus used in the analysis is composed of 56 interviews, collected during three months of fieldwork in Canada in 2009. These data were supplemented by 99 questionnaires, which set the background of the analysis, discussing in particular the linguistic habits and attitudes of the community investigated. Given the huge amount of data considered and the mainly quantitative approach taken in this research, two statistical software programs, Taltac and SPSS, were employed to help with the analysis. Another tool, meta-linguistic observation, is also used to broaden the general framework of the study and whenever possible support it with more evidence. The literature on language maintenance/attrition among Italian migrant communities is sizeable; however, there remains room for further investigations. This work, in particular, addresses two major aspects still rarely explored: first, quantifying the decline in heritage language skills on a generational scale, and secondly, comparing the linguistic skills of post-Second World War migrants, on which research has mostly concentrated so far, with those of new waves of migrants. Although this thesis is concerned with a particular geographical and historical framework and the findings are therefore representative of this specific context, the work aims to point to some observations from which generalisation may be possible. By setting side by side these two very distinct cohorts and discussing the new linguistic tendencies in language proficiency among the most recent groups of migrants, research is opened to the new scenarios evolving among Italian communities abroad.

The purpose of this study was to examine public school educators’ perceptions of factors driving teacher attrition and the variables studied in correlation to attrition issues in a select rural school district in the state of Mississippi. The findings of this study will inform local and district level school leaders through providing an indifferent perception on teacher attrition in one school district in the state of Mississippi while giving insight on why teachers are exiting the field. It will further serve as a guide for national leaders to revisit recruitment and retention methods currently used while identifying new and innovative methods for decreasing attrition rates and at the same time building a sense of stability within low performing schools. Both qualitative and quantitative data were compiled and synthesized while considering descriptive and inferential statistics to recognize emergent themes for implications of teacher retention. The findings of the study concluded that elementary teachers were more likely to be in greater agreement about teacher orientation programs than were high school teachers. Middle school teachers scored lower on teacher attrition than did teachers in elementary school, indicating that middle school teachers may be more inclined to think about leaving the teaching profession. Four of the attrition indicators (school culture, teacher evaluation accountability measures, academic learning outcomes, and instructional feedback) were statistically significant predictors of teacher attrition. The findings in this study also revealed that teachers with less experience are more inclined to leave the profession than those with more experience.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

The study surveyed a sample of K-12 teachers who had used assistive technology (AT) in the classroom to determine answers to five research questions. These were, (1) why the teachers adopted AT, (2) their attitudes and perceptions about its value, (3) challenges they have experienced in adopting AT, (4) whether they have discontinued or decreased use of AT, and, if so, (5) the factors that led to this result. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative aspect, an online survey instrument was developed to answer five research questions. Participants were teachers who had used AT in the classroom and came from 19 Georgia school districts whose superintendents granted permission for them to participate and whose assistant technology coordinators agreed to inform teachers in their districts' schools of the study. A total of 174 teachers completed the online survey. Of these, 52 agreed to be interviewed by telephone by the researcher, and 10 of those were randomly selected to be interviewed. Telephone interviews were audio recorded with the interviewee's permission, then transcribed by the researcher. Analysis of quantitative results included factor analysis of replies to Likert-scaled items, compilation of frequency of responses, and determination of means for Likert items. For interview responses, qualitative methods were used to determine any themes in participants' replies. It was found that (1) the most prevalent reason teachers initially used AT is that they perceived that the technology has value for their students, (2) the teachers had a mostly positive attitude toward the value of AT, (3) most of the teachers reported needing more training in AT, (4) almost half felt that time constraints affected their use of AT, (5) about one-third of online responders and 9 of 10 interviewees agreed that technical problems affected their use of AT, and (6) less than half of online participants perceived that they had adequate AT support. It was also found that most of the teachers had neither decreased nor discontinued use of AT during the 2008-2009 school year. Reasons cited by those who had decreased or discontinued use included time constraints, technical problems, lack of training, and lack of support.