Proponents of charter schools argue that contracting out schools to management organizations can improve student performance and decrease costs by giving schools autonomy in exchange for accountability. Little evidence exists, however, on how contracts are determined, whether contracting is an effective policy in education, and the effects of terminating contracts. In New Orleans, most of the public schools have been contracted out to nonprofit management organizations over the past ten years. Several of those contracts have been terminated and schools are then contracted out to new management organizations. The empirical analysis of how authorizers make decisions about which charter schools are allowed into the market, and which schools have their contracts terminated revealed that initial approval decisions were strongly predicted by the subjective ratings of the outside charter application evaluator, but not by other application characteristics derived directly from the applications. Schools were renewed for operation if they had high test levels and/or value added, but family preferences were not taken into consideration (as measured by enrollment levels and growth). The results of the difference-in-differences and matching analysis used to analyze the effect that district-to-charter and charter-to-charter restarts and closures have on student performance indicated that elementary student test scores increase by the second year after both types of restart. The scores increase even sooner, after only one year for charter-to-charter restarts. However, if failing schools are closed instead of being contracted out, students do not experience any change in test scores. High school students experience decreases in test scores and in the probability of graduating following restarts and closures. / 1 / Whitney Ruble

This thesis is concerned with the organisation of education and training systems and the extent to which their design may challenge or reinforce social inequalities. In modern societies, people’s life chances are inextricably linked to the education they are able to access and the knowledge and skills (typically manifested through formal qualifications) they acquire, thus how countries organise their education and training systems is of fundamental importance in determining the opportunities available to its citizens and to their life chances. The specific focus of the thesis is on the design and organisation of post compulsory education and training systems - a stage that represents a particular challenge for policy-makers - and within that, on how systems might conceptualise academic and vocational learning in more productive ways. Education systems are not context-free structures: the design of a nation’s education and training system provides a window onto its traditions, its social values and economic stance, and its current preoccupations and ambitions for itself. Thus the thesis uses the example of the Higher Still reform of post compulsory education and training in Scotland (from 1999 onwards) to reflect more generally on education and social inequalities in Scotland and to ask how we should understand the way in which Scotland has approached reform of its education and training provision. It seeks to explicate the reasons for the adoption of the Higher Still reform strategy, to identify the factors that determined its specific design and development and to reflect on how the particular reform strategy embodied by Higher Still relates to certain aspects of the Scottish context and its policy processes. The thesis then examines the institutional response to Higher Still and its impact on the opportunities available to young people. It locates the Higher Still example within the broader field of education policy, considering what the experience of the Higher Still reform reveals about the possibilities of re-designing an education and training system in ways which promote social equality and the scope for manoeuvre that policy-makers, in a specific national context, have in relation to system reform.

<p> After the Syrian Civil War began, refugee exodus gained unprecedented momentum. Turkey, as one of the major destinations of Syrian refugees, experienced problems regarding the accommodation of a high number of refugees (Dorman, 2014; UNICEF, 2014; USAID, 2015). The scholars widely debated the problems regarding educating refugee (Akkaya, 2013; Arabaci et al. 2013), but the available studies do not focus on experiences of refugee students in the schools.</p><p> This dissertation study, therefore, examines the schooling experiences of Syrian child refugees in a Turkish public school with a developing conceptual framework named as Middle East Refugee Protection Model (MRPM). The MRPM originates as a result of the different expectations and motives among the host countries located in Europe and the Middle East.</p><p> This study uses Critical Qualitative Research. The data is collected through interviews and classroom observations. I employed the reconstructive data analysis strategies and used NVivo qualitative data analysis software to analyze the data.</p><p> The results show that the Syrian refugee students&rsquo; experiences in the school in Turkey are not dependent on the liability of the legal instruments but social norms and values. The school staff and classroom teachers use a child-centric approach to educate and integrate refugee students through accentuating values such as transparency and honesty, determination and commitment, and approving authority. Syrian refugee students in the public school face challenges due to their language skills, the host communities&rsquo; social expectations, and the lack of sustainable refugee education policy. As they continue facing challenges, refugee students begin constructing survival skills and these survival skills help them become an independent being and develop a sense of agency.</p><p> Based on the interpretation of the results, I have created two models to explain the refugee education strategies in the school, and how refugee students make sense of the school staff's approach in educating them. The first model is the refugee education and protection model. It explains the concepts and principles that school staff uses to regulate their refugee education system. The second model is agency and independence development, which explains the stages that refugee students go through to be an agent and an independent student. This dissertation suggests theoretical, political and practical implications of the use of models and effective strategies for educating refugees.</p><p>

<p> This study conducted an international comparative study between Japan and the United States to examine both problems and possibilities in the use of the term &lsquo;sustainable development&rsquo; (SD) among environmental educators. In so doing, this study applied a multilevel analysis&mdash;national, state/prefecture, and individual levels&mdash;to assess SD&rsquo;s overall influences. Such a comparative elaboration of the individual perceptions, as well as the policy contexts, helps in comprehending both the conceptual and practical obstacles, and their possibilities, when using an internationally-promoted term. I found that respondents of both countries tend to have a firm grounding in the field of EE, and make only supplementary use of the notions of sustainable development and ESD, primarily for emphasizing social and economic dimensions of environmental issues. </p><p> Some of the notable results are as follows: 1. Environmental educators of both countries are still hesitant to embrace ESD or Education for Sustainability in their teachings; 2. Environmental educators of both countries, while not rejecting the concepts of sustainable development and ESD, are instead operationalizing them to punctuate social and economic issues; and 3. Most environmental educators perceive EE as being larger and more comprehensive than ESD. This is demonstrated in the survey results in which none of the American environmental educators perceived EE as being smaller than ESD. </p><p> Implications from the results are as follows: 1. The &lsquo;shift&rsquo; in discourse from EE to ESD appears to be incomplete, contrary to some recent observations. I believe that this is because the field of EE, while showing some differences at the national level, has been affirming the incorporation of social and economic processes into teaching practice through attention to laws, literacy plans, guidelines, and conferences. The individual educators appear to be influenced by these shifting emphases, professional networks and policy contexts.</p>

<p> Despite the growing population of Muslim students in U.S. public schools, few empirically grounded studies appear in the literature that have reported the opinions and viewpoints about U.S. public schools from the perspective of Muslim parents. This study deeply investigates the perceptions Muslim parents hold about U.S. public schools and focuses on how Muslim identity and other factors shape those views. <i>Q</i> Methodology, a mixed methods technique for the systematic study of subjectivity, is applied to reveal and analyze a varied set of distinct models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents about public schools in the U.S. Data were analyzed from 54 Muslim parents in the metropolitan New York City region. This study identified and examined 8 models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents. Further analysis demonstrated the relative prevalence of each of the revealed shared viewpoints about U.S. public schools and ways in which the identified models reflect disagreements, consensus, and absence of salience in views about U.S. public schools. Muslim parents&rsquo; Muslim identity, their experience attending schools in the U.S., their children&rsquo;s experience attending schools in the U.S., their experience as school teachers or administrators, their gender, and their highest level of education were examined to predict the likelihood a parent would share views with a particular <i>Q</i> model. Understanding the shared viewpoints of Muslim parents can be useful for educational policymakers, leaders, and teachers, who must ensure an effective and comfortable learning environment for all of their students.</p>

<p> Although Kreyol is the language spoken and understood by the majority of Haitians, French is the language used as the medium for instruction. The use of a foreign language as a means for students to acquire literacy is a practice that has led to an ineffective educational system in Haiti. The aim of the quasi-experimental research study is to study the effects of using Kreyol versus French as the instructional method in math and science classes. Participants were selected from a target population of 246 girls enrolled at Institution X, a private school in the Ouest Department. Students from this institution are part of the 29% of people who attend secondary schools in Haiti. The 139 students that were part of the sample were randomly divided into two groups per class (standard and Kreyol condition) and were given a pre-test followed by a lesson then a post-test. Students in the standard group were taught in French and those in experimental group in Kreyol. Data gathered from the intervention were analyzed and results indicated that pre-test scores of French condition and Kreyol condition groups were normally distributed. When ANCOVA was used as one of the data analysis tools, because it French conditions for pre-test values and allows for observation of post-test scores, results yielded confirmed a significant difference between the French condition and Kreyol condition groups. The results from this quasi-experimental study provided data that aligned with the literature review and demonstrated that there was in fact a significant difference in performance when Kreyol was used as a medium for instruction instead of French. The results further provide statistical data confirming the important role that Kreyol should play in the improvement of the Haitian education system.</p><p>

<p> To improve community college student success outcomes, accountability has shifted from the student to the institution. Institutions now must identify potential barriers to student success and take action to improve completion outcomes. One plausible way to begin an investigation of the factors that lead to student success is to examine the extent to which placement into developmental education impacts completion. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the extent to which students placed into developmental English or Math, succeeded in their developmental coursework within one year, progressed in college-level coursework within two years, and graduated within three years. </p><p> This study examined the records of 1478 students at a large multi-campus community college located in the Northeast. Frequencies were employed to ascertain whether students placed in developmental-level courses were successful in those courses within one year. Phi coefficient tests examined the relationship between success in developmental English or Math in one year, success in the college-level English or Math courses within two years, and success in developmental education and degree completion within three years. A supplemental analysis, utilizing binary logistic regressions, was conducted to determine whether success in developmental English or Math predicted of graduation within three years. </p><p> The results indicate that students in the program under review graduated at higher rates than the national average. Transfer data improved both institutional performance and student success outcomes by 8 percent. Success in developmental education within one year was an important indicator of success in a college-level (gatekeeper) course within two years and progress towards degree completion within three years. Students who were successful in developmental education were more likely to graduate than those who were not successful in developmental education. Finally, the binary logistic regression results showed that success in developmental English and Math were significant predictors of student graduation within three years.</p><p>

<p> Administrators of 2-year colleges are working in an environment where they seek to balance the social development of the student and the community&rsquo;s demand for a trained workforce to achieve economic development. This balance has resulted in ambiguity about the mission and purpose of 2-year colleges. The purpose of this case study was to explore a community college&rsquo;s experiences with mission change by exploring the interaction between a neoliberal public policy environment and the traditional social democratic mission of academia. Harvey&rsquo;s conceptualization of neoliberalism was used as the theoretical framework. Data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews with members of college leadership, faculty members, staff, and members of the college&rsquo;s advisory council. Other data included documentation about policy, mission, and publicly available documents related to the mission change at the institution. These data were deductively coded, and then subjected to content analysis. Key findings indicated that the college initially stalled in the mission change process, and as a result, identified alternative pathways to achieve the goals of career-relevant training the neoliberal environment demanded. In this sense, the perspective of academic capitalism was born from necessity for self-reliance and illustrates the commonality of finding entrepreneurial solutions. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to leaders of 2-year colleges on managing mission change in a way that responds to the needs of the college community while retaining the relevance of students&rsquo; social development.</p>

<p> This study employed a model of basic qualitative research which explored teachers&rsquo; pedagogical responses to the unique cultural gaps they experienced in schools where most students were of minority cultural identity. Eight teachers who self-identified as majority culture identity formed the sample group for this study. Semistructured interviews were used to collect their insights regarding their pedagogical decision making they used with the students in the school where they were teaching. Additionally, teachers shared what they described were culturally responsive curriculum samples and then provided a reflection on how they implemented this curriculum. The data showed that these teachers understood the value of providing a culturally responsive pedagogy in their classrooms. Despite this, for numerous reasons, teachers struggled to develop and then apply culturally responsive pedagogy that aligned with models described in literature.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this comparative study was to examine the relationship between student achievement and social-emotional well-being in three different school configurations for at-risk sixth grade students. This study sought to apply the stage-environment fit theory to investigate the effect of mismatched school environments on young adolescents when developmental changes occur. The mixed methods research measured academic and behavioral success and school connectedness using surveys and focus group interviews. The sample was made of 109 sixth grade students who qualified as at-risk in three northwest states. Results indicated alternative schools deliver supports that meet the academic and developmental needs of young adolescents by providing personalized and structured learning in a smaller environment.In addition, elementary schools were also found to have positive effects on academics through their use of effective teaching methodologies due to structured lessons and small ability groups. </p><p> A student&rsquo;s sense of connectedness was paramount in the findings of meeting the social-emotional needs of this marginalized population. Quantitative and qualitative results supported the elementary and alternative schools&rsquo; ability to provide students with a culture of care and support afforded through active engagement and personalized connections. Alternative students were found to have deeper conversations and stronger connections to their teachers resulting in statistically significant results according to teacher relationships from the survey and focus interviews. Alternative schools found a decrease in discipline and absenteeism as compared to at-risk students in elementary and middle schools. The behavioral results from the alternative configuration found the implementation of a sound positive behavioral intervention program was the factor that separated the alternative school program from the elementary and middle school configurations. </p><p> In light of prior findings of school configurations in relation to student success, this study supports small communities with smaller populations, lower teacher to student ratios, caring teachers who build relationships, and individualized multisensory teaching practices. These pedagogies increased student achievement and sense of connectedness to meet young adolescents&rsquo; developmental needs could reduce this vulnerable population&rsquo;s disposition of dropping out of school.</p><p>