This study sought to determine if there are any "cultural" or economic level patterns of behavior in responding to tasks involving categorizing pictures and recalling general knowledge. The Daberon School Headiness Device (1972), which contains subtests for general knowledge and categorization, was used to assess four groups of children: 1) lower-SES white, 2) lower-SES black, 3) middle-SES white, and 4) middle-SES black. This study involved thirty black and thirty white children between the ages of five years and five years, eleven months. All subjects were screened to determine race, age, auditory acuity, speech intelligibility, subject cooperation, and socioeconomic status (SES). Testing for intelligence was performed at the beginning of the testing situation.

The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between the new statewide two-year financial aid program, Tennessee Promise, and college choice among high school seniors in four counties in upper Northeast Tennessee. Independent variables included GPA, concern about ability to pay for college, and plans to attend a two-year or four-year institution. The dependent variables were scored on three dimensions: cost factors, social factors, and academic factors relating to college choice. Additionally, respondents reported perceptions of Tennessee Promise related to college choice. A 22-item survey was administered to high school seniors from four counties in upper Northeast Tennessee in Spring 2017. There were 294 completed surveys, resulting in a 33% response rate. The financial nexus concept was used as the conceptual framework for the study to explore how perceived affordability influenced college choice. Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, crosstabulations and one-sample chi-square tests were applied to determine whether a relationship exists between Tennessee Promise and college choice and choice of institution for students concerned with the cost of higher education. Tennessee Promise significantly impacted the decision to attend college and what type of institution to attend. Respondents’ level of concern about ability to pay was shown to have a significant relationship to the type of institution they planned to attend. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between level of concern about ability to pay and the choice to accept Tennessee Promise.

The problem of this study is the economic status of college teachers in Texas, with emphasis on actual support afforded that profession in the past and in the present; and objective statistical analysis of the ability of the state to more adequately support the profession now and in the future, and the theoretical and actual importance which that economic status presages for out state and society. Actual support of higher education will be measured by salaries and expenditures; ability to support will be measured by the relative wealth of each state in per capita income.

This study examines homeless student academic performance, types of temporary housing used among the homeless, degree of stability or instability for families with school-aged children, child needs for academic success, the importance of parental involvement in a child's academic growth, and other known factors in relations to child student academic performance, with a focus on grade level and racial differences. A multiple linear regression model is used to test the hypotheses while controlling confounding variables. Statistically significant relationships are reported between race and academic performance, and grade level and academic performance. Practical and policy implications are discussed, as well as limitations of the study and need for future research.

Despite a century of educational reforms, no matter how achievement is measured, learning and opportunity gaps can still be predicted by race and socioeconomic status. Teachers and schools are blamed for functioning to reproduce social inequality. This study investigated teacher agency and transformative potentials. It considered how teachers modified their pedagogical practices when teaching low-income and high-poverty students. In order to capture teacher beliefs and logic, a qualitative approach was used involving in-depth interviews of a small number of participants. The research used the context of the dislocation of students from high-poverty Orleans Parish schools in the year following Hurricane Katrina and their absorption into often higher income schools to understand middle-class teachers’ perspectives on their new students’ learning needs and how they adjusted their practice. Participants were middle-school mathematics teachers ranging in experience and orientation. Evacuees had weaker mathematics backgrounds (often two years below grade level). In all cases, evacuees were in classes with non-evacuees. Teachers made different pedagogical choices: continuing to use diverse methods aimed at higher-order understanding, or moving to direct instructional strategies; remediating or accelerating students with below-grade-level mathematics skills; and whether or not to help students acculturate (code-switch) from one set of classroom norms and etiquettes to another. Key factors influencing choices included: socioeconomic makeup of their classes; teachers’ level of mathematics expertise; emphasis on test scores; teachers’ views of students’ culture; and teachers’ peer environments. The study provides insights into teacher and classroom mechanisms that contributed to Katrina evacuee multi-year achievement gains.

In recent years several municipalities in Sweden have merged their public secondary schools. This has been considered a type of initiative that intends to reduce youth segregation and discrepancies in school quality. This thesis examines in what ways the merging of all public secondary schools in a municipality affects the students’ academic performance and their choice to enroll in the publicschool sector. To do so I use municipality-level aggregate data from the Swedish National Agency for Education on 9th grade students’ academic outcomes and the share of 7th graders enrolled in the public schools. I employ a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the reduced form effect of the school mergers. The control group used in the baseline estimation includes all municipalities that had a constant number of public secondary schools during the time period of my study. I move on to use propensity score matching in order to create a more comparable control group. I then estimate a difference-in-difference regression with match-fixed effects. The results show that the mergers have a negative effect on the municipality-level average GPA. In addition, the municipalities where the mergers have been implemented experience a reduction in the share of students that pass all 9th grade subjects as well as an increase in the share of students who do not have sufficient grades to continue to upper secondary school. The school mergers caused the share of 7th graders enrolled in the publicschool sector to decrease by approximately 10 percentage points. These results indicate that the public secondary school merger is not a panacea for improving student outcomes.

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first purpose was to determine the extent to which the 14 two-year institutions of the Tennessee Board of Regents system expended funds in functional categories equal to the amount of funds provided by the appropriations funding formula for the same functional categories. The second purpose was to determine the extent to which the 14 two-year institutions expended funds for direct instructional purposes for each academic program equal to the amount of funds provided by the appropriations funding formula for direct teaching purposes for each academic program. Using an archival research design, appropriations funding data and actual expenditure data were collected for the period 1990-91 through 1996-97 relative to the first purpose. Data for only the years 1995-96 and 1996-97 were used for the second purpose. For each of the two purposes studied, the data were adjusted to reflect comparable funding and expenditure data. The final evaluation involved a comparison of the percentage of funding expended by function and by college for the first purpose and the percentage of funding expended by academic program and by college for the second purpose. The evaluation of the percentage of funding expended by function revealed that most colleges and the system as a whole expended approximately 90% or more of the funding for the function for which funds were allocated by the appropriations formula. This level was determined to be positive, because some funding is typically set aside for transfers to plant funds for renewals and replacements. The evaluation of the percentage of funding expended for direct teaching purposes revealed that most colleges and the system as a whole expended approximately 60% or less of the funding for direct teaching purposes. This is permissible according to the policies of the TBR and THEC. The funding formula for direct teaching is based on enrollment and an average full-time faculty salary amount. However, most colleges use part-time faculty to teach a portion of its student-credit-hours; thus, excess funds accrue from this area and are available for use in other areas. Based on the findings of this study, two recommendations are offered. A review of the funding formula with regards to potentially needed modifications is recommended for the specific functions in which either substantially more or less than 100.0% of the funding was expended. Additionally, a formal analysis of the proportion of student-credit-hour enrollment taught by part-time faculty should be made to assist in determining if the funding formula calculation for direct teaching activities should include an element for the proportion of student-credit-hours taught by part-time faculty.

This study examines the criteria which help academics receive National Institute of Health funds (NIH). The study covers 3,092 NIH recipients and non-recipients in the same department or institute at twenty-four universities. The universities are drawn from those below the top twenty in terms of receipt of NIH funds. With regards to performance, non- recipients have lower performance than recipients. A key determinant of the receipt of NIH funds is individual performance, as measured by the number of articles published and average citations per article in the two years immediately prior to the grant application. Professors receive more NIH money than do associates and assistant professors. Other positive contributors are the field of study, whether the academic has both a PhD. and Medical degree, and has licensed an innovation, been involved in the start of a new business and patented an invention through the university. To the extent that individual performance criteria represent the quality of the research proposal, allocation of NIH funds is based on merit. A Tobit model indicates that being highly cited does not guarantee increasing returns. Likewise, career citations have only a small statistically significant impact. In addition, a negative coefficient associated with the second derivatives of both articles published in 2006-07 and their associated citations indicate diminishing marginal returns.

Only seven years more than one hundred years ago, 1838, Kentucky’s public school system was established. Few Kentuckians conceived of a state-wide public school system. Many of the citizens were conservative and inclined to look upon a scheme of public education with doubt and disfavor; they were accustomed to the traditional plan of private education. In Nelson County, as in the rest of Kentucky, the early sponsors of public education were confronted with the problem of building sentiment for such a public service. Their task was one of establishing schools. Their chief goal was one of providing a school service, meager as it was, within reasonable reach of each child. Although skepticism and conservatism retarded the early growth of public schools, it is now evident that a system of public elementary and secondary education meets the approval of the citizenry of Nelson County. In recent years, educators have striven to check this growth in the number of schools and school districts. The present task is one of improving schools rather than establishing schools; one of broadening educational services to meet present-day demands; one of equalizing educational opportunities in order that all pupils may be equipped for more abundant living. Whenever possible the school authorities in Nelson County have reduced the number of one-room rural schools in a consolidation program. This study gives evidence in justification of these changes.

This thesis addresses UK students’ university choice using discrete choice methods and micro-data obtained from Higher Education Statistical Agency for graduates between 2006 and 2010. The thesis consists of three chapters with each addressing a different aspect of students’ choice. The studies are intended to provide policy-makers and other decision-makers with valuable information that will help them to implement strategies and policies for better higher education. Some work in the literature has been dedicated to students’ university choice. This thesis explores this body of work and builds on it, extends it and improves what is previously known in the literature. The aim of the first chapter is to investigate what affects students’ university choice. It contributes to the literature by establishing the best method to do so. Two models are used: the standard conditional logit and conditional logit with, what is called in this paper, alternative specific constants. Conditional logit with alternative specific constants improves on conditional logit twofold: it deals with unobserved university characteristics and improves the model fit. The results show that the probability of attending a university decreases with an increase in tuition fees and distance between students’ home and the university, and decreases in students’ socio-economic status. The second chapter further investigates the importance of distance on students’ university choice and it contributes to the literature by calculating the willingness to pay of students for distance to university. The chosen models are estimated for different socio-economic group of students separately. This methodology allows for meaningful comparison between socio-economic groups and produces more reliable estimates due to the fact that it accommodates for different unobserved characteristics of universities for different groups of students. The results show that students with the highest socio-economic status are not affected or have a positive utility of distance. The willingness to pay of other socio-economic groups are mixed and depend on the university characteristics used in the model. The third chapter focuses on students’ attitudes towards costs and benefits of university degree by calculating the discount rate of future income using marginal utility of graduate income and tuition fees. In addition, the chapter shows how use of consideration sets of universities for each student improves the model fit. The results show that students have a normal discount rate around 1% without consideration sets. The discount rate becomes negative in all models apart from one, when consideration sets are used.