<p> The purpose for this dissertation is to explore how students who have borrowed to attend a large, urban community college develop their value proposition for postsecondary education. Nearly half of all students in the United States begin their postsecondary education at community colleges. In the aftermath of the Great Recession when unemployment rates were unusually high, enrollment at community colleges increased dramatically, especially amongst minority students. This study focuses on three central questions: how do community college students describe their demand for higher education? Secondly, how do these students describe the economic and social benefits of college? And thirdly, to what extent do students understand the costs of college and their sources of financial aid? The study modifies Perna's Multi-Level Conceptual Model of Student Enrollment based upon the findings derived from qualitative interviews with twenty, currently community college students during the 2012 fall semester to determine how community college students define their value proposition. This value proposition was found to be comprised of the student's demand for higher education through academic preparation, availability of financial resources and the student's aspirations. Additionally, the value proposition was comprised of the expected benefits as expressed in monetary and non-monetary expectations as well as cost considerations. These combined enrollment factors were used to determine what criteria formed the basis for the student's borrowing decision and the use of the loan proceeds. The student interviews were analyzed through the lens of the multi-level conceptual framework and an interview with the institution's lending officer was used to interpret the student responses. The choice to attend community college was found to be more circumstantial than deliberate. The increasingly nontraditional students who do enroll in these institutions often have to balance employment and family obligations in pursuit of their aspirations. While these students pursued college with the expectation of higher earnings upon completion, many had an altruistic purpose in serving others. Finally, there exists a significant knowledge gap with regard to financial literacy exists among students which is exacerbated by the complexity of the financial aid process and the limited institutional resources available to support the nontraditional students attending community colleges.</p>

<p> The complexities surrounding public school funding are not unique to Ohio. There have been numerous legal challenges in the State Supreme Courts and seminal cases from the U.S. Supreme Court which have assigned the practices and formulas by which schools are funded to the individual states. Although previous research has investigated voter approval related to school referenda from the 614 public school districts in Ohio, a significant question remains as to which factors are affecting the school districts and their attempts to pass school operating levies. This study focuses on seven typologies developed by the Ohio Department of Education for comparing districts based on nine demographic variables and the factors which predict the outcomes of first attempt school operating levies within each of those typologies.</p><p> The following research question was developed to provide researchers and practitioners information on factors affecting school levy referenda in Ohio public school typologies: What factors (proposed levy size in mills, length of the levy, election month, type of levy, effective millage rate, and value per pupil) are significant predictors for the passage for first attempt operating levies proposed between the years 2002 and 2010 in each of the seven Ohio Department of Education Typologies? According to the Ohio Secretary of State's certified election results, 2,199 school operating levies were on the ballot during this time frame with 327 being first attempts. These 327 first attempt school operating levies comprised the data set for this study.</p><p> Using binary logistic regression, the results of this study indicate four of the six variables tested were significant predictors of first attempt school operating levy passage. The proposed levy size in mills (Typologies 3 and 6), election month (Typology 2), type of levy (Typologies, 1, 2, 3, and 6), and effective millage rate (Typology 2 and 6) were found to be factors significant at the p &lt; .05 level. From this, practitioners and researchers can begin to investigate how these factors are being addressed in current and future operating levies. The results of this study have presented practitioners in all 614 school districts in Ohio with evidence of the factors which affect first attempt operating levies within the different typologies. Without a radical change to Ohio's school funding formula, the practice of relying on voters in each school district to pass tax levies will remain; therefore, a "one size fits all" approach to passing proposed referenda is not recommended. </p>

<p>Catholic schools are in need of innovative change. The problem lies in how to construct the elements of change to create viability for a school in the face of rapid declining enrollment. Responding to this type of environment as an educational leader requires qualities and characteristics similar to those of first responders in a medical emergency, a term I coined as the triage principal. This autoethnographic research study was designed to answer three research questions: 1. As a new principal at Michael, the Archangel School (MAS), a Catholic school in danger of closing, what challenges did I experience? 2. As a new leader, how did I respond to the challenges to bring about change at MAS? 3. What did I learn from this first year leadership experience? This autoethnographic study is constructed from my voice as a first year, first time principal, using several data sources: my blog, my archival field notes, and three interviews from archdiocesan leaders. Each of the given data sources had contained a data collection procedure resulting in overarching thematic patterns that led to generalizations based on the past experiences at MAS and my review of the literature. The weaving of the past and present of my life's leadership journey in combination with the culture and the people that surround me for this study, has made me realize that I do have a story worth sharing, a story that can potentially help others who might find themselves seemingly lost and alone.

<p> This dissertation was aimed at providing information on developing and sustaining public-private partnerships (PPPs) in early childhood education as a way to increase efficiency and effectiveness on how resources are allocated. This study also emphasizes how teachers are perceived and supported within the PPP context. Studies have shown that investing in early childhood education yields the greatest gains to one's life and society at large. Yet, the early childhood field continues to battle waves of budget cuts while striving to convince policymakers and the public that early education is critical and necessary. </p><p> Although PPP presents itself as a new way of doing business by combining resources from the public and private sectors and redistributed based on the shared goal and vision of the PPP, there is limited research on PPPs and even more scarce specifically related to early childhood. The goal of this study is to provide exposure to the early childhood field on how PPPs can be formed and sustained using the Educare model as one example of a PPP in early childhood. </p><p> This was a qualitative designed to capture rich conversations and experiences of research participants that are relevant and appropriate to the early childhood field. Grounded theory was used in this study to learn from research participants' perceptions of PPPs based on their experience and expertise in PPP and early childhood education. </p><p> This study used theoretical sampling to target research participants at a specific Educare development site to capture real time and real life experiences in developing a PPP in early childhood education. The Educare model was developed by the Ounce of Prevention Fund in 2000 aimed at "narrow[ing] the achievement gap for students in high-risk communities" (Ounce of Prevention, Educare schools, 2011). The Educare model has set requirements for teachers and all related job categories that will work in an Educare school including professional development requirements. The Educare school also has a salary structure that is competitive to the local public elementary schools. </p><p> Five themes were identified in the findings and discussed in relation to the significance of this study. The findings from this study have implications for early childhood administrators, educators, funders, advocates, and the field at large on maximizing the usage of existing resources. The findings from this study, including questions raised, are significant in development of partnerships in early childhood education.</p>

<p> "Efforts to improve our school system must start with equity" (Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission, 2012). This study is a statistical analysis of the 2003-2012 Minnesota K-12 pubic school general education (foundation) formula in regard to fiscal equality and wealth neutrality. The analysis utilizes a longitudinal approach to compare the findings of previous equity studies to current relatable data as it pertains to the State of Minnesota. A number of modifications have been imposed on the original Minnesota funding formula over the past decade. This study tests the equity level of a selected number of revenue sources and reviews previous studies to determine how equity has or has not been improved as a result of the modifications. </p><p> Fiscal neutrality is described as the wealth of the school district and should be a function of the wealth of the state as a whole, not of the wealth of the local school district. This study analyzed the fiscal neutrality of 333 public school districts in Minnesota in terms of variance, permissible variance, coefficient of variation, and Gini Coefficient. The analysis was based upon three research questions: 1. Based on an analysis of the 2003 to 2012 general education formula, what were the fiscal equality and wealth neutrality characteristics of Minnesota's school districts? 2. Based on an examination of like data elements from the four major Minnesota fiscal equality and wealth neutrality studies, what trends can be observed? 3. Based on the recommendations of previous studies, what legislative impact did they have? </p><p> The findings of the research show that overall the disbursements of revenue through the Minnesota funding formula do meet the standards of wealth neutrality. However, there are categories of the formula that remain inequitable and the reliance of local taxpayers on the referendum revenue source has increased over the years studied.</p>

<p>Many people recognize inequity in educational resource allocation as a problem. It has been suggested this inequity stems from the consolidation of experienced teachers in low-poverty schools and higher teacher turnover rates at high-poverty schools. This paper uses an ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression to examine the relationship between school-level expenditures excluding teacher salary, and teacher turnover in New York City. The results of the analysis suggest that these expenditures have a statistically significant association with teacher turnover, and that, for the majority of them, increased spending is associated with less teacher turnover. The results also suggest that increased spending is associated with a higher level of teacher satisfaction, though the significance of this association is less consistent. These results could have policy implications for education researchers and practitioners concerned with improving fiscal equity through decreased turnover in high-poverty schools. </p>

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2007.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2839. Adviser: Kern Alexander. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-96) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> The inability of California Community Colleges to produce equitable outcomes for Latina/o and African American students, and provide a successful pathway to higher education, is an educational problem. Although research shows many factors influence student success in community colleges, many of those factors are directly influenced by the availability of resources to support a variety of services, programmatic offerings, transformational practices, and quality facility and staff. The primary hypotheses of this study pertained to whether spending patterns differed with respect to either equity considerations, or to student outcomes. It was observed that colleges which considered equity in their budgetary decisions spent a significantly higher percentage of their core expenditures on academic support than did no-equity colleges however equity considerations were not observed to be related to student outcomes. Student outcome did not show significant relationships with most expenditure types, except lower expenditures on other core expenses were predictive of higher Student Progress and Attainment Rate, after controlling for input/environmental variables.</p>

<p> Using a phenomenological method, this study explored the higher-education affordability perceptions of a purposively-collected group of 19 students at the pseudonymous Crestview Community College (CCC) in Colorado. The defining themes of the study were: (a) knowledge of the College Opportunity Fund (COF) program and perceptions of higher-education affordability in the Colorado context, (b) how participants learned about and implemented college selection, financing, and success strategies, (c) family finances and their impact on work and college decisions, (d) participant views on the financial aid process, and (e) benefits of attending college. </p><p> The findings were: (a) the COF was not viewed as a significant source of support or well-understood as the State of Colorado&rsquo;s contribution to college students, (b) participants described difficulty in high school learning and implementing a college selection and financing strategy with some mitigation of those failures by key adults in their lives, (c) CCC was viewed as the default college choice because of price, location, dual credit experience, and peer recommendations, (d) family structural and financial context strongly influenced participants&rsquo; perceived options and decisions regarding college selection and work, (e) participant perspectives on federal financial aid and college affordability varied drastically between Pell Grant recipients and non-recipients, (f) participants uniformly held a negative perception of student loans, and (g) participants were motivated to stay in college by hope of occupational and financial benefits and discouraged by fear of debt and post-graduation joblessness.</p><p>