The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how a well developed and validated national standard for United States history can affect public school achievement levels. Currently, there is no mandated national standard for United States history; rather it has been left to the respective states to create their own. This study focused on the state of Virginia, which has been able to meet both the nationally mandated adequate yearly progress (AYP) level, and achieve high proficiency levels in United States history achievement. This comparative case study examined two neighboring states of similar demographics: Virginia which made both the AYP and high history achievement, and a southern U.S. state which did not meet either the AYP or acceptable history scores. Archival data included achievement levels as assessed by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test scores in U.S. history for both states, and State of the State (SOS) national assessments of state history standards. It was hypothesized that there would be a correlation between well established and vetted standards and achievement levels. Sequential analyses employing Pearson correlations and Somers' D tests of association demonstrated significant correlations between SOS standards and NAEP achievement scores. These results can contribute to positive social change by informing research based decision making related to best practice standards for U.S. history curricula that will increase student achievement levels, and provide a more common curricular foundation from which supporting resources can be developed and shared to offset reductions in education budgets.

Researching what I believe to be exclusionary practices in higher education against African Americans has compelled me to approach this subject, in part, historically. Although I realize that a historical chronology of any subject is often deceptive, as with any writer, I am tempted to interpret events to fit my reality. However, my interest goes far beyond the matter of setting a historical record straight. I am far more interested in investigating reasons why there seem to be structural barriers erected against African Americans in higher education. For many, the answer is simple. They say that it is racism, pure and simple. However, I propose to show that it is more than racism. I contend that higher education is the source and disseminator of the theoretical concept of race and consequently of racism. I contend that once a theoretical concept, such as "race," has been socially and educationally constructed, all questions henceforth can be designed and narrowed down to a perpetually tautological construct called knowledge. In this dissertation, 1 will refer, metaphorically, to the concept of "race" as being an incurably malignant pathological paradigm that has been nurtured in higher education and passed on as knowledge. Based on this pathological paradigm, I will explore how higher education has portrayed African Americans as an inferior paradigmatic archetype. / Graduation date: 1999

The purpose of this study was to analyze preservice teachers' talk about gender issues in education through a poststructural feminist theoretical framework. Eighteen Master of Arts in Teaching students volunteered to participate in a seminar. During the seminar the participants wrote about and discussed gender issues in teaching. Data collected from the seminar included transcripts of audio-taped conversations as well as response journals and autobiographical sketches written by the participants. Four themes, gender talk, teacher talk, confessional talk, and resistance talk, were explored in the data. The theme gender talk included the participants' observations of and discussions about the differences between females and males. Teacher talk included discussions of what it means to be a teacher and how gender, race, and class impact the teacher's role and the educational experience of children. The data illustrated the multiple and competing discourses these preservice teachers employed when discussing gender issues. The themes confessional talk and resistance talk focused on how the participants talked about gender. These themes raised questions about teacher education practices. They served to illustrate the power relationships inherent in teacher education and how these relations of power act to authorize some discourses and suppress others. Modifications of teacher education practices were recommended by the researcher. These recommendations included helping preservice teachers deconstruct the discourses of education and the role of the teacher as well as suggesting that preservice teachers could benefit from alternate and varied educational sites in which to explore issues of teaching. / Graduation date: 1998

The purpose of this study was to explore some of the factors White educators need to teach Black students effectively. It examined what role the race of the teachers may play in Black students' academic success and whether White teachers are able and willing to meet the educational needs of Black students. Eight White teachers were interviewed. In this study, race is defined as a grouping of individuals who display the same phenotypic skin color by which people in the United States identify themselves and are identified by others. Today's reality is that more and more Black students are being taught by White teachers in public schools even where Black students are a majority. There are still marked disparities in the academic achievement between Black and White students. The gap between the academic achievement of White and Black students in public secondary schools is increasing. White teachers have not been properly prepared by their pre-service education programs and in-service training to teach Black students effectively. White teachers recognized that their preparation and training for teaching came out of their own cultural background for the traditional students, either White students or students who conform to mainstream Eurocentric standards, and that they are not being held responsible and accountable for the productive academic achievement of the Black students they teach. White teachers did not identify with their Black students, and they dealt with Black students from their "White privilege" perspective. This study revealed the presence of racism in the public school and that the race of the teacher did affect the achievement of Black students. It pointed out that White teachers fear the Black students they teach. White teachers need to be antiracist educators. They must understand racism and how different forms of racism affect their belief systems and their philosophies of teaching. Also they should know and understand how these forms of racism affect the academic achievement of the Black students they teach. The concept of "customer" being applied to teaching Black students might encourage White teachers to be more responsive, accountable and productive in teaching Black students. / Graduation date: 1997

This study is a review of the researcher's deliberate strategies for incorporating Latino culture into the teaching of a Spanish language course. The researcher developed, presented and assessed a curriculum unit designed to examine the social and educational problems of Latinos, the history of Latin America, the effects of discrimination and inequality in society, and the struggle by Latinos to succeed and gain respect in mainstream America. While the results from this initial study were mixed, the qualitative data collected indicated that an integration of language and social studies curricula provides students with a more comprehensive perspective on the meaning of culture. / Graduation date: 1997

The purposes of the study were: 1) To describe important characteristics of an ongoing, viable "community-based" community education project, 2) to determine whether the critical-principles postulated at the beginning of the study would be illustrated by considering a community-based community education project in one community, and 3) to describe the leadership behaviors utilized in a successful community-based community education project, and 4) to generate hypotheses for future research studies in community education.The data were collected and analyzed using a modified version of Spradley's Developmental Research Sequence Writing methodology, including interviewing participant observation, supplemented with document analysis and surveys.Eight of nine postulated critical principles were present in the organization studied. A partial listing of proposed hypotheses follows:1. The general principles, values, and leadership actions outlined in the agency summary can be successfully transplanted to another community.2. The director of a successful community-based community education agency must be good at controlling the flow of information, adept at negotiating, and politically persuasive.3. A tax levy is a sound, stable means for providing primary local financial support.4. The non-profit corporation is an effective structure capable of building on the resources of the major political bodies (the city council, the public school board, and the township trustees) while maintaining integrity in decision making and service provision.5. The political bodies, the people of the community, and the businesses and community organizations must all be represented in the governing body of a commuity-based community education organization.6. Detailed procedures and policies play a critical role in bridging the transition period when a new director is hired.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the attitudes and preferences regarding home/school involvement strategies of 23 mothers of kindergarten students who had been identified as at-risk for failure in school and 18 mothers of kindergarten students who had been designated as peer models. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Chi square and t-tests were used at the .05 level to determine if there were significant differences between the responses of the two groups. Respondents were asked to express their preferences for programs and services designed to support families, potential use of these programs and services, views concerning the importance of different home/school involvement strategies, comfort level with different home/school involvement strategies, preferences for topics for parent education, and preferences for ways of learning about helping their children. A significant difference was found between the two groups regarding potential use of programs and services, views concerning the importance of different home/school involvement strategies, and preferences for ways of learning about their children. Mothers of at-risk students favored one-way communication with schools and strategies that were not social in nature. Mothers of at-risk students showed an interest in parent education topics which discussed general development and family maintenance over discipline. The mean age at the birth of the first child for mothers of at-risk students was 19.4 years while the mean age at the birth of the first child of mothers of peer model students was 24.3 years. / Graduation date: 1991

The Alternative Education movement in American public education emerged in the 1970s as an outgrowth of the social criticism and political activism of the 1960s. Alternative Schools represented the pragmatic adoption of the least objectionable proposals which were popularized by radical school reform advocates. What began as a movement of alternatives to conventional schooling became a movement of widening options within public school systems.This study is an anaylsis of the historical roots and evolution of Alternative Education. A broad perspective is structured first by a theoretical discussion of public schooling and social reform which includes a historiographical interpretation of New Left revisionism. Next a description of selected parts of the radical movement of the 1960s is related to the political and intellectual context of school reform. This part of the study focuses on the social and intellectual origins of young radicals and the structure and ideology of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) as illustrations.A discussion of the rhetoric of radical school reform is the next part of the evolutionary framework structured in this study. The central themes of selected spokesmen of the radical critique of public schooling, including Paul Goodman and John Holt, are briefly examined. Then the relationship between the rhetoric of radical school reform and the development of private free schools is described in the context of the political activism and intellectual radicalism of the 1960s. The progression is completed with a broad assessment of the Alternative Education movement which examines its origins in the 1960s, its popularization in the 1970s, and its evolution from radical reform to political pragmatism.Finally, a case study of an Alternative school-within-a-school, Learning Unlimited at North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, illustrates the conclusions of this study and demonstrates the theoretical problems. The description of Learning Unlimited is based on observations, interviews with participants, documents, and involvement in program evaluation. The emphasis is on the role of Learning Unlimited as a model-program designed to demonstrate and encourage educational innovation.York

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed Oct. 10, 2003). "June 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-94).

This dissertation uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the linked Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement transcript study to explore how self-identifying as Hispanic/Latino in school but not at home in adolescence is related to academic achievement at the end of high school and educational attainment by young adulthood. It also explores how the relationship between inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification and academic performance varies by Latino family origin and what factors act to mediate this relationship. Finally, it investigates how using school versus home reports of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity in adolescence impacts the measurement of Latino educational progress. This research draws on education literature exploring racial and ethnic differences in academic performance to suggest how and why an inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification might be related to academic performance. This literature is categorized into two broad lines of research, structural and socio-cultural, and suggests two competing understandings of the relationship between inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification and academic performance as well as the factors that may mediate this relationship. This research finds a strong and negative relationship between Hispanic/Latino self-identification in school but not at home and academic performance and that this relationship varies by Latino family origin. It is only among adolescents who do not report Latino family origins that an inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification is negatively associated with academic performance. This research also finds that factors related to socio-cultural explanations of school performance as well as prior academic experiences help to mediate the negative relationship between inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification and academic performance among adolescents who do not report Latino family origins. Additional findings suggest that using home versus school reports of ethnicity may impact estimates of Latino/non-Latino white differences in educational outcomes and Latino generational decline. Results suggest that within schools, a Hispanic/Latino identity, one separated from Hispanic family and community ties, is associated with poor academic performance and resistance to schooling. In addition, this research confirms the fluid and complex nature of racial and ethnic self-identification and suggests using caution when relying on self-reports of race and ethnicity in quantitative data analysis. / text