The past 45 years have witnessed unprecedented growth in social and economic inequality in the U.S. Much has been studied regarding the economic, sociological, and educational conditions that have led to increasing inequality, but it has mainly focused on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. Recently there has been an increase in research on elites, but one area that has remained relatively understudied is the private, independent school industry. Since the Civil Rights Era of the 1960’s, most of the 1,600 independent schools in the U.S. have attempted to become accessible to more students, mainly by admitting growing numbers of students of color. However, over the last 20 years financial aid relative to school revenue has remained essentially flat, suggesting that “diversity” in independent schools has taken on a particular meaning. This study traces the history of “diversity” and interrogates why “diversity” is a problem worth addressing, how it has been conceived at different times, and what doing so has accomplished for independent schools. Previous literature has relied on Marxist and Bourdieusian structuralist theories to describe the mechanisms of social reproduction in elite schools. Instead, this study employs a Foucauldian framework and discourse analysis to examine the primary industry journal, Independent School, to construct a genealogy of “diversity” discourse since 1976. This approach endeavors to broaden the theoretical perspectives of elite research and reconceptualize independent schools’ role in perpetuating inequities in the U.S. The study finds six distinctive eras of “diversity” discourse within these 45 years, each with its own “diverse” subjectivities. “Diversity” has functioned in two primary modes corresponding to different regimes of truth. The first that spans 1976 to 1998 appreciates “diversity” as a matter of threat that must first be neutralized and then can be harnessed for the benefits of elites. In the second period (1999 to 2021) “diversity” transitions to a series of actions and skills that elites can equip themselves with to better their chances of success in their futures as societal leaders. The implications extend from there that by producing conceptions of “diversity” like these, particularly as matters of race, sexual orientation, and gender, (and not socioeconomic status) the institutional apparatus maintains a moral façade and obscures the role it plays in maintaining social stratification in the U.S.

The 13,000 school districts in the United States are important institutional sites where consequential educational policy decisions – from school zoning to local funding initiatives– are contested and implemented. Despite their importance as institutions, there is very little quantitative research on school district leadership and governance. We do not currently know if the identity of school district leaders has any effect on the academic performance of school districts, or if school district leaders from different backgrounds tend to advance different educational policies for their districts. In this dissertation, I leverage new longitudinal datasets on superintendent and school board tenures, matched to data on district-level achievement and policy variation, to examine how school district leadership may matter for students’ educational experiences. This dissertation consists of three empirical papers that examine different aspects of school district leadership and governance. Chapter 1 uses a novel dataset of superintendent employment histories in 26 states, matched to student achievement data, to estimate variation in superintendent effectiveness. I use data on superintendents who move between multiple school districts as an estimation strategy to separate superintendent effects from other district-level factors that affect student achievement. To estimate superintendent effectiveness, I adapt value-added modeling strategies from the principal and teacher effects literature, and use simulation analyses to further justify my modeling approaches. Across model specifications, I find that the standard deviation of superintendent effects ranges from 0.03-0.10 SD on student achievement. These are moderate effect sizes, and indicate the importance of studying school district leadership as a factor that can have important implications for student-level outcomes. Chapter 2 examines the superintendent appointment process using mixed methods data from California and Florida over the past decade from 2009-2019. Given that superintendents serve important political functions within school districts, I examine whether school board members tend to appoint superintendents who share their own partisan political affiliations. During this period, I do not find any evidence that school boards prefer to hire co-partisan superintendents. Instead, school boards prioritize superintendent candidates who show strong social-emotional intelligence, and who demonstrate the capacity to develop relationships with a broad range of community stakeholders. I conclude the chapter by examining how these results may be shifting in light of an emergent conservative movement to polarize school board politics. Chapter 3 examines whether the partisan political characteristics of school districts affects the likelihood that school districts hold tax and bond elections, or vote to approve these local educational funding increases, conditional on elections being held. It also uses data from California and Florida over the past decade from 2009-2019. With appropriate statistical controls, I find no evidence that school board or voter partisanship affects the probability of districts holding or passing tax or bond measures. Taken together, the three papers make important contributions to our understanding of how school districts function as organizations, and how the attributes of school district leaders shape students’ educational environments.

No description available.

This study approached the concept of equity in public elementary and secondary school finance as a complex, multi-variable phenomena. The purpose of this study was to develop a procedure for determining whether or not an equitable distribution of current expenditure per pupil in a state had been achieved based upon the interrelationships of multiple fiscal, non-fiscal school and community variables, and pupil output measures. Six orthogonal factors, derived from principal components analysis and varimax rotation of 24 school and community variables from 131 Virginia school districts during the 1987-88 school year, became the independent variables in multiple regression analysis with school finance data and student output data as the dependent variables. Community Type, Fiscal Capacity, and Economic Composition of a District Population accounted for 61% of the variability in current expenditure per pupil and 63% of the variability in the percentage of students planning to attend a four year college. Over 70% of the variability in Achievement Test Scores was accounted for by Black Family Structure, Fiscal Capacity, Economic Composition of a District Population, and Community Type characteristics. / Ph. D.

Studies to date of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act have not yielded definitive evidence of increased student achievement or of the effects of instructional resource allocations on student reading achievement. This evidence has been obscured by methodological flaws, instrumentation problems, a continued focus on national rather than local-level evaluation, and the investigation of resource variables over which the local schools have little or no control. The degree of Title I impact on the student it is designed to serve is determined by decisions made at the local school and classroom levels. Previous investigations have found that most of the variation in student achievement lies within rather than between the local schools. For these reasons, this study identifies locally controlled and easily changed types of instructional resource allocations which are expected to influence the achievement of students in Title I instructional groups within the schools. Each resource allocation is defined by several variables which jointly represent the several aspects of each resource. The relationships between the levels of allocation of these resources and the levels of student achievement in Title I classes are investigated using a hierarchical multiple regression model. The effects of three sets of resource variables on the reading achievement of 4,332 second, third, and fourth-graders in fifteen Virginia public school systems are investigated by determining the incremental amounts of achievement variance which each type of resource allocation contributes to the total explained variance using classrooms as the unit of analysis. The results indicate that variations in the amounts of instructional time, the proportion of total teacher time spent in instruction, and the student-to-teacher ratio are not associated with significant achievement increments. In addition, the degree of administrative support of Title I instruction and the activities of parent advisory councils do not explain significant amounts of achievement. However, there is some evidence that the use of instructional aides in the classroom is related to increases in achievement. The findings of this study indicate that the effects of Title I instructional resource allocations may exist primarily within classrooms rather than between classrooms. Interactions between individual student characteristics and the ways in which instructional resources are allocated by the teacher in the classroom are suggested as a possible source of Title I effects. / Ph. D.

The Low-Fee Private Schools (LFPS) sector is globally contested. The debate takes place at the academic and policy levels and calls into question the ethics of deriving a profit from a public good. Several theoretical constructs in educational privatization have informed the debate. These include contract failure, transaction costs, moral hazard, and the obsolescing bargain. Yet, the debate does not acknowledge LFPS types. To this end, the dissertation examined the histories and pathways of different types of LFPS, presented a typology, and investigated to what extent the numerous types of LFPS varied in terms of delivering access, equity, and quality of education. The theoretical framework framing this dissertation was centered on the six pathways to privatization. A case study design was applied to conduct exploratory, inductive research in two research sites—low-income and mixed-income neighborhoods in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. I first implemented a multi-tiered sampling strategy to identify LFPS. This involved conducting on-site school mapping to locate 87 educational institutions, including unregistered LFPS, in the research sites. I then identified 26 LFPS by forwarding a definition of LFPS in Pakistan and assessing which private educational institutions met the parameters of an LFPS. Among other elements, LFPS were defined as private educational institutions that charged a maximum of 24 USD a month in school fees. The data for the dissertation included site visits to, and surveys at 17 LFPS, 45 interviews at the school level, with Rawalpindi educational authority representatives as well as a multilateral agency. Finally, I reviewed 19,320 Facebook pictures uploaded by LFPS, and visually analyzed 1,343 to triangulate claims made in the surveys and interviews. Through this research design, LFPS that were differentiated on the parameters of structure—whether LFPS are part of nation-wide chains or independent entities that have a legacy rooted in the country’s colonial history—and fee range. I found six different types of LFPS: Cheap, Medium-range and Costly Independent LFPS and Cheap, Medium-range and Costly Chain LFPS. The established typology is generalizable to urban areas in Pakistan. An analysis of the histories and pathways of the identified LFPS further revealed that there was a proliferation of LFPS starting in 2004, particularly during two periods—2004 to 2007 and 2015 to 2019—under a supportive enabling environment. Chain LFPS types are competitors to Independent LFPS types in contexts in which they are able to proliferate, such as the mixed-income neighborhoods, where no Independent LFPS has been established since 2017. Path six—De facto privatization in low-income countries—was found to be applicable to Pakistan as the government did not patronize sectoral expansion, and until recently, did not undertake efforts to regulate it. Despite sectoral expansion in recent decades, a trade-off in access, equity, and quality of education at the different types of LFPS was found. If an LFPS enhances access and equity, which was found at Cheap Chain LFPS and Medium-range Chain LFPS, it comes at the expense of quality of education. If an LFPS delivers strongly on educational quality, which is the case as Medium-range and Costly Independent LFPS, it comes at the expense of quality of education.

No description available.

On March 18, 2008, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida filed a class action lawsuit against The Palm Beach County School Board and its district superintendent on behalf of approximately 176,000 students under their jurisdiction (Schroeder v. The Palm Beach County School Board, 2008). The plaintiffs cited the defendants for their failure "to provide a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality education" (p. 7) as required by the Florida Constitution, Article IX, ß 1. They contended that their claim was substantiated by The School District of Palm Beach County's (SDPBC) dismal high school graduation rates. Spurred by the lawsuit, I wanted to understand the controversy surrounding high school graduation rates, in spite of decades of school reform measures, and why different calculation methods are utilized in the state of Florida. In respect to the latter point, I was curious to learn about the differences among graduation rate calculation methods and what impact, if any, these differences had on the reporting of high school graduation rates, particularly those for students of color. Black America's past and present reality in public education has illustrated the need for new paradigms to address the achievement gap promulgated by contextual factors that serve to impede the academic achievement of all students. The statistical analyses and Critical Race Realist perspective, which has evolved from Critical Race Theory when applied to policy research, offered in this study found Florida's definition and subsequent calculations of a public high school graduate to result in significant and consistent differences among graduation rates relative to student race and graduation rate calculation method. / by Terri N. Watson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study was designed to determine the relationship between Florida School Recognition Program (FSRP) participation and adequate yearly progress (AYP) criteria met during school years 2004-2008. It also intended to discover whether schools' socioeconomic status, minority rates, and levels moderated this relationship as well as a difference in average AYP criteria met for schools that maintained FSRP participation and those that do not. The study further sought to determine whether these school characteristics and schools' grades predicted maintenance of participation in the FSRP. A quantitative method, including three statistical analyses, was employed to respond to 6 research questions and test 14 corresponding null hypotheses. Three thousand and seventy-seven schools were identified for data collection and analysis. Six independent variables were defined as school level, average socioeconomic status, average minority rate, average percentage of AYP criteria, aggregate number of years 100% of AYP criteria was met, and average school grade. One dependent variable was defined as aggregate years of FSRP participation. The study found that there was a relationship between participation in the FSRP and AYP criteria met, and school level, socioeconomic status, and minority rate moderated this relationship. While school level and minority rate moderated a difference in average percentage of AYP criteria met in schools that maintained participation in the program and those that did not, socioeconomic status did not. Moreover, all independent variables served as predictors for maintenance of participation in the FSRP. The study found that schools' demographic characteristics influence student achievement and participation in incentive pay programs. / Six implications for future research were identified to further explore the FSRP and AYP relationship, the unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the appropriateness of incentive pay education, the distribution of FSRP award dollars in schools, and student achievement by school level. Recommendations were to add an AYP criterion to the FSRP, assess the effectiveness of inducement policies in education, and add a provision for program evaluation to the FSRP statute. / by Valerie Smith Wanza. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The purpose of this qualitative narrative research study was to interpret the meaning found throughout the formal educational experience stories of Native American, Asian American, and African American women born after 1944, who had earned an education doctorate degree after 1976, and were working with adults in an educational capacity within the community. Utilizing the snowball technique, 14 participants from across the United States volunteered to collaborate with the researcher. The study's conceptual framework included adult learning principles and practices, Nussbaum's 'narrative imagination,' which were used to examine the women's motivation to participate in an education doctorate program as well as the barriers, the enhancers, and the application of the degree in the community. Data collected included an in-depth, face-to-face interview, two reflective narrative guides, document analysis, and researcher journals and analytic memos. All data was coded and analyzed with Atlas -ti 5.0 software, and thematic analyses completed in order to triangulate the data. Six major themes for motivation to participate were found: self-awareness through placement in the family, family and community expectation in importance of education, personal strengths and weaknesses, perceived differences in the classroom and mainstream society, and knowledge of motivation to pursue doctorate. Five barriers emerged: racism, gender, advisers, institutional changes and problems, and juggling multiple roles in limited time. Five main enhancers arose: family and community foundation, financial, friends, and others which motivated participation. / The women applied their doctorates through leadership activities in community-based organizations such as role modeling, mentoring, and other scholarly activities which advocated "giving back culturally," which was the ultimate meaning or value of the degree; however, achievement and credibility were also valued a doctorate degree was "only step in the process." This study provided a space for rich descriptive storytelling about each woman's successful experience pursing and completing an education doctorate program. Adult learning discussion of the findings, contributions to the literature, and recommendations for graduate education and future research were included. / by Jo Ann Marie Bamdas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.