The International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program has been one of the fastest growing accelerated learning programs in recent years. At the high school level, the program offers a focus on critical thinking, combined with the accountability of external assessments of student performance. A significant portion of the program's growth is attributed to its effective marketing, presenting itself as a program that benefits the entire school community, above and beyond the benefits reaped by its graduates. To date, the research literature on IB schools has been clear about the benefits of participation; what remains unclear is how and to what extent the program affects the educational experience of non-IB students as well. In an effort to learn more about these claims, the researcher conducted a qualitative study of an IB school, specifically interviewing teachers and administrators about the IB and its impact on non-IB students. The study identified two general arguments the school was making to this end: 1) the IB benefits the whole school by attracting students (and the funding that follows them) through Open Enrollment, and 2) IB-trained teachers teach non-IB classes, providing the whole school with an improved teacher capacity. The principal findings of this study suggest that offering the IB program benefitted non-IB students in ways that the school claimed--but only to an extent. The results of this study reveal how certain social and political realities emerge alongside program growth, and how these factors influence the distribution of benefits over time. As test scores increasingly signaled program quality, the need to preserve the school's reputation seemed to prompt a corresponding shift of high-quality teachers towards IB. From the interviews, it was clear that IB classes were smaller than general education classes, and that the teachers with the highest status were disproportionately assigned to teach the upper-level classes. When put together, the case study data points at seemingly inevitable inconsistencies between the claims that the IB benefits non-IB students and the ongoing institutional necessities of the program.

The ACT automated admissions system was adopted by the Colleges and Universities in the Utah system of higher education in 1974. The automated admission system was conceived at a time when College enrollment all over the United States was decreasing, and thus was viewed by its proponents as a positive step in alleviating some of the articulation problems between post secondary institutions, high school counselors and prospective students. Educators who developed the program felt that it would be an advantage to prospective students by providing an admissions decision shortly after the ACT was taken. Automated admissions appears to be an advantage to high school counselors because it eliminates the need for a high school transcript in the admissions process, and because it reduces the amount of time the counselor is involved in the mechanics of the admissions process. This study represents an effort to determine the impact of the Automated Admissions system on the high school counselor and on prospective college students. The results of this study indicate that a significant number of Utah high school counselors favor the Automated Admissions system as opposed to "traditional" admissions systems formerly in use, because of the reduction in clerical work required of the counselor.

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validation of an instrument based on students university choice and their perceptions of professor effectiveness and academic reputation at the University of Los Andes (ULA). Moreover, a comparative analysis was carried out to determine how the selected factors that influence the students decisions and perceptions differ according to student demographic factors such as: gender and university campus. This instrument was developed with items based on the three domains formulated: university choice process, professor effectiveness, and university academic reputation. To determine the instruments appropriateness to measure the students decisions in university choice process and their perceptions about professor effectiveness and university academic reputation at the ULA, this research examined the reliability of scores by domains and factors across domains. The participants were undergraduate students who were registered in the second semester of 2002 and enrolled in the different courses by college within the ULAs main campus, which consists of ten colleges throughout the city of Merida, and within the other two university branch campuses in Tachira and Trujillo. For purposes of this research, a stratified probability sample was used to select the participants. The data show that the instrument designed has adequate internal consistency reliability estimates (all the domains exceeded .70). The confirmatory factor analysis shows that the overall fit indices revealed values at or close to the acceptable range .90, even when the model has statistically significant chi-square and demonstrates significant problems with some of the standardized residuals, which indicates that the fit of the model could possibly be significantly improved. The modified model revealed a relatively small improvement in the overall goodness of fit. These results provide supportive evidence of construct validity. Finally, the multivariate analyses of variance using gender and university campus as the predictor variables revealed a nonsignificant gender effect and a significant university campus effect, respectively. The Tukey multiple comparison test used to determine university campus differences across the domains showed approximately similar results, although they are separate and distinguishable. ULA-Merida established the highest mean scores when they are compared on the factors that influence their decisions in university choice process and their perceptions about professor effectiveness and university academic reputation, and the campus 1 (NURR-Trujillo) show the smaller mean scores.

<p>This thesis consists of three papers that examine college choice and earnings among university graduates in Sweden.</p><p>Paper [I] analyzes how geographical accessibility to higher education affects university enrollment decisions in Sweden. The empirical findings show that the probability of enrollment in university education increases with accessibility to university education. The results also indicate that accessibility adds to the likelihood of attending a university within the region of residence. Both these findings are robust with regard to different specifications of accessibility. The empirical results furthermore indicate that the enrollment decisions of individuals with a less privileged background are more sensitive to accessibility to university education than are the decisions of individuals from a more favorable background.</p><p>Paper [II] examines the effect on earnings of graduating from five different college groups. The paper relies on selection on observables and linear regression to identify the earnings effect of college choice. Contrary to the majority of previous Swedish studies, we do not find any systematic differences in estimated earnings between college graduates from the different college groups. This finding does not only hold when considering all college graduates, but also when focusing on men and women separately as well as when considering college graduates in two specific fields of education. The results suggest that an estimator of the earnings effects of college choice that does not properly adjust for ability is likely to be substantially biased.</p><p>Paper [III] estimates the causal effect on earnings of graduating from old universities rather than new universities/university colleges. The study compares estimates from several different matching methods and linear regression. We cannot find any significant differences in earnings between graduates from the two groups of colleges. This holds for male and female sub-samples covering all majors, as well as male and female sub-samples covering two broad fields of education. The results are robust with regard to different methods of propensity score matching and regression adjustment. Furthermore, the results indicate little sensitivity with regard to the empirical support in the data and alternative specifications of the propensity scores.</p>

Previous studies have reported high attrition rates in large-enrollment science courses where teacher-centered instruction was prevalent. The scientific literature provides strong evidence that student-centered teaching, which involves extensive active learning, leads to deepened learning as the result of effective student engagement. Consequently, professional development initiatives have continually focused on assisting academics with the implementation of active learning. Generally, higher education institutions engage faculty in professional development through in-service workshops that facilitate learning new teaching techniques in a specific context. These workshops usually do not include self-scrutiny concerning teaching or do they provide continuous support for the implementation of strategies learned in the workshop. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of a professional development program that consisted of a workshop focused on the implementation of active learning in large science courses and extended to include post-workshop activities, on participants’ enactment of teaching practices introduced in the workshop. More specifically, through a qualitative methodology and employing transformative learning theory, this work evaluated the influence of science instructors’ engagement in dialogue and critical self-reflection on their teaching approaches and practices. Engagement in critical reflection was facilitated through watching of teaching videotapes followed by participants’ engagement in dialogue about teaching with the researcher. Findings suggest that providing continuous post-workshop support by fostering engagement in critical self-reflection and dialogue, can lead to transformative learning about teaching. More specifically, participation in the program led to the transformation of teaching practices, while teaching approaches remained unchanged. While some obstacles to the transformation of teaching approaches were identified, major outcomes indicate that meaningful professional development can go far beyond learning how to use new teaching strategies through faculty engagement in critical reflection and dialogue on teaching.

A quantitative and qualitative research study was conducted to discover what assistors promoted continuous enrollment of women in Texas Even Start Family Literacy programs. 270 women who were enrolled for a second program year or longer anonymously completed a questionnaire that was available in both Spanish and English. Statements regarding which assistors promoted their continuous participation along with demographic statements were included in the questionnaire; free response comments were requested as well. Statistical measurements of factor analysis, frequency response, Chi-Square, and Analysis of Variance were used. Compared to previous research (Quigley, 1997) that identified three categories of barriers, this research identified five categories of assistors: situational, institutional, dispositional, parental, and program specific. Parental assistors, as a group, were statistically significant more than any of the other assistors when measured according to the independent variables of participants' age, children's age, and enrollment level. Institutional and dispositional assistors were found statistically significant when measured according to the variable of participants' age. Post-hoc measures did not reveal statistical significance for any of the levels of the variables. However, free responses from the participants did provide insight as to why parental, institutional, and dispositional assistors were significant in both their lives and the lives of their children.

This thesis consists of three papers that examine college choice and earnings among university graduates in Sweden. Paper [I] analyzes how geographical accessibility to higher education affects university enrollment decisions in Sweden. The empirical findings show that the probability of enrollment in university education increases with accessibility to university education. The results also indicate that accessibility adds to the likelihood of attending a university within the region of residence. Both these findings are robust with regard to different specifications of accessibility. The empirical results furthermore indicate that the enrollment decisions of individuals with a less privileged background are more sensitive to accessibility to university education than are the decisions of individuals from a more favorable background. Paper [II] examines the effect on earnings of graduating from five different college groups. The paper relies on selection on observables and linear regression to identify the earnings effect of college choice. Contrary to the majority of previous Swedish studies, we do not find any systematic differences in estimated earnings between college graduates from the different college groups. This finding does not only hold when considering all college graduates, but also when focusing on men and women separately as well as when considering college graduates in two specific fields of education. The results suggest that an estimator of the earnings effects of college choice that does not properly adjust for ability is likely to be substantially biased. Paper [III] estimates the causal effect on earnings of graduating from old universities rather than new universities/university colleges. The study compares estimates from several different matching methods and linear regression. We cannot find any significant differences in earnings between graduates from the two groups of colleges. This holds for male and female sub-samples covering all majors, as well as male and female sub-samples covering two broad fields of education. The results are robust with regard to different methods of propensity score matching and regression adjustment. Furthermore, the results indicate little sensitivity with regard to the empirical support in the data and alternative specifications of the propensity scores.

Enrollment management is an organizational phenomenon that emerged in the mid-1970s and has since developed into a pervasive structure and practice at colleges and universities. The purpose of this study is to identify and trace the development of the underlying organizing principles (enrollment logics) that institutionalize enrollment management practices and professionalize the chief enrollment manager position. This study focuses on how discourses among members of a prominent professional association establish, diffuse, and sustain knowledge that promotes certain expertise, assumptions, beliefs, and shared understandings of enrollment management. This is qualitative study that uses first-person accounts of 18 chief enrollment managers, authoethnographic reflections, and historical texts to reveal the regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements (symbols, relations, routines, and artifacts) that signify enrollment management as an institutionalized and professionalized phenomenon. Crystallization is used as the analytical approach for discourse analysis. Institutional Theory and Structuration Theory form the theoretical and analytical frameworks for this study. Study results suggest that enrollment management is an institutionalized organizational field and an emerging profession.

A quantitative and qualitative research study was conducted to discover what assistors promoted continuous enrollment of women in Texas Even Start Family Literacy programs. 270 women who were enrolled for a second program year or longer anonymously completed a questionnaire that was available in both Spanish and English. Statements regarding which assistors promoted their continuous participation along with demographic statements were included in the questionnaire; free response comments were requested as well. Statistical measurements of factor analysis, frequency response, Chi-Square, and Analysis of Variance were used. Compared to previous research (Quigley, 1997) that identified three categories of barriers, this research identified five categories of assistors: situational, institutional, dispositional, parental, and program specific. Parental assistors, as a group, were statistically significant more than any of the other assistors when measured according to the independent variables of participants' age, children's age, and enrollment level. Institutional and dispositional assistors were found statistically significant when measured according to the variable of participants' age. Post-hoc measures did not reveal statistical significance for any of the levels of the variables. However, free responses from the participants did provide insight as to why parental, institutional, and dispositional assistors were significant in both their lives and the lives of their children.

This study investigates whether the girls' education project "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" was able to increase girls' schooling and to what extent it was effective. In Turkey, there is still gender disparity in primary education although it is compulsory. "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" is UNICEF and Turkish Ministry of Education's joint project, which aims to increase girls' primary enrollment. The project consists of increasing public awareness, free books and incentives (in the form of conditional cash transfer) for female students. To find the magnitude of the program's impact, data is collected from Turkish and European statistical databases and a panel data analysis is employed. The results show that if the program has been implemented in a province, girls' enrollment rate increases by 1.310-2 units and total schooling increases by 1.410-2 units. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) found to have a bigger impact on girls' enrollment rates than total enrollment rates but the impact is not statistically significant. When a dummy for poverty is included in the model, then CCT becomes significant and the impact can be interpreted as; 1% increase in the conditional cash paid to a province results in 1.310-4 units increase in girls' enrollment rates. It is concluded that the project's impact is statistically significant but the magnitude is smaller than expected. Improvements are needed for increasing the effectiveness of the project. New cash transfer schemes should be implemented and community contribution should be encouraged. Another result of the analysis show that school buildings and adult literacy have greater impacts than the girls' education project.