ABSTRACT BENEFITS OR HARMS OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND by Judy Block The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reauthorizes and extensively amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and establishes control over the majority of federal programs and spending that affect public education. Embedded in the Act are various requirements that states and schools must adhere to as a condition of receiving federal education funds as well as harsh sanctions for failing to meet the requirements. No Child Left Behind notably shifts federal education policy by expanding its role into the areas of standards and assessment, accountability, curricula, discipline and administration, and providership. The Act also exacerbates tensions and blurs the line between competing ideologies of the role and nature of public education. NCLB's dominant reliance on proven research methods and statistical data, and its provisions regarding student assessment, failing schools, and parental choice open the schoolhouse door to commercial marketteers, further transforming public education into a consumer good, classrooms into marketplaces, and students and teachers into immaterial byproducts. No Child Left Behind's requirements often have more than one result, with some results doing more harm than the Act's stated good. The principle of double effect (PDE) provides a lens to evaluate instances where there are two effects of a single act; that is,PDE can explain the permissibility of an action that causes an undesired or harmful effect secondary to promoting some good end. By using philosophical analysis generally, and the principle of double effect specifically, this dissertation examines No Child Left Behind’s implementation requirements, specific programs, and their effects to determine the Act's benefits or harms. The dissertation proceeds with a review of NCLB's historical context and key features, an introduction to the principle of double effect, and a discussion of democratic and market ideologies and their relationship with education. This dissertation recognizes the various populations affected by the Act, but focuses specifically on students with disabilities and the relationship of the principle of double effect to the implications of NCLB. Chapter Four extends the principle of double effect to NCLB's implementation requirements and specific programs to identify their consequences or effects. The dissertation concludes with a synthesis of the questions and problems presented by NCLB and the implications for students, teachers, public education, and our communities.

International Polar Year 2007-2008 renewed interest in and funding for circumpolar research. One unique element of this International Polar Year was the focus on education and outreach initiatives. This study explores outreach stakeholders’ perspectives on conducting science outreach with northern Canadian schools. A total of sixty semi-structured interviews were conducted with northern researchers, residents and educators to determine culturally appropriate and pedagogically suitable methods for educational outreach initiatives in the Canadian north. I examined northern resident and educator experiences with integrating Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, identified factors supporting educational outreach initiatives, and provided recommendations on how to strengthen educational outreach partnerships. Results show that institutional barriers discourage researchers from participating in educational outreach. Northern residents and educators viewed integrative science as an effective method to engage students in Indigenous and Western science, and to encourage collaborative educational outreach partnerships amongst outreach stakeholders.

If a correlation exists between cost and project delivery system then this is crucial knowledge for any group organizing a new construction project. It has been observed anecdotally that the construction cost per student of public elementary schools has been observed to continue to increase in the state of Texas, even with the recent downturn in the economy. The recent economic depression in the USA has seen construction material costs stagnate and construction costs dropping. This is a direct result of the competitive nature of a market that has a lack of business. The issue of a rising cost at the time of a falling market is of more than a passing research interest to school superintendents and the people of Texas. This study investigated the relationship between cost and project delivery systems. A survey was sent to all school superintendents in Texas requesting recent data on elementary school enrollment, project delivery type and construction costs. One hundred and thirty six responses were received from one thousand and seventy six Texas school districts. A comparative means test was used to determine if a relationship exists between construction cost per student and project delivery system for public elementary schools in Texas. The research shows that Texas school districts are primarily using two types of project delivery systems for their new school construction, Construction Management at Risk and Competitive Sealed Proposals. After comparing the average construction cost per student for these two project delivery systems, the statistical analysis showed that Competitive Sealed Proposals cost approximately four thousand dollar less per student than Construction Management at Risk. The clear question is then as to why are districts using Construction Management at Risk when the comparative benefits of the contract type are not worth this amount of money per student.

State digital libraries are manifestations of the diffusion of technology that has provided both access to and delivery of digital content. Whether the content is being accessed and used equitably in K-12 schools has not been assessed. Determining patterns of the diffusion of use across socioeconomic groups in K-12 schools may help measure the success of existing efforts to provide equitable access and use of digital content, and help guide policies and implementation to more effectively address remaining disparities. This study examined use of the Connecticut Digital Library (ICONN) in K-12 schools in Connecticut by determining annual patterns of use per school/district over a four-year period, using transaction log search statistics. The data were analyzed in the paradigm that Rogers (2003) describes as the first and second dimensions of the consequences of an innovation - the overall growth and the equality of the diffusion to individuals within an intended audience --- in this case, students in K-12 schools. Data were compared by school district and the established socioeconomic District Reference Groups (DRGs) defined by the Connecticut State Board of Education. At the time of this study, ICONN used aggregate data (total searches) for K-12 schools, but did not have relevant data on diffusion within the public schools in Connecticut related to district or DRGs.

Serious inequities in our K-12 public education system, particularly in regard to the quality of education in predominately Black inner-city schools, are well-documented in the literature (Freeman, 1998; Ross, 1998). Moreover, there is general agreement that the most effective means of ameliorating that situation is through well-thought-out after-school programs and partnership initiatives (Beck, 1993; Gardner et al., 2001). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the programmatic interventions of a youth enrichment program for inner-city Black youth currently in place at the Overtown Youth Center (OYC) in Miami, Florida, in order to: (a) discern those factors that support its claim that it is making a difference in students’ lives, (b) explore how any such factors are implemented, and (c) determine whether its interventions have served to equalize the playing field for these youth. Two primary methods of data collection were used for this study. The first was participant observation conducted over the course of two years through a partnership initiative established and led by this author. The second was through in-depth interviews of the Center’s founder, staff, and students. Secondary methods used were the recording of informal conversations and the analysis of written documents. Analysis of the data yielded four features of the Center that are indispensible to the students’ growth. The center provides the youth with (a) physical and psychological safety, (b) supportive relationships, (c) exposure to cultural and educational opportunities, and (d) assistance in building self-esteem. The most significant finding of the study was that OYC has been successful at making a difference in students’ lives and at increasing their aspirations to attend college. By addressing the full spectrum of their needs, the Center has given them many of the necessary tools with which to compete and thereby helped equalize their opportunities to succeed in school and in life. The study also noted a number of challenges for the Center to examine. The main issues that need to be addressed more seriously are staff turnover, staff indifference, nepotism, inconsistent student attendance, and insufficient focus on racial issues and African-American-centered education. Meeting those challenges would engender even greater positive outcomes.

This study investigated whether a relationship exists between learning style and the self-reported technology-related needs, beliefs, stages of adoption, software expertise, and technology competencies of teachers in a large suburban school district. The Gregorc Style Delineator was used to identify dominant learning style, and the Snapshot Survey was used to measure technology-related needs, beliefs, stages of adoption, and software expertise. Technology competencies were measured using the Technology in Education Competency Survey. Data collected from 499 participants was included in data analysis. The study was conducted at each of the 12 elementary schools of a large suburban district in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between learning style and the technology-related needs, stages of adoption, software expertise, and competencies of teachers. The relationship between learning style and technology-related needs was significant at the p < .01 level. The relationships between learning style and technology-related stages of adoption, software expertise, and technology competencies were significant at the p < .05 level. Members of the abstract sequential [AS] learning style group reported having significantly fewer needs and significantly higher stages of adoption, software expertise, and competency than members of one or more of the other learning style groups. More research is recommended to determine whether these findings could be utilized to improve teacher staff development in the area of technology. Possible applications may include mentoring programs and the customization of training models to more closely match learning style profiles.

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Social media has the potential to be a critical force in creating connected educators. The collaborative nature of social media encourages personal connection, professional enrichment, and learning through co-creation of meaning. Secondary teachers are in a place that would permit them to harness these affordances, not only in their personal and professional environments, but also in their classrooms. This qualitative phenomenographic study aimed to uncover how secondary teachers used social media for personal, professional, and instructional purposes. Further, this study sought to understand secondary teachers' attitudes and beliefs toward social media. Their current state of social media use was also of interest, as were the types of relations secondary teachers had with social media. To better understand the stories and experiences realized by these educators, ten secondary teachers were engaged using a semi-structured interview process. These teachers presented with varying backgrounds, education, and teaching focus. The interviews provided a textual representation of their social media stories. Interview transcripts were transposed into thick rich accounts describing their experiences, thoughts, ideas, and how they understood social media in their personal, professional, and instructional lives. It was found that the current state of social media use by secondary teachers was primarily limited to personal and professional purposes. Teachers used it to connect with family and friends. They used it to connect with like-minded educators and personal learning networks to locate teaching resources. Many expressed that they could see a benefit of students interacting and learning from others through social media. In the end, however, they did not use social media for instructional purposes. The majority voiced concerns about student privacy, a feeling of not being able to control what students were doing on social media, a lack of training for themselves and students, possible inappropriate behavior, and the inability to access social media through network firewalls. Further analysis and coding of the textual data produced four emerging themes of discussion. The themes were: (1) support and constraints, (2) time, (3) privacy, and (4) one-way and two-way communication. These themes contributed to interactions with social media, in turn influencing their attitudes, beliefs, and how they used social media in their personal, professional, and instructional environments.

Within the field of education, computers and micro-controllers like Arduino are increasingly being used to teach students relevant skills, attitude and knowledge around technology. Education around these tools are often set in group contexts and collaboration is often considered an important part of the learning, however much of the currently available software is still designed around a laptop programming paradigm that which in itself tends to restrict collaboration and cementing rather than encouraging shifting of roles and activities among group members. This thesis explores how we could design tools that better invite collaborative interactions in these settings, in particular how mobile software tools could allow for sketching and iterating more fluidly. Based on interviews with experts, observations in the classroom setting, reflection with teachers and a workshop with Arduino Education this thesis sketches a future vision that re-designs the tools to be more collaborative and fluid, so that reflection, action and reaction cycles could be smaller and allow for more exploration and learning.