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This sequential, three-phase study used quantitative analyses to examine the characteristics of student dropouts and the characteristics of schools successful and unsuccessful in mediating dropouts. Narrative profiles were created to describe types of students and types of dropouts. Phase I consisted of three parts, each using the student as the unit of analysis. Part One examined the profile of all Louisiana dropouts. Part Two involved the creation of clusters of dropouts and non-dropouts combined. Part Three focused on the creation of dropout clusters. In Phase II, the percents of potential dropouts were calculated for 301 schools using the dropout characteristics from Phase I. The purpose of this phase was to classify schools into one of nine cells in a 3 x 3 contingency table that crossed three levels of Percent of Actual Dropouts with three levels of Percent of Potential Dropouts. In Phase III, a MANOVA was conducted using a 1 x 4 design. The levels of the independent variable were four school categories from the Phase II contingency table: consistently high dropouts schools, consistently low dropouts schools, schools more effective in dropout prevention, and schools less effective dropout prevention. The cluster analysis results for the non-dropouts and dropouts yielded three clusters: "high achievers," "average achievers," and "low achievers." The cluster analysis for the dropouts also resulted in three clusters: "quiet dropouts," "typical" dropouts, and "high-achieving pushouts." The MANOVA produced overall significant differences among the set of dependent variables (attendance rate, class size, student achievement, suspension rate, teacher certification, and teacher test scores). The planned contrasts results showed that consistently low dropouts schools had significantly higher student achievement than the less effective schools, while the more effective schools had significantly higher attendance rates and student achievement than the consistently high dropouts schools. These findings have two major implications for dropout prevention. First, dropout prevention programs should have components that reach all types of potential dropouts. Second, more extensive efforts should be made to obtain the reasons individual students drop out. Students who drop out for like reasons could be studied to develop prevention measures for similar students.

Using a qualitative approach with Black feminism as a theoretical framework, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine: Exploring the Promotion and Tenure Process of African American Female Professors at Select Research I Universities in the South is a compilation of oral histories from eight female, associate and full professors. The study focused on the promotion and tenure experiences of the participants and examined how day-to-day interactions with colleagues and departmental climate impact the promotion and tenure process. In the study, the participants provide candid, first-person accounts of their experiences, struggles and successes in the pursuit of promotion and tenure. Interviews were conducted with tenured, African American female professors at predominantly white, Research I universities in the South. Interviewees included two full professors and six associate professors. During open-ended semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to talk about their promotion and tenure experiences. Four themes emerged from the research data: struggle, oppression, change and freedom. Evidence is presented of participants' perspectives of how their promotion and tenure experiences relate to each of these four themes. The study highlights the experiences of the participants in order to educate higher education administrators, deans and department heads about the perceptions of African American women on their promotion and tenure process and specifically, the effect that departmental climate has on the process.

This study examined the persistence of students with a GED in four-year institutions. Qualitative research methods were employed to better understand the experiences of GED recipients relative to their progress towards baccalaureate degrees. The theoretical framework for this study was symbolic interactionism. Data were collected in two phases. After a pilot study, Phase I data collection consisted of two focus group interviews with three participants each from two institutions in Louisiana. For Phase II, 10 GED recipients at each university were engaged in semi-structured, in-depth interviews, photography, photo elicitation interviews, and document analysis of studentsrecords. The data were analyzed using Lincoln and Gubas (1985) Constant Comparative Method. The themes that evolved from the data were (1) quitting is not an option, (2) I just cant go back, (3) family influences, (4) faculty influences, (5) age, (6) math anxiety, (7) developmental education, (8) time on task, and (9) spirituality. Comparatively, I just cant go back was only prevalent with most of the African American males. The need to support a family was stated by more female GED recipients than males. The older GED recipients were persisting in college for more idealistic reasons, such as their desire to change the world and make it a better place. Overall, most of the GED recipients were academically integrated into the university setting, with very limited social integration. Yet, the participants of this study provided rich evidence that GED recipients have many diverse experiences that affect their persistence in four-year institutions.

Distance education is an emerging force in higher education that is creating new opportunities and added challenges. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare what university administrators and faculty know about issues that surround a debate about ownership of intellectual products created for distance education including technologies used in distance education and the law, university policies, and tenets of academic freedom that are supposed to stimulate intellectual creativity. An Internet-based survey was used to gather data from university faculty and administrators at four southeastern research universities in the United States. Results indicated that respondents were almost universally familiar with distance education, and that more than one-third create teaching materials expressly for use in distance education. Further, results indicated that more than two-thirds of participants were aware of university intellectual property ownership policies, but less than one-quarter reported knowing details of those policies. Although participants agreed that protections provided by U. S. Copyright Law are important, more than one-third of faculty and one-quarter of administrators admitted that their knowledge of the law was, at best, vague. Although a wide majority of respondents reported familiarity with academic freedom, when the accuracy and depth of their knowledge was examined, it seems their understanding was largely impressionistic. Although few unexpected differences were identified, administrators were shown to rely more heavily than faculty counterparts on universities to stay informed about the issues of interest in this study. Results from the study suggest that if leaders are needed to help realize the opportunities and meet the challenges created by emerging technologies and distance education, universities will need to take initiative to develop expertise among faculty and administrators.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the role of mentoring in the development of African American nurses who have achieved leadership positions in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs. This study also explored the similar and dissimilar mentoring experiences in same-race versus cross-race mentoring relationships. The theoretical framework for this study is Levinsons adult developmental theory. A sequential mixed design was utilized. Forty-seven African American nurse leaders participated in Phase I, of which 10 were interviewed in Phase II. The findings showed that mentoring plays a role in the personal and professional development of African American nurse leaders in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs. Moreover, the relevance of race varies in both same-race and cross-race mentoring relationships.

The purpose of this study was four-fold: (1) to investigate the patterns of change in educational aspirations from the eighth grade through the twelfth in a large national sample of students from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS:88); (2) to understand how demographic, socioeconomic, parental, academic, and school experience factors impact both initial aspirations and change in aspirations; (3) to investigate how educational aspirations relate to students attempts to actualize plans for postsecondary education; and (4) to analyze the data and compare the results obtained using two different growth modeling techniques hierarchical linear modeling and group-based mixture modeling. Major findings of the study showed that (1) average student aspirations remained fairly stable from the eighth grade through the twelfth, showing a slight but not significant increase; (2) most of the factors considered in the study affected initial student aspirations; (3) seven distinct clusters of aspiration trajectories can be identified; (4) many students who had high aspirations had failed to build a wide choice set of postsecondary institutions to apply to; (5) among the factors considered, educational aspirations had the strongest impact on the number of applications filed; (6) parental expectations and involvement had effects on early student aspirations but not on the number of applications filed; (9) students who had both high and stable aspirations from the eighth grade through the twelfth generally had a wider choice set of applications than students who demonstrated a steady increase in aspirations. Hierarchical linear modeling provided an understanding of the average growth in aspirations, the variability around that growth and the effects of covariates on initial aspirations and the change in aspirations. Group-based mixture modeling helped investigate the different clusters of aspiration trajectories and permitted a linkage of these clusters with patterns of student application to postsecondary institutions. The link between aspirations and the number of college applications filed was studied using modeling for ordinal responses. The strengths of the different modeling techniques are addressed and implications of the results for educational policy, practice, and future research are also discussed.

This study provided insights about how to develop online cross-cultural projects designed to foster global awareness in upper elementary-age students. Three schools, located in the southern United States, Mexico and Turkey, implemented a cross-cultural model as part of a comparative case study. The primary goal of this research was to gain an understanding of how these populations develop global awareness in an online environment. A second goal was to determine the necessary implications for practice when conducting online, cross-cultural projects in upper elementary classrooms. During eight weeks of implementation, students participated in cross-cultural groups as members of an online community. Qualitative data were collected from the online threaded discussions, focus group interviews with eight case study participants, teacher interviews, parent interviews and observations. Quantitative data from the Inventory of Intercultural Sensitivity (ICCS) survey was collected. Results showed that online cross-cultural projects are an enjoyable and viable means of developing global awareness in upper elementary age students, and that the development of global awareness in an online environment is dependent upon changes in participants social comfort zones. Changes in social comfort zones were shown to best occur through social, collaborative experiences, with gender, learning styles and country of origin playing an important role in the design of the online cross-cultural projects. In addition, the study determined that while students enjoy learning about global issues from other students rather than from teachers and textbooks, active teacher involvement in cross-cultural project is necessary for student success. The project concluded that collaborative, constructivist instructional design is essential for the development of online cross-cultural projects.

The purpose of this study is to explore how students perceive their tutorial learning experiences at the collegiate level in a campus-based center and to explore the personality preferences of the students who participate in tutoring, according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The study is designed to address tutoring from the perspective of the tutees experiences and to allow them to tell their story of how tutoring impacted their academic experience. The following research questions guide this study: 1. What are students perceptions of their tutorial learning experiences? 2. Are students perceptions of their tutorial learning experiences related to personality type preferences? Data analysis in qualitative research has a two-fold purpose to understand the participants perspective and to answer the research questions. This study uses the three-phase procedure described by Miles and Huberman (1994) to give meaning to the data and for organizational purposes. The three-phase procedure includes data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. Thirty-two students voluntarily participated in in-depth interviews. Interview data are transcribed and subsequently analyzed to facilitate the development of themes. Document analysis, a reflexive journal, and in-depth interviews are utilized to construct participant profiles and to generate themes. Themes that emerged are as follows: (1) Choice to Attend Tutoring, (2) Relationship with Tutor, (3) Learning Strategies, and (4) Derived Benefits of Tutoring. The themes are analyzed and the results discussed. Thereafter, the analysis turns to the personality type preferences in accord with the MBTI. The type preferences are coded and the results of the type preferences discussed in relation to the perceived experiences of participants as well as their styles of learning. A discussion of the findings, along with recommendations for practice and research conclude the study. Suggestions might be made to implement changes in tutorial learning as a form of academic support. While other learning styles inventories are available, the MBTI is an assessment that identifies individual strengths for students to work from giving it an advantage when compared to others. Finally, it is also important to assess the needs of each segment of the student population.