This research analyzes the determinants affecting access to postsecondary education with particular attention to the role of college preparation information. Prior research on the college choice process and college access has primarily been conducted in two spheres: academic preparation and financial aid. While these two strands of literature are often treated as oppositional hypotheses, they need not be. This article fuses the two bodies of research while discussing the relatively untreated role of information concerning both academic preparation and financial aid as an important determinant in a students probability of accessing postsecondary education. The evolution of empirical models regarding important determinants in postsecondary access are presented with the proposition of next steps, including the role of information, that allows for a more fully specified model in studying the variables that affect whether a student continues her education after high school graduation. Prior research has treated educational expectations and academic performance as static elements in the college choice process. This dissertation analyzes the impact of college preparation information on evolving educational expectations and academic performance throughout students secondary schooling. Furthermore, I analyze the direct role of academic and financial aid information on the probability of enrolling in various levels of postsecondary education. As information is discovered to have an influence on changing educational expectations, this suggests that the influence of student expectations on postsecondary enrollment is an indirect avenue through which college preparation information may yield influence. Results indicate that the reception of early and late college preparation information possesses explanatory value in models that predict the probability of postsecondary attainment for high school graduates.

This dissertation addresses the gaps of access and quality in higher education between high-income countries and low-to-middle income countries, and the role that Internet and computer technologies play in association with those gaps. It asks the question whether the gaps will widen or narrow over time. It utilizes a mixed methodology, analyzing national-level gaps in Internet and computer technology through quantitative analyses of public data on telecommunications and Internet connectivity. It uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the diffusion and impact of Internet and computer technology at the institutional and classroom levels. Ultimately, the answer as to whether the gaps will widen or narrow depends upon strategic decisions made at the national, institutional, and classroom levels.

INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PRIVATE GIVING TO PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS YING LIU In recent years, increasing market competitiveness and rising educational costs have underscored the importance of external revenues in higher education finance. Even as the higher education costs continue to exceed the rate of inflation, public funding from both state and federal sources is steadily declining. As traditional funding sources become less reliable, colleges and universities seek to pursue alternative revenues such as private donations. Using panel data of public colleges and universities from 1994-2003, this study investigated how institutional characteristics and environmental factors influence overall private giving and its varying sources to public colleges and universities. Hausman test was used to test two competing specifications --- fixed-effects model and random-effects model, and fixed effects model was identified as more appropriate to this study. The results of the study verified that both institutional characteristics and environmental factors have some effects on private giving an institution receives. The following institutional characteristics were statistically significant: alumni/ae of record, expenditure per FTE, total revenue per FTE, endowment per FTE. The following environmental factors were statistically significant: state appropriation per FTE, state tax appropriation for higher education per $1000 of state personal income, state financial aid per student, citizen ideology, and gross state product per capita. This study suggested a general conceptual framework to better understand forces that influence total private giving as well as private giving from different donor groups. Findings of this study have some practical implications to higher education policymakers and practitioners. Institutions at the top of the institutional hierarchy enjoy accumulative advantage in generating private giving. That is, donors are more willing to support institutions with higher quality, more endowment, and more state appropriations. Additionally, increase in state support to higher education does not displace private giving to public colleges and universities. Finally, environmental factors also play important roles in successful fund raising in public colleges and universities.

This ethnographic study begins by outlining two competing conceptions of democracy, the participatory and representative views. These conceptions frame an analysis of the practices for socialization for democratic citizenship at one majority white middle to upper-middle class suburban high school. The practices were abstracted from nonparticipant observations of an American government class, shadowing and interviewing six students through three school days apiece, and interviewing eight teachers and two school counselors. The school was found to be, on average, educating students in line with the representative view of democracy. The study concludes with discussion and encouragement of further research into practices to promote students acquisition of the knowledge, dispositions, and skills required to be effective citizens in a democracy.

LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES GLOBAL LEADERS: DEFINING RELEVANT LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY BRADLEY STEVEN GRAY Dissertation under the direction of Professor Robert L. Crowson After an age of leadership defined by the norms and demands of an industrial era, the forces of globalization at the beginning of the 21st century, primarily ushered in by logarithmic advances of technology, have created the demand for leadership, identified in this phenomenological study as global leadership. Based upon demand identifiers describing the realities of the current stage(s) of globalizationbypass, simultaneity, mobility, pluralism, change, and integrationsix leadership capacities were extrapolated to establish criteria upon which to analyze an effective leader in this context. Foundational is a distinction between competencies and capacities in global leadership. Where competencies are skill and task based with limited ability to fulfill adaptive work, capacities are skills and abilities that enable one to regenerate growth based on adaptive challenges, and thus innovation. The six global leader capacities forming the filter for analysis are the capacity for self-transformation, capacity of the contextual self, capacity for omnicompetence, capacity for reframing the gifts of leadership, capacity for ethnorelativism, and the capacity for transcendence. In the case of the global leader, these six capacities engage simultaneously to create the synergistic phenomenon. Two archetypal cases are considered. Findings identify that global leaders are found throughout societies although few of them are noticed because the infrastructure of leadership development, including the education systems, are geared to develop leaders for industrial model work. Global leaders are not necessarily international leaders, and it is not a contradiction for a global leader not to lead in an international context. A corollary relationship between pairs of the criteria capacities surfaces as three interacting systems: problem solving system, motivation leadership system, and transcendent leadership system, a sophisticated relationship of behaviors. Most useful are the six criteria and their systemic, integrated engagement in the global leader as these are viable as units of development. The study identifies a developmental process, and a developmental model that applies across sectors of work, ethnic, and national backgrounds. Global leadership is a human phenomenon, not confined to sector of work, geography, or other limiting boundaries, real or created. Approved: Robert L. Crowson Date: November 6, 2006

This dissertation used student and school-level data to create school assignment sequences at the student level; evaluated the distribution of resources across those sequences; and compared findings from equity analysis conducted across schools within a school district to similar analysis conducted across school sequences. Findings indicate that school sequences matter in the measurement of vertical equity, less so in measures of horizontal equity, and the impact of student racial and economic characteristics is generally less in models that include student sequence types. The general conclusion, then, is that models that do not account for school sequence both overstate and understate by small to moderate amounts the inequitable relationship between race, poverty and school-level resources.

This study uses event history analysis to examine the origins of collaborative efforts between K-12 and higher education systems through the formation of statewide P-16 councils. The development of these joint organizational structures represents an important reform innovation in the P-16 education arena, as P-16 councils seek to influence state policy in an effort to improve student achievement and transitions across all levels of education. Network theory is used to distill three sets of hypotheses to predict how different governance structures, leadership influences, and environmental characteristics may help to explain the spread of voluntary and mandatory P-16 councils in the American states from 1992 to 2007. Although there is little support for the effect of a states organizational structures, both leadership influences and environmental conditions may impact a states decision of both whether to form a P-16 council and the type of P-16 council that is formed. The condition of weak educational climates is associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of forming all types of P-16 councils. The presence of an education governor is particularly important for understanding the spread of mandatory statewide P-16 councils, while economic and demographic characteristics of states are better predictors of the adoption of voluntary P-16 councils. The findings from this study also have broader theoretical implications for understanding who governs in the formation of network organizations. Government networks represent a relatively new type of policy context; one in which leadership from the executives office may be particularly important for explaining the formation of these innovative organizational structures.

Relational trust has proven to be an important predictor of school achievement in the United States and can lead to innovation, problem-solving, and collective action in school communities (Bryk and Schneider, 2002). This study investigates relational trust in the secondary education system of the Dominican Republic, where trust may prove beneficial in promoting achievement and efficiency rates in schools, as well as ensuring successful reform in periods of change. The study examines which school-level characteristics are associated with relational trust, and then asks whether relational trust is associated with school performance. A random sample of Dominican secondary schools was drawn, and directors and teachers provided measurements of relational trust, school, director, and teacher characteristics. Results were mixed: only teacher-director trust and teacher-parent trust were positively linked with Pruebas Nacionales (PNnational exit exam) scores while no types of trust were associated with PN qualifying rates (the percentage of seniors matriculated at the beginning of the year who qualified for the exam). Policy recommendations resulting from an analysis of these data include isolating overage students from properly age synchronized students, investing in classroom resources, and promoting administrative continuity and designated staff space to encourage social relationships between directors, teachers, students, parents, and community.

The general purpose of this study was to understand how zero tolerance policies have been implemented in schools since the passage of the Gun Free and Safe Schools Acts of 1997 (Jones, 1997). There were two guiding research questions: How and to what extent has zero tolerance policies been implemented in schools? And what is the relationship between policy, school, and student factors and implementation variability? In order to investigate these questions, a case study of one suburban high schools approach to implementing zero tolerance policies was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were held with policy stakeholders including school administrators, school district personnel, and a school resource officer. In the study, I found that although there were financial and technical resources deployed to implement zero tolerance policies, school administrators received no formalized training in enforcing the policy. Assistant Principals played a critical role in policy interpretation and enforcement and were in fact the least trained individuals. A lack of training required administrators to develop informal communication networks and mentoring relationships as a means of support. Students were also an important resource as they were frequently the individuals who reported violations to administrators. In terms of policy clarity, there were a variety of interpretations of the unlawful possession of drugs and weapons. This lack of clarity encouraged school officials to use some discretion in enforcing the policy including not disciplining students according to the letter of the law. During the course of this study on zero tolerance it became apparent that the role of the federal government in implementing such policies diminishes and gives way to greater state control. Although the mandates for safe and drug free schools were issued at the federal level, the responsibility of executing such lofty goals rested squarely on the states shoulders. School administrators carried much of the burden.

This dissertation explores a framework for effective school leadership that is connected with research, standards and current practices in the United States, and investigates its cross-cultural generalizability both theoretically and empirically. First, it evaluates the alignment of the Learning-Centered Leadership Framework with the professional standards and practices of principals in Chinese schools. Second, it examines whether the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (the VAL-ED), an instrument that is developed based on the framework, has construct validity and reliability when administered to Chinese school principals. Third, it explores if and how the framework and the instrument may be modified to enhance its cross-cultural relevance and utility. Employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, results are generated from three studies: (a) expert-panel review of the alignment of the framework, (b) cognitive interview about the instrument content and format, and (c) validity and reliability analyses of the VAL-ED addressing its factor structure, reliability estimates, and concurrent criterion measures using assessment scale scores from 1165 teachers, 18 principals, and their supervisors of 19 Chinese urban schools. Findings from the studies give support to the claim that there is strong cross-cultural alignment on the overarching goal of improving student learning through setting high standards, providing rigorous curriculum and quality instruction, and enhancing the professional learning culture in schools. The VAL-ED instrument is proven to have strong internal reliability. Its cross-cultural validity can be partially confirmed through the examination of content and criterion validity evidence. The findings also indicate that the existing framework and assessment content may need to be modified with special attention to the role of external communities, systemic accountability, and advocating for at-risk students, reflecting the new Chinese educational reform priorities that emphasize the balance between academic and social learning.