Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 25, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

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Community college career and technical education programs struggle with meeting federallyunded Perkins performance measures. To address this need the 30-45-60 program design was developed. The study purpose was to determine if the 30-45-60 program design influenced career certificate, technical certificate or Associate of Applied Science degree completion rates, technical skill attainment, and job placement rates for students enrolled in the welding, precision machining and manufacturing and electrical technology programs. A Chi-square test of independence indicated no significantly significant relationship between the 30-45-60 program design and completion of a certificate or degree (p = .222). A closer look revealed no significantly significant relationship between the 30-45-60 program design and the career certificate (p = .392) or the Associate of Applied Science degree (.576) but was statistically significant for technical certificate (p = .000). A statistically significant relationship was found for technical skill attainment (p =.038) and job placement (p = .000).

This research study was designed to help illuminate if there is a relationship between the quality of career and technical education programs from centralized and decentralized-controlled systems in relation to the level of authority exerted by state governing/coordinating boards over the community college system. This study included data from the 50 states that are part of the United States of America. This study used a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent design. This study did not include randomly selected groups and was a nonequivalent control group design. The independent variables included: centralized or decentralized governance, median household income, the percent of community colleges that are rural, unemployment rate, and amount spent per full time enrolled community college student. The independent variable data that was collected came from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the United States Census Bureau, and the Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The dependent variable was the mean score of Carl Perkins Act reporting data that each state is required to report to federal authorities every year. The states were divided in two separate groups, centralized or decentralized form of governance. A regression analysis was performed in order to analyze if a relationship exists between the independent and dependent variables for each group. The research indicated that the form of governance does impact Carl Perkins Act reporting scores in a decentralized form of governance in relation to median income, but overall the model is not a good predictor of overall scores. A significant difference was found in states that have a decentralized form of governance and median household income in relation to Carl Perkins Act reporting data. However, the model, as a whole, did not produce significant results in relation to the independent and dependent variables. Considerations for future research are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between participation in CTE programs and students’ graduation rates and rates of CTE students’ entrance into postsecondary education or employment after graduation. Possible differences between students’ enrollment in urban and rural school districts and their graduation, participation, and secondary placement rates were also considered. Publicly available data on high school students in the state of Tennessee were analyzed to compare the graduation rates of CTE participants with the graduation rates of non-CTE participants in the state as a whole and in nine selected urban school districts and nine selected rural school districts for the school years 2009-2010, 2010- 2011, and 2011-2012. Research cited in this study indicated that CTE participation could increase students' graduation rates. Some research also indicated that rural students were more likely to complete CTE concentrations than urban students and that other differences might exist in the CTE experiences of urban and rural students. Six research questions were created and their null hypotheses tested with a series of z-tests. Analysis of publicly available data for the selected school systems and for the state as a whole found slightly higher rates of graduation among CTE concentrators than among non-concentrators and higher rates of CTE participation among rural than urban high school students, but these differences were not statistically significant. Differences between urban and rural schools systems' graduation rates and their rates of postsecondary placement of CTE concentrators in education, the military, or employment were also found to be statistically insignificant.

This dissertation suggests that burgeoning public discourse on contraception in Britain and the United States between 1915 and 1940 created a paradigm shift in perceptions of women’s sexuality that altered the ways that women could be represented in literary texts. It offers readings of texts by women on both sides of the Atlantic who responded to birth control discourse not only by referencing contraceptive techniques, but also by incorporating arguments and dilemmas used by birth control advocates into their writing. The introductory chapter, which frames the later literary analysis chapters, examines similarities in the tropes Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes, the British and American “Mothers of Birth Control” used in their advocacy. These include images such as mothers dying in childbirth, younger children in large families weakened by their mothers’ ill-health, and sexual dysfunction in traditional marriages. In addition to this chapter on birth control advocates’ texts, the dissertation includes four chapters meant to demonstrate how literary authors used and adapted the tropes and language of the birth control movement to their own narratives and perspectives. The first of these chapters focuses on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, a 1915 political allegory about a nation populated only by women who have gained the ability to reproduce asexually. Gilman adopted pro-birth control language, but rejected the politically radical ideas of the early birth control movement. In addition to radical politics, the birth control movement was associated with racist eugenicist ideas, an association that the third chapter, on Nella Larsen’s 1928 novel Quicksand examines in detail by comparing birth control and African-American racial uplift rhetoric. Crossing the Atlantic, the fourth chapter looks at the influence of the English birth control movement on Irish novelist Kate O’Brien’s 1931 Without My Cloak, a novel that challenges Catholic narratives as well as the heteronormative assumptions of birth control discourse itself. The final chapter analyzes Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and Three Guineas (1938), illuminating Woolf’s connections between feminist reproductive politics and conservative pro-eugenics agendas. Acknowledging the complexity of these writers’ engagements with the birth control movement, the project explores not simply the effects of the movement’s discourse on writers’ depictions of sexuality, reproduction, and race, but also the dialogue between literary writers and the birth control establishment, which comprises a previously overlooked part of the formation of both the reproductive rights movement and the Modernist political project.

This dissertation focuses on the roles played by the United Nations experts Charles Abrams and G. Holmes Perkins in the foundation of METU Faculty of Architecture. It aims to highlight the ideas and ideals that informed Abrams&rsquo / s and Perkins&rsquo / s METU projects, and to delineate an integrative and multifaceted picture of their political and educational contexts. This picture may serve as a basis for future researches on the institutional and educational histories of METU Faculty of Architecture. It may also help to better understand the contributions of other administrators and instructors -- including First Acting Dean Thomas B. A. Godfrey and Dean Abdullah Kuran -- who played important parts in the formation of the educational direction of the Faculty. Abrams, as a United Nations consultant, paved the way for the foundation of METU Faculty of Architecture by recommending a school of architecture and community planning in Ankara, for the education of professionals competent in responding to the problems caused by rapid industrial expansion and urbanization. Perkins contributed to the foundation process of METU Faculty of Architecture. As the head of the team of experts from the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts, who were sent by the United Nations to Ankara in 1955, he advised the Government of Turkey on &ldquo / the creation of a Faculty of Architecture, a Faculty of City and Regional Planning&rdquo / and two research institutes, as a first step towards an institution of university rank, and with a view to promoting &ldquo / a newer, more practical and modern approach to architecture and urban planning&rdquo / in Turkey. In this dissertation, Abrams&rsquo / s and Perkins&rsquo / s METU projects constitute a starting point for exploring significant themes in the changing political and educational trajectories in America in the mid-twentieth century. The influence of different interpretations of the notions of democracy, individuality and society on technical assistance, urban development policies and architectural education is also investigated. Abrams&rsquo / s professional and academic position as a &ldquo / reflective practitioner&rdquo / is appraised in the light of John Dewey&rsquo / s concepts of democracy, democratic education and &ldquo / reflective thinking.&rdquo / The changing professional and societal roles of the architect and the changing demands upon architectural education in the 1950s framed the background of Perkins&rsquo / s educational approach. The reappraisal of liberal education as part of professional education of the architect, the rising significance of an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach, and the development of &ldquo / organized research&rdquo / in architecture were among the major themes shaping new orientations in the field of architectural education in America in those years. In the dissertation, the lasting validity of these themes for today is highlighted.