Student Number : 0513068K - MA research report - School of Graduate School - Faculty of Humanities / The aim of this study it to evaluate the Gauteng Government’s attempt to implement a life skills education programme in all primary and secondary schools. A chosen strategy of the National HIV/AIDS/STD Strategic Plan for South Africa: 2000-2005, a universal programme of life skills and HIV/AIDS education in primary and secondary schools was identified as a vital means to contain South Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. Broadly, the life skills and HIV/AIDS education programme is intended to “promote improved health seeking behaviour and [the] adoption of safe sex practices” (DOH, 2000) amongst school going youth. Responsibility for the implementation of this programme in all primary and secondary schools is decentralised to the provincial level. Accordingly, this study seeks to analyse and evaluate the Gauteng Provincial Government’s (GPG) progress in the implementation of the life skills programme. A case study design centered upon documentary analysis and key informant interviews was employed in order to capture the necessary and predominantly qualitative data. These data are analyzed using the conceptual framework developed through the work of Hildebrand and Grindle (1994 in Brijal and Gilson, 1997), and Brijal and Gilson (1997). This study found that numerous implementation deficits arising at the organisational, task network, public sector institutional and external environmental levels combined to hamper implementation of the life skills programme according to the time frames set out within the National Integrated Plan for Children Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, this study also found that political stability in Gauten gprovince was a significant factor promoting steady and progressive programme implementation and expansion. To conclude, this study indicates that policy implementation requires numerous complimentary factors (for instance, a strong level of local service delivery capacity) to be in place in order for public HIV/AIDS policy implementation to be achieved in an efficient and sustainable manner.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This single case study examines how stakeholders of a local education agency (LEA) understand and implement state turnaround policy for its chronically underperforming schools. While there is ample research on how to improve chronically underperforming schools that research becomes limited when looking at turnaround implementation actions that are in response to policy mandates. This qualitative study uses the theory frame of policy sense-making to identify how implementers come to understand turnaround policy and to explore how that sense-making impacts their implementation decisions. This individual study examines how school board members make sense of their roles as policy implementers. Findings resulting from interviews, observation and document analysis highlight how the role of the turnaround school board has become ambiguous and misunderstood particularly as their historical roles have evolved, state activism has increased and the authority of the superintendent has expanded. Results indicate that board members tend to make sense of their turnaround policy implementation role primarily through their budgeting and financial oversight responsibilities. In so doing, they depend on the social and political capital they have accrued as experts of the local context which allows them to serve as resource facilitators, resource bridge builders and resource navigators. Communication between school board members and internal/external policy implementers emerged as an influencing factor in board member sense-making. Findings indicate that school board members identify the superintendent as the primary conduit for communication, and interpretation of their internal turnaround policy role. Communication from external agents such as state monitors had a mixed influence on board member policy sense-making. An unexpected finding was the role of a "dissenting voice" on school board sense-making. Recommendations are made for clarifying and strengthening the role of school boards in turnaround districts to increase the effectiveness of policy implementation. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Due to the changing society in Taiwan, R.O.C., values are badly twisted. Many teenagers make use of holiday nights to gather on highways to conduct dangerous driving (motorcycle racing). They cause traffic jams and obstruct traffic notoriously. What's worse, they even use violence to attack passengers, on-duty policemen and related government offices. Such behaviors not only break the law but also critically endanger social public security, posing threat to people's lives, bodies and properties. As police plays a role of maintaining social public security, the crackdowns and control of dangerous driving behaviors are important duties exercised by police. Dangerous driving control projects mainly adopt a "top-down" policy implementation model. The model emphasizes policy makers' decisions on policy goals and their leading position in directing actions. Basically, policy implementers are required to execute policy makers' will, that is, carry out supervisors' intentions and goals loyally in a strictly obedient top-down bureaucratic system. The model on one hand emphasizes a closely linked chain of orders and supervisors' control abilities; on the other hand, it advocates policy makers' reasonable design of policy implementation structure and regulations. Besides, the adoption of top-down implementation model usually emphasizes supervisors' goal-setting and project-planning abilities and overlooks lower-level implementers' motives, intentions and values. As it underestimates local officials' abilities in influencing policy goals, would it neglect a counterproductive effect exerted by policy implementers? While emphasizing laws and regulations, does it provide implementers with any discretion? Could it become a policy implementation game? As regards the bottom-up implementation model, it addresses the need of providing lower-level officials or local implementation organizations with discretion, which enables them to make suitable policies against a complicated environment. This means proper authorization for lower-level departments and subordinates to participate in policy making and implementation. In the model, supervisors or policy makers are not policy leaders but rather supporters who leave sufficient room for discretion so lower-level officials or local implementation organizations can construct a policy implementation process adaptable to the implementation environment. In such thinking mode and from the aspect of policy implementation, the study tries to examine and evaluate police organizations' dangerous driving control policies. A case study of the police organizations in Kaohsiung City was conducted. Based on a policy implementation theory constructed from three research approaches - top-down model of the first generation, bottom-up model of the second generation and integrated model of the third generation, the study made a comprehensive survey of the three research approaches and used it as the research method of the study. The main structure of the study is divided into five chapters: Chapter One - Introduction, which describes the motive, purpose and scope of study and definition of related terms; Chapter Two - Theory Basis and Literature Review, which reviews literature associated with the policy implementation theory constructed from the three research approaches, builds a study framework and decides research methods to be used in the study; Chapter Three - Research Methods, Scope and Limitations; Chapter Four - Analysis of the Results of Evaluation of Police Organizations' Dangerous Driving Control Policies, which makes analysis and induction through in-depth interviews with police officers to find out the reasons for various behaviors that affect police officers' implementation of dangerous driving control policies; Chapter Five - Conclusion and Suggestions, which raises problems discovered in the study, proposes improvement suggestions on dangerous driving control, provides police organizations with the best implementation tool from various dangerous driving control policies and analyses which one is the best in consideration of the choice and use of police tools.

Within Canada’s federal correctional system, prison-hospitals provide both in-patient and ambulatory services to incarcerated male offenders. With at least 12% of incarcerated men being identified at intake as having a mental health disorder, the need for these services is significant (Sampson, Gascon, Glen, Louie & Rosenfeldt, 2007). While some description of the mental health services provided, internal operational reviews, and external health services accreditation surveys of these prison-hospitals are available, there has been very little attention paid to the challenge of trying to balance the dual correctional and mental health mandates of these facilities. Research in comparable facilities and services in the United States describe mental health care as a ‘non-system’ of care and state that mental health staff receive very little system-wide direction regarding the provision of services (Cruser & Diamond, 1996; Elliot, 1997). This is a study that critically analyses how mental health care has become subordinated to correctional and security priorities in a Canadian prison-hospital. Five key elements identified in the policy implementation literature are used to explicate the everyday experiences of frontline staff as they work to provide mental health services in this correctional environment. The thesis argues that the mental health work of frontline prison staff is subverted by a lack of vision for mental health care within organizational policy structures, allowing the detailed correctional policy structures to become the dominant force in implementation and decision making. Using the theory and method of institutional ethnography developed by sociologist Dorothy Smith, the analysis displays how the everyday activities of frontline staff are systematically organized by routine organizational policy structures to advance the correctional mandate of the prison-hospital while mental health care has slowly declined. The study finds that mental health care is socially organized as a ‘zero-sum game’. As policy texts have concerted and coordinated the everyday activities of frontline staff in predictable ways, gains for the correctional and security priorities of the prison-hospital have meant significant and repeated losses for mental health care. However, there are ‘windows of opportunity’ for frontline staff to advance the mental health mandate of the prison-hospital if they work together. / Thesis (Ph.D, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-28 14:46:36.212

Recently, Albania has had major transition from a state-controlled to a market economy. The economic reformation has led to widespread liberalization of prices, external trade, and domestic marketing. These changes have been positive for some segments of the economy, but to date the forestry sector has been negatively affected by the transition. The decline of forest resources accelerated and continues. Inefficiencies, price distortions, government fiscal austerity, rapid expansion of livestock, and illegal harvesting point to further deforestation. This study identifies the social and political factors leading to the decline of Albania's forest resource through an examination of relevant information. Then, using the process approach of policy analysis, it assesses the barriers and incentives that impede or distort the intended effect of the current policy implementation. Third, it suggests new policies and/or changes with the aim to manage the forests sustainability and to attract investments in Albanian forestry. Policy issues for areas and sectors important or related to forestry, including agriculture, livestock industry, tourism, and rural development are discussed. Successful implementation of forest policies will be achieved by encompassing all issues pertinent to rural development. The focus is on formulation of forest policy, the evaluation of the current forest law, the role of the statute in the policy process, and guidelines in the preparation of the laws. However, the enactment of laws alone cannot ensure the success of a policy. Special consideration is given to the implementation part of the process, especially interpretation, organization, application; tools (regulations, incentives, taxation), opportunities/constraints, priorities and suggestions for successful implementation. Finally, the topic of evaluation is addressed: its intention, possible analytical techniques and standards of performance, role and expectations of participants and analysts, and major obstacles to an effective evaluation. Recommendations include changes in existing policies to allow the transfer of some state land to private and communal ownership, the expansion of the national parks to include more old-growth forests, and the adoption of concessionaires for the management of the state forests. Other policy proposals, such as a massive reforestation effort, promotion of community-oriented forest management, and forest certification, follow. / Ph. D.

A key purpose of federal job training policy is to ensure that the workforce has the skills necessary to obtain and retain gainful employment. The purpose of this study was to describe and compare key elements of Virginia’s fourteen service delivery area (SDA) plans in order to determine how they would deliver programs to achieve the stated purpose of JTPA Title II-A, which targets disadvantaged adults. In addition, the plans were evaluated as to their potential to guide successful program implementation. The plans were reviewed to describe and analyze who is trained, how they are trained, and what objectives the plans establish. The plans were ranked as to their fulfillment of eight criteria drawn from JTPA studies on successful program strategies and from education program planning literature. Though the plans provided basic descriptions of SDA efforts to train disadvantaged adults, they did not reflect full use of successful strategies or education program planning techniques, especially in the areas of linking training to the local labor market and using overall evaluation. The SDAs did not use the plans to distinguish their local level activities, opting most often to meet minimal compliance with plan guidelines as to the information provided. The individual being trained is underrepresented in most of the plans. A few plans did meet many of the criteria and demonstrated how these strategies and planning tools can be reflected at this early stage of program implementation. The plan preparation guidelines themselves were found to be a factor in the limitations of the plans. Changes in policy requiring plans to better detail their programs could enhance their effectiveness as planning tools. / Master of Science

No description available.

The UKSG was a government-funded initiative that provided a high-quality, multi-sport event for the UK s elite young athletes of school age over a six-year period. At time of investigation, the event addressed six objectives (both developmental and operational in focus) through eight Olympic sports. Operational targets ensured that athletes were selected to compete at the UKSG. Developmental targets were indirectly linked to the event and made use of the UKSG profile to drive forward other youth related projects, such as the National Competition Framework (NCF). This study explored the outcomes of these objectives, whilst understanding the relationship between the Youth Sport Trust (YST) and eight sports, and locating the implementation of the UKSG within a broader analysis of the policy process for youth / school sport. The study utilized various policy process and implementation concepts to support analysis of findings. In particular, bottom-up and top-down theories of policy implementation and the advocacy coalition framework, policy networks and multiple streams approaches proved particularly useful as heuristic devices or useful points of comparison in the analysis of stages of policy process. The findings from the three case study sports (supported by the data collected from the five other investigated sports) made for interesting conclusions in relation to the three research questions: 1). What are the key impacts of the UKSG on the competition structures of the eight sports? 2). What is the relationship between the key organisations involved in the UKSG and the NCF? And 3). What is the perceived role of each of the organisations involved in the UKSG and the NCF? Through investigating the eight sports approach to the six UKSG objectives, empirical evidence was collected that related specifically to the sport s approach to youth competition and their newly established NCF (objectives two and three). Evidence identified these objectives as the most challenging of the six to address, due to the looseness of their definition and scope for reinterpretation across and within the sport organisations. With this flexibility came differences in inter-organisational power (between home country NGBs and School Sport Associations) and therefore policy implementation. This inevitably led to mismatches in policy expectations of the YST and policy outcomes delivered by the sports. The study moves on to reveal that the six UKSG objectives proved capable of challenging, and in some cases, changing NGB behavior, albeit through several different implementation approaches. In particular, the UKSG was a programme that supported the positive development of home country NGB and School Sport Association communication and working practices.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Coordination, Collaboration, and Cooperation, (C04); Community (C01) Driven Development (D2) minus Historical Institutionalisation (HI) is equal to Policy Implementation Effectiveness (PIE), is recommended by the researcher to improve results. Trends in compiled data were analysed with regards to legislative oversight and accountability in the petroleum industry, using the OECD/ DAC evaluation criteria. In terms of relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency, the researcher discovered a partial link between the activities performed by parliamentarians representing the petroleum industry where HDSA transformation is concerned. It was concluded that electrical energy generation and distribution throughout the five-year period drew more focus in terms of oversight than on other sectors. It was further noted that oversight and accountability could have been applied more efficiently if input were linked to policy objectives and activities. This resulted in only partial or limited HDSA transformation in the petroleum industry. When it comes to sustainability the researcher argued that despite the apparent long-term stability of parliamentary activities, such stability may not translate to sufficient oversight and accountability to ensure sustainable transformation in the petroleum industry. It was concluded that while oversight and accountability was being applied to one specific arena, other areas in need of transformation did not receive sufficient, or indeed any, legislative oversight. The facilitation model: Communication, Coordination, Collaboration, and Cooperation, (C04); and Community (C01) Driven Oversight and Accountability (D1OA) is recommended by the researcher to improve effective oversight and accountability. Thus, Effective (A + O) = C04 + C01 /D1OA equals to (A + O)e = C205 / D1OA.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This single case study examines how stakeholders of a local education agency (LEA) understand and implement state turnaround policy for its chronically underperforming schools. While there is ample research on how to improve chronically underperforming schools, that research becomes limited when looking at turnaround implementation actions that are in response to policy mandates. This qualitative study uses the theory frame of policy sense-making to identify how implementers come to understand turnaround policy and to explore how that sense-making impacts their implementation decisions. The study findings were that teachers recognized three main stages of turnaround. In the first stage building principals used directive leadership to build a unified vision. Implementers reported that this unified vision was partly brought about by the removal of any teaching staff not in line with the principal's turnaround plan. The second stage of turnaround centered on building teacher capacity through internal and external professional development. Internal professional development meant creating multiple meeting configurations where teachers could stay in touch with the turnaround process, offer input, and continually learn from each other. External professional development involved developing teacher skills to more effectively and more rapidly raise student achievement. Findings from across four different implementer groups pointed to the importance of building teachers' ability to understand and use data to improve their instruction as well as student learning. Time for both types of professional development came largely from the introduction of extended learning time (ELT) that was paid for through state and federal grant monies. In the third stage teachers worried about the sustainability of turnaround once the resources from state and federal grants were gone. Hope for sustainability was found most present within the bonds formed by teachers who grew to rely on and trust one another during the arduous work of school turnaround. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.