The purpose of this study was to examine the use of The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) functional unit standards for Campus Activities Programs (CAP) as approximate benchmarks informing the initial steps in a large, multi-campus benchmarking process. The study was framed within Astins (1985) theory of involvement underpinning the CAS unit standards examined (Miller, 2003). The study also utilized assumptions and principles found in the Upcraft and Shuh (1996) benchmarking model for student affairs. A survey consisting of 126-items collected campus activities program leader demographic information, commentary and opinions. Thirty two campus activities personnel working at 20 university campus locations participated in the study. Ratings of the applicability and importance of CAS standards statements for 13 component areas produced summary means used for the selection of quality improvement benchmarks. Personnel rated highly the applicability of CAS standard components to improving the campus activities program as well as the importance the standards provided to work. Approximate CAS benchmarks were selected for the program examined using a gap analysis of the difference represented between the ratings. Findings indicated the CAS standards represent a suitable framework from which staff can be empowered to identify and define quality improvement benchmarks for campus activities programs. Variation of responses in the study indicated that the component area of Facilities, Technology, Equipment, called for expanded definition and refinement. Further study should explore the role of CAS as a central resource in higher education providing approximate benchmarks to inform benchmarking and the identification of best practice programs, services, and operations in student affairs. Additional study suggested expanding the survey and extension of methods utilizing the CAS standards as a basis for the construction of functional unit quality improvement benchmarks in student affairs.

This thesis examines ways in which indigenous educators in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation, maintain, revive and transform indigenous linguistic and cultural traditions in the contexts of the Russian Federation and the increasingly global economy. Through an analysis of a revival of ethnically-based education in the Republic, I argue that indigenous educators promote Sakha ethnicity in a way that also actively works to maintain harmonious relationships with the Russian Federation and the globalizing economy. First, educators present Sakha ethnicity in a global context, comparing the Sakha ethnicity to that of more established nations such as the French, Germans, British, and Russians in order to assert the distinctiveness of the Sakha ethnic group. In doing so, however, educators simultaneously promote the importance and value of Russian language and culture, safeguarding against the possibility of destructive Sakha nationalism that could spur a tension with continued Sakha participation in the Russian Federation. Second, educators actively work to break down a historical dichotomy between traditional and modern, which associates Sakha culture with the traditional and Russian/European cultures with the modern. In this way educators embrace modernization and a global economy and retain the relevance of the Sakha ethnicity.

Literacy specialists have evolved into commanding a unique status as leaders of the school's overall literacy program. Situated within Ohio's Core Project, literacy specialists were responsible for assuming leadership by helping to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions essential for excellent literacy teaching in K-3 classrooms across the state. They were expected to present a core curriculum to their colleagues, particpate in peer coaching and assist with research and evaluation activities. This inquiry was conducted to discover to what extent literacy specialists were able to carry out the intended goals of the Project. What were literacy specialists doing their roles and what were some of the most critical ecological conditions that supported or constrained them as they functioned? This multifaceted study of between 20-34 literacy specialists located in five separate geographic locations in the state verified that literacy specialists were able to carry out the Core Project's goals to a large degree. Results showed that they have an integrative role, encompassing significant amounts of leadership activities including making professional development presentations and modeling lessons and lesser amounts of instruction and assessment. The ecological conditions they reported as supporting and constraining them as they performed their roles were most closely associated with those that thad to do with the impact they were having on their participants and their collaboration with others to be more effective in their roles. Results of this study showed that when the goals of the project were more clearly understood by everyone involved; when professional development and coaching were reported as meaningful to the participants and when district suport was stronger, literacy specialists reported increased time spent at higher levels of efficacy. The school's culture and teacher willingness were also conditions that further promoted the level of sophistication at which literacy specialists functioned in their role. The implications of this study were described in terms of how policies and initiatives can build the individual capacity of literacy specialists and the local school's capacity for increasing literacy performance excellence in their schools.

FROM ISOLATION TO COLLABORATION: THE EMERGENCE OF A COLLABORATIVE CULTURE IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL Timothy M. Gabauer, Ed.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2005 Advisor: Joseph S. Werlinich The landscape of American education is constantly changing. The most current trend that is dominating the field is accountability that resonates throughout the entire organization. Accountability becomes one of the six change indicators that provide the framework for the study. This study recognizes a middle school that has seen success in changing from what Richard Elmore defines as a default culture to one that supports collaboration and a focus on student achievement. The foundation of this study is to analyze the change indicators and to determine their influence on moving the culture of the middle school out of its crisis and into its more productive realm. The indicators identified as positive contributors to the cultural transformation are Staff Changes, Accountability Measures, Renovations, Middle School Merger, Leadership and Educational Programming. The use of qualitative research and the semi-structured interviewing process known as Responsive Interview Model highlight the inner most thoughts and feelings relating to the dissertation question. The interview data was analyzed by organizing the responses into unanimous, supported and individual themes. A survey derived from the probing questions along with a rank order of the indicators provided a triangulation of data that validates the overwhelming results of the study. The value of the leadership is underscored in each data collection and becomes the primary influence in moving the building culture forward. Palestinis principles of effective leaders is the framework chosen in the final chapter to highlight the importance of leadership in cultural change as well as depict the strong relationship between the collected data and those identified principles. This study shows a positive correlation of each indicator in the cultural change and supports the abundant research on the role of the leadership as most critical in promoting effective change in any organization.

Pressure is growing for presidents of small independent colleges and universities to become more entrepreneurial in generating revenue for their schools. This study examined the entrepreneurial orientation of such presidents and how their orientations relate to their institutions revenue-generating activities. Forty-seven presidents of small independent institutions were surveyed to determine their self-ratings on 10 characteristics of entrepreneurial orientation: innovative, risk taker, creative, change agent, team builder, competitive, opportunist, visionary, proactive, and persuasive. They also reported their institutions revenue-generating activities, their education and professional preparation, and their schools enrollments and endowments. Follow-up interviews were conducted with four of the presidents to gain further insights into the results. All of the presidents considered the 10 entrepreneurial characteristics to be, overall, somewhat to very self descriptive (mean 4.11, range 3.10-5.00). There were no relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and previously held position or undergraduate education. Presidents believing they had been sufficiently prepared for their fundraising activities perceived themselves as more entrepreneurial than those believing they had not. Of 54 activities in 8 categories, the presidents institutions carried out a mean of 21.19 (range 9-38). Larger institutions generally carried out more educational programs, retail sales activities, and intellectual property activities than smaller schools. Institutions with endowments of less than 10 million dollars invested in fewer types of securities than those with larger endowments. Entrepreneurial orientation of the president was positively correlated with total revenue-generating activities, and with Fundraising, Small Business Development, Intellectual Property and Off-campus Real Estate activities. Presidents entrepreneurial orientations were not related to their institutions reported financial strength. Conclusions based on both surveys and interviews include the following: Most presidents of small independent educational institutions have at least a fairly high entrepreneurial orientation, but they exhibit considerable differences in this respect. Most small independent schools engage in a fairly large number of revenue-generating activities, but some engage in considerably more such activities than others. Institutions led by presidents with higher entrepreneurial orientations tend to engage in more revenue-generating activities. Becoming more entrepreneurial in developing revenue-generating activities is important to the financial well-being of many small colleges and universities.

THE PERCEPTIONS OF HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT BY CONDUCTING WALKTHROUGHS Todd Edward Keruskin, Ed.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2005 Advisor: Joseph Werlinich __________________________________________ The purpose of this study was to focus on High School principals using the walkthrough model and to evaluate how the walkthrough model improves student learning. This data was then analyzed to determine if walkthrough models impacted student learning and student achievement in High Schools in Newport News in Virginia. The goal was to identify key indicators of success from the high school principals that use the Walkthrough Observation Tool from the Principals Academy of Western Pennsylvania. For the first part, the researcher used an historical approach. This included the era of accountability, clinical supervision, differentiated supervision, the history of walkthroughs, and models of walkthroughs. The second phase of this study focused on the high school principals perspectives on how the walkthrough tool has impacted student achievement in their schools. The third phase of this study focused on the teachers perspectives on how walkthroughs has impacted their instruction and student achievement. The results of this study showed that the Walkthroughs did impact instruction and student learning from the perspectives of the principals and teachers. The study showed that Walkthroughs are a tool to make sure teachers are focusing on the look-fors that are defined each year. The study showed that the look-fors improve the instruction in the classrooms and ultimately improved student achievement. The look-fors start to permeate through the classrooms and throughout the school. This study offers hope to high school principals that are facing the current reform movements and are struggling to improve instruction and student achievement. The Walkthrough tool does not cost any money to implement; but it takes a commitment from the principal to be an instructional leader and spend time focusing on the look-fors in the classrooms.

Most of the research related to the accreditation process in Latin American higher education institutions, and the particular case of Argentine higher education institutions, focuses on the historical perspective of the quality movement in these countries, the meaning of quality in higher education, the results of external evaluation, and the current debate about the nature of the accreditation process. There is an absence of research identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the accreditation process. In order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of implementation, this research focused on the accreditation process in Argentine higher education organizations and the particular case of senior administrators and department chairs perspectives in the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, the leading engineering education center in the Argentine Republic. The instrument was a study survey which used a questionnaire that was web-based and available in paper form as well. The researcher designed this questionnaire based on the different factors identified in the literature research. This questionnaire was the primary source of data collection and it was distributed to all Senior Academic Administrators (deans, vice deans, assistant deans) and Department Chairpersons of 27 schools and academic units, belonging to the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. The main finding is that accreditation is perceived as important for the schools. It is also considered as an opportunity to improve the institutions at different levels. Therefore, the resistance factors are minimum and the internal success factors are the predominant ones. This research in the leading federal engineering university could be used as a reference for further studies to know if the accreditation process is also valuable for other federal and private engineering schools as well as if it is perceived as an opportunity for improvement. Finally, for the academic administrators of engineering schools, members of the National Commission for Evaluation and University Accreditation (CONEAU), and decision makers at the Ministry of Education in the Argentine Republic, it would be significant not only to determine the forces that sustain and resist the accreditation process in the federal and the private university environment but also the recommendations to improve the accreditation process.

In order for nonprofit organizations to sustain themselves in today's environment, they need to continually learn from their experiences and adapt to changing circumstances. This 'adaptive capacity', considered one of the essential organizational capacities for enabling nonprofits to achieve their mission, requires nonprofits to act as 'learning organizations' and to use evaluation as a tool to enhance organizational learning and performance (Letts, Ryan & Grossman, 1999; Sussman, 2003). A theoretical framework for assessing a nonprofit's 'organizational readiness' to improve its adaptive capacity was developed and applied to ten social change nonprofits in Israel. In this descriptive cross sectional study, a questionnaire and individual interviews with staff and board members were used to gain insight into the nonprofits' work environments and learning cultures. The results demonstrate the utility of the conceptual framework while providing insight into the day-to-day realities of organizational life that help to shape the adaptive capacity of the ten nonprofits in the sample. Practical implications can be drawn regarding the development of capacity building strategies and possible focal points for the strengthening of adaptive capacity among social change nonprofits.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN THE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY: WHAT ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIORS AND ORGANIZATIONAL RISK? Michael M. Crouch Ed.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2005 ABSTRACT: Conflict of Interest (COI) and its correlate, conflict of commitment (COC) are situational dilemmas borne of the relationships between individual employee activities and the ostensible boundaries for proper activity as defined by governmental and institutional guidelines. The study framework derives from a new area of scholarship defined as research on research. The literature review demonstrates that a considerable work has been established in correlate fields of conflict management and the sociology of behavior, especially the sociology of behavior in the sciences. The problem statement focuses on the individuals perception of a conflict situation and whether it may be related to the type and amount of federal funding that the institution receives. Field study involved electronic dissemination of a survey instrument comprised of Likert-scaled story problems. The survey was directed at a population of administrative staff identified as research administrators housed at selected research intensive and extensive universities as defined by the Carnegie classification system. The target population was confined to six states comprising the Mid-Atlantic region of a professional research organization. Findings obtained from individual respondents at twenty-three (23) institutions were compiled and analyzed for significance. In the analysis, respondents averaged Likert values were compared to the total amount of federal sponsored funding received at each respective institution, and the respective amounts of funding received by each from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD) funding entities, and all other federal funding sources not specifically delineated, defined as other. Findings support a significant relationship between conflict of commitment values and total amount of funding as well as compared to the amount of DHHS funding. Other comparisons did not support significant findings, either when Likert values for COC items and other sources of funding were compared, or when COI data were compared against any funding source.

The vision for the future of EMS involves a broader public health role and will require an increase in the professionalization in the field of paramedicine. There are currently 14 institutions of higher education in the US offering Bachelors Degrees in the field of Emergency Medical Services (EMS). These Bachelors Degree EMS (BDEMS) programs are in a unique position to affect the future of paramedicine. This study explored the BDEMS Program Directors (PD) views regarding the role that their programs have played, are playing, and may play in the professionalization of paramedicine. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with the PDs of all 14 BDEMS programs to explore the definition of profession, professionalization within paramedicine, and the role of BDEMS programs in said role. The interviews were recorded; the transcripts were analyzed to identify themes and trends relevant to the issues of professionalism and professionalization. There was no consistent view of what defines a profession. Issues related to autonomy and the existence of, or creation of, a unique domain of practice were infrequently mentioned by the PDs. While most BDEMS PDs feel that paramedicine should be a profession, few felt that it currently is a profession. There was little consensus regarding the role that BDEMS programs should play in the professionalization of paramedicine and some disagreement over what should be the focus of a BDEMS curriculum. While all recognized the teaching role of BDEMS programs, few identified research, leadership, or community service roles. Four broad strategies for BDEMS programs to increase their role in the professionalism of paramedicine are proposed.