The study examines the determining factors that drive states to adopt and terminate performance funding policies for public higher education. I use four theoretical frameworksthe Electoral Connection, Political Environment, Policy Diffusion, and Principal-agent framesto study the entire performance funding policy lifecycle across 47 states from 1979-2009. I employ the Cox proportional hazards model modified to account for multiple repeatable events. I find that the following state-level factors determine the evolution of performance funding: increases in public enrollment; the extent of the Republican presence in the state legislature; the number of, and distance to, sustainable policy examples in other states; the type of state governance arrangements for higher education; and the mode of the policy initiation.

This dissertation reports results of five studies designed to assess the validity of the VaNTH Observation System (VOS), which was developed to assess the implementation of How People Learn (HPL) (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999) framework innovations within the VaNTH Engineering Research Center. The content, convergent, and criterion-related validity of the Classroom Interaction Observation (CIO) and the content validity of the Global Ratings (GR) portions of the VOS were examined. For the CIO content validity study, the percent agreement between eleven educational experts and VOS observers classification of four individual HPL dimensions within twenty vignettes ranged from 68.2% to 78.6% at the least stringent level of analysis and was lower (25%) for HPL dimension combinations embedded in the vignettes. The GR content validity study revealed that content coverage is incomplete within the current GR. Data from the same eleven experts suggested that thirteen GR indicators could be grouped into subscales representing (1) knowledge-centeredness (Alpha = 0.59), (2) knowledge- and learner-centeredness (Alpha = 0.75), (3) knowledge-, learner-, and assessment-centeredness (Alpha = 0.91), and (4) learner- and assessment-centeredness (Alpha = 0.74). Two studies assessed the convergent validity of alternative methods of scoring and gathering CIO-based data. In the first convergent validity study, an HPL Index that used entire CIO code strings to calculate the amount of HPL instruction in classes was developed. The results from the Index were compared to the results derived by summing the percentage of instruction devoted to the four HPL dimensions (i.e., the current CIO assessment method). The comparison revealed that both indices index the degree of HPLness in a class (r = 0.79). The HPL Index, however, provides a more meaningful summary of the amount of HPL instruction in a class than the current method. In the second convergent validity study, an alternate CIO data gathering method showed similar instructional profiles, suggesting that the current method of data gathering accurately reflects the amount and type of interactions that transpire in a class. The final study confirms that the HPL Index distinguishes pedagogy in known HPL and non-HPL (traditional) courses. Implications of the findings are discussed.

As states continue to implement merit-based financial aid programs, despite the well reported social ills of such programs, the research literature is surprisingly void of any systematic consideration of how states determine eligibility criteria for these scholarships. The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen the descriptive and conceptual understanding of the process by which states determine merit aid scholarship criteria. Three theories of the public policy processadvocacy coalition framework (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993), multiple streams (Kingdon, 1995; Zahariadis, 2003), and electoral connection (Fenno, 1978; Mayhew, 1974)guide this comparative case study of three states adoption of broad-based merit aid programs: New Mexico, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Data collected from archival sources and from interviews with fifty-six key policy actors are analyzed by employing deductive pattern matching techniques and by testing theoretical propositions through an inductive analytical framework. A revised multiple streams model of scholarship criteria determination is presented based on the studys seven key findings: (1) multiple streams offers the highest explanatory power of the three frameworks; (2) state government and higher education system organizational structures affect the policy process through which policy alternatives are considered and adopted; (3) the availability of technical information increases temporally as a result of the diffusion of policy alternatives; (4) non-elected issue experts can have a stabilizing effect on the policy process; (5) the electoral connection of legislators and governors guides their policy preferences; (6) individual policy actors exert overwhelming influence over the policy process; and, (7) ambiguity and serendipity characterize the eligibility criteria determination process. The implications for future research and for policy-practitioners include conceptual and theoretical considerations for the political dynamics of the policy process and the rising trend of higher education interests entering the political fray of the policymaking process.

This study uses a theoretical model of education finance adequacy that combines the concept of qualitative and quantitative adequacy described by Ladd and Hansen with the concept of differing student needs addressed by Wise. It also employs three measures of judicial beliefs or predispositions regarding schools role in society, student entitlements and resources. In the nine cases subject to this analysis, there was a consistent relationship between judicial beliefs and adequacy remedies. Judges with higher belief scores ordered larger education finance adequacy remedies. This study confirms suspicions expressed by Thro, and it expands on studies of education finance litigation conducted by Lundberg and Swenson. That judicial beliefs, rather than constitutional wording, precedent, or history, are consistently related to the outcomes of education finance cases has important implications for American representative democracy.

This study examines the social contexts of school zones over time and their influence on student participation and engagement in schools. As one Southeastern school district transitioned from court-ordered busing to unitary status, schools were rezoned with an emphasis on sending children to schools that were closer to their homes. As a result, many schools became more racially and socioeconomically homogeneous than they were during the desegregation era. In this dissertation I explore the impacts of these ever-changing social contexts on student outcomes. I find that the social contexts of school attendance zones are influential in predicting student participation and engagement in schools. I also find that these effects are mediated by full service schools designed to assist students living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

This paper makes use of an investment-style portfolio model to prospectively evaluate different options for Tennessees state tax system. Tax reform plans proposed by the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission are analyzed, along with the current system, to see how well they balance the competing goals of revenue growth and revenue stability. Using an optimization model, the different tax systems are evaluated by comparing them to systems using the same tax options that exhibit minimal deviations of actual revenue around expected revenue while maintaining the largest possible growth rates. These results are further analyzed on the basis of equity, efficiency, competitiveness, and simplicity to create overall policy recommendations.

This thesis explores the usefulness of micropolitical theory to explain and predict teacher reaction to performance pay incentives. Drawing from the research traditions of rationalism, culturalism and structuralism, a micropolitical approach to analyzing education reform focuses attention on the ability of individuals (in this case, teachers) to respond rationally to incentives within a school context marked by certain structural and cultural constraints. Exploring the theoretical base for this educational reform shines light on the value of the micropolitical perspective while explaining how rational, cultural and structural elements of schooling interact to shape teacher behavior in pay-for-performance programs. Teacher response to performance pay incentives are first analyzed through rational, cultural and structural lenses. Then, the theory of teacher motivation is presented as an amalgamation of these three research traditions and thus, as an example of a micropolitical perspective. The case is made that this hybrid theoretical approach to understanding teacher behavior within pay-for-performance programs is stronger, and ultimately more useful, than the application of any one theory in isolation.

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.