The JROTC program is one of service and commitment. Its mission is to build better citizens and give them a sense of pride in service to their fellow man. Today these core principles are still needed, but with the increase in the student dropout rate, the JROTC program can be one of many alternatives needed to help public education reach today's youth who are struggling to stay in school. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the impact of the Air Force JROTC Leadership Program on the grade point average (GPA), attendance rate, disciplinary referrals, and dropout rate of JROTC students at an urban high school in southeastern Virginia. The study also addressed the perceptions of school administrators, Air Force JROTC instructors, teachers, JROTC students and their parents on students enrolled in the program during the 2005-2009 school years. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the means, standard deviations and frequency distributions for the groups in the study. Three independent sample t-tests and seven one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA's) were used to determine where there was a statistically significant difference for each group. The Tukey post hoc procedure was used to determine where the difference occurred in the variables. There were three major findings revealed in this study. The first finding indicated that students who participated in the JROTC program had lower grade point averages (M =2.47, SD = 1.17) than non-JROTC participants (M = 3.00, SD = 0.94). Second, administrators had higher levels of agreement (100%) than AFJROTC instructors, teachers, JROTC students and parents that leadership skills were developed in the AFJROTC program. Third, JROTC students (12%) and parents (7%) had lower levels of agreement than administrators, AFJROTC instructors and teachers that the AFJROTC program is used as a recruitment tool. Focus groups results showed strong support for the program from administrators, teachers, JROTC students and parents. These findings suggest that if school districts and educational leaders are to benefit from implementing the AFJROTC program they must understand that the program is not designed to impact academics. The program is designed to develop leadership skills along with helping students become better citizens. Educational leaders in school districts should read the findings and consider utilizing the program as a possible alternative to help students to develop skills to keep them from dropping out of school. / Ph. D.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) frameworks, formerly known as effective school-wide discipline, started in 2005 as a State initiative to help raise student achievement by addressing the overlapping relationship between classroom conduct and academic achievement (Virginia Department of Education, 2009, superintendent's message). Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports implemented as part of the effective school-wide discipline practices in the Commonwealth of Virginia are seeing strong reductions in referrals and student exclusions/suspensions from school (Ciolfi, Shin, and Harris, 2011). Over 90,500 individual students were suspended or expelled from a Virginia school in 2010-2011; many of them more than once (2011 p.1). As paradigms switch from reactionary to prevention, school-wide approaches to discipline utilizing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports are becoming more frequently used as a tool to reduce the number of office discipline referrals (ODR) and to keep students in class. Since the state has now 223 schools supporting the PBIS framework from 43 different school divisions, a study of the principles and practices of the most successful high school implementations could help high schools which are struggling with managing student conduct issues. By providing a compilation of those principles and practices that school leaders utilized to implement a highly effective Positive Behavioral Intervention Process, schools could focus on them to more successfully incorporate Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports frameworks in their high schools. Three questions guided the work for this study. First, were there specific principles that the high schools using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports operated by to successfully implement and reduce office discipline referrals? Secondly, were there certain practices that these high schools also employed which garnered success? Lastly, what artifacts could the successful schools provide demonstrating their successful implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework that would provide benefit to beginning or struggling high schools implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports? A qualitative study was used utilizing the grounded theory method and cross school comparisons of data. Interviewing superintendent-designated leaders from nine high schools that reduced office discipline referrals (ODR), uncovered the principles and practices common to the successful high schools employing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. There were twelve interviews: three group interviews with 2 respondents each and nine individual interviews. The twelve interviews involved 15 people: • four division-level personnel: three were division leaders who were also PBIS Division Coaches and one who was titled PBIS Division Coordinator • eight school administrators (five principals and three assistant principals) • three teachers who also were designated as PBIS School Coaches No interviewee designated by the superintendent refused to be interviewed. Reviews of the data collected were analyzed across all divisions to report these principles and practices. These principles and practices could be shared with new high schools to consider prior to Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework programs being implemented. As more high schools employ Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and are studied regarding reducing the number of office discipline referrals, the Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Education can utilize these longitudinal data to craft more effective support for the programs across the Commonwealth of Virginia. All data were extracted from the recordings and then charted for common elements. Three principles emerged that led to the theoretical propositions those high schools that reduced ODR had: 1. PBIS Leaders who created a minimal set of school-wide rules. 2. PBIS leaders who believed improving school climate for staff learners improved student behaviors. 3. PBIS leaders who asserted that all school staff must be consistent with application of rules. Additionally the data reviewed were analyzed and the researcher discovered that high schools that reduce office discipline referrals (ODR) have common practices where: 1. PBIS leaders recognized positive behaviors and defined the expectations to the school. 2. PBIS leaders involved other learning community members and empowered students. 3. PBIS leaders analyzed and disaggregated data to inform their procedures. 4. PBIS leaders trained staff members and promoted school expectations. Additionally the data collected from the 12 interviews had respondents stating the single greatest obstacle that they encountered while implementing PBIS to reduce ODR which led to more implications for practice. Thus, the following lists the top obstacles that all respondents referred to in their interviews: 1. Nine interviews had respondents who listed the top obstacle as establishing consistency in both staff participation and rule application. 2. Six interviews also had respondents that listed finding time to implement PBIS strategies and interventions was their greatest obstacle. 3. One interview had a respondent who also stated finding funding was his main obstacle. Providing these data enabled high schools interested in implementing PBIS to be aware of these obstacles so those schools may avoid the pitfalls encountered as high schools employed PBIS frameworks to reduce ODR. However, all twelve interviews were noted with success stories that respondents felt were directly related to their reduction of ODR. 1. Six interviews had respondents that reported enhanced relationships between students, teachers, and administrators (within the school). 2. Seven interviews had participants that described how student successes enhanced school pride and school promotion. 3. Three interviews had respondents that discussed the improved relationships with community partners and parents. / Ed. D.

xiii, 99 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / School-Wide Positive Behavior Support has emerged as an effective approach to impact challenging student behaviors at the individual level while building and maintaining a positive learning environment for all. Office discipline referrals are widely utilized within the field of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support as a measure of behavior and behavior change at the individual, group and whole school level. Though widely utilized, the validity of office discipline referrals as an outcome measure has received little attention. This study presents evidence of the construct validity of office discipline referrals as an outcome measure of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support. The primary purpose of this study was to provide evidence of the construct validity of office discipline referrals. The concept of a nomological network was utilized and empirical evidence linking various student predictor variables with office discipline referrals was investigated. The study employed case study methodology with an embedded quasi-experimental design to investigate the correlations between ten independent predictor variables and office discipline referrals. The initial analysis produced weak correlations and limited evidence for the proposed network. A second analysis was conducted including attendance as a co-morbid variable with office discipline referrals. This analysis identified stronger, more compelling evidence supporting the existence of a nomological network for office discipline referrals with attendance. Further regression analysis of the predictor variables blocked within four domains (academic, access, socio-economic status, and student group status) found even more evidence supporting the nomological network of office discipline referrals with attendance. The results from this study support the validity of office discipline referrals with attendance as a measure of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support at the high school level. The inclusion of attendance as a measure at the high school level is supported and recommended for schools implementing School-Wide Positive Behavior Support. Academic learning (cumulative grade-point-average) was identified as the strongest predictor variable and adds credibility that an explicit link between academics and behavior exists and should be further investigated within the field of Positive Behavior Support. Finally, this study provides and example of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support implementation at the high school level. / Adviser: Gerald Tindal

Esta pesquisa buscou investigar como se constitui a demanda para a Neurologia a partir dos professores no contexto da Educação Básica. Os referenciais teóricos foram construídos a partir de dois eixos: um olhar crítico para o campo da neuroeducação e seu crescimento a partir dos anos 1990; propõe-se o termo neurocolonização, onde os saberes das neurociências seriam imprescindíveis para a Educação. O outro eixo envolveu o debate sobre os processos de medicalização, formulados a partir de uma leitura panorâmica e de uma revisão de duas genealogias – a de Michel Foucault (2010) e a de Jurandir Freire Costa (1979). A discussão teórica também incluiu um olhar para a interface Psiquiatria-Educação e para a fronteira-território que se constitui entre Psiquiatria e Neurologia. Realizou-se um levantamento dos encaminhamentos feitos à Neurologia na cidade de Novo Hamburgo/RS no segundo semestre de 2015. Junto às cartas de referência analisadas neste levantamento foram encontrados seis documentos assinados por professores. Cinco das seis professoras signatárias destes documentos foram entrevistadas, tematizando a construção de si e os percursos profissionais; os encontros com os trabalhadores de saúde; as hipóteses e expectativas em torno do caso da criança que decidiram solicitar encaminhamento, e como percebem a influência das neurociências sobre o seu trabalho. A análise dos encaminhamentos aponta para uma frequência de situações relacionadas ao campo da Educação superior aos casos de cefaleia e epilepsia/convulsões As entrevistas oferecem indícios da constituição da demanda para a Neurologia apoiada em diferentes elementos: a) o recurso ao saber especialista, demarcado especificamente no dispositivo ‘consulta’; b) o deslizamento dos discursos das neurociências-pesquisa – que se remetem a uma criança qualquer - em direção ao que se constrói na prática clínica e também na prática pedagógica, uma relação entre sujeitos reais; c) a não-aderência a um sistema diagnóstico ou a um campo de problemas, podendo-se falar de crianças e adolescentes descabentes, que povoam as margens das classificações diagnósticas e alimentam um circuito tautológico entre Saúde e Educação; d) hipóteses formuladas pelos professores centradas no modo da família criar sua prole e na expectativa de que o neurologista interfira nestas relações, numa tentativa de normatizar ou padronizar as condutas entre família e escola; e) pouca ênfase à importância dos saberes das neurociências ou dos exames complementares para a tomada de decisão nestes encaminhamentos. Por outro lado, práticas desmedicalizantes também foram reconhecidas a partir da sensibilidade do olhar das ensinantes, ressignificando as diferenças e desarmando os automatismos patologizantes

Cross-sectional studies suggest a prevalence of mental health problems from the age that children change to English secondary schools but there are few longitudinal appraisals of these issues and how enrolment policies influence psychological wellbeing. This research focuses on key factors linking competition for secondary schools and family responses to such challenges to determine enrolment policies that can sustain wellbeing longer-term. Integrated, model-based multimethodology was used in this urban, case-based study. Views were induced from multi-agency, expert practitioners to agree a system dynamics concept model. Parental decision-making behaviours were deduced by survey to understand key factors for model calibration. Dynamic system sensitivities were abduced from the simulation model before comparing long-term psychosocial impacts on children from expert, policy-support suggestions. Modelling demonstrates that two principal feedback loops influence family psychosocial systems when deciding secondary schools (parent-child wellbeing reinforcement plus knowledge of schools balancing parent concerns). Exogenous competition stressors on psychosocial systems can erode parent knowledge while testing student resolve. Competition guidance to remove risk-laden school options (league table comparison) before sequencing any remaining choices by profit (school visits), are not always used deciding urban secondary schools. Instead, families lacking experience can adopt decisive styles based on parent needs alone. Given autocratic leadership, child wellbeing rapidly deteriorates when student needs cannot be met by schools. Rather than ending student-selective entrance tests or raising knowledge of schools at visits, effective multi-agency support policy helps by increasing school choice debate frequency within families to address psychosocial system imbalances. The research makes a clear, three-way contribution to knowledge. Firstly, intrinsic case study theory is enhanced by data triangulation between induced, deduced and abduced research approaches. Secondly, the system dynamics discipline is strengthened by studying compulsory school enrolment. Finally, developing practice-based policy through multi-agency groups endorses cooperative rather than unilateral solutions, for helping change lives.

Urban middle school teachers have experienced the severe challenges of discipline problems, which have contributed to writing more principal's office discipline referrals. The effective behavior support (EBS) program has been found to promote positive behavior in the classroom and change students negative behavior into positive behavior. Guided by the Problem-Behavior Theory (PBT), the purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine the relationship between the teachers' effective behavior support and office discipline referrals of urban middle school students. Years of teaching experience was the mediating variable. The researcher used archival data collected from teachers who used the effective behavior support program located at an urban middle school in the Southeast United States, the female and male teachers ranged between the ages of 23 to 66+. For the research question, a simple regression was employed as a means of analyzing the archival data. Results suggested that positive teachers' support was not associated with the frequency of office discipline referrals. However, years of teaching experience was associated with fewer discipline referrals. The results of this study can be used to promote educational professionals to utilize positive teacher support to decrease office referrals, leading to more student contributions in the classroom and more long term success for students.

<p>The thesis presents descriptions and analyses of the municipal-based work that precedes service provision in child welfare, i.e. referrals where concerns regarding children and adolescents are made from professionals and general public and the processing of these referrals within child welfare agencies. The central focus lies to examine the importance of organisational factors – such as formal structures, resources and working methods – in this work. The empirical material in studies 1-3 consists of data collected on location in 100 municipalities during 2001-2002 augmented with official statistics and register data. Data in study 4 consists of telephone interviews in the city of Stockholm’s 18 districts, written material and in-depth interviews in one of the districts.</p><p>Study 1 describes the extent and nature of referrals to child welfare agencies. The study shows that the extent of Swedish referrals occupies a medium position in an international perspective, that referrals mainly concern adolescents, and that child referrals to a comparatively little extent concern abuse and neglect.</p><p>Study 2 analyses the association between agency collaborative involvement with mandated reporters and referral rates. The association is overall marginal, indicating that merely the presence of collaboration in child welfare has poor effects on case finding.</p><p>Study 3 analyses the association between organisational factors and the provision of child welfare services. To some extent, the results suggest that personnel resources are linked to the extent of services provided to younger children. Specialisation in various forms, however, is not associated with variations in service provision.</p><p>Study 4 describes and analyses the impact of organisational solutions in line with New Public Management. The results indicate that this theoretical/ideological idea has limited practicality in concrete child welfare work.</p><p>An introductory section presents a comprehensive background to and the theoretical framework of the four studies. The theoretical framework consists principally of concepts and reasoning derived from new institutional theory. This framework is used to discuss results generated from the four studies. Specific attention is given to institutions and ideas in child welfare that have a ‘taken for granted’ status, such as early interventions, collaboration and the presumed appropriateness of a range of organisational settings.</p>

The thesis presents descriptions and analyses of the municipal-based work that precedes service provision in child welfare, i.e. referrals where concerns regarding children and adolescents are made from professionals and general public and the processing of these referrals within child welfare agencies. The central focus lies to examine the importance of organisational factors – such as formal structures, resources and working methods – in this work. The empirical material in studies 1-3 consists of data collected on location in 100 municipalities during 2001-2002 augmented with official statistics and register data. Data in study 4 consists of telephone interviews in the city of Stockholm’s 18 districts, written material and in-depth interviews in one of the districts. Study 1 describes the extent and nature of referrals to child welfare agencies. The study shows that the extent of Swedish referrals occupies a medium position in an international perspective, that referrals mainly concern adolescents, and that child referrals to a comparatively little extent concern abuse and neglect. Study 2 analyses the association between agency collaborative involvement with mandated reporters and referral rates. The association is overall marginal, indicating that merely the presence of collaboration in child welfare has poor effects on case finding. Study 3 analyses the association between organisational factors and the provision of child welfare services. To some extent, the results suggest that personnel resources are linked to the extent of services provided to younger children. Specialisation in various forms, however, is not associated with variations in service provision. Study 4 describes and analyses the impact of organisational solutions in line with New Public Management. The results indicate that this theoretical/ideological idea has limited practicality in concrete child welfare work. An introductory section presents a comprehensive background to and the theoretical framework of the four studies. The theoretical framework consists principally of concepts and reasoning derived from new institutional theory. This framework is used to discuss results generated from the four studies. Specific attention is given to institutions and ideas in child welfare that have a ‘taken for granted’ status, such as early interventions, collaboration and the presumed appropriateness of a range of organisational settings.

This dissertation contains three chapters. Each applies the tools of applied microeconomics to questions in labor economics, the economics of education, and social economics, respectively. In the first chapter, which is joint work with Amanda Pallais, we present the results of a series of field experiments in an online labor market designed to test whether workers referred to a firm by existing employees perform differently from their non-referred counterparts and, if so, why. We find that referred workers have higher performance and lower turnover than non-referred workers. We demonstrate a large role for selection: referred workers perform better and persist longer even at jobs to which they are not referred at a firm where their referrers do not work. Team production is also important: referred workers are much more productive when working with their own referrer than with someone else's referrer. / Economics

Esta pesquisa buscou investigar como se constitui a demanda para a Neurologia a partir dos professores no contexto da Educação Básica. Os referenciais teóricos foram construídos a partir de dois eixos: um olhar crítico para o campo da neuroeducação e seu crescimento a partir dos anos 1990; propõe-se o termo neurocolonização, onde os saberes das neurociências seriam imprescindíveis para a Educação. O outro eixo envolveu o debate sobre os processos de medicalização, formulados a partir de uma leitura panorâmica e de uma revisão de duas genealogias – a de Michel Foucault (2010) e a de Jurandir Freire Costa (1979). A discussão teórica também incluiu um olhar para a interface Psiquiatria-Educação e para a fronteira-território que se constitui entre Psiquiatria e Neurologia. Realizou-se um levantamento dos encaminhamentos feitos à Neurologia na cidade de Novo Hamburgo/RS no segundo semestre de 2015. Junto às cartas de referência analisadas neste levantamento foram encontrados seis documentos assinados por professores. Cinco das seis professoras signatárias destes documentos foram entrevistadas, tematizando a construção de si e os percursos profissionais; os encontros com os trabalhadores de saúde; as hipóteses e expectativas em torno do caso da criança que decidiram solicitar encaminhamento, e como percebem a influência das neurociências sobre o seu trabalho. A análise dos encaminhamentos aponta para uma frequência de situações relacionadas ao campo da Educação superior aos casos de cefaleia e epilepsia/convulsões As entrevistas oferecem indícios da constituição da demanda para a Neurologia apoiada em diferentes elementos: a) o recurso ao saber especialista, demarcado especificamente no dispositivo ‘consulta’; b) o deslizamento dos discursos das neurociências-pesquisa – que se remetem a uma criança qualquer - em direção ao que se constrói na prática clínica e também na prática pedagógica, uma relação entre sujeitos reais; c) a não-aderência a um sistema diagnóstico ou a um campo de problemas, podendo-se falar de crianças e adolescentes descabentes, que povoam as margens das classificações diagnósticas e alimentam um circuito tautológico entre Saúde e Educação; d) hipóteses formuladas pelos professores centradas no modo da família criar sua prole e na expectativa de que o neurologista interfira nestas relações, numa tentativa de normatizar ou padronizar as condutas entre família e escola; e) pouca ênfase à importância dos saberes das neurociências ou dos exames complementares para a tomada de decisão nestes encaminhamentos. Por outro lado, práticas desmedicalizantes também foram reconhecidas a partir da sensibilidade do olhar das ensinantes, ressignificando as diferenças e desarmando os automatismos patologizantes