Thesis advisor: Dennis Hale / This project traces the use of litigation and judicial intervention as a remedy to the enduring problem of intrastate, interdistrict variations in education funding from the US Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education to the present. Reformers contend that these nested inequalities directly correlate to the achievement gap between students in property-poor districts and their wealthier peers, and frequently appeal to the judiciary to compel states to redistribute funds for public schools to disadvantaged districts. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of education finance reform processes in Rhode Island and New Jersey offers evidence that judicial remedies are ineffective in improving at-risk students’ learning outcomes because they lack the political will to implement and sustain reform. The Rhode Island Supreme Court chose to respect the state legislature’s primacy in determining allocations. As a result, the state undertook a years-long, scientifically guided process to develop a nationally acclaimed formula that enjoys enduring support in the political branches. In contrast, New Jersey has been embroiled in litigation since 1973, a costly process that has produced mixed results. Rulings favorable to disadvantaged students continually falter during implementation, when the political branches lack the resources to enact a sweeping judicial policy. As the Rhode Island and New Jersey experiences demonstrate, action by the political branches produces longer-lasting, more efficient state funding mechanisms that further the goal of equalization. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Political Science.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation Ph. D.--American history, Law--Cambridge (Mass.)--Harvard University, 2000. Titre de soutenance : Salamanders and sons of God : Transatlantic legal culture and Colonial Rhode Island. / Notes bibliogr.

Introduction The philosophy and objectives underlying the Rhode Island State Scholarship Program encompassed severa1 basic assumptions about secondary education. Some of these assumptions have changed substantially over the past fifteen years and deserve close consideration. The new emphasis toward equalizing educational opportunities had been reflected in the changing philosophy that guided the administration of student financial aid. The genesis of most aid programs could be found in a concept that fostered the belief in a system built entirely upon meritocracy. This approach provided aid to students with high achievement and measured potential, irrespective of financial need. Educators seeing the inequity and irrationality of this approach developed a more standardized and "need-analysis" system. High ability students who needed assistance were given scholarships, but as the research over the past .five years had indicated, this kind of approach benefited only a few of the truly financially impoverished students. The overriding criterion of previous academic success has had the effect of excluding the most needy from participation. The review of the literature for this study was divided into three areas: (l) state scholarship or grant programs, {2) federal scholarship grant or loan programs, and (3) general student aid program models. Procedures The procedures followed in the conduct of the study were typical of those used in descriptive research design. A series of questions was identified bearing on important educational concerns; the related literature was reviewed; a survey instrument was designed and tested; follow ups were made; and the collected data were analyzed for significant findings and implications. As a means of assessing the effectiveness ·of the Rhode Island scholarship programs, the investigators conducted a survey of Rhode Island high school seniors in November 1970 and 1971. Four major variables relating to tests for higher education, academic and economic readiness for higher education, and specific demographic characteristics were investigated through a questionnaire administered in the high schools. The pooled responses to the questionnaire totaled 19,313 returns over the two-year period. This return represented 74 per cent of the 25,920 seniors in Rhode Island high schools during 1970 and 1971. Because of this relatively high return, the findings of the study were assumed to be indicative of the larger population and adequately described the characteristics of this total population. The significant finding indicated that a major discrepancy existed between the needs of the students and the delivery system of the Rhode Island

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This thesis will be an attempt to study long-standing frustrations of this nature with regard to their effect on the veteran's adjustment, and the methods and techniques employed by the social worker in seeking to alleviate or modify the emotional environment of the trial visit patient. The adjustment of the patients studied in the thesis will be evaluated from the standpoint of ability to function in the areas of family, employment, and community relationships. In the mental hygiene clinic the social worker functions within the discipline of the team approach by psychiatrist, psychologist, and social worker. The role of the psychiatric social worker will be considered within this context throughout the thesis.

Au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale, les Franco-américains de Woonsocket font montre d'un grand patriotisme. En témoignent notamment leur apport en hommes, leur appui aux "emprunts de la liberté", de même que leur enthousiasme débordant face à l'oeuvre nationale de la Croix Rouge durant la phase de belligérance américaine (avril 1917-novembre 1918). Si l'élément franco-américain de Woonsocket ne manque pas de manifester son attachement au pays d'adoption, le principal journal de l'endroit, la Tribune, emboîte alors le pas à cet égard en ne cessant d'encourager la contribution aux diverses oeuvres de guerre. Il faut dire que lors de la période de neutralité américaine (août 1914-avril 1917), ce quotidien francophone, favorable à la cause de la France et solidaire des Canadiens français du Québec, montre déjà qu'il a très à coeur l'honneur de la nation en tenant un discours des plus critiques vis-à-vis l'attitude "too proud to fight" du président Woodrow Wilson. Par cette démonstration de loyalisme, la Tribune et l'ensemble des Francos de Woonsocket veulent démontrer à leurs nombreux dénigreurs qu'il est possible d'aimer sa patrie tout en continuant de parler sa langue; qu'il existe somme toute des "hyphenated Americans" desquels il n'y a rien à craindre. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013

Thesis advisor: Mark Gelfand / Labor in the United States has been commonly associated with images of industrialism, factories, and skilled craftsmen. This narrow vision of labor ignores the millions of Americans employed by the federal, state, and local governments. As early national labor law failed to define the rights of government employees, each state was forced to create their own public labor law through judicial rulings and state legislation. This study is framed around the struggles of Rhode Island public employees, specifically public school teachers, to obtain the right to organize and employ labor's greatest weapon, the strike. An in-depth examination of the 1975 Woonsocket Teachers' Guild strike incorporating the experiences of union officers, labor lawyers, and other participants provides a concrete example of the difficulties encountered by government employees against the courts, legislature, and public opinion. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis (M.M.E.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

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Whether in terms of political and military threats or economic and demographic growth, this thesis argues that Rhode Island’s involvement in this period of imperial warfare was characterized by self-interest on a variety of levels. The government’s military plans, the expansion of provincial power, attempts to raise expeditionary forces, the use of privateers, and the indirect participation of non-combatants all depict a colonial society very interested in its own local political and economic interests. Although literally “provincial,” these interests exhibit the Atlantic and global networks that the smallest of the New England colonies was situated in. These two different sets of concerns, the political and economic, sometimes clashed and at other times combined as politicians, merchants, sailors, soldiers, and citizens participated in the dual conflicts. The War of Jenkins’ Ear and King George’s War may have been imperial in origin, but personal and colonial interests were paramount to regional New England and imperial British concerns.