The problem of this study was to determine the relationship of teacher and peer preferences of selected fifth grade students to socio-economic level as measured by the occupation of the head of the household, academic standing as computed from the marks assigned by the teacher, achievement test score results, intelligence test scores, and the sex of the child.

In recent years, attention to the number of students struggling to meet basic needs such as food and housing has grown, and services such as food pantries, emergency grants, and assistance accessing public benefits have become increasingly common on college campuses. However, much is still unknown about why colleges and universities are adopting basic needs services, how colleges and universities are incorporating basic needs services into organizational functioning, and what challenges may make it difficult for colleges and universities to provide basic needs services. The current coverage of basic needs in higher education largely focuses on documenting the prevalence of food and housing insecurity among students and advocating for basic needs services as a strategy to promote student success. To date, little research has been done to explore what it means for higher education to provide basic needs services from an institutional perspective. To better understand what it means for colleges as institutions to provide basic needs services, the dissertation uses qualitative interviews with individuals from community colleges, public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges, and highly selective private four-year universities to examine the influence of external environmental pressures as well as internal organizational dynamics on the provision of basic needs services. I find that while external pressures and internal dynamics are conveying the message that colleges should provide basic needs services, they offer little guidance over how to do so. Basic needs services tend to operate on the periphery of organizational functioning, with limited institutional support, and faculty and staff are struggling to define the extent of higher education’s responsibility. The study contributes not only to organizational theory research in higher education, but also to policy research regarding strategies for strengthening the social safety net. It concludes by highlighting remaining unanswered questions about the role of higher education in addressing students’ basic needs and offering recommendations for new research into strategies for enhancing the role of cross-sector partnerships in supporting students’ basic needs and maximizing the potential of college-based basic needs services.

The study was concerned with the testing of a modified causal model of college anticipation and attendance for a nationwide sample of Puerto-Rican and Mexican-American high-school seniors. The key problem of this study was defined on the basis of two fundamental criteria. The first states that social-structural and social-psychological components of sociological theory can provide basic information needed to comprehend the educational aspirations and achievement behaviors of Hispanic youth in the United States. The second theoretical tenet of this study was that the logic of the modified Wisconsin Model of status attainment can be understood as a common process that applies to all sectors of the American system of stratification and mobility. The data used in this study were extracted from the High School and Beyond: A National Longitudinal Study for the 1980s (HSB) and its First Follow-Up. Path coefficients associated with the direct and indirect effects were used in attempting to explain the variance in postsecondary educational plans and attainments of the subjects. A summary of the most significant findings, using the aforementioned data follows. The analysis of the educational attainments for the two ethnic group subsamples shows no statistically significant difference when the two samples are classified by gender. The recursive causal model used in this analysis is not completely successful in explaining the variance in the dependent variables (postsecondary educational plans and attainments) of both Mexican-American and Puerto-Rican high-school seniors. As a result, only about one-fourth of the degree of change in postsecondary educational plans and less than one-half of the variability in the level of educational attainments are accounted for by the antecedent variables. Present results reduce the impact of some of the social-psychological intervening variables on the level of educational plans of Hispanic adolescents. On the other hand, the role of objective variables (academic achievement and socioeconomic status is magnified. The influence of some of the objective variables on the process of educational attainment is also noticeable.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational achievement is vital to economic competitiveness in the United States and abroad. Despite a concerted effort, the US lags well behind many similarly developed nations. Research suggests that the integration of fine arts education into traditional STEM curriculum (STEAM) boosts academic achievement in STEM subjects and closes gaps between low- and high-socioeconomic status students. Justifications for STEAM programs are based, however, on the unexamined assumption, for one, that fine arts courses instill creative and critical thinking skills that can be transferred to STEM subjects. The present study explores the impact of taking fine arts courses on mathematics achievement in high school. Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and multi-level regression modeling, this study provides evidence that credit accumulation in fine arts courses relates positively to advancing past Algebra II in high school. Additionally, this estimated impact is much greater in magnitude for low-SES students than for their high-SES peers.

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Thesis (M. Ed. (Education Management)) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2013 / The study focuses on the challenges facing principals of high-poverty schools in the Lejweleputswa Education District in the Free State. This study moreover deals with the strategies employed by principals of high-poverty school in addressing these challenges. It further profiles the leadership qualities as exhibited by the principals of high-performing, high-poverty schools. An in-depth literature review which covered typical problems faced by such schools and the leadership styles generally employed when managing them, was conducted. An empirical investigation using a qualitative research design was conducted and data was gathered through interviews with the principals and focus group discussions with teachers of the five selected schools. In the final analysis, findings and recommendations were made to officials in the Department of Education, teachers and the principals of high-poverty schools on how to confront challenges in the disadvantaged communities while at the same time moving towards maintaining academic excellence.

The problem of this study was to determine the interrelationship of intelligence, socio-economic status, and ten subtest measures of achievement in a selected population of high-school seniors. In addition to the general problem, the specific problems were as follows: 1. To determine the relative independence of dependence of each of the variables in relation to their influence on each of the other variables. 2. To determine the degree of predictive validity with which behavioral regression equations can be used in terms of intelligence, achievement, and socio-economic status.

The purposes of this study were as follows: 1. To measure selected junior high school students' creativity in art. 2. To determine the relationship between the following factors and the degree and kind of creativeness in art demonstrated by the subjects involved: ethnic group, sex, social class, community size, previous art training, cultural interest in the home and community.

M.Ed. / In spite of notable changes that have been made in education since 1994 in South Africa, many challenges are still being experienced in the education system. Not least of these are the academic challenges experienced by learners from contexts of poverty, and in particular, those who live in informal settlements and who attend public (former model C) suburban secondary schools. Inclusive education, founded upon the principles of human rights, aims to provide equal and quality education to all learners in South Africa. A process of addressing and responding to the diversity of learners, its objective is to reduce exclusion from education, however, many learners either fail to achieve or drop out of the education system altogether. In the changing educational climate, and with limited research in this sector of education being found, the researcher, wished to explore, interpret and describe these academic challenges. To achieve this, a qualitative approach was chosen with a phenomenological design and a constructivist paradigm. The methodology was selected according to the research question. Data collection was based on semistructured, conversational interviews and projective techniques, namely, the sentence completion method. The data analysis approach was qualitative in nature. Data from both the interviews and incomplete sentence sets were compared with connections sought between the data. Attention was paid to trustworthiness and ethical considerations in the study. The results of the study revealed four themes: Learning Challenges; Relationships; Lack of Resources; Family Support. Firstly, the study revealed that learning and academic achievement was of great importance to the participants, secondly, relationships played an important role in learning, thirdly, a lack of resources was a major challenge, and finally, the importance of family support was indicated. Guidelines and recommendations were provided to educators and other learning support professionals in order to support participants and other learners so that they can achieve their potential in school.

This study looked at the environmental factors present during testing for the spring 2004 administration of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in an attempt to quantify some of the factors that were previously only qualitatively reported. Five factors were examined for their ability to predict passing percentages of students on the CASHSEE at the school level. The results indicated that socioeconomic status was the only significant predictor.