The purpose of this study was to examine a school district's responses to charter schools operating within its boundaries. The selected district was the only one in the state with two large academically competitive charter schools for at least two years. Four questions guided the research: In terms of instruction, finance, communication, and leadership, how has the traditional district been impacted due to charter school existence? The exploratory research was timely since charter schools are proliferating as tax-supported public choice schools. While many have speculated about free-market effects of charter school competition on systemic educational reform, the debate has been chiefly along ideological lines; therefore, little empirical research addresses this issue. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to present a comprehensive case study. Twenty-six school officials and teachers were interviewed; 159 teachers and 1576 parents were surveyed. District, community, and state education department documents were analyzed. Since charter schools have existed in the district, numerous activities have taken place. Instructional initiatives included a high school academy, expanded technology, gifted and talented, tutoring, and dropout prevention. All elementary and middle schools required uniforms. The district's state accountability rating improved from acceptable to recognized. A leadership void was perceived due to students leaving to attend charter schools initially. The district was perceived as making efforts to improve communication with the community. The financial impact of charter schools was neutralized due to the district's student population increase, property wealth, and state charter funding structure. The data supported all of the hypotheses in terms of the impact of charter schools in the district on these activities: free-market effects of charter school competition were not established as the primary reason for internal organizational changes that occurred in the district. Anecdotal evidence suggested that charter schools may have played some role, but primarily they seemed to reinforce trends already occurring in the district.

The environment of urban schools can be characterized by high teacher turnover; high student drop out rates; low performance by students on standardized tests; and a shifting demographic in student population. New teachers graduating from teacher education pre-service programs will almost surely teach in urban schools with students from different socio-economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds than themselves. Students in these urban school environments often do not feel a connection to their teachers or their schools. This study shares oral narratives from teachers, students, a principal, and staff members from a high school for recent immigrants in the South Central United States which defies these odds. The interviews focus on how care is experienced by the teachers and students and sheds light on how teachers and students define the practice of care. Further the study looks at how school leadership and policies can impede and enhance the practice of care in the school setting. Among the several major findings, it was found that teachers and students both have a need, even a longing, for connection. The results provide implications for classroom practice, professional development, school leadership & decision-making practices, school culture, technology use, and overall school performance. / text

This project focuses on the Incident Management System (IMS) and how it was used to manage the Oklahoma City, World Trade Center, and Lafayette, IN terrorism incidents. The Incident Management System is used by emergency response agencies to manage the scene of a disaster and consists of eight management components which are: Modular Organization, Integrated Communications, Common Terminology, Unified Command Structure, Consolidated Action Plans, Manageable Span of Control, Designated Incident Facilities, and Comprehensive Resource Management. Through journal articles and interviews, this project assesses observations that occurred during the response phase of each terrorism incident. These observations are then categorized under each of the IMS components to determine whether unique, or more complex procedures occurred with terrorism, as compared to other types of emergency disasters. This study further explores why the IMS is important to communities, and why a community's comprehensive plan should include goals and risk management studies that affect a community's ability to effectively respond to a terrorism incident. / Department of Urban Planning

Organizational culture may be defined as the shared norms, values, and beliefs of an organization. The culture expresses itself through symbols and sagas. Organizational culture shapes the behavior of those within the organization and provides a lens through which its members can interpret reality. This study sought to define the organizational culture of the Metropolitan Academic Library. The study was guided by Schein‘s five levels of cultural assumptions: assumptions about external adaptation issues; assumptions about internal integration; assumptions about the nature of truth and reality; assumptions about the nature of time and space; and assumptions about human nature, activity, and relationships. In order to triangulate data, I gave the librarians and library technical assistants of the Metropolitan Academic Library the Martin Culture Survey. I then conducted a multi-day, on-site visit, where I interviewed members of the Metropolitan Academic Library, made observations about the library, and performed document analysis. I found the culture of the Metropolitan Academic Library to be ―in the process of becoming.‖ The culture present in the library was not deep or rich; however, I did find some shared values, symbols, and sagas. With a recent turnover in administration, change was a dominant story of the Metropolitan Academic Library. The librarians and library technical assistants valued campus engagement, the people within the library, and service to the library patrons. These values find symbolic recognition in the coffee shop located in the library, the Christmas party, and the reference desk. Popular sagas of the Metropolitan Academic Library include the story of its humble origins and the building renovation

Five cases of resistance to authority in the United States Navy in 1971 and 1972 were studied intensively. These included anti-war campaigns to keep the USS Constellation and the USS Kitty Hawk from sailing to Vietnam, a movement defense of a sailor charged with sabotage on the USS Ranger, a racial fight of over 200 crew members on the USS Kitty Hawk off Vietnam and two strikes by 130 Black sailors aboard the USS Constellation. White Jacket, Herman Melville’s documentary report of life aboard a navy Man O'War in 1843 and 1844 was also studied. The social construction of authority, that is, the way that authority was produced, strengthened or weakened by participants, was taken as a problematic. Published letters, reports, pamphlets and articles by members and supporters of the groups involved were the primary sources of information. Officers were found to use either a militarist or a managerial ideology when they commented on authority. Each ideology included assumptions about the practical actions necessary for the exercise of authority and justifications of the right of the few in leadership to demand compliance of the many. The militarist ideology assumed an opposition of interests between officers, and men and that authority was manifested by and depended on an inferior's exact obedience to a superior's commands in a face-to-face situation such as the social and technological setting of Melville's sailing Man O'War. The managerial ideology identified authority as the manipulation of institutional paths to career opportunity so that all levels of personnel were channeled into compliant behavior. Anti-war resisters and Black movement sailors were very critical of authority but at the same time held parallel ideas with one of the two models of how authority was; constructed. Anti-war sailors assumed authority depended on a face-to-face command situation as in the militarist ideology and Black movement sailors based their analysis of racism on institutional channeling which was consistent with the managerial view. The actions of the Black movement sailors were the most effective challenge to authority because their solidarity obviated extensive planning: or organization and because their analysis of racism tended to delegitimize managerial authority. The atomization of personnel by the requirements for organizing the technologically complex work of the ship and the militarist maintenance of oppositions between officers, senior NCOs and enlisted men made cooperation in resistance unlikely. At the same time the authoritarian style of lower level leadership also produced an anti-NCO solidarity among enlisted people. The anti-war sailors had hoped to capitalize on this solidarity but their understanding of the base of authority was incorrect and the Navy was able to absorb their actions without direct impact; however, their libertarian attack on authority along with the Black actions precipitated a conflict between 'managerial' and 'militarist' officers throughout the Navy. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Concentration of media ownership in the United States has increased throughout the 20th century and threatens to dilute competition between press outlets and to reduce the quality of news coverage available to the audience as a result. Several scholars have identified mass advertising as a major culprit in this concentration as well as in the resulting superficiality of news coverage. In the 1940s, a group of scholars formed the Commission on Freedom of the Press (COFOP) to discuss the perceived problem of irresponsible media and to prescribe remedies in the form of greater emphasis on the issues of the day and greater access to the press for individuals and groups not normally allowed a voice. Since COFOP published its recommendations, some scholars have argued that the press has adopted the "social responsibility" doctrine, thus replacing libertarianism. Others argue that an advertising model has become the natural heir to libertarianism in the press. / Master of Arts

With the rapid growth of American metropolitan areas, it is essential to plan for the preservation of open space before development occurs on lands which would better be left undeveloped. Although there is a long tradition of parks and open space planning in American cities, planning efforts over the past twenty-five years (since 1960) have not been systematically reviewed and there remains no set standard to guide the planning of regional-scale open space. Two foundations of open space planning are examined: its roles in guiding urban form, and in preserving natural processes in the city. Six case studies of contemporary open space plans and systems elicit the fundamental criteria and decision processes for open space planning.

This thesis is an inquiry that examines how those who are marked different in school are also marked "wrong" and marginalized and how that marking often leads to bullying. It examines the significance that those markings have on those who are marked, on those who mark and on those who are witnesses. This is an analysis of bullying and a critique of an institution's response to bullying and its deleterious effects. The writing offers a connection between the particular and the universal. It tells of my personal experience while I was a teacher at a small town high school before, during and immediately after a violent incident that resulted in a death, against a backdrop feminist, critical, poststructural and postmodern theory, and academic dialogue that has helped me come to some understanding of the dominant discourses at play within this story. The writing is not merely the mode of telling the writing is the way to understanding, which must always precede the telling. Finally this thesis is a search for a healing home in which home-ness means a place open to being, rather than a place that defines the "right" way of being. / xii, 134 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

Recent concern in the United States about human trafficking has been directed primarily on the foreign victims that are brought into the United States rather than on U.S. citizenship who become involved. However, the topic has broadened and has significant impact on the daily lives of U.S citizens. Taking a human rights perspective, this dissertation explores how human trafficking has been used as a “brand” to achieve political and/or economic objectives. Human trafficking has taken away the human rights for individuals and threatens their security. This dissertation is grounded in Critical Theory and uses narrative analysis as a methodological framework. Using 99 public documents from Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, International Labor Organization, and Office for Victims of Crime and other Departments of the U.S working on human trafficking issues, with the support of Nvivo software, the dissertation insists that human trafficking violates human rights, has no capacity to support human emancipation, and causes human beings to be treated as animals or objects or commodified a brand. Even though a brand is a mark and logo in economic development and refers to objects, not human beings. Human development is the objective that everyone wants to achieve. Regardless of development, the welfare of all human beings must be the chief concern; every effort to halt all human emancipation must be initiated immediately. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Most of today's college students perceive higher education as the most critical element to their future success, quality of life, financial security, and general well-being. Consequently, more and more students entering colleges and universities choose to major in professional or pre-professional programs such as business, engineering, pre-med or pre-law. The majority of past research has concentrated on student attrition and retention in undergraduate education for the majority population. These studies have not enabled scholars to obtain a deeper understanding of the factors relating to minority populations -- especially those from the Hispanic community. In addition, the majority of these studies have not provided an understanding of students' progress and eventual success in legal education. The purpose of this study was to determine which variables from commonly accepted foundational theories on higher education retention, attrition, and student development are applicable to the first-year experiences of Hispanic students enrolled in a Juris Doctorate Program at an accredited law school at a public institution who are the first in their family to attend. Using both a survey instrument and narrative interviews, the study revealed that first-generation Hispanic students are disadvantaged compared to their peers when it came to understanding important law school financial, cultural, and academic issues. While family support, faculty relationships, law school study/support groups, academic mentoring, and academic advising positively influenced first-year progress; the respondents' cultural identity and race negatively impacted faculty and peer interactions both in and out of the classroom. The lack of need-based financial aid, higher tuition costs associated with legal education, tuition deregulation, increased debt from borrowing, and poor information about financial assistance all negatively affected their success. The negative effects of stress and anxiety permeated numerous first-year experiences including law school orientation, law school classes, final exams, grades, and figuring out how to pay for school. These results should help key stakeholders associated including faculty and administrators to better understand minority student issues and the impact of stereotype threats specific to the legal education context in an effort to reduce first-year attrition rates and improve minority access to the legal profession. / text