abstract: ABSTRACT To remain competitive on local, state, and national levels and to achieve future economic and social goals, Imperial and Yuma County need an educated workforce. The primary industries supporting the desert region are technical, science, technology, enginnering and mathematics (STEM)-based, and require a highly skilled and educated workforce. There continue to be vast disparities in terms of numbers of students declared and enrolled in STEM transfer degree programs and the number of students completing STEM bachelor’s degrees. Perceptions regarding post-secondary education start to develop at a young age and can prevent or enable a student’s development of post-secondary aspirations. Understanding a student’s perceptions of barriers are important because they can prevent students from completing a four-year degree. The pilot research provided in the study are the first steps in helping educators and community leaders understand what drives and form student perceived educational barriers and student perceptions of self, and then provide a better understanding of first-generation Hispanic students’ value of higher education. As part of the study, I designed the science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics (“STEAM”) College Success Program to help college students overcome the perceived barriers intervening with the completion of a bachelor’s degree. The program involved community, industry, and college students in a unique experience of incorporating a one-week camp, academic year of mentorship, STEM education, and college support. Pilot results of the “STEAM” College Success Program indicate the innovation was effective in reducing perceived barriers relating to college success and bachelor’s degree completion.and was most effective in the area of self-efficacy and personal achievement. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2019

Pre-university Educational System and inequalities in Kosovo Edona Begu Master thesis Abstract The institutional structure of the education system is crucial for understanding the educational inequalities. Kosovo is a young country and its education system is undergoing major reforms. Hence, studies and research in the impact that the educational system arrangement has on inequalities barley exist. The main goal of this thesis was to understand the institutional setting of pre-university education system in Kosovo and its impact in inequalities, especially in terms of labour market outcomes, social status outcomes and educational outcomes. After evaluation of Kosovo's education system along standardization and stratification dimensions introduced by Allmendinger, in the widely known typology for educational inequalities, Kosovo's pre-university education resulted to be highly standardized and highly stratified. Thus, the quality of education provision is uniform for all the students, which is reflected in their similar educational outcomes in PISA test. However, the students are stratified in different tracks, which influence and restrict their future outcomes in labour market and their status in the society. These conclusions were backed up with secondary data analysis which states that there are no...

The purpose of this quantitative study was to see if there was a significant difference in the mean American College Test (ACT) scores and high school grade point average (HSGPA) between students who attained a bachelor’s degree within 6 years of starting college and those who did not attain a bachelor’s degree within 6 years of starting college. Data from 2005-2013 high school graduates from one high school with only academic course choices were used. A series of independent t-tests were used to compare the mean ACT scores and HSGPA of students from both groups. The goal was to find out whether high school educators can use existing high school data to know whether students who intend to continue their postsecondary studies at degree granting postsecondary institutions have the necessary preparation not just to be admitted to a postsecondary institution, but to attain a bachelor’s degree. The results showed that for this group of participants, the mean ACT scores and HSGPA were significantly different between students who attained a bachelor’s degree within 6 years and those who did not. Using Cohen’s d to calculate the effect size for the results, ACT Composite, ACT English, ACT Science, and HSGPA were found to have a large effect size, and ACT Math and ACT Reading were found to have a medium effect size. HSGPA had the largest effect size. The implications from the results are that high school personnel at all high schools should examine available data to see if it can be used as indicators of bachelor’s degree attainment with the purpose of providing additional support to students who intend to pursue a bachelor’s degree, but whose data indicate that they may not have the necessary preparation to successfully complete a degree.

Education drives labour market outcomes and social mobility. When educational attainment is influenced by socioeconomic factors, many students from disadvantaged backgrounds are left behind. This is undesirable as it greatly reduces the human capital that could have been present in the national economy, therefore affecting the potential of economic growth. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the impact of a policy that has the purpose of reducing the gap in educational attainment between disadvantaged students and their peers.  The analysis takes place over a 12 year time span and across 22 local authority areas in Wales. The results highlight the importance in the measure of the attainment gap. The implementation of Pupil Premium can be correlated with a reduction in the gap that is defined by the proportional difference between disadvantaged students and their peers. The magnitude of the attainment gap has stayed fairly constant but overall attainment has risen significantly over the period under analysis.  There is room for further study into the possibility that the impact of Pupil Premium has affected some groups of students more than others.

Social capital is an important predictor of socioeconomic attainment, defined here as household income, but it is less clear how this relationship may vary by socioeconomic status (SES). Coleman's (1988) theory of social capital suggests that context is likely to influence exchanges of capital. Indeed, theory and research suggest that SES may either intensify or compensate for social capital in its relation to socioeconomic attainment. I seek to identify and understand these potential interactions using data from 101,163 participants of the European Social Survey (ESS). Results indicate that while social trust and both absolute and relative social involvement--two common measurements of social capital--predict socioeconomic attainment, the link with relative social involvement was stronger for individuals with lower SES, suggesting a compensation effect. Meanwhile, the link between absolute social involvement and socioeconomic attainment was stronger for those with higher SES, suggesting an intensification effect and highlighting that effects may vary across different measures of social capital. More generally, however, it is clear that SES is a meaningful factor in the value or use of at least some features of social capital.

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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis investigated the leadership approach associated with sustained improved academic performance of principals heading National Strategy for Learner Attainment (NSLA) schools. The research problem addressed the leadership practices and personality traits that characterised the leadership approaches of principals heading high schools which have achieved long-term academic improvement amongst the schools undergoing the NSLA interventions. The main research question was: What leadership practices and personality traits characterised the leadership approaches of principals heading schools who have achieved long-term academic improvement amongst the schools undergoing the NSLA interventions? Thereafter, four subsidiary research questions guided this research.

The effects of learning upon the rate of conservation attainment and its transference to other areas of performance were studied using 17 mentally retarded subjects. Subjects found to be non-conservers on pretests were taught conservation and correspondence using a variety of tasks modeled from Piaget's experiments. They were also pretested on the WISC Information and Picture Arrangement Sub-tests and a number concept test. Following the learning experiences, the subjects were posttested using the same measures used for pretesting with the exception of the number test where an alternate form was used. Significant correlations were found between the conservation pretest scores and General Intelligence (r=.72), Chronological Age (r=.66), Mental Age (r=.91), Information sub-test (r=.76), Picture Arrangement sub-test (r=.83), and number concept test scores (r=.64). There were significant posttest gains on conservation (F=79.98, p<.01), Information (F=14.56, p<.01), Picture Arrangement (F=6.62, p<.05), and number concept scores (F=6.99, p<.05), indicating tentatively that conservation attainment can be accelerated by learning with a possible effect on related areas of performance. Scores on an instrument designed to measure internalization of the concepts showed significant gains on posttest (F=15.97, p<.01). However, posttest scores on this measure did not correlate significantly with gains on other measures.

As a group, youth who have spent time in foster care are far behind the general population in postsecondary educational attainment. Nevertheless, most do hold aspirations for higher education. For those who make it to college, foster care alumni face a variety of obstacles related to successful postsecondary completion. However, it is unclear whether the factors that affect postsecondary success in this population are similar to those identified for other college students or more unique to the distinctive experience of being in foster care. Furthermore, while there is general consensus that higher education is beneficial to foster care alumni in overcoming adversity, no study has examined how foster care alumni who graduate from college actually fare in their adult lives compared with the general population of college graduates, or with those in the general population who did not graduate college. The study aims first to identify the predictors of postsecondary retention and success using survey data from a cross-sectional sample of foster care alumni who received Casey Family Scholarship Program or Orphan Foundation of America Foster Care to Success postsecondary scholarships. Second, the study compares adult outcomes of foster care alumni graduates with general population graduates and general population non-graduates to explore the role higher education plays in these youths' lives. Results are interpreted in relation to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, theories of educational persistence and motivation, trauma theory, and theories related to other difficulties of being in foster care. Analyses include bivariate examinations of postsecondary factors and their relation to college disengagement; discrete-time survival analysis of general college retention factors and factors more unique to the foster care population in predicting college graduation; and multivariate comparisons (ANOVA's, ANCOVA's, and chi-squares) of foster youth graduates and non-foster youth graduates and non-graduates in relation to their post-college life circumstances. In bivariate comparisons of general population factors related to retention, five of the nine factors (academic-related skills, institutional commitment, social support, social involvement, and institutional financial support) had at least one indicator with a significant or trend-level relationship with college disengagement. In bivariate comparisons of foster care-specific factors related to retention, four out of the seven factors (maltreatment/ trauma/PTSD, other mental health problems, independent living stability, tangible support) had at least one item with a significant or trend-level relationship with college disengagement. Comparing the two separate factor models, the general population factor group modeled the data slightly better in predicting college graduation than the foster care-specific factor model. No model improvement was found when foster care-specific factors were added into the general population factor model. Both general population and foster care alumni graduates fared more positively than general population non-graduates for three post-college factors: individual income, financial satisfaction, and happiness. Only the general population graduates were found to be faring better than general population non-graduates on a variety of other factors. Foster youth graduates fared less positively than general population graduates on a variety of post-college outcomes. Results have implications for policy and practice regarding the most effective means of supporting postsecondary aspirations of youth with foster care experience.

Masters of Commerce / From 194 7-1994, South Africans were ruled under apartheid - a racially discriminatory political and economic system. As the name itself implies, apartheid is an Afrikaans name meaning "apartness". The provision of education in South Africa during this regime was poor, particularly for the African (black) population and most especially those living in homelands. This led to under-investment in human capital development particularly in the rural areas which resulted in, low levels of skills that have persisted till today. This has hindered those lacking the required skills to obtain lucrative employment and earning prospects. This study aims at investigating the impact of a household head's educational attainment level on the poverty status of the household in South Africa with case study of Limpopo province.