The purpose of this youth participatory action research (YPAR) project was to challenge the pedagogy of traditional literacy instruction for low-income Latino/a students, particularly the overuse of scripted curricula and standardized tests mandated through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Twelve student participants served as co-teachers and co-researchers as they created, implemented, and evaluated a critical literacy class based on the theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical literacy and the methodology of youth participatory action research (YPAR). The YPAR Critical Literacy Group and research took place at one of a network of small, independent-study alternative schools called Future Horizons Charter High School (FHCHS, a pseudonym), located in southern California. Critical pedagogy and critical literacy formed a theoretical foundation upon which the students and teacher built a class based on the tenets of dialogue, problem-posing, and generative themes based on the interests of the student co-researchers. This alternative practice of co-creating knowledge with students was paramount in facilitating young peoples’ learning to think critically about their positionality within their political and social spheres. Critical literacy does not focus simply on the development of decoding and comprehension skills for reading, but students of critical literacy must “read the word and the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1997), grounding their acquisition of literacy skills through their own experiences and social contexts. This research examined the capacity of critical literacy and YPAR methodology to transform both learner and teacher. The YPAR Critical Literacy Group at FHCHS positively impacted the student coresearchers. Elements of qualitative research, including interviews and transcription positively impacted the students co-researchers’ traditional literacy skills. Student coresearchers evaluated the course as a positive experience throughout, and engaged in and comprehended texts far above their traditionally-defined decoding and reading comprehension reading levels. Attendance and engagement in the class for the 4-month period was consistently higher in the critical literacy class than in other reading classes offered at the school. The students experienced preliminary transformation and early stages of critical consciousness from the beginning to the end of the course, evidenced by the evolution of their reflective writings and progressively sophisticated analyses of social injustice at the school and within the broader community.

Charter schools attempt to write a new narrative in how America serves its children in public schools. While some charter schools in urban areas serving low-income students of color have shown promising routes to academic achievement, in some cases they have not confronted the inequitable patterns of discipline they perpetuate. In this project I explore two small urban charter schools that are academically successful and do not suspend or expel their students, specifically their African-American and Latino male students. I filter this exploration through my own perspective as the former principal of a small urban charter school like the ones I study in this project. I synthesize a protective resilience frame with an organizational framework used to examine districts in order to organize and frame findings. Ultimately this dissertation and its findings should be useful for teachers and leaders in small urban charter schools seeking to organize in such a way as to limit exclusionary discipline.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between academic emphasis and executive leadership from the perspective of a California charter management organization (CMO) chief executive officer (CEO). Executive leaders in California CMOs have a unique perspective that needs investigated. They experience educational leadership differently depending upon their individual backgrounds, educational experiences, and the families they serve. This study seeks to understand the experiences of a specific group of executive leaders and how they define academic emphasis in their CMO. The theoretical framework used to interpret the research findings was instructional leadership. The framework effectively built a lens for the reader to conceptualize the research of this study. The theoretical framework worked to guide and frame interpretation of respondent data. The research served to inform the research questions, not answer them explicitly. The research used a qualitative case study design approach focused on the story of the lived experience from the individual. The design aspired to interpret meanings and experiences from responses to uncover deep and detailed understanding. A CMO CEO responded to semi-structured interview questions. The interview protocol consisted of various question types: open-ended questions, follow-up questions, and classification questions. As transformational and educational leadership collide in Dr. Viviane Robinson’s current instructional leadership framework, the capability that is not explicitly presented is the ability for school leaders to build capacity for equity consciousness in all teammates in their organization and/or school. The findings from this study suggested that a fourth leadership capability is emerging in Dr. Robinson’s framework. There is a critical need for organization and school leaders to be equipped with the skills to seed an equity consciousness across teammates and other stakeholders.

High-stakes testing is currently the primary measure of student success in the United States. Based on this measure of student performance, closing the achievement gap in test scores between Black and Latinx students and their white peers has become the main indicator of success for schools serving Black and Latinx students. When schools are unable to close the achievement gap, one possible consequence is closure and replacement by a new school. This process is referred to as reconstitution. Though reconstitution was developed to provide Black and Latinx students with a more equitable educational experience, these schools often cannot raise high-stakes test scores or their efforts to raise scores have negative implications on their Black and Latinx students. Based on this context, I wanted to learn how the Black and Latinx staff of a reconstituted school describe and understand success through their lived experiences, rather than through state exam outcomes. For my dissertation, I used a qualitative case study that explored the way one founding principal and six founding teachers at a reconstituted school, the Bronx Promise Academy (a pseudonym), described and understood success for their school community and for their Black and Latinx students. I used counterstorytelling, a methodology based on Critical Race Theory, that centered the understanding of success on the experiences and stories of the Black and Latinx staff member participants of my study. After using purposeful sampling to identify the participants, I conducted one interview with each participant and one focus group with all of the participants. Overall, I found that the principal’s counterstory to student success had a direct influence on how her staff viewed the importance of high-stakes exams and understood success for their school community and their students. First, I found that the principal, Ms. Jean-Baptiste, had a counterstory to the traditional view of student success that her teachers also adopted. Ms. Jean-Baptiste and the six teacher participants believed that student success should not be based on high-stakes testing outcomes but instead should be based on students developing real-world skills and navigational capital, or the ability to adapt and thrive in a variety of situations. These skills involved perseverance, critical thinking, and independency. Next, I also found that Ms. Jean-Baptiste’s counterstory for school success prioritized building a strong culture at the Bronx Promise Academy that fulfilled the needs of her students rather than raising test scores. Her counterstory was shared by all of the teacher participants. Since their students went through a traumatic experience at a closing school, the participants considered themselves successful because they collaboratively constructed unique routines, traditions, and structures for their school community. They considered this new culture as a success because they said it provided students with a sense of community, care, and joy that they needed in order to succeed academically at school. My findings, on both this holistic view of success and the use of counterstorytelling, have implications for district and school leaders, policymakers, and education leadership researchers.

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Magister Educationis - MEd / Hierdie studie handeloor die aanwending van 'n trilogie van aksienavorsingsprojekte in 'n skool wat daartoe gelei het dat 'n outokratiese bestuurstyl in 'n koëperatiewe skoolbestuurstelsel verander is. Gegee die feit dat skoolbesluitneming grotendeels in die persoon van die skoolhoof gesentreer was, is daadwerklike pogings aangewend om alle betrokkenes in die besluitnemingsproses by Betel Skool vir Epileptici , Kuilsrivier, te betrek. Hierdie pogings het daartoe gelei dat die skoolhoof, personeellede, die Raad van Bestuur en die ouergemeenskap gesamentlike bestuurders van die skool geword het. Die gevolglike koëperatiewe skoolbestuur en gesamentlike verantwoordelikheid vir besluitneming het duidelik in veral die betrokkenheid van bestaande personeellede in die aanstelling van nuwe personeellede by die skool gemanifesteer. Waar hierdie verantwoordelikheid voorheen slegs op die skouers van die skoolhoof en die Raad van Bestuur gerus het, is personeellede met behulp van aksienavorsing in hierdie benoemingsproses betrek en vind geen aanstelling van personeellede tans plaas sonder die insette van die huidige personeel nie. Hierdie tesis beskryf voorts hoe die skool 'n eis van die Departement van Onderwys en Kultuur (Raad van Verteenwoordigers) gehanteer het dat dertien onderwysers geïdentifiseer moet word wat op 7 Augustus 1991 aan 'n protesoptog deelgeneem het. Dié opdrag is geïgnoreer en die Departement is met 'n georkestreerde teenreaksie van die skoolhoof, die personeel en die Raad van Bestuur gekonfronteer. Aksienavorsing is weer eens aangewend om hierdie intimiderende en hooghandige opdrag van die Onderwysdepartement wat die potensiaal gehad het om die dertien onderwysers te isoleer en aan die moontlikheid van ernstige dissiplinêre stappe bloot te stel, ter syde gestel te kry Hierdie werk toon dat dit moontlik is om met behulp van aksienavorsing, fundamentele veranderings in die bestuur van In skool aan te bring, te help met die demokratisering van besluitnemingsprosesse, die verskillende betrokkenes by die skool te bemagtig en nuwe betekenis te gee aan wat in die kantoor en klaskamers van die skool plaasvind.

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This thesis examined the relationship between cyber operations and armed attacks to determine when the right of self-defence is triggered by cyber operations. The research question for this thesis was under what circumstances a cyber operation is considered a cyber attack and what kind of self-defence the targeted victim State can use.  The thesis concluded that it is not the weaponry used, but the scale and effects of an operation that determines whether it amounts to an armed attack or not. Thus, cyber operations can be amount to armed attacks i.e., cyber attacks if the scale and effects caused by the operations are severe enough. However, the thesis concluded that there are certain challenges regarding the determination of the severity threshold of operations through cyberspace that do not exist for operations of kinetic nature. Specifically regarding whether cyber operations that cause disruption of critical infrastructure can amount to a cyber attack. The thesis concluded that it is unclear whether these kinds of effects can be comparable to the effects caused by traditional military force. However, cyber operations that result in mere economic damages do not reach the scale and effects needed to amount to cyber attacks.  The thesis concluded that an imminent threat of a cyber attack triggers the right of self-defence. The meaning of imminence is ‘the last possible window of opportunity’ to repel the cyber attack, as this meaning coheres with the purpose of being able to resort to force in self-defence against an attack that has yet occurred.  The issue of responsibility of non-State actors was addressed in the thesis. The essay demonstrated that the questions regarding non-State actors are even more relevant for operations carried out in cyberspace. It was concluded that although the high threshold of attribution becomes even more challenging in cyberspace, the threshold is necessary in order to maintain international peace and security. Regarding independent non-State actors, it was concluded that State practice has shown acceptance of resorting to force against non-State actors without attribution to the territorial State. To balance opposed interests, this thesis concluded that the doctrine of unwilling and unable should be followed when a victim State considers resorting to force against a non-State actor.  Regarding the principles of necessity and proportionality, this thesis could conclude that the means used against a cyber attack, whether kinetic or cyber, are not vital to determine whether the self-defence used is legal or not. Instead, force used in self-defence used must be a means of last resort and cannot exceed the force needed to repel the attack.

This study examined the effects of one particular piece of legislation on California's nonclassroom-based charter schools. In 2001, the California State Legislature passed SB 740, a bill designed in part to limit funding of nonclassroom-based charter schools to instances when the State Board of Education has made a determination of funding. The determination of funding is based on prescribed spending levels as outlined in regulations governing the implementation of SB 740. The literature on charter schools contains very few studies on charter school expenditure levels. This study provided an important addition to the literature on charter school spending. This study's literature review included such topics as charter school autonomy and charter school accountability, home schooling, school choice, charter school legislation, policy implementation, and charter school spending patterns. 10 administrators, who were in nonclassroom-based leadership positions before, during, and after the implementation of SB 740, were interviewed. The researcher compiled and analyzed the results to find themes that emerged from the administrators' insights. Results and conclusions included: (a) the respondents perceived that SB 740 successfully purged the non-classroom based charter school movement of many schools that were engaged in abusive fiduciary practices, (b) the respondents thought the regulations were overly constricting, especially in the areas of facilities costs and reserve funds, (c) the respondents voiced concern that small schools attempting innovative practices and programs may have been forced to close due to their inability to meet the SB 740 funding determination guidelines, and (d) unexpected consequences of SB 740 included division between the ranks of classroom-based and nonclassroom-based charter schools, the formation of a nonclassroom-based advocacy group, and increased teacher salaries.

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