The purpose of this study was to analyze twelve courses of study in physical education for boys in junior and senior high schools. Based on the analysis and the evidence presented, the study substantiated the lack of uniformity of the essential phases of the physical education program.

Here I am Now! was the title immigrant and refugee undergraduate students and local refugee community youth gave to their participatory photography installation displayed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This exhibit was the culmination of students' participation in a series of alternative community service-learning (CSL) courses offered through CIRCLE (Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment). Here first-generation undergraduate students mentored neighboring Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee youth using photography and art and applying community development education principles and techniques. While community service-learning pedagogy has become an established educational practice on most U.S. universities and colleges today, little research has been conducted viewing the educational impact of community service-learning pedagogy on diverse student populations. The majority of the scholarship in this field focuses on the experiences of white middle-class students engaged in service-learning relationships with communities from unfamiliar and different socio-cultural, racial, ethic and economic backgrounds (Dunlap, 1998). This dissertation presents a different perspective. Here I examine how immigrant and refugee undergraduate students understood and made meaning of their participation in a community service-learning experience with youth from familiar and similar ethnocultural contexts. This model valued participants' common cultural assets, highlighted the immigrant and refugee experience, and attended to specific local refugee community needs. To answer my research questions I applied critical ethnographic approaches and analyzed student narratives (interviews, journal entries, reflection papers, poetry and photography) to better understand participants' community-service learning experiences. Through the prisms of three educational learning theories I review the university context, highlight aspects of the situation under study and proceed to build an emerging framework for CSL pedagogy with diverse communities. These theories include; experiential and critical pedagogy, situated learning theory, and the anthropological concept, funds of knowledge, as guides toward developing culturally relevant CSL curriculum with immigrant and refugee learners. Through student narratives, I demonstrate that critical CSL curriculum and service that emphasize peer learning and strategic and cultural resources (funds of knowledge), provide diverse undergraduate students with alternative and creative spaces of critique and possibility in their higher education and community service-learning experiences.

1. This is a study of 60 white teachers of vocational agriculture in Virginia to determine the desirable content of a farm power and machinery course for vocational agriculture in the high schools of Virginia. The purposes of the study were: a. To determine the nature and content of farm power and machinery units being taught by teachers of vocational agriculture in the high schools of Virginia. b. To determine the teaching units in farm power and machinery that should be included in the high school vocational agriculture course. Based on the teaching experience of the teachers included in this study, it is concluded that the practices being used and recommended by a majority of these teachers should be considered as acceptable guides for all teachers to follow in organizing and conducting their instructional program in farm power and machinery. The recommended teaching units include a study of: determining the place of power and machinery on the farm, preventing accidents on the farm, tractors, transportation equipment, tillage implements, seeding equipment, lime, manure, fertilizer distributors, harvesting equipment, crop processing equipment, clean, grading equipment, spraying, dusting equipment, pumps, rams, miscellaneous farm equipment, and storing equipment. / M.S.

The purpose of this study was to determine special education teachers' perceptions of goals used to teach secondary mildly handicapped students and to identify hindrances to adopting these goals. A questionnaire was developed and attitudes were assessed by collecting data from secondary special education teachers who taught in the areas of learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, and educable mental retardation. A large suburban school district located in the southeastern united states comprised the survey (census) population. Repeated measure analysis of variance tested for significant differences across teaching exceptionalities toward perceived acceptance and implementation of selected goals. Chi-square analyses tested for any relationships between acceptance and implementation of these goals, as well as teacher relationships toward classification of goals. The findings of this study indicated that teachers of secondary mildly handicapped students exhibited very high acceptance for remedial, maintenance and functional goals for special education. Maintenance goals were perceived to be most important to LD teachers while functional ones were important to EMR instructors. Remedial goals were equally accepted by the LD, ED, and EMR sectors. There was a relatively high rate of implementation for remedial goals for all the teaching groups with no difference in the degree of implementation across the three exceptionalities noted. LD teachers implemented remedial and maintenance goals more than functional ones. ED instructors implemented remedial goals most often, while EMR teachers instructed the most in the functional area. In some instances, especially in the functional area, teachers did not implement specific goals which they perceived to be acceptable. Lack of time was the greatest instructional barrier for LD teachers while parent support hindered ED instructors the most. Diploma. requirements were the most formidable instructional hindrance for the EMR sector. Classroom teachers did not always classify instructional goals in the same manner as experts in the field, and this trend was noted more often in the classification of remedial goals. / Ed. D.

This investigation included the study of the 102 business graduates of Covington High School for the years 1946-1950. This study was made to determine what use the business graduates had made of the business subjects they satisfactory completed. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to determine the professional development needs of business educators in Virginia. An instrument was developed to assess priorities for leaders in business education in Virginia and the Virginia Business Education Association. The priorities were analyzed according to geographic region represented, and demographic factors of the respondents were compared to the priority rankings. Business educators attending regional conferences throughout Virginia during October, 1990 participated in this study. Two hundred and fifty usable instruments were received. A descriptive statistical analysis was used to determine the rank order, mean and standard deviation of the priorities; the same analysis by break-variable was used to determine the mean rankings for each geographic region. Correlations were run to determine relationships between the demographic factors and the priority rankings. Conclusions resulting from data analyses performed and reported in this study are as follows: (1) business educators are concerned with keeping business education relevant to workforce needs, and they are aware of the importance of integrating business education into the academic curriculum; (2) business educators desire their professional organization to act as their advocate at the local and state levels, as well as provide them with regional professional development opportunities; (3) business educators from all geographic regions agreed on their priority rankings for business education leaders and the VBEA; and (4) business educators with advanced degrees and/or more years experience do not differ significantly in their priority rankings from those educators without advanced degrees and fewer years of service. / Master of Science

The general purpose of this study was to test the validity of selected hypotheses concerning institutional adaptation, using a segment of the general population, where the need and the opportunity for a specific program have been established. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine if selected operating ratios and institutional characteristics were predictors of whether or not Black colleges and universities had implemented professional allied health education programs. Several authors have hypothesized that certain factors (which could be specified as operating ratios and institutional characteristics) affected an institution's ability and willingness to adapt. However, the power of these factors had not been tested rigorously. Sixty-eight four-year Black colleges and universities, which had not implemented professional allied health programs prior to 1975-76, were used for this study. By 1980, six of these institutions had implemented such programs. Twenty-seven operating ratios and seven institutional characteristics, derived from REGIS Financial Statistics and Opening Fall Enrollment data, for the 1975-76 academic year, were used in the study. Four analytical procedures were chosen to test the hypotheses that these ratios and characteristics were direct or surrogate measures of institutional adaptation. The following analytical procedures were used: (a) cross-tabulation, (b) t-tests for independence, (c) stepwise discriminant analysis, and (d) cluster analysis. The findings and inferences that could be drawn from the study were limited because of the recency of HEGIS tapes used. This resulted in a small sample population. Six of the 68 institutions had implemented professional allied health programs between 1975-76 and 1979-80. In addition, several colleges and universities appear to be in the process of implementing professional allied health education programs, but had not done so as of 1979-80. Despite these limitations, the findings of the study indicated that a total of ten operating ratios were identified as possible predictors of whether or not Black colleges and universities had implemented professional allied health education programs between 1975-76 and 1979-80. / Ed. D.

This dissertation examines the response of a group of educators to a state mandate to integrate computational thinking (CT) into all levels of the curriculum. It explores the historical development of CT and its significance within the broader context of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education, emphasizing the rapid growth and evolving nature of this interdisciplinary field. By examining the challenges and potential strategies for incorporating CT into K-12 curricula, the research highlights the critical role of school leadership in navigating the complexities associated with this integration. Utilizing Everett Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovation theory, the dissertation explores how new knowledge is integrated into schools and examines the pivotal role of educational leaders in steering this endeavor. A mixed-methods research design was used to gather the attitudes and perceptions of school leaders toward CT, identifying key factors that influence the adoption and implementation of CT in schools. The study reveals that leadership awareness, involvement, and support are pivotal in overcoming obstacles to CT integration. It also underscores the importance of developing a shared understanding of CT among educators and administrators, aligning CT initiatives with school priorities, and providing adequate resources and professional development opportunities to ensure effective implementation. The findings of the dissertation offer valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and educational leaders, suggesting that a comprehensive approach to integrating CT into K-12 education requires strategic planning, collaboration, and sustained support. By addressing the gaps in current research and practice, this dissertation contributes to the discourse on effective strategies for embedding CT within the educational curriculum, with the goal of enhancing students’ preparedness for an increasingly computational world. This research sheds light on the challenges and opportunities of CT integration and contributes to the development of a roadmap for future efforts to integrate new bodies of knowledge into the K-12 curriculum.

This study identified and rated the leadership competencies that were considered needed by young farmers and should be taught in the young farmer instructional program. The participants in the study were the young farmer advisors, certain young farmer members, state staff, and teacher educators. All participants were from the state of Virginia. The participants rated a list of 43 leadership competencies according to the following rating scale: 4...High Importance, 3... Medium Importance, 2...Low Importance, and 1...No Importance. The mean of the ratings for the four groups were computed as well as the total mean for all groups. The total mean for all competencies was 2.5 or above. All competencies were placed in the medium to high importance category. The ratings of the four groups were examined to determine if the groups rated the competencies similarly. The two groups who rated the most competencies similarly were the advisors and the members. The groups who rated the fewest competencies similarly were members and state staff, and state staff and teacher educators. Also, the respondents ranked the top ten competencies. The competencies which were ranked the top ten are listed below: Bank Competency 1 37. Assume responsibility. 2 34. Cooperate with others. 3 36. Develop enthusiasm. 4 38. Learn to be fair in dealings with others. 5 30. Speak effectively to others. 6 31. Listen effectively to others. 7 39. Participate in community activities. 8 18. Obtain participation by all members. 9 1. Open and close a meeting correctly. 10 32. Accept others as they are. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to report on policy changes implemented by school boards in the past two school years (1982-1984) in the areas of graduation requirements, financial incentives for teachers, instructional time, and homework. The survey also obtained information on program curtailment and or elimination. A stratified random sample (4,134) of 17 percent was drawn from the population of subscribers to the American School Board Journal who are local school board members. A return rate of 24.8 percent (1,027) was realized. The survey used in this study was designed to accomplish two purposes. One was to collect demographic and personal data to be treated in the study. The data employed concerned state, region, and school district population; school district classification; family income; marital status; occupation; race; age; educational attainment; and years served as a board member. The second purpose of the survey was to gather data involving changes implemented by school boards in the last two years in the selected areas. Respondents reported significant increases in graduation requirements in mathematics, language arts, computer technology, and science. In the area of course curtailment, music, driver education, art, industrial arts, and health/physical education were most frequently cited as being reduced. Secondary driver education was most frequently cited by the respondents as being eliminated. In the category of instructional time, the respondents' first choice for policy changes was increasing class time. Second most often cited was lengthening the school day. Increasing the school year was the area least cited by the respondents. Suggestions for further research include (1) the further exploration of the long range fiscal impact of the changes and (2) the investigation of a more comprehensive sample of demographic and personal variables that might be related to policy changes implemented by school boards. / Ed. D.