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This research will examine graduation rates from the 1999-2000 school year until the 2012-13 school year, which will shed light on the long-term impact of neoliberal policy on inequality. I begin with a discussion of the history of school reform in NYC, starting with the Brown v. BOE verdict and finishing at the current neoliberal reform era, to understand how various reform strategies have aimed to reduce segregation and inequality. I then use a dissimilarity index to examine changes in racial segregation by performance between 2000 and 2013, using high school graduation rate quartiles to measure performance. In the last empirical chapter, I use growth curve modeling to understand the factors that are associated with changes in graduation rates. I model the impact of several factors that measure the presence of neoliberal reform and inequality on graduation. These measures include: racial and socioeconomic composition, the impact of mandatory regents, being a small school and failing on NYC school accountability report. This research finds that policies aimed at desegregation have been unaggressive and poorly implemented, and this has resulted in persistent segregation. Neoliberal policies assume that by increasing individual choices and accountability, that all students will make the choices that are in their best interest, and inequality will be reduced. This indirect strategy proves to be ineffective. White students have experienced increased access and isolation amongst the best performing schools, while Black students have become increasingly segregated in the worst performing schools. Growth curve modeling shows a consistent increase in graduation rates over this time. This increase is lessened for schools that serve above average black, Hispanic, and free-lunch eligible students. These schools have the lowest graduation rate. / Sociology

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study aims to research discipline in schools and I explored alternative forms of discipline. The literature indicates that alternative forms of discipline exist to the canings that were inflicted in the past, which have now been outlawed. However, effective alternatives to corporal punishment are not obvious. Before deciding on alternatives, it is advisable that teachers go through an experimental phase, and be prepared to make adjustments along the way. The literature also shows that classes with fewer behavioural problems have teachers who tend to use non-violent and child-centred approaches to classroom discipline. Studies show that the vast majority of disciplinary problems result from the circumstances in which such learners find themselves, which are characterised by problems at home, learning barriers, trauma, and ineffective teaching methods. I conclude that the application of corporal punishment aggravates such problems, rather than solving them. Present-day educators are required to fill a greater pastoral role than they did in the past, as learners nowadays tend to face many more difficult challenges than they used to do in the past and also are likely to experience less support outside the school. Most educational psychologists recommend that educators place learners, in cases of them suffering from emotional problems, child abuse, sexual abuse, HIV/AIDS, or alcohol and drug abuse, in an intensive process of counselling, with them being referred to experts in the fields of reference (Porteus et al., 2001:45). I conclude that attempts to improve classroom discipline can be effective if the whole school community is involved. One of the ways in which the whole school community can become involved in attaining a better discipline system is through the adoption of a code of conduct that is arrived at by means of consultation, persuasion and agreement with all role-players concerned. The maintenance of such a code is, however, only likely to be successful if it is strictly enforced and the appropriate sanctions are imposed against those who violate it. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie doen navorsing oor dissipline in skole, en spesifiek alternatiewe vorme daarvan. Die literatuur dui op die bestaan van alternatiewe vorme van dissipline na die afskaffing van lyfstraf in Suid-Afrikaanse skole. Alternatiewe vorme van dissipline is egter nog nie duidelik sigbaar nie. Voordat daar besluit kan word oor alternatiewe vorme is dit egter raadsaam dat onderwysers eers eksperimenteer en die haalbaarheid van alternatiewe vorme probeer vasstel. Die literatuur dui aan dat klaskamers met min of geen dissiplinêre probleme, onderwysers het wat nie-geweldadige en kindergesentreerde benaderings volg. Studies dui aan dat kinders met dissiplinêre probleme uit huise kom met leerprobleme, trauma, en oneffektiewe onderrig metodes. My gevolgtrekking is dat lyfstraf sulke problem vererger, eerder as om dit op te los. Daar word van hedendaagse onderwysers verwag om meer as ooit tevore 'n pastorale rol te vervul. Sielkundiges adviseer dat leerders met ernstige dissiplinere problem eerder na deskundiges verwys behoort te word in plaas daarvan om dit in die klaskamer te probeer oplos. My gevolgtrekking is dat klaskamer dissipline kan effektief toegepas kan word indien die hele skool, ouers en gemeenskap betrokke word. Dit kan slegs geskied met 'n gedragskode wat deur wye konsultasie, beraadslaging en in ooreenstemming met al die rolspelers daar gestel word. Die handhawing van so ʼn kode kan slegs slaag indien dit streng toegepas word en indien daar strafmaatreëls in plek is vir diegene wat die kode verbreek.

Thesis (MEd) -- Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explored the views of thirteen youth at Victoria High School about what they regarded as achievement and how this influenced their lives and what they thought about their futures. The starting premise of the study was that all learners think about achievement. The goal of the study was thus to show how different learners connect this understanding of achievement with their respective aspirations and the kinds of social and schooling worlds they inhabit. The key contribution of the study is the ways it links the social, cultural, and economic worlds of each of the thirteen learners to what they say about what they do and what they want to do, who they are and who they want to be, and what they think they do and what they think they want to do. The study shows that the life-worlds of each of the learners are significantly different yet the ways they go about making sense of that world are fairly similar. In that regard it is shown that the school, and what learners, parents and educators think it is and does, plays a crucial role in the sense-making process. As Berkhout (2008) notes, the different contexts that shape the lives of individuals are not simply external forces but rather are integral parts of their identity-making process. The study used the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Arjun Appadurai to bring together a framework by which to understand what learners said about their worlds and their aspirations, as well to develop a narrative that showed the rich and complex ways in which learners engaged with their realities. The study followed an interpretive qualitative approach to explore the issue of achievement and based its arguments on interviews conducted with thirteen youth between the ages of fifteen and seventeen years old. In this regard, a key finding was that learners approached the notion of achievement in developmental, cumulative, and progressive ways. These views included wanting to be popular, gaining new knowledge, preparing for future material acquisition, developing skills to lead decent lives, acquiring happiness, developing the ability to overcome their challenges and circumstances, and gaining skills and recognition that set up their futures. Five staff members at Victoria High school were also interviewed for their views of the schooling context and the kinds of cultures and legacies that framed their practice. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die tesis is gefokus op die denke van dertien studente van Victoria Hoërskool aangaande die nosie van prestasie, en hoe hierdie denke hul lewens beïnvloed sowel as wat hulle dink van hul toekoms. Die vertrekpunt van die verbande studie was dat alle leerders oor prestasie dink. Die doel van die tesis (daaruitvoortspruitend) was dus om aan te toon hoe verskillende leerders ʼn verband aanlê tussen hul beskouing van prestasie, hul aspirasies en die maatskaplike- en skoolwêrelde wat hul beleef. Die kern bydrae van die tesis is die verbande wat gemaak is in die verbande studie tussen die sosiale, kulturele en ekonomiese wêrelde van elkeen van die dertien leerders ten opsigte van hul beskouing aangaande wat hulle doen en wil doen, wat hulle is en wil wees, en wat hulle dink hulle doen en wil doen. Die tesis toon aan dat die leefwêreld van elk van die leerders merkbaar verskillend is, maar dat die wyse waarop hulle betekenis gee aan hul leefwêreld tog redelik ooreenstem. In hierdie verband is dit getoon dat die skool, en wat leerders, ouers en onderwysers daaromtrent dink, ʼn kardinale rol speel in hul betekenisvormingsproses. Berkhout (2008) voer in hierdie verband aan dat die verskillende kontekste wat die lewens van individue vorm nie slegs eksterne magte is nie, maar eerder integrale dele van hul identiteitsvormings proses is. Die studie maak gebruik van die werk van Pierre Bourdieu en Arjun Appadurai om ʼn raamwerk te ontwikkel om leerders se beskouinge van hul wêrelde en aspirasies te verstaan, sowel as om ‘n narratief te ontwikkel wat die ryk en komplekse wyses waarop leerders met hul realiteite omgaan, aan te toon. Die tesis, en verbande studie, het ʼn interpretatiewe, kwalitatiewe benadering gevolg om die idee van prestasie te verken en het die tesis argumente baser op onderhoude met dertien leerders tussen vyftien tot sewentienjaar oud. ʼn Kernbevinding in hierdie verband was dat leerders die idée van prestasie op ontwikkelings-, kumulatiewe- en progressiewe wyses benader. Beskouinge van leerders in die verband sluit onder andere in, die behoefte om populêr te wees, die verkryging van nuwe kennis, voorbereiding om materiële goedere in die toekoms te bekom, die ontwikkeling van vaardighede noodsaaklik vir ʼn ordentlike lewe, die strewe na geluk, die ontwikkeling van die vermoë om hul uitdagings en omstandighede te oorkom, en die ontwikkeling vaardighede en erkenning noodsaaklik vir hul toekoms. Onderhoude is ook gevoer met vyf personeellede van Victoria hoërskool om hul beskouinge ten opsigte van die skoolkonteks en die soort kulture en erfenisse wat hul praktyk informeer te bepaal.