The purpose of this study was to seek a greater understanding of the female doctoral student experience. In particular, the emphasis of this study is on exploring the dynamics and consequences of the advisor/advisee relationships that female doctoral students experience. This study was designed to address the role of ethnicity and gender in: (a) the selection of an advisor; (b) the quality and characteristics of the advisor/advisee relationship; (c) the impact of the advisor/advisee relationships on program satisfaction; and (d) the impact of external factors on the advisor/advisee relationship and academic experience of female doctoral students. To accomplish this goal, qualitative methods were utilized to study the advisor/advisee relationship experiences of six doctoral students. Results of this study suggest female doctoral students may become disillusioned with their progress or feel the weight of external factors bearing down on their progress. Students managing effective relationships with theirs advisors shared these feelings with their advisors. It appears open communication can make a tremendous difference in the type of advisement experience a female doctoral student shares with her advisor The participants of this study suggest graduate advisors should expect the most from female doctoral students, but refrain from exerting their values and beliefs academically, professionally, or personally upon them. These female doctoral student participants hold their advisors in high esteem and regard. All study participants seem to subscribe to the belief that advisors can make or break them. This study suggests the ultimate advisement goal these female doctoral student participants have with regard to their advisee/advisee relationship is that their advisors not break them, while they are making them or help to put them back together if they do break their spirits during the doctoral process. This study also suggests that graduate school and academic departmental administrators have a unique responsibility with regard to doctoral student advisement. Participants suggest it would be beneficial to have a systematic opportunity for doctoral students to acquire an appropriate advisor. These experiences though singularly unique are collectively powerful in providing an increased understanding of the shared essence of female doctoral students existing within academia today.

This study is aimed at determining the impact of Louisianas School and District Accountability System on students performance on the state mandated criterion-referenced test (LEAP 21). The study was designed to determine the extent to which teachers in Title I schools in a large urban district in southwest Louisiana have turned to instructionally unsound practices in response to a high-stakes accountability system. The specific objectives addressed in this study were to: 1) Explore if test scores have changed beyond what would be expected given the cohort design of the accountability model. 2) Explore if test scores have changed and determine why? 3) Determine where there has been improved learning and identify those practices teachers use to obtain the positive results. For the qualitative analyses, data were collected from interviews, surveys and observations with 4th grade teachers and principals in the selected school district. Specifically, this study attempted to determine if a measurable increase in student performance on the state-mandated test in grade 4 and determine to what sources the positive change could be attributed. The results of this study indicated that Louisianas accountability system has impacted each Title I school in various ways. There was not only a variation in how these schools perceived accountability, but also a variation in the perceptions of teachers and principals with regard to strategies that are being used to prepare students for high stakes testing.

This study explored relationships between Self-Efficacy, Motivation, and Outcome Expectations and Intention Certainty. Intention Certainty is a new variable created for this study and comprised of existing conceptions of intention and decision certainty. The purpose of this study was fourfold. This study attempted to expand our understanding of the college retention dropout issue by exploring relationships between psychologically rich variables. Second, this study provided information considered useful for framing future research on retention from a different perspective that focuses on characteristics of individuals who stay, rather than those who leave higher education with the consideration of psychological constructs. Further, this research expanded the Tinto model to examine psychological variables believed to influence intention to remain enrolled as opposed to demographic variables associated with student dropouts. Finally, because the sample was extended to include all subsets of the student population, broader practical applications were obtained resulting in greater generalizability of the results. The study sample consisted of 441 undergraduate students attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette during the summer 2001 session. Four measures were used for data collection: College Student Self-Efficacy Scale (CSSES), Student Motivation Scale (SMS), Student Outcome Expectation Scale (SOES), and the Student Intention Certainty Scale (SICS). All measures were created specifically for this study. Major findings include: a) the measures developed specifically for the study are of reasonable quality, b) the hypothesized relationships between the independent variables and dependent variable were corroborated contrary to findings from prior research, c) there is little relationship between the presage variables and the psychological variables studied, d) positive outcome expectations and, to a lesser degree, students self-efficacy beliefs, make the strongest contribution to students intentions to remain enrolled in college and to persist in obtaining a college degree, and e) importantly, the psychological variables utilized in the study appear to be more powerful predictors of college students intentions to remain enrolled than previously studied demographic and presage variables.

The purpose of this research was to provide a forecast of financial trends in major intercollegiate athletics over the next 15 years for strategic planning purposes. This study focused specifically on the trends of revenue generation and cost containment in the athletic departments of the public institutions in the ACC, Big 12 and SEC Conferences. Most of these large programs are expected to externally produce a majority of their fiscal resources and compete at a high level. This forecast is important because of administrator's increasing difficulty to find the fiscal resources to adequately subsidize their program. The mixed methods study uncovered the myth that intercollegiate athletic programs are in great fiscal health and outlined where leaders in intercollegiate athletics think the future will take us. Over 35 forecasts were identified through interviews with an intercollegiate athletic conference commissioner and an intercollegiate athletic consultant and were then rated by a panel of athletic directors from the aforementioned conferences based on their desirability, impact and likelihood of occurrence. After two rounds of a Delphi procedure, it was determined that over half of the issues, should they occur, would have a high impact. None of the 35 issues were rated as having no or low impact. One issue was rated as having the highest possible likelihood of occurrence. The issue was that employee compensation, utility bills, travel costs, and medical insurance will increase for institutions and athletic departments faster than the general, national rate of inflation. 32 issues were rated as having between a 21-80% chance of occurring, while two issues were given only a 0-20% chance of occurring within the next 10-15 years. The first forecasted that football scholarship limits will be lowered from 85 over the next 10-15 years. The second forecasted that an antitrust exemption will be implemented over the next 10-15 years for intercollegiate athletics by the federal government to cap wages. Over one-third of the issues obtained consensus in two of the three areas rated. Three of the issues obtained consensus in all areas rated.

Thesis (EdD)--Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-232). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3018354.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 104 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-98).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 315-326). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.