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Leaders and policy makers in Uganda developed a national strategy of placing female administrators in traditionally male-dominated coeducational secondary schools in the belief that their vision would promote equitable education by changing gender regimes that play in schools. Gender regimes are patterns of gender arrangements that could disadvantage the education of boys or girls (Connell, 2002). The purpose of this study was to discover if female administrators perceived and had developed strategies to change gender regimes in their schools. Participants were 13 female administrators of government-supported coeducational mixed/day secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso urban districts. Participants ranged in age from 37 to 59 years and in school experience from 12 to 32 years. Nine participants held masters' degrees and 4 were currently enrolled in masters' programs. All participants were members of a female organization. The investigator used qualitative methodology to collect and analyze data and to report findings. With each participant, the investigator engaged in an open dialogue and used a semi-structured protocol to conduct an interview that was recorded and transcribed. The investigator examined archival records and collected artifacts from each school. Data were analyzed emically with NVivo software to facilitate the iterative process of identifying and refining themes. Themes had to reach a threshold of 50% to be considered significant. The findings revealed that female administrators perceived gender regimes related to family culture, school culture, sexuality, and power and authority. All female administrators had developed strategies to change the gender regimes that disadvantaged girls' education. These perceptions and strategies indicated that gender regimes were part of the vision of female administrators, but insufficient evidence was collected to determine the degree they were part of their strategic goals. These findings are significant because if these female administrators can change the gender regimes at play in their schools, they will make a significant contribution to providing equitable education to their students. While these findings cannot be generalized, this work may help other educators gain a better understanding of the influence of gender regimes in their schools.

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Although Congress enacted civil rights legislation in the 1960s to address racial inequities in income and employment, the executive branch and the courts have since retreated from efforts to pursue those policies aggressively. Meanwhile, anti-racism advocates, including the Montgomery County, Virginia based Dialogue on Race, have continued to promote strategies aimed at securing employment and income equity for all citizens. This study analyzed the social and economic costs of continued racial inequality in employment and income, and examined the ways in which local employers are addressing this challenge in the Blacksburg, Virginia region by exploring their self-reported rationales for action on the basis of economic efficiency or profit, moral obligation to fairness and justice, adherence to legal requirements, or leader influence. I addressed these concerns through population data analysis, key informant interviews, and a survey of major local employers. I found that New River Valley employers appear to be motivated by economic and moral reasons, as well as legal compliance. I conclude that activists should use this apparent openness to multiple rationales to work to help community leaders and local employers recognize racial equality as a moral imperative rather than as an instrumental claim incidental to its perceived utility. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

While many previous studies indicated that the overall number of school string/orchestra programs in the United States has increased, string/orchestra programs have been substantially underrepresented in school music curricula. In addition, the programs have been inequitably distributed geographically, and have tended to conform particular trends in their characteristics and demographics of string teachers and students. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and trends in the profile of current school string programs. Also, by investigating the inception of the programs, this study aimed to identify practical ways in creating a school string program. A 37-item questionnaire was developed to collect data. The participants were string/orchestra teachers who were teaching in public schools and members of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). A total of 130 teachers participated in this study. The result of this study indicated that string programs remain concentrated in suburban areas. Additionally, while string student population has become more diverse and reflective of the overall student population, the racial/ethnic makeup of string teachers is still predominantly White. This study also revealed that the idea of creating a new string program was most often initiated by either school music teachers or outreach program instructors/directors, and the first step typically involves discussing the idea with school administrators.

The changing topology of a network is driven by the need to maintain or optimize network function. As this function is often related to moving quantities such as traffic, information, etc., efficiently through the network, the structure of the network and the dynamics on the network directly depend on the other. To model this interplay of network structure and dynamics we use the dynamics on the network, or the dynamical processes the network models, to influence the dynamics of the network structure, i.e., to determine where and when to modify the network structure. We model the dynamics on the network using Jackson network dynamics and the dynamics of the network structure using minimal specialization, a variant of the more general network growth model known as specialization. The resulting model, which we refer to as the integrated specialization model, coevolves both the structure and the dynamics of the network. We show this model produces networks with real-world properties, such as right-skewed degree distributions, sparsity, the small-world property, and non-trivial equitable partitions. Additionally, when compared to other growth models, the integrated specialization model creates networks with small diameter, minimizing distances across the network. Along with producing these structural features, this model also sequentially removes the network's largest bottlenecks. The result are networks that have both dynamic and structural features that allow quantities to more efficiently move through the network.

This qualitative case study analyzes the underrepresentation of minority students in Advanced Placement (AP) courses in Virginia high schools and examines the influences that encourage school leaders to lessen the existing gaps at their assigned schools. Data from a division in southeastern Virginia summarizing each school's minority representation in its AP courses were analyzed. After identifying the schools' minority representation levels, qualitative research methods were used to determine the impact, if any, of school leaders on student participation rates. Additionally, qualitative data from individual interviews were considered to determine if school leaders who had a higher representation of minority populations at their schools demonstrated intentional actions to address AP participation in their schools. The results of this study indicate that principals believed that all capable students should have access to AP courses and that teachers and counselors influence students' decisions to enroll in AP courses. Additionally, principals found that sharing data reflecting their school's representation rates helped justify the need to improve student participation in AP courses. Principals with high participation rates placed importance on communicating to students the opportunities obtained by participating in AP courses and expected school staff to encourage students with potential to participate in more rigorous courses. Principals with higher minority representation rates in advanced courses were also found to frequently remind a variety of stakeholders to encourage students to participate in AP courses. Furthermore, principals with higher minority representation in AP programs used more "we," "us," and "our" statements and references to a team approach when asked about their work. Finally, this study found that specialized academies create environments where stronger student representation rates can occur in AP courses for all student groups. The results of the study have the potential to impact high school leaders as they seek to improve outcomes for the students they serve. / Ed. D.

At the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, an agreement was made between some of thelargest international humanitarian organizations and donors to implement measures toenhance partnerships between international and local humanitarian organizations, in an effortto localize humanitarian responses. Since then, criticism has been raised that there exists agap between policy and practice in relation to localization and partnerships, arguing that nosubstantial effort is being placed to address uneven power dynamics or decision-makingpower within these local/international partnerships. This thesis utilized a case-study approachon Christian Aid´s Rohingya Crisis Response in Bangladesh, conducted in collaboration withlocal partners to examine barriers in creating equitable partnerships between international andlocal humanitarian organizations, as well as possible actions to facilitate partnership equity.A theoretical framework on equitable partnership is constructed based on the components ofequality, mutuality and transparency, informed by partnership practices of thee humanitarianpartnerships, and analyzed in relation to practices by Christian Aid in their partnership. The findings show that primary barriers to facilitating partnerships that are equitable includethe exclusion of the local partner in key processes, such as operational planning anddecision-making, lack of mutual understanding of differences in skills and capacity, resultingin responsibilities that are not clearly defined and limited opportunities for complementarity.This amounts to the conclusion that Christian Aid´s partnership lacked any actual transfer ofpower to the local partner, thus facilitating a partnership that remains hierarchical in practice.Possible actions identified to mitigate this is to jointly define support needs and capacity,create space for negotiation and flexibility, and actively include the local partner indecision-making. The findings underline that the theoretical components of equitablepartnership can be translated into practice, with the aim of creating partnerships that are inline with international localization commitments.

Grading is one of the key components of modern pedagogy. Grades are primarily meant to be a method of communication, which is initiated by the owners of the pedagogy (instructors, school, etc.) and are received by various parties such as students: as feedback on their learning outcomes, parents, potential employers, other institutions, etc. However, traditional grading practices in wide use across institutions globally suffer from many problems and can prove to be a hindrance to students achieving their learning outcomes. Many of these practices do not have a backing in education and social research and suffer from various problems such as inherent bias, rewarding of behavior over skill or knowledge, increasing student anxiety, etc. In contrast, EGPs have been backed in research, follow a more open assessment method and have been shown to induce increased learning. Thus, to mitigate some of these problems, we employ Equitable Grading Practices (EGPs) in an introductory CS-1 course at Virginia Tech for the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters. In this thesis, we introduce these practices and evaluate student perceptions of them thereafter to answer research questions so that we may be able to refine these practices. We gather student experiences primarily through two instruments: a survey and one-on-one interviews. We describe these in detail and evaluate them through the use of statistics as well grounded theory analysis to be able to extract student perceptions of these grading practices. / Master of Science / Grading is a fundamental aspect of education, shaping not only student learning but also their future opportunities. Traditionally, grades are intended to communicate a student's performance to various stakeholders, including parents and potential employers. However, standard grading methods suffer for biases and promote anxiety among students, rather than truly reflecting their knowledge and skills. In an effort to address these issues, our research at Virginia Tech investigates the implementation of Equitable Grading Practices (EGPs) in an introductory computer science course. These practices, supported by educational research, emphasize a more transparent and inclusive approach to assessment, aiming to enhance learning rather than merely evaluate it. This thesis examines how students perceive these new grading practices through surveys and detailed interviews. Our goal is to understand their experiences and refine these methods to better support student achievement and well-being. This study not only offers insights into the impact of EGPs but also contributes to broader educational reforms aimed at fairer and more effective grading systems.

Inclusive arts education policy considers the arts a viable entry point to a holistic educational experience. It encourages educators to engage with students on a social and emotional level. Several studies have explored challenges with policy implementation that identify educators' interpretation of policy or assimilation to existing policy as a barrier to the full actualization of policy. Through a rigorous convergent mixed-methods study using convenience sampling, I present a thorough analysis of data that reflects internalized values, beliefs, and ideas. Seven contributors, five educational leaders, and two alumni completed interviews, and twenty-one educational leaders completed surveys utilizing Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com/), a web-based survey tool. The results identify contextual relationships and offer a comprehensive narrative encompassing knowledge and understanding, resource availability, beliefs, and psychological factors influencing the interpretation and implementation of whole-child arts inclusive policy. The results were: Insufficient policy awareness of federal and state policy, significant knowledge of teaching and general assessment practices, and remarkable administrative support coupled with resource limitations; challenges with structural design, prioritization of arts education despite financial challenges, students’ perspective reciprocates structure; and alignment with mission and past experiences in arts education.