Thesis advisor: Peter Skerry / K-12 education policy has become increasingly centralized and technocratic, while falling short of achieving policy objectives. Young people are generally maladjusted to the personal and professional challenges of contemporary life. Parents experience diminishing political influence over the form and substance of their children’s education. I argue that improvement of the quality of private education requires greater emphasis on local political dynamics. School choice offers a free market alternative to a public school system which has largely ceded decision making to avowedly apolitical bureaucrats. Ironically, politics remains essential for the formation and regulation of the very policies that enable the marketplace to thrive as in the case of the tax credit scholarship. The politics behind the marketplace is brought to light by examining the local political relationships required to establish and maintain the Illinois Invest in Kids Tax Credit Scholarship (TCS), a school choice policy of unprecedented magnitude in Illinois. Furthermore, this research examines local dynamics among parents in the Archdiocese of Chicago, many of whom benefit from the aforementioned tax credit scholarships and manifest a variety of views on the teleological purpose of the parochial school. In a nation that is both diverse and increasingly polarized, successful governance of community schools depends upon discerning leaders and the practice of reinvigorated federalism. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

The need for engineers in the workforce continues to grow. Filling this need requires recruiting future engineers to colleges and universities and retaining them through to degree completion. However, this is easier said than done. Universities are tasked with attempting to keep up with the demand for new engineers and companies are searching for new engineers to recruit. One avenue that has been established in the attempt to reach students for engineering is offering engineering or STEM classes in K-12 schools. This dissertation looked at engineering classes offered at the high school level. These courses were analyzed for relationships with the steps in producing new engineers – recruitment and persistence. Historical data was used to study the effect of high school engineering courses on engineering recruitment. The availability of engineering courses in Mississippi high schools was analyzed against the percentage of graduates from those high schools entering the largest engineering school in the state. The influence of high school engineering participation on engineering discipline selection was also studied using a nationwide sample of current undergraduate engineering students. This same survey sample was used to study two factors related to engineering persistence – persistence attitudes and engineering self-efficacy. Analysis found significant relationships between high school engineering courses and engineering recruitment. Engineering availability correlated to a higher percentage of students entering engineering. Participation in these engineering courses was also significantly associated with choice in certain engineering disciplines. However, once students have chosen their path in engineering and entered their undergraduate journey, the high school courses do not impact persistence factors. No relationships were found between high school engineering participation and persistence attitudes or overall engineering self-efficacy.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第24734号 / 情博第822号 / 新制||情||138(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 緒方 広明, 教授 伊藤 孝行, 准教授 馬 強 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Instructional design is commonly referred to as the systematic process of creating consistent and reliable learning experiences (Branch & Merrill, 2011). Built on a foundation of learning theory and instructional design theory, instructional design relies heavily on various process models to guide design practice (Stefaniak & Xu, 2020) and to manage and communicate the process of design (Branch & Dousay, 2015). Despite their use, scholars argue that these models do not accurately represent instructional design practice (Bichelmeyer et al., 2006; Rowland, 1992; Smith & Boling, 2009; Visscher-Voerman & Gustafson, 2004; Wedman & Tessmer, 1993) and remain too focused on high-level processes rather than discrete methods and actions (Gibbons et al., 2014). In recent years, human-centered design (HCD) methods have emerged within instructional design practice, providing more methodological guidance for instructional designers within an empathetic design perspective (Stefaniak & Xu, 2020). HCD includes codesign practices (Steen, 2012)that seek to involve users directly throughout the design process. The current study explores the design experiences of 12 participant designers (e.g., teachers, digital coaches) who were purposely selected to engage in a seven-week codesign experience. Tasked with providing direction on resources designed to support K-12 teachers with online and hybrid teaching, these participant designers worked together to share previous teaching experiences, analyze teacher data, and identify and develop learning prototypes. Interviews with eight participant designers following the codesign experience revealed that participants viewed the project as open and ill-defined, lacking in a clear outcome and identified roles and responsibilities. As the codesign continued, participants described impactful moments that clarified the design project and shifted the design process to a focus on details. While the end product of design was described by participants generally, participants viewed their experiences and perspectives as their major contributions to the design process. Results from this investigation reveal important implications for design practice, education, and research.

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The purpose of this study was to identify significant differences in academic achievement among virtual students of various backgrounds, demographics, and virtual learning environments. The study also sought to identify factors that may predict the academic achievement, as defined by final course grade, of virtual students. This study examined those relationships for the 476 students enrolled in virtual courses between January 2010 and January 2013 in Sullivan County Schools, TN. These students were in grades 7-12 during the time the courses were taken. Independent variables in Phase I of the study included gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, prior number of virtual courses completed, and existing student grade point average. Independent variables in Phase II of the study included instructional dialogue in the virtual course, structure of the virtual course, and autonomy of the learner allowed in the virtual course. The researcher investigated the relationships between these independent variables and the dependent variable, academic achievement, as determined by final virtual course grade. The statistical methods used to answer the research questions included bivariate correlations, independent samples t-tests, and bivariate regression analysis. Two of the independent variables in Phase I of the study were found to be significant. Students identified as being economically disadvantaged tended to perform better academically in virtual courses than students identified as non-economically disadvantaged, as determined by final virtual course grade. A statistical significance was also found between existing student GPA and academic achievement in virtual environments. Students with a higher GPA prior to taking a virtual course tended to receive higher grades than those with lower existing GPAs. Using bivariate regression, existing GPA accounted for 25% of the variance in student academic achievement in virtual courses. All three of the independent variables in Phase II of the study were found to have a significant relationship with student academic achievement as determined by final virtual course grade. Students who reported high levels of instructional dialogue (frequency of teacher-student interactions, teaching presence, content interactions) tended to perform significantly higher than those reporting lower levels of instructional dialogue. Students who reported high levels of structure (instructional support, navigation, course design) tended to perform significantly higher than those reporting lower levels of structure in the course. Students who reported higher levels of autonomy (student ability to determine goals, learning experiences, and evaluation decisions) tended to perform significantly better academically than those who reported lower levels of autonomy.

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Effective leadership in Islamic schools involves the incorporation of Islamic principles in the leadership behaviors and practices. With so much literature about the need of Islamic leadership in Islamic institutions in the United States, the problem addressed by the study was whether school principals in Islamic schools exhibited and led these schools according to the principles of Islamic leadership. The study described leadership approaches used by school principals in Islamic schools and how those leadership approaches were influenced by Islamic leadership principles, comparing the Islamic leadership principles derived from the literature with the leadership principles of principals of Islamic schools. A complete population of 12 Islamic school principals in the state of Michigan participated in the study. Data was obtained by individual, face-to-face interviews to get rich descriptive information about their leadership approaches, trait, styles, and principles.

Using mixed methods, this study examined the nature of teacher-student interaction in an asynchronous, statewide, self-paced virtual high school. Eight teachers were interviewed to understand their perceptions on the nature of interactions and their role as a virtual school teacher. Interactions were primarily instructional in nature, taking the form of feedback on student assignments. There were few procedural and social interactions. In general, teachers felt disconnected from their students due to the large class sizes and limited interactions. They also felt disconnected from their peers and the role of a teacher as they traditionally defined it. To understand the relationship between perceived interaction and academic performance, 46,089 students were surveyed using an 18-item instrument designed to assess the types and frequency of interaction. Hierarchical linear modeling and hierarchical logistic regression on the 2,269 responses indicated significant differences between completers' and non-completers' perceptions of teacher-student interaction. However, there were minimal differences between students based on grade awarded and teacher-student interaction. The results of this study were discussed as well as implications for practitioners and researchers. The full text of this dissertation may be downloaded for free from http://etd.byu.edu/