This dissertation examines philanthropic foundation grant making for early childhood and K-12 education policy in the period 1988 to 2005, focusing on how grant making changed as a result of the Charlottesville Summit in 1989 and the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001. Using a rational choice frame, I specifically ask if foundations responded to changes in the education policy environment that resulted from those 2 events by changing the levels of government that they target in their education policy grant making. Then, using an institutional frame, I ask if foundation capacity, as measured by their asset size and board size, increases the likelihood of being a foundation that focuses on policy grant making for education and increases the speed of response to changes in the field of foundations and the broader policy environment. Lastly, I employ the organizational ecology frame to ask if foundations have responded to changes in the organizational field of foundations, as the result of the entrance of new foundations that are influenced by broad changes in the business world, to focus their grant making increasingly on advocacy and other policy work. I find that there are a number of foundation characteristics that are associated with the odds of being a policy foundation and with the proportion of grants that policy foundations make for policy activities. I find that overall, following the Charlottesville Summit state targeted grantmaking decreased while nationally (affecting many if not all states) and federally targeted grantmaking rose. And, following the implementation of No Child Left Behind, locally targeted, state targeted and federally targeted grantmaking all increased as a percentage of total policy grantmaking, while nationally targeted grantmaking declined. However, these overall trends obscure important differences between the largest and non-largest foundations. Lastly, I find that grant recipient types also varied by foundation asset size. I conclude that while there is evidence to suggest that foundations behave as rational actors, to some degree, they are less responsive to isomorphic pressures from within the field of foundations than I would have expected. Additionally, rather than seeing tremendous change among the older foundations, the entrance of new foundations into the field of education philanthropy seems to be responsible for the perception that the field has changed dramatically.

This project uses a mixed methods approach to analyze the communication of metaphors about educational equity and adequacy, between co-equal state supreme courts in education finance litigation (1971-present). Evidence demonstrates that a number of pervasive metaphors about students and educational opportunities (“sound basic education,” “marketplace of ideas,” students as “competitors in the global economy”) have been shared and conventionalized within judicial networks, with significant implications for how courts interpret educational rights under state constitutions. The project first conducts a qualitative discourse analysis of education finance litigation in New York State (four cases) using Pragglejaz Group’s (2007) Metaphor Identification Procedure, to identify micro-level examples of metaphor usage in actual judicial discourse. Then, it performs quantitative and qualitative social network analysis of the entire education finance judicial network for state supreme courts (65 cases), to analyze two different “relations” between this set of actors: shared citation (formal relation) and shared metaphor (informal relation). Data analysis shows that there exist both formal and informal channels of judicial communication—communication we can “see,” and communication we can’t—and commonalities in discursive strategies (informal ties) are, in some ways, potentially more cohesive than direct, formal ties. The project also finds that courts looking to break with existing state precedent are more likely to turn to inter-court metaphors to validate their holdings. This project seeks to describe how metaphors become diffuse within judicial networks, and more generally seeks to enhance understanding of the ways in which political viewpoints on public benefits and rights are communicated through elite channels.

The issue of low community college retention and completion rates has become an important concern in recent years. The lack of persistence among college students has led to a variety of institutional initiatives including first-year experience courses, intrusive advising, and other innovative approaches. Among these approaches, First-Year Experience (FYE) courses are consistently supported as a promising retention strategy. To that end, the purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate the motivation and first-year experience of students who participated in a Grit and Growth Mindset themed FYE course and persisted beyond the first year. Survey data were collected from 122 students and focus group interviews were conducted with 10 students at a large community college in southeast Florida. The survey data analyses using Independent Samples T-test, ANOVA, and Correlation showed that female students and older students reported a higher level of motivation than male and younger students, but there was no statistically significant difference in their motivation level by race/ethnicity. The focus group interviews revealed that students found three aspects of the FYE course influential to their motivation: (1) short-term and long-term goal setting, (2) self-reflection, and (3) support and resources. They also reported that time management strategies and supports from professors, peers, and family helped them overcome their challenges associated with balancing jobs and coursework, as well as anxiety and nervousness about their ability to complete college. An important implication of this study is for community colleges to continue emphasizing FYE courses to ensure that incoming students feel confident about their ability to achieve success during the first year and persist by overcoming obstacles. In addition, colleges should continue to equip students with practical tools and resources, such as time-management and the SMART goal framework, that support their competence and autonomy in charting their path to success. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 14, 2019. / Community Colleges, First-Year Experience, Grit, Growth Mindset, Motivation, Retention / Includes bibliographical references. / Motoko Akiba, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephen D. McDowell, University Representative; Ayesha Khurshid, Committee Member; Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, Committee Member.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education Management and Policy Studies))-University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Dec. 5, 2007). PDF text: 151 p. ; 7 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3275078. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 13, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1984. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-185). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Educational Management) -- University of Pretoria. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-108)

The purpose of the study was to compare the school climate in three secondary schools whose personnel had gone through a formalized group planning process with the school climate in three secondary schools whose personnel had not participated in a formalized group planning process. The certificated staffs of the three secondary schools which had completed the formalized group planning process were identified as the intervention group. The certificated staffs of the three secondary schools which had not participated in the formalized group planning process were identified as the control group. The intervention group and control group were chosen on the basis of similar student populations.The certificated staffs of the six schools responded to the abridged Discipline Context Inventory. Data from the instrument provided an overall school climate score as well as scores for eight subfactors within school climate.Nine null hypotheses were formulated. The null hypothesis regarding overall school climate was tested using the Hotelling T2 statistic. Eight null hypotheses relating to each of the subfactors of the instrument were tested using a t-test statistic. All tests used the .05 level of significance. The null hypothesis for the overall school climate was rejected. There was a significant difference in overall school climate between the two groups. The control group had the higher overall school climate score. No significant difference existed between the two groups on five subfactors: problem-solving and decision-making; distribution of authority and status; student belongingness; curriculum and instructional practices; dealing with personal problems. The hypotheses for three subfactors were rejected. The control group scored significantly higher in the subfactor developing and implementing rules. The intervention group scored significantly higher in the subfactors relationships with parents and other community members and physical environment.