The Crimson Connections Learning Community was designed as a means of providing support to a select population of students as they became members of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) community. The program provided students who were exploring majors with a shared experience, strived to blend the academic and residential experience, and served to ease the transition from high school to college academically and socially with an emphasis on career development. Students received tutoring, advising & other support services to help them to succeed. The program was intended to support participants as they made new friends quickly, to enhance their decision-making abilities regarding their future and to establish study groups that would result in better academic performance. The purpose of this study was to explore how students participation in the learning community impacted their academic success and their retention to the sophomore year. Specifically, the study looked at undeclared majors in the College of Fine Arts and the College of Health and Human Services that participated in Crimson Connections during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 academic years. The research focused on the academic success and retention of students participating in the learning community. The study found that the retention of students was strong although not at the university-wide level for each year. Students were academically successful and selected a major in a timely fashion, both goals of the learning community. The results of the study provide a learning community framework for working with undeclared majors that promotes retention and academic success. In addition, the study identified areas of need for undeclared majors at Indiana University of Pennsylvania that were not being addressed.

In recent years, federal grants for biomedical research have become increasingly difficult to secure, yet remain important for receipt of tenure in the biomedical sciences at research-intensive institutions. This study examines how pre-tenure biomedical faculty in a top research university cope with the threat of tenure denial that is due, in part, to the current NIH economy. It specifically focuses on the effect this experience may have on professional identities. Ten lower-funded and eight higher-funded faculty were interviewed about their professional identity, their experiences approaching tenure, and institutional support. The majority of the participants had strong professional identities as academic researchers. There was a clear sense among the majority that being funded is more important than receiving tenure. Unmet expectations existed regarding the nature of science and faculty work, academic freedom, independence, and the intense focus on funding. Several faculty described episodes of identity work. Some made conscious efforts to separate their professional and personal identities and another tried to integrate the two. Faculty used preventive identity work to inhibit future identity chasms and to cope with potential identity threats. Four types of professional identity work were displayed: reframing the nature of professional work, reframing the approach to work, reconceptualizing the professional self, and renegotiating the relationship of self to professional work. Faculty participants understood professional success in their institutional environment to mean receipt of biomedical research grants from the federal government. They exhibited a lack of clarity regarding institutional expectations for tenure, and acknowledged that department chairs and mentors can help both in this regard and with developing a sense of community and fit. This research sheds light on the pressures experienced by those who may find cures for a plethora of public health issues in the future. Practical suggestions are provided to help medical school administrators wishing to support and enhance the productivity and comfort of junior faculty.

Research suggest that just like the rise and fall of nation states and organizations depends on the capabilities of leadership, likewise the success and failure of schools is largely contingent upon the effectiveness of school leadership. Because of its importance, school leadership has long been the focus of Western research, but such a focus in the context of developing countries in general, and Pakistan in particular, is not very extensive. This is the reason the phenomenon of leadership and their capacity buildings have not received enough attention in the educational landscape of Pakistan. Therefore, the study which was conducted in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan intended to explore what secondary school administrators in Pakistan need in order to improve their performance. A constructivist paradigm was adopted by the application of the case study method. A convenience sampling approach was used to identify two government and two private schools. Besides four school administrators and eight teachers, the perspectives of two educational officials each from private and government sectors were also incorporated in this study. This research was conducted in a time period when the processes of educational development within the country were hampered as a result of terrorist activities followed by a government backed military offensive against the radical elements. The study explored administrative, educational, and the human resource management skills of four school leaders located in two systems. The study revealed that as compared to government school leaders, private leaders had a better understanding about their role as a manager and as a leader. This clarity of roles led them to become more focused on the instructional development through administrative measures. On the other hand, administrators in government schools were more focused on less productive tasks which in turn distanced them from their instructional responsibilities. In order to address this issue the study made a number of recommendations ranging from selection of school administrators to the provision of particular administrative, educational, and social skills to the school leaders. To achieve this objective, the study suggests a holistic approach through the involvement of multiple stakeholders and the application of numerous strategies.

This study examined the relationship of stress, burnout, and coping strategies among middle school principals in Western Pennsylvania. This study assessed coping skill preferences among middle school principals, especially regarding their age, gender, marital status, experience, and school enrollment. A review of the literature included studies regarding moderate to high levels of stress and the principal. Researchers indicated that the middle school principals job is very stressful due to the scope of responsibilities at that level (Cusack, 1982; Fogelson, 1992; Foster, 1986; Heinze, 1987; Saffer, 1984; Thompson, 1985). Studies of principals support the proposition that specific stress levels can affect these individuals. This study confirms the kinds of stress middle school principals face and to some extent, how they prefer to cope with it. The work world of principals has expanded in both complexity and quantity. Principals are spending more time on the job than they had in the past, and they are navigating ways to be successful in the high stakes work context that has permeated the job. This changing nature of the principalship has required more time, political savvy, stress, accountability measures, legal expertise, and the ability to deal with health concerns. This particular theme is not well researched in school leadership. The intent of this study was a step on the way to developing a framework for the type of work that is done by middle school principals in Western Pennsylvania, while also reviewing the physical and emotional costs that are derived from the competitive nature of increased accountability along with the myriad of responsibilities faced by these school leaders. The purpose was also to measure the direct and indirect effects of job characteristics, interpersonal relationships, role stress, psychological states, and task outcomes on middle level principals. Data were collected by an online questionnaire and followed by semi-structured interviews by volunteer participants. Data were analyzed throughout the study to guide decisions and determine emergent themes. By studying the phenomenon of work demands on principals in the 21st Century, the educational community gains insight into the functional work-related behaviors of leaders and their level of job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study is to examine perspectives of fulltime faculty at the School of Education in a major public research university on their socialization experiences to research. The institution offers several programs that socialize junior and senior faculty to many aspects of the faculty position, however, programs that are related to research were few. Twenty-nine fulltime faculty members from the institutions School of Education completed a survey providing insights on their perceptions regarding their research-related experiences during their graduate, early-career, and current stages. Faculty members were also asked to provide their perceptions on the institutions efforts towards their research socialization in addition to other descriptive data. Correlations between several types of research activities among faculty members different career stages were significant. Perceptions concerning socialization to the faculty position were more positive regarding the contribution of faculty members graduate experiences compared to the institutional efforts. Finally, perceptions regarding the available socialization programs at the institution were positive in general, and were also highly correlated with faculty members perception about their overall experiences with the institution.

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary teachers perspectives on the impact that Lesson study participation had on their knowledge and teaching of mathematics. The study explored teachers perspectives of how Lesson study participation affected their mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical-content knowledge. Lesson study is a professional development practice with roots in Japanese schools. It has shown great promise in improving the quality of teaching mathematics in ways that are sustainable and generative in nature. Essentially, Lesson study is a collaborative method of goal setting, instructional planning, assessing its impact, and reflection and refinement of teaching. It is iterative in nature and requires that teachers participate for extended periods of time to reap the benefits. This study of elementary teachers from western Pennsylvania revealed that teachers perceived a positive impact on both their mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge. Specifically, these teachers reported changes in how prepared they felt to teach math, their understanding of core math concepts, how they understood the connections between math concepts, and how prepared they felt to effectively plan for instruction. When reporting their perceptions of the impact that Lesson study had on their pedagogical-content knowledge, teachers cited the greatest impact in their understanding of student misconceptions in math, how prepared they felt to teach concepts rather than skills, and how often they understood how children learn math. This study examined the challenges and/or enabling factors encountered while participating in Lesson study and the findings suggest that time was a major challengeboth scheduling time to meet and the amount of time needed to devote to Lesson study. The amount of administrative support the teachers received was both a major challenge and major factor enabling success. The most frequently cited major factor enabling success was the size and make-up of the Lesson study group. Overall, the findings in this study suggest that a majority of the teachers believed that Lesson study helped them become a better math teacher, and that it was an effective way to continue their professional development. A majority also reported that they plan to continue Lesson study participation.

The political environment created by the high expectation for educational systems by voters, coupled with the requirements of federal legislation, and the political gains to be made by educational reform politicians exert a downward pressure on local school boards. As a result, school boards are being isolated from the local control that they have traditionally enjoyed. Federal efforts such as NCLB have required state bureaucratic reforms demanding higher levels of conformity with centralized state education policy in many jurisdictions. As a result, school boards may no longer be the representatives of local control but simply the administrators of state policy at a local level. This qualitative study investigates whether a set of school boards in Pennsylvania is losing traditional autonomy and how this may be occurring. Using a critical case study design, the relationship between local school boards in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Board of Education (PSBE) is considered in relation to principal agent theory (PAT). PAT is a widely used theory in the social sciences that provides a basic framework for investigating the role of individual and organizational interests, information flows, and incentives in governance settings. Data was collected by interview and sorted by codes based on an a priori content analysis. These codes were then combined to create themes from which the interplay of the relationship between the PSBE and the local school boards can be examined. The key finding of this study supports the idea that Pennsylvania is centralizing authority over education. However, local school boards are also maintaining a high degree of local control as the implementation of state policy has generally been left to the local boards. Findings indicate that those involved in the study feel that state standards and the prescribed Annual Yearly Progress goals have been a positive influence in Pennsylvania. Additional findings of this study are that authority over education in Pennsylvania is more broadly distributed among the state government than expected. This study also provides a policy recommendation that the role of local school boards be reviewed as their function in the new centralized policy environment lacks definition.

This study describes the design and delivery of a five-day experiential leadership institute of a K- 12 principal certificate program redesigned to meet new state standards and research recommendations using Kegan's (1982, 1994) constructive developmental theory and Heifetz's (1994, 2009) adaptive leadership theory. The study investigates ten students' experience and learning in this adaptation of case-in-point methodology. The study found that students demonstrated shifts in their perspectives on self, leadership and organizations as systems. Students showed variations in the complexity of these perspective shifts with some having micro-developmental characteristics. Case-in-point teaching in the institute supported growth in complexity of perspective taking through an iterative process of reflection and encounters with different points of view on personal leadership failures. Adult development framing gave students a linguistic support to articulate their experience and learning in case-in-point teaching. Implications for principal preparation and developmental research on leadership education are discussed.

In this study, I investigate the various ways in which parents of first-generation college students influence their childrens capacity to acquire the requisite cultural capital needed to enroll and persist in college, as well as the ways in which first-generation students acquire this capital in other ways. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how parents influence a first-generation college students desire to enroll in college and persist. In addition, the aim of the study is to gauge the influence of parental involvement on first-generation college student persistence while in college. The study examines how parents aid students acquisition of the requisite cultural capital needed to better position them to attend college. It describes how the socioeconomic background and social class of families influence their capacity to connect to social networks that have the capacity to increase the educational aspirations of their children. The central research question of this study is to then understand how and to what extent families play a role in the educational goals past the secondary level for first-generation college students. Further, how do first-generation college students describe their home lives prior to college? This study examines these issues through the interrelated theoretical framework that employs Bourdieus theories on habitus and cultural capital (1977). Participants were actively involved at the time of this study in the TRIO Student Support Services program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. This study uses an open-ended semi-structured interview format with a sample of purposefully selected respondents. Parents of participants in this study were supportive of their childrens inclination to attend college; however, their capacity to offer direct academic support was limited by their own educational background. Further, participants exhibited a high level of involvement in extracurricular activities, an important factor in the development of their educational aspirations. This involvement was only moderately supported by parents of participants.

The principle of academic freedom is a central aspect of the learning and teaching process in the American higher education system. Its importance, however, has become more accepted over time and today it is an established part of our post-secondary system. This shift in acceptance began in the early part of the twentieth century and was contested and disputed for the greater part of that century. This debate did not happen at just the national level, rather much deliberation occurred at the local level where institutions defined academic freedom in their systems. The University of Pittsburgh, founded in 1787, was one such institution that demonstrated the contestation of academic freedom. The eventual adoption of academic freedom as a formalized principle at the University was developed through two cases that forced the University to review what academic freedom is, and then to either accept or deny its place at the institution. The cases of Ralph E. Turner and Robert G. Colodny are examined and compared in this study. Each man encountered an experience where their individual freedoms of scholarship were questioned and scrutinized. This study examines how the inquiries into each mans scholarship began, the position and process of the University, and how each case was eventually resolved. The study will demonstrate how academic freedom existed at the University of Pittsburgh in 1934 and 1961 and what these particular cases meant to the University and the health of its faculty.