LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES PROFESSIONALISM THROUGH TEACHER TRAINING: A CASE STUDY OF TENNESSEE A. & I., 1930-1940 JOHN MURPHY Thesis under the direction of Professor Thomas Smith For Southern African-American teachers in the beginning of the twentieth century, the struggle for professionalism was fought, in part, on how the job of teacher of Negro students would be defined. The most profound effect of this change would be found at the roots of the career: in teacher education at historically black colleges and universities. The institutions had much control in how these people thought about teaching and how they would practice it in the future. These institutions were not free from outside influences, however. At the start of the twentieth century, nearly all states had at least partial control over the certification process, including setting the requirements for becoming a teacher in their state. In this paper, the author argues that these requirements had a profound effect on the curriculum of Black teacher training institutions, the types of students they were able to attract, and the type of teachers that they were able to produce. To accomplish this, the author employs a case study of one such institution, Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College. Looking specifically at the 1930s, the author was able to observe the mediation of the states local standards by the increased rigor of Tennessee A&Is internal standards and requirements, as well as an emergence of Black education leaders in the struggle to obtain the knowledge, status, and passion that emerge from that professionalism.

This dissertation uses a sociological lens to investigate the roles that race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status at the individual, school and neighborhood levelsplay in three distinct contemporary educational policy issues. These papers use quantitative analyses to investigate the social contexts surrounding schools and schooling and the role that these contexts play in the enactment of educational policy, with special emphasis on racial-ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities. The first paper examines the effect of the race and socioeconomic status of individuals, schools and neighborhoods on inequalities in summer academic achievement and in turn how these seasonal inequalities exacerbate achievement gaps between African American and White students in reading and mathematics. The second paper asks what role race-ethnicity and academic ability (as measured by achievement tests) play in parent and student choices to enroll in charter public schools located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The final paper investigates educational reproduction of socioeconomic status by examining variation in mathematics teachers instructional practices and content by the socioeconomic status of the schools in which they are located.

From as early at the 1840s, the United States federal government has been directly involved in education research and development. With the passage of No Child Left Behind (2001) and the Education Sciences Reform Act (2002), this involvement has increased dramatically. This dissertation evaluates the ethical and epistemological justifications for various proposed federal interventions in education research. It argues in support of two theses. The first is that the primary aim of interventions in the political economy of education research must be to get agents to pursue capital through the process of mutual criticism rather than through political maneuvering. Only through the former can these interventions be assured to increase the rigor and relevance or research. The second is that the proper intervention strategy is to try to shape the durable dispositions of those involved in education research, rather than to force adherence to technical rules or ethical norms

This dissertation examines the relative instructional efficiency of virtual fraction manipulatives and physical fraction manipulatives. More specifically, this dissertation uses a randomized experiment to determine if differences in students knowledge of fraction magnitude exist when students learn basic fraction concepts using virtual manipulatives compared to when students learn basic fraction concepts using physical manipulatives. During the experimental study, students spent two weeks learning about fractions using different forms of manipulatives (i.e. physical or virtual), but other important variables such as the teacher, lesson plans, instructional scripts, the type of practice activities assigned to students, and the amount of time students spent practicing using manipulatives were held constant across conditions. Students completed assessments at the end of both the first and second weeks of the intervention, and the results of the assessments indicate that virtual manipulatives are at least as effective as physical manipulatives and possibly more effective. This dissertation also examines the time-efficiency of using virtual rather than physical manipulatives by tracking the number of practice activities students completed on each day of instruction and making comparisons between treatment conditions. Results indicate that when the amount of time spent practicing is held constant, students complete more practice activities using virtual rather than physical manipulatives. However, the impact on student learning of the additional practice is unclear.

profession is defined by three characteristics: mastery of a body of knowledge, the ideal of service to the client, and as a result is granted autonomy by society. It is expected with the autonomy, that the professional will practice control of its members. Medical school is integral to the development of a professional and control of the profession. Promotions committees are responsible for determining which students are have acceptable academic performance and professional behavior to allow them to be promoted and graduate. The purpose of this study was to determine what behaviors and performance brought students to the attention of the promotions committee and what were the recommendations or sanctions of the committee? Second, how did changes in the format of the promotions committee from course directors to faculty following the students longitudinally, change the issues identified and actions prescribed? Finally, the study examined the relationship of the promotions committee recommendations and sanctions by the state medical boards. In conclusion, for one school, academic performance is the major reason for identification and recommendations from the promotions committee. The change in the promotions committee had some minimal effect to increase attention on professional behaviors. Finally, the majority of graduates who were disciplined by state medical boards, were not identified or sanctioned by the medical school promotions committee. However, there are a number of students who have sanctions by promotions committees who do not later have disciplinary actions.

The objective of this dissertation is to understand the circumstances under which non-experimental methods yield unbiased estimates of the effect of magnet school attendance on student achievement. This dissertation has two main analyses. In the first analysis, non-experimental estimates (via multiple regression with observed covariates, analysis of covariance with student fixed effects, and propensity score matching) of the effect of attending one academically selective magnet school on 5th and 6th grade math and reading achievement are compared to experimental estimates found using lottery status as an instrumental variable (IV) for magnet school attendance. This analysis finds that multiple regression and propensity score matching yield estimates with sizeable positive bias that would likely lead a policymaker conclude the magnet school is more effective than it really is; in some cases, this bias represents over half a school years worth of learning. Student fixed-effects modeling performs the best of the non-experimental methods and in reading yields estimates of the magnet effect on 5th and 6th grade achievement that are not meaningfully different from the experimental IV estimates. The second analysis tests how well the experimental and non-experimental methods perform under various forms and rates of sample attrition. To investigate this issue I create a variety of samples with different forms and rates of artificial attrition among lottery winners, lottery losers, and non-participants and then run the experimental and non-experimental estimators on these simulated samples. The second analysis finds that the experimental IV estimates are less biased than the non-experimental estimates in almost all scenarios. The one exception is the student fixed-effects estimator, which performed as well or better than the experimental IV estimator as attrition rates exceeded 40%. Collectively, the findings raise caution against using multiple regression and propensity score matching to evaluate the causal impact of school choice programs, even under situations where attrition in the experimental sample is severe. Student fixed-effects modeling shows promise, particularly in reading, but only under high rates of sample attrition can one expect it to perform better than an analysis using randomly assigned comparison groups.

Texas recently completed Governors Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) went against the grain somewhat by encouraging participating schools to design their own merit pay plans within state-provided parameters. Seldom have schools and teachers played key roles in the design and development of pay-for-performance plans. This study utilizes teacher and principal interviews, school proposal documents, and teacher survey data to address two fairly broad questions: 1) What occurred in schools from the time they were notified of inclusion in GEEG until their pay-for-performance applications were approved by the state? 2) What changes occurred within participating schools once their pay-for-performance plans were implemented? Teachers generally reported heavy involvement in plan design, although some delimiting factors appeared to subvert full participation. Similarly, teachers reported understanding their schools plan, although GEEG program and school plan details not related to student achievement directly were often unclear to them. Teachers generally believed their merit pay plans to be fair but reported little change in effort, enthusiasm, and teaching practices. In conflict with much of the previous research literature, teachers frequently indicated that merit pay in the form of GEEG had a positive impact on their professional learning communities and collaborative settings. Possible reasons for these divergences are explored.

On August 22, 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), fundamentally changing the U.S. welfare program. The hallmark of this Welfare Reform was the requirement that adult recipients, predominantly single mothers, work to receive benefits. Within 10 years, employment among female welfare recipients increased 135%. Previous research evaluating the impact of this rise in maternal employment on child well-being found positive effects on younger children when both employment and income increased, but adverse effects on adolescents. Welfare Reforms impact on infants (< 1 year) has not been well-studied. To assess the relationship between PRWORAs work provisions and infant health, crosssectional regression analyses were performed for 1998-2002, using the state as the unit of analysis. Independent variables included three work provisions, as applied to mothers of infants: (a) Exemption (months exempted from work after infants birth), (b) Hours (work hours required per week), and (c) Sanctions (penalties for work noncompliance). Earnings disregards (income supplement policies) were also considered. Measures of infant mortality were chosen as dependent variables, and controls were introduced for macroeconomic conditions, race, baseline mortality, and teen births. With no infant mortality dataset identifying welfare status, the population was approximated using unmarried women with less than a high school education. States with more stringent sanctions policies had statistically significant higher postneonatal mortality (PMR, days 28-364) in the study population in 1999. When earnings disregards were added, the stringency of sanction policy increased in significance with 1999 PMR and was significant for higher overall infant mortality (IMR, days 1-364). States with more stringent earnings disregards had significantly higher IMR in the study population in 1998, 1999, and 2001--during the neonatal period (NMR, days 1-27) in 1999 and 2001--and states with more stringent exemption policies had significantly higher neonatal mortality (NMR) in the study population in 2001. The analysis confirms a role of Black race in the regression model, but does not verify whether the relationships between PRWORAs work policies and infant mortality are independent or mediated through other variables.

Public schools have been found to be inefficient in producing education outcomes. Few studies, however, have investigated the sources of inefficiency in education. Lack of accountability is a possible contributing factor. As a national accountability policy, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act has become the focus of many studies since its passage into law. Nonetheless, no study has examined its influence on school inefficiency. This study fills the gap in the literature by investigating whether NCLB has enhanced school efficiency. I use two-stage analysis to address the issue. At the first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a non-parametric approach, is used to estimate efficiency of individual schools. At the second stage, the estimated efficiency from the first stage models are used as dependent variables and the influence of NCLB on efficiency is examined by using a difference-in-differences estimator. The difference-in-differences estimator is constructed based on schools¡¯ distinct responses toward NCLB¡¯s sanctions. Schools with little threats of facing sanctions do not have incentives to change their behavior and are considered as a control group. Those at risk of not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) have strong incentives to change their behavior and are considered as the treatment group. The effects of NCLB on efficiency are captured by the difference between two groups of schools with regard to their pre-NCLB to post-NCLB changes. Using three states¡¯ data, Minnesota, Indiana, and South Carolina, I find that NCLB has positively influenced school efficiency. Schools that are threatened by NCLB sanctions have improved their efficiency more rapidly than those that are not. The findings have important policy implications, in particular under the current tight economic situation.

The challenge of increasing school enrollment levels in sub-Saharan Africa has become a growing challenge as governments continue to build new schools while failing to see increases in school attendance rates. Recent literature has indicated that household factors and characteristics rather than school supply may be a growing determinant in enrollment decisions. Using data from a comprehensive household survey in Mozambique, we have attempted to define distinct household variables that increase the odds of school enrollment. Our results support previous findings that educational aspiration, parental education and household income remain critical inputs to school enrollment decisions. We also found specific household functions such as language, transportation, and electricity are also meaningful contributors to improving the odds of school enrollment. Households remain, however, a complex set of interconnected forces and household responses to school enrollment initiatives remains wide and unpredictable in many ways.