The purpose of this study was to examine the policy implications allowing administrators to exempt a student from required arts instruction if the student obtained unsatisfactory scores on the high-stake state mandated tests in English and mathematics. This study examined English language arts and math test scores for 37,222 eighth grade students enrolled in music and/or visual arts classes and those students not enrolled in arts courses. There were more than 12,000 students who were eligible, but not enrolled in arts courses. Methodology consisted of comparing the mean scores of students receiving music and visual arts instruction with the mean scores of students excluded from this instruction. The sample consisted of all non-special education students who took the statewide assessment spring 2008 in public schools. Students enrolled in music had significantly higher mean scores than those not enrolled in music where (p < .001). Music enrollment was a positive predictor of academic achievement. Results for visual arts and dual arts were not as conclusive. The study found a lack of evidence supporting the exclusion of students from required arts instruction for the purpose of increasing test scores in English and math. The conclusions were that students enrolled in music perform significantly better; there is an access gap; and arts should be included in the curriculum of all middle school students. More study is required for visual arts, dual arts study, as well as, dance and theatre effects. Future research is required as to academic effectiveness of remediation implemented during the instructional day, thereby denying arts instruction to students. School Performance Scores must reflect all components of the curriculum to be valid. Instructional time in the arts must be enforced if all students are to receive a whole, effective, and relevant education. The practice of recommending more time in English and math in lieu of music for students should be reexamined. Administrators should construct schedules, including appropriate attention, so that all students receive a balanced whole education.

This dissertation explores the reasons that African American students participate at lower levels in foreign language programs in terms of taking courses and majoring and minoring in foreign languages. The primary foreign language that it explores is Spanish, and its findings suggest that the introduction of the language devoid of the influence of Afro-diasporic linkages to Spanish culture leads to the topic being taught in abstraction, therefore causing a lack of interest among African American students. As this study shows, a teacher's thinking about cultural and racial difference is often intimately woven into their disciplinary training, and as a result, the convergence of these influences affects a professor's ability to provide culturally responsive service and a student's desire to engage both the teacher and the subject area. Integrating relevant foreign language theory and Afro-diasporic literature this dissertation conducts inquiry into pedagogical approaches for attracting African American students into the area of foreign languages.

Using historical test data from the standardized testing program (LEAP, iLEAP) in the state of Louisiana, this sequential mixed methods study utilized hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and a logistic regression method to test alternate measures of school performance (student achievement model, growth model, and transition to 9th grade) applied to alternative middle schools serving students who are academically behind. These schools are defined as those serving students who have not yet been able to transition to high school due to grade retention and are substantially older than their grade peers (Aron, 2003). The quantitative study sample included both students attending alternative middle schools of this type in Louisiana and a comparison group of overage middle schools students attending a regular school within the same districts. The quantitative study was followed by an evaluative study of three of the alternative schools determined to be successful using those alternate measures, and utilizing a client-centered model. From the results of this research study, a multiple measure accountability plan for alternative schools is suggested.

Louisianas coast is losing land due to erosion at the startling rate of approximately 24 square miles per year (Lockwood & Gray, 2005). Coastal erosion has serious implications for human safety and Louisianas economy. There are many environmental education programs throughout coastal regions of the United States that educate school children about coastal issues. LSU Coastal Roots (CR) is one such program. Students at approximately 40 participating schools raise native plants in nurseries at their school and then travel to a restoration site to transplant their plants. The goal CR is to build an attitude of stewardship and awareness toward the coastal issues in student participants (Blanchard, 2007). CR and other coastal environmental programs would find value in a survey that assesses the effect their programs have on the attitudes of participants. Therefore, a 25-item Likert scale survey entitled Attitudes of Children toward Coastal Environmental Themes (ACCET) was developed by the researcher to measure middle school student attitudes toward five coastal environmental themes. The five themes are general, ecosystems, coastal erosion, human impacts, and resources. Participant responses can be scored for a total score and individual theme scores. Reading level of the ACCET falls within grades third through fifth. The ACCET has internal-consistency reliability (Chronbachs alpha) of 0.87 and test-retest reliability of 0.64. The ACCET was administered to students at five CR schools at the beginning of the school year and again after their participation in their restoration-planting trip to examine changes in student attitude. Students in two control schools were also administered the ACCET survey. The results were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics. The CR schools scored significantly higher on the ACCET than the control schools on both the pre- and post-surveys, which may indicate that participation in the CR program has a positive impact on participant attitudes. However, a significant difference was not found between pre- and post-surveys for the treatment group. Therefore, it is recommended that the ACCET not be used as a survey to examine changes in attitudes, but rather should be used to as a general measure of attitude toward coastal environments.

The purpose of this study is to examine spirituality in terms of development among college students. A review of literature and best practices was conducted, and students were interviewed regarding their spiritual identities, their collegiate experiences, and the relationship between the two. The findings of this study show that college students value spirituality in multiple ways, although they are typically uncomfortable discussing spirituality and spiritual issues on campus.

Through statistical examination of the Multi-Institution Study of Leadership (MSL), conducted at Louisiana State University during the Spring of 2010, quantitative research sought to determine if different leadership outcomes are produced through membership in religious student organizations, multi-cultural fraternities and sororities, social fraternities and sororities, and intercollegiate or varsity athletic groups. The MSL is theoretically based on the Social Change Model of Leadership Development and the leadership outcomes it assesses are consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, citizenship, and change. It was discovered that students in religious student organizations score better on many leadership outcomes, students in multi-cultural fraternities and sororities score better in one leadership outcome, and students in social fraternities and sororities and intercollegiate or varsity athletic groups score the same or worse than students not involved in those groups. Implications for further research include seeking to discover what about membership in religious student groups produces the higher leadership outcomes. Also, Greek organizations tout leadership as a key component of involvement in their organizations, yet have lower scores than non-Greek counterparts on most leadership outcomes. Leadership initiatives by Greek organizations should be reassessed and revamped to develop students to become better leaders.

This study considers the educational significance of zinessmall circulation, self-published magazinesby asking how educators who teach with zines encounter and negotiate zine pedagogy. Though the literature on zines and teaching describes many potential benefits, it also describes contradictions and failures, with some researchers even going so far as to claim that zines do not belong in classrooms (Guzzetti, Elliott, & Welsch, 2010, p. 71). Through this dissertation, I investigate and complicate these claims by examining the stories and perspectives of teacher/zinesterseducators who teach or have taught with zines in a classroom setting. The project is situated within theories of the public sphere, scholarship on teaching public writing, and existing work on zine pedagogy. Adopting a narrative research design, I collected data in the form of written and telephone interviews with seven teacher/zinesters, their class materials related to zine pedagogy, their own zines, and other documents and media in which they discuss zines or zine pedagogy. I also examined narratives about zines and their history from books, films, articles, and websites published by members of the zine community. My analysis involved coding the teacher/zinester narratives to develop categories and themes, which I triangulated with supporting data. I found that these teacher/zinesters encounter and negotiate zine pedagogy as an act of making space, publishing, and engaging in conversation. The teacher/zinesters describe zine pedagogy as promising to create space that may not otherwise be available in school, but must contend with the constraints that school imposes on the radical space of zines. Multiple promises of zine pedagogy as publishing were identified by the teacher/zinesters, including publishing as a stage in the writing process, as the creation of a physical product, and as sharing. The teachers/zinester narratives also reflected a view of zine pedagogy as conversation, promising to provide students with a model of writing as conversation, as well as to pull them into conversation through saying yes and saying no. I interpreted these themes through public sphere theory and the feminist poststructural strategy of the figuration: in this case, a narrative of promise, failure, and ruins.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers implemented teaching reform in secondary mathematics classrooms in China, and to understand the context of teaching transformation in general. Two groups of mathematics teachers were included in this study. One group was involved in a leadership project led by university-based mathematics teacher educators, and the other was engaged in a school teaching experiment led by teacher educators from local education department. In this study, classrooms are viewed as social systems in which the teacher and students are interrelated through communication networks. This study examines the structures, patterns of social relationships, and socio-autonomy of the communication networks. The social relationships are focused on learning goals, social and socio-mathematical norms, and mutual relationships. Socio-autonomy refers to the abilities of the communication networks to adapt and to evolve. A combination of social network analysis and qualitative research methods is employed to analyze the dynamics of the structures and relationship patterns. In addition, the teachers perspectives of mathematics, instruction, and experiences, along with associated teacher communities are all examined to understand their impact on teaching practices. The findings have indicated different types of classroom teaching with different learning goals, social norms, and mutual relationships. Overall, the teaching was centered upon students problem solving and presentations of solutions. The communication structures in most classroom teaching, however, are lack of dynamics. Constraints placed on communications controlled by the teacher result in linear patterns of communications and dampened emergent and dynamic communications in classroom teaching. Reform efforts seemed not to fully support the development of mathematical insights and creativity. These issues suggest that classroom teaching reform need to address the power relationships between individuals development of understanding and socio-autonomy of the class. This research also indicates that teaching approaches are related to what the teachers learned in the associated teacher learning communities. It suggests teacher education need to help teachers change expectations for learning from efficiency and skills to processes and communication dynamics. By embracing uncertainty and better understanding of individual autonomy and letting go of control, innovative transformation happens in classroom teaching.

The Catholic religious order known as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) manages an expansive network of colleges and universities with a distinct Catholic identity and mission. The Society of Jesus has, throughout the course of its existence, experienced failure and survival regarding its colleges and universities worldwide. Of particular interest for this study are Jesuit institutions in the American South, regionally known as the New Orleans Province. This study hypothesizes that the identity and mission of Southern Jesuit colleges and universities may have functioned as catalytic concepts that influenced interactions with external social environs and directly impacted the way in which these Catholic institutions survived or failed. Literature regarding institutional survival and societal interactions focuses on resource exchange and has precluded the possible effects of identity and mission as catalytic components to the survival of colleges and universities. The interaction between Jesuit institutions and surrounding Southern environments presents a unique opportunity to examine the affects of institutional identity, mission, and environmental interactions on college/university survival. To discern the affects of institutional identity, mission, and societal relationships on the survival of Jesuit institutions in the South from the 1830s through the 1930s, archival documents serve as the primary data source for this study. Documents have been acquired through several sites, including the Archives of the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus; Loyola University New Orleans; Spring Hill College Special Collections; and the archives of Jesuit High School, New Orleans. By utilizing historical research methodology, case study construction, and case analysis, this study encapsulates the history of multiple Jesuit colleges and universities in the South and allows for a cross-comparison of their existence, development, survival, and/or failure. The findings of this study support the claim posed by the hypotheses that institutional identity and mission did catalytically affect societal town and gown relationships between these Southern Jesuit colleges and universities and thus influenced their ability to survive. As well, through the course of this study, it was discovered that the internal identity, mission, and hierarchic obedience of the Jesuit Fathers played a role in the existence and maintenance of their New Orleans Province institutions.

This study asks (1) how did the Natchez Garden Club conceptualize and promote literacy in their club and in the community?, (2) how might educational practices of select Southern, White, elite women be theorized in the lives of the Natchez Garden Club and its members during the 1930s, 40s and 50s?, and (3) how does an examination of the Natchez Garden Club illuminate understandings of select Southern, White, privileged women and the ways they took on roles as informal educators? To answer these questions, the study examined The Natchez Garden Club, an elite White womens club in the South and their literacy practices. The case study used document analysis, interviews and observations to gain understanding of how the club worked. The findings suggest that the club contributed to the Lost Cause mentality in the town by promoting patriarchy, paternalism and privilege. At the same time, the club carved a path for club members in the town to reconceive the how the club worked as informal educators that promoted literacy practices within the town. Even though gender norms would have them take subservient roles, they found ways to circumvent those difficulties. The club engaged in literacy activities that promoted a version of history that romanticized the South and promoted the ideals of the Lost Cause movement that believed in a social hierarchy that held White men at its head. The irony of this is that the women inverted patriarchy by establishing their place as benevolent leaders in Natchez despite expectations that they would remain in the private realm. The study compels researchers to think about the ways privilege influences social action and the ways informal institutions can become literacy sponsors for young people and community members.