The mobility of low-income students who do not have access to stable housing creates numerous challenges both at home and in school. Among these challenges, academic performance certainly is one of the most important. The lack of a more permanent, familiar, and safe environment is presumed to impact home life as well as students' performance in the classroom. This research compares two groups of current and former students of Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) in Florida (1) children of families who are Habitat for Humanity (HFH) homeowners, and (2) a matched socioeconomic control group. The HFH program is designed to provide a stable, affordable housing for families who cannot acquire it through standard means. The research question is: Does stability in housing make an impact on academic performance in the particular area of FCAT scores and attendance? Data were gathered from OCPS and the HFH homeowners themselves. This data were used to evaluate the impact of HFH homeownership on students' academic environment. Results showed better attendance at school, but HFH students fared worse in FCAT performance when compared to control group especially in reading.

The Assembly of God Church, The Southern Baptist Convention, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church sponsor Brighton University, Collier University, and Lynwood University respectively. Each of these Christian denominations holds creationism as a tenet of the faith. Each university also operates a state approved teacher education program. A number of preservice elementary teachers at these three schools are choosing to teach in public schools where the teaching of creationism is not an option in the science curriculum. Thus, creationist institutions and instructors are training more and more preservice teachers, to teach science from an evolutionist perspective. From an examination of documents used in science and science methods classes, and through interviews with science and education professors, and former students, data was collected and analyzed. All of the professors expressed interest in the issues surrounding creationism and evolution. The science professor's concerns centered on the difficulties in harmonizing apparent discrepancies between scientific evidence and church doctrine. The education professors were content with church policy regarding creationism, and stated that they fortified creationist thinking in their science methods classes. Documents from the science and science methods classes, along with the information supplied by former students, do not show that creationism issues are being considered in science methods classes to the extent the professors thought they were. Few students were able to recall creationism, or how a creationist could teach evolutionary science, as topics given serious consideration in their science or science methods classes.

In the opening decades of the 21st Century, a movement towards parental choice in public schools has taken flight. One of the choices becoming more readily available to parents of young children is charter schools. Charter schools are expanding across the United States and Central Florida is representative of this growth. Parents are faced with more choices as they make decisions on their children's educational future than ever before making the availability of quality, accurate information about local schools paramount. While scholarly work on charter schools, the effects of media coverage on public opinion, and how parents make choices for their children exists, in many cases the research offers inconclusive results and rarely was there an attempt to connect all three. This paper, written from a parent's perspective, analyzes research, newspaper articles, interviews, and surveys of Central Florida's media outlets, public school representatives, and parents of young children to determine the types of information on charter schools available to parents of young children in Central Florida. The purpose of this thesis will be to investigate the information available to parents when considering a charter school for their young children by comparing the stated opinions of the local media, district school boards, and the charters themselves. It also identifies who is responsible for disseminating this information, and how the parents choose to gather and use this information.

[pt] A pesquisa buscou estudar a identidade racial branca tal como percebida por professoras atuantes em escolas municipais do Rio de Janeiro, selecionadas por amostra de conveniência. O objetivo foi investigar como essas educadoras, autodeclaradas brancas, percebem sua própria branquitude diante de seu público na escola - alunos de maioria negra. O trabalho consiste em um diálogo entre Psicologia Social Crítica e Educação, usando como técnica entrevistas individuais, devidamente analisadas pelo método da Análise de Conteúdo. Percebeu-se tanto a necessidade de que os educadores brancos percebam-se racializados, quanto a importância de ações coletivas e políticas públicas para lidar com as reverberações da desigualdade racial no âmbito escolar. / [en] This research s objective was to study the white ethnic-racial identity as perceived by teachers working in municipal schools in Rio de Janeiro, selected by convenience sampling. The goal was to investigate how these self-categorized white educators comprehend their own whiteness in face of their public at school - mostly black pupils. This work consists of a dialogue between Critical Social Psychology and Education, using the technique of individual interviews, duly analyzed by the Content Analysis method. The article indicates that white educators need to recognize themselves as racialized and that collective actions and public policies must be enforced to deal with the reverberations of racial inequality in the school environment.

Autism is subset of the special education population that seems to be growing at an alarming rate. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2000), one of the three main deficits found in someone diagnosed with autism is a "qualitative impairment in communication". However, language skills are very difficult for autistic children to learn and are often associated with disruptive behaviors. Research has shown a strong correlation between problem behaviors and difficulties with communication. This study uses techniques (i.e. functional analysis and functional assessment) to determine the function of these problem behaviors and their communicative intent. This study also demonstrates that an experimental approach such as a functional analysis can be done in a public school setting by public school personnel. Once the function is determined, treatments incorporating Functional Communication Training (FCT) can be applied to reduce these problem behaviors while increasing communication. Research has shown that FCT that replaces each function of a problem behavior will reduce problem behaviors in autistic children. Therefore, functional analysis results allow for the reduction of problem behaviors while identifying optimal situations/settings to teach language. Three male autistic students, attending a public school, were involved in the study. All subjects exhibited one or more problem behaviors that interfered with their everyday functioning at school. Initially, functional assessment data were collected via a descriptive analysis using Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (A-B-C) data. The A-B-C data were taken throughout each subject's school day in various environments. The data for each subject were graphed and analyzed by a school psychologist. Based on the results, the school psychologist developed a hypothesis for each subject regarding the function of his problem behavior. Subjects were exposed to various functional analysis conditions using a single subject multielement manipulation design based on the A-B-C data. These functional analysis sessions were conducted in each student's current public school placement. Functional analysis conditions were implemented until stable levels of problem behaviors were obtained or a clear pattern provided evidence as to the function of the problem behavior. Data from all sessions were graphed in a multiple baseline across subjects and visually assessed. Based on the data from the functional analysis, the function of the student's problem behavior was hypothesized. The experimenter, who was also a school psychologist, designed and implemented a function based treatment package to successfully reduce each student's problem behaviors. The treatment for each subject was individually designed based on that subject's functional analysis. Each treatment also incorporated a FCT component. As a result, problem behaviors were successfully reduced for each subject using functional assessment methodology by a school psychologist in a public school setting. / School Psychology

Two coinciding trends in education have given rise to this study: the political cycle of school reform and the heterogeneous nature of the charter school landscape. Since Minnesota became the first state to pass a charter law in 1991, the dramatic increase in the number of charter schools has provided opportunities for researchers to try to categorize the success of charter schools. Although the number of charter schools have almost doubled from 3,689 to 6,004 from 2005-2006 to 2012-2013, an average of approximately 500 charters have opened and more than 160 charter schools have closed per year during these eight years of the available data. However, students who attend charter schools do not have a monolithic educational experience. The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of students and parents in relation to enrolling in a specific brick and mortar and several cyber charter schools, and if applicable, leaving said schools. This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of students and parents who reside in a rural public school district and chose to attend a cyber charter or brick and mortar charter school. Survey responses and information gathered from interviews of students and their parents/guardians were analyzed to illuminate the research questions. While the results will not be generalizable, this study has led to an understanding of what led these students to enroll in charter schools and if applicable, why they chose to leave. More specifically, three themes emerged from the data: (1) Family members, primarily mothers, significantly impacted students’ decisions to employ choice to enroll in charters; (2) The lack of extra-curricular activities in charters had a substantially negative impact on students’ experiences and (3) Educational quality was the foremost characteristic named in the determination to transfer out of a charter school. While there has been research on charter schools separate from studies on perceptions of school age children with respect to education programming, this examination indicates the need to unite charter research and student voice aspects within the realm of educational research. / Educational Administration

This study observed the effects of different school forms on the political interest of its students. The purpose of investigating the political interest based on school form is to see if there are any outstanding differences between private and public schools regarding political interest. The reason for this investigation was the falling grades and the diminishing political interest observed in prior studies used for this assignment as well as a reform in the school system called “Skolreformen” in Swedish that has been in effect for over 20 years at this point. Data was collected via a survey where students in four different high schools, both in the public and private, answered questions about their political interest, current study situation, view on the future and other questions related to school and political interest. A quantitative method was used, where the answers of the survey were cross tabulated to correlate different operative indicators and build a narrative to be analyzed. Quantitative correlation analysis was used to analyze the narrative. The study concluded that the political interest is overall low in both school forms. No major differences were noted between school forms, the view of the future affects political interests in a greater regard than what was expected.

This qualitative study explored the experiences and insights of four alumnae from a girls’ after-school writing program and the program’s transformative impact on development of their literacy, their voice, and their confidence. The writing program, InkGirls (a pseudonym), was for girls of color ages 13 to 18 who lived in metropolitan Los Angeles. Participants attended high-density public schools located in low-income neighborhoods. Curriculum and instructional practices in such public schools have been critiqued as substandard, rote, and lacking opportunities for critical thinking and student voice (Darder, 2015). Gender bias in the classroom, and the lack of representation of women of color in instructional materials also have been legitimate concerns in U.S. public schooling (Sadker, Sadker, & Zittleman, 2009). Using a theoretical framework of critical pedagogy (Freire, 2000) and critical feminist pedagogy (Weiler, 1988), this qualitative study investigated practices of critical literacy (Christensen, 2009) in the writing program that promoted development of literacy and voice and elevated the critical consciousness and social agency of the participants. The program’s elements of critical literacy included studying relatable texts, reading from critical perspectives, writing personal narratives, and completing social action projects in public readings for a live audience. The findings from the program’s curriculum and public readings, and the perceptions of the former participants pointed to critical literacy as an effective approach to literacy instruction and development of voice and agency.

[pt] Esta tese desenvolve uma abordagem sobre a escola brasileira como uma instituição que pode contribuir para a democratização do espaço público. Nessa perspectiva, considera que, por razões teóricas, éticas e políticas, a pluralidade presente na sociedade brasileira e que atravessa a escola pública precisa se constituir com referência nas lutas em torno da igualdade substantiva. Sustenta-se que, frente ao aprofundamento das desigualdades sociais impostas pelo capital em sua fase de desenvolvimento global, uma rica compreensão da pluralidade só pode se realizar mediante o estabelecimento de condições de igualdade nas relações sociais, buscando superar tanto as injustiças de ordem socioeconômica quanto às injustiças decorrentes dos processos de desrespeito, de não reconhecimento e dominação cultural-valorativa. Com base nessa orientação, empreende-se uma análise crítica de concepções pós-modernas que se apropriam de conceitos como cultura, identidade e diferença, sem relacioná-los às lutas por uma sociedade igualitária, democrática e socialista. Ao mesmo tempo, enfatiza-se o trabalho como princípio ordenador da pluralidade, pois potencializa os processos de individualização pela capacidade de criar cultura, de formar identidades e de enunciar diferenças nas formas de sentir, pensar e intervir no mundo. A compreensão do trabalho como princípio ordenador da pluralidade coloca para a escola pública brasileira os desafios de valorizar a relação pedagógica entre educador e educando e de superar os mecanismos internos que inibem a vida escolar para viabilizar a apropriação e reapropriação do conhecimento na direção da emancipação humana e da transformação social. / [en] This thesis develops an analysis of Brazilian public schools as institutions that can contribute towards the denmocratization of public space. The analysis considers that, for theoretical, ethical and political reasons, the plurality present in Brazilian society, and which manifests itself in its public schools, needs to make reference to the struggles for substantive equality. It is argued that, in the face of the profound social inequalities imposed by capital in its phase of global development, a rich comprehension of plurality can only be realized through the establishment of conditions of equality in social relations, looking towards the overcoming of socioeconomic injustices as well as the injustices that are products of lack of respect, lack of recognition and cultural domination. On the basis of this argument, the thesis develops a critical analysis of postmodern conceptions that appropriate concepts such as culture, identity and difference, without relating them to the struggles for an egalitarian, democratic and socialist society. At the same time, the dissertation emphasizes labour as an organising principle of plurality, because it potentializes the processes of individualization by its capacity to create culture, to form identities and to enunciate differences in ways of feeling, thinking and intervening in the world. The comprehension of labour as an organising principle of plurality confronts the Brazilian public school with the challenge to value the pedagogical relation between educator and educated and to overcome the internal mechanisms that inhibit school life, in order to make possible the appropriation and reappropriation of knowledge in the direction of human emancipation and social transformation.

The job of the local school superintendent is one of the most difficult chief executive undertakings in America today. Of the nation’s roughly 14,000 traditional public school superintendents, a mere 1,984 are women, according to the U. S. Department of Education. Yet, nationally over 75% of all K-12 educators are women. The purpose of this explorative quantitative study is to analyze the demographic profiles of public school districts in four of the nation’s largest states – California, Michigan, New York, and Texas - to see if there is a pattern of district types and sizes that women lead. Then the study will compare those districts that women lead to those that men lead. The districts were identified using the following variables: locale of districts, the size of the districts, diversity of student population, and poverty level. Looking through the lens of Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory, this study sought to show that resources and institutions are reproduced, or passed on, to those sharing similar social capital. Chi-square with cross-tabulations was conducted to determine if certain district characteristics would allow one to infer the gender of the superintendent leading that district. Additionally, a binominal logistic regression was used to see if there was a relationship between the district types and the gender of the superintendent. The results of the study identified that there was no relationship between the locales of the districts and the gender of the superintendents, but female superintendents were more prevalent in smaller districts with high diversity and high poverty.