Retention of students at undergraduate institutions, especially in liberal arts colleges has become increasingly important. Liberal arts colleges are distinct because unlike universities they have small enrollments, serve undergraduates students, are residential and its primary goal is to provide a liberal arts education to its students. Students who typically attend liberal arts colleges come from academically prepared and from privileged backgrounds, however, these students are often not enough to sustain enrollment assumptions. Therefore, students who are less prepared and come from low socio-economic backgrounds are accepted to into these colleges to compensate for the difference. This situation leads institutions to be strategic about creating programs to enhance these student's academic and social skills and help them persist. Thus, it is in the best interest of these colleges to have retention strategies in place to help these students persist and graduate. It is also in the best interest of these students and of society that they be given equitable chances to succeed in higher education. This study assesses the James Baldwin Scholars Program, a program for academically under prepared and economically disadvantaged students, by incorporating a combination of existing retention/persistence models and examines the impact the Program had on student's satisfaction and persistence. Using interviews and surveys of current Baldwin Scholars, alums of the Program, and associated faculty/staff as a method of triangulation to examine the student's persistence, I compared and contrasted the expectations and experiences, and discussed the sources of support and challenges of the Scholars with those of the Baldwin alums, faculty and staff at Hampshire College. As a result, the findings from this study suggest that these students experience a journey filled with programmatic, academic and social supportive bridges and challenging barriers that define their experience. Findings from this study demonstrate that students are most likely to succeed in this type of program when expectations are clear and when the students’ experiences match the expectations---a situation that is more likely to help students find, build and maintain bridges to success while navigating barriers to persistence.

One of the many problems the educational system in Malawi suffered is the lack of an efficient decision-making system that could make better use of its resources. A decentralization reform was therefore adopted as one of the means by which efficient decisions for the educational system could be assured. The decentralization reform was intended to give local or district level administrators powers for making discrete planning and management decisions for basic education within their jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the implementation of the reform was seen to lack progress. Some issues that were against the decentralization probably caused the stalled progress of the implementation. The basis of this study was to explore possible factors that might have caused the stalled implementation of the decentralization so that possible solutions could be provided to strengthen it. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to conduct the study. Interviews, documents analysis, observations, and questionnaires were the means for collecting data for the study. Using a sample of 23 participants drawn from different central, division, and district offices of the educational system and donor agencies, the study forces revealed that there were problems in the process and support system for the implementation. Process related forces include: lack of a culture of change, lack of specific decentralization goals for education, fear of loss of power, poor participation, lack of preparedness by the districts, poor coordination, resistance, lack of information, and poor commitment. Support related forces that were for the implementation included: existing policies, willingness of the districts, political will, and donor support. As a way forward, the study proposes that the implementation of the decentralization could be strengthened if the design of the implementation and its support system are reconsidered and improved. Regular revisions on the design of the implementation to ensure that it meets the decentralization requirements and strengthening the support system by making sure that the districts have an adequate information system can help to strengthen the implementation of the decentralization.

New school accountability policy alters how the state department of education (SDE) and underperforming school interact by creating a direct connection between the two. The "beginning of intervention" is when the SDE and the underperforming school commence their working relationship. Challenges to the development of a relationship include limited capacity at the SDE level and the local educators' perceptions of new school accountability as a deterrent policy. The working relationship is the vehicle for bridging the state's externally imposed and school's internally pre-existing accountability systems; to negotiate the implementation of the policy for the dual purpose of making sense of the policy for the school and the SDE and meeting the end goal of the policy by improving the educational outcomes of the school; and to alter educators' perceptions of new school accountability policy from that of a deterrent and threatening policy to one which is enabling and empowering of local educators. Document analysis, observations, and interviews of Massachusetts state education administrators, local district administrators and underperforming school educators were used to gain an understanding of how the state and local levels perceive one another during intervention. Results from the qualitative study were analyzed using Scheberle's (1997) "Working Relationship Typology" which uses trust and involvement levels as variables to determine the type of working relationship between organizations. Findings indicate that the working relationship between the SDE and the school improves during the beginning of intervention, but remains distant. The surprising finding is that the district is seen as the key lever for improvement by those in the underperforming school and SDE. The existing relationship between the district and school, however, was negative, as the elementary school educators blamed the district for neglecting their schools. Giving the district capacity to facilitate school improvement, the SDE designed a system of early intervention that places a "fixer" (Bardach, 1977) at the district level whose sole purpose is to work with underperforming schools. The findings indicate that this contributed to dramatic improvement in the working relationship between the district and the underperforming school as well as the relationship between the SDE and the district.

The purpose of this study is to identify institution-specific variables that impact assessment on campus and to determine the ways in which these variables influence campus approach to assessment. The importance of this study lies in its ability to inform assessment policy, to influence assessment practice, and to support assessment research. Results from this study provide broader parameters within which to discuss assessment beyond the traditional accountability or improvement model. Results also offer a systematic three-step process for campus self-analysis using institution-specific variables as a means of identifying campus response to assessment. This process facilitates focus on those campus variables that promote or prevent effective assessment, while informing potential changes in policy and practice tied to those variables, and providing an opportunity for an intentional review of assessment to optimize institutional effectiveness. Research for this study was conducted using case study analysis of three institutions to collect and classify data, to describe the data, and to make inferences about what the data reveal. From the results of this study it is fair to conclude that assessment on campus is shaped and influenced by an interplay of variables unique to each college or university. This research also suggests that a campus's response to assessment is directly impacted by the nature and focus of the interplay of these campus-specific variables. The findings from this study point to significant policy and practice implications wherein a campus may identify the forces that push the campus closer to accountability or closer to improvement and develop interventions to make assessment more effective vis a vis the institution-specific framework in which assessment evolves.

The primary goal of this study was to investigate principals' perceptions of the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) and the “high stakes” nature of the exam. Twelfth grade students who have not passed either the English Language Arts or Math sections of the MCAS will not receive a diploma starting in the 2003. A decade after the signing of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, educators are still grappling with the ever-changing educational landscape and how to best increase the amount of learning occurring in schools. The MCAS serves as the formal educational assessment system in Massachusetts. This qualitative study involved individually interviewing twelve middle/elementary school principals from Massachusetts, all of whom had at least ten years of experience as a building administrator. The principals were categorized by MCAS results as well as school demographic settings (urban, suburban or rural) in order to provide a representative sampling similar to that found in the state. An interview guide with a specific set of twelve predetermined questions was utilized for the semi-structured interviews. The first five questions were previously used in D. F. Brown's study of principals' perceptions in Illinois, New York and Tennessee in 1993. The remaining questions were geared toward eliciting responses specific to the MCAS. Responses from the participants were analyzed using an inductive process that allowed themes to emerge from the data. Findings from the data analysis included three themes: principals from higher performing schools spoke favorably about the MCAS, principals from all categories were concerned over the public release of the scores, and finally principals from lower scoring schools felt that there is too much pressure to improve their MCAS scores. Further analysis of the data included a comparison of themes from this study with that of Brown's 1993 study.

This dissertation investigates Vermont principals' perceptions of leadership attributes linked to the role of the principal. It is guided by four research questions: (1) are there any clusters of participants who sorted the principal leadership attribute items similarly and differently; (2) how are the principal leadership attribute items within each factor ranked by the participants; (3) to what extent do the participants within each factor similarly describe the leadership attributes; and (4) to what extent do the participants within each factor find leadership attributes to be most/least characteristic of their roles? Consequently, thirty-five Vermont principals participated in Q-sort activities, which involved sorting forty-five leadership statements from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire had been validated in previous studies. Participants' sorts were subjected to factor analysis to identify similarities and differences among sorts. The analysis of the data revealed the presence of two factors. Factor A members consisted of eighteen subjects who placed high value on leadership items linked to collective mission, purpose, and goal. Factor B members consisted of sixteen subjects who ranked high leadership attributes linked to collegiality and collaboration. The qualitative data provided further insight into factors' perceptions of leadership attributes. Because of the ways the factors sorted and reacted to leadership attributes, the two Factor A members were assigned the name mission-oriented, and Factor B members were assigned the name collaboration-oriented. The findings of this investigation revealed the emergence of the mission-oriented collaborative leadership. Under the mission-oriented collaborative leadership, school leaders witness individuals in their schools engage in fluid, genuine, reverential, and open conversations about the organization and processes group members will use to achieve community, state, and federal accountability expectations. The mission-oriented collaborative leadership style provides a synergy for meeting both the needs of the organization and the individuals who provide the human capital. Future research studies should focus on the effects mission-oriented collaborative leadership approach has on teachers' productivity, local reform efforts in the schools, and student achievement as measured by state accountability systems.

This study examined the effectiveness of a national support program in Namibia designed to help new teachers improve teaching and enhance student learning. The support activities currently undertaken are short-lived and not effective, therefore not providing teachers with the continual support needed to strengthen and augment their repertoires. The study also examined problems experienced by new teachers in their initial years of teaching. A major problem affecting teachers' competencies in Namibia is the availability of teaching and learning resources. Another impediment perplexing teachers is learner discipline. Teachers need the appropriate skills to be able to adequately deal with these and other problems, so as to create a nurturing environment for teaching and learning. Based on the recommendations teachers made, a national support program for helping teachers deal effectively with aspects of teaching and learning was advanced. Teachers recommended that the support program incorporate induction and mentoring sessions for new teachers. They also strongly recommended that the program effectively deal with competencies in curriculum and instruction. Teachers reiterated the need for access to knowledge, provision of sufficient teaching and learning resources, and opportunities for further education.

This dissertation explores implications about teacher inquiry group (IG) practices through the representations of achievement gap (AG) discourses. The study draws from the challenges, struggles, and accomplishments of a middle school inquiry group of teachers and staff that worked collaboratively, as an institutionalized practice, with the intention to develop recommendations for closing the AG. After five years of collaborative work, the group did not get to develop an action plan. This longitudinal, ethnographic, qualitative study unveils multiple and contested representations of AG discourses and unpacks three assumptions about teacher inquiry group practices as a strategy for institutional and/or individual change: (1) that the group can resolve the issue at task; (2) that members embody the role of researchers; and (3) participation in the group can provide opportunities for transforming discourses. Critical discourse analysis provides the lens for analyzing four years of data collection: field notes, audio and written records from monthly sessions, written feedback and reflections, as well as interviews. My dual role, as member and teacher-researcher, and the use of CDA allowed me to identify critical moments. I describe critical moments as instances in which discourses of AG changed, reproduced, but not necessarily transformed. The analytical tools facilitated intertextual and discourse meaning connections. Data analysis indicated relevant findings: that the inquiry group provided opportunity for discourses to reproduce and change; that critical moments provided possibilities for transformation; that members did not always recognize these moments for which transformations may have eluded them; that inquiry groups have the potential to be a transforming intuitional practice. In general, findings suggested the need for structures that support, encourage, and engage members in “Self” reflection praxis for personal, and collective transformations, if the status quo is to be interrupted.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Governor of Massachusetts have identified the need to strengthen the state’s education system through the development of regional centers of support. In 2007, DESE drafted a proposal for a Massachusetts system of support to improve student performance. The proposal called for the establishment of educational service cooperatives to provide targeted assistance to schools and districts and to serve as intermediaries between the Department and school districts. In 2008, the Governor’s office assembled the Readiness Finance Commission and charged it with presenting a variety of alternative means to achieve sustainable education funding for current and future needs. The Commission recommended strategies that include significant restructuring measures to realize cost savings and efficiencies. These measures specifically delineate the enhanced use of educational collaboratives. This study examines the perceptions of education leaders at the state and local level regarding the current performance of educational collaboratives in Massachusetts and the potential role educational collaboratives could play in state and district efforts to improve educational effectiveness and increase efficiencies. Interviews and the Collaborative Evaluation Survey were used to analyze the programs and services that school districts purchase from educational collaboratives and the perceived quality and cost-effectiveness of collaborative programs. In addition to interviews with school superintendents, data from interviews with collaborative directors, state education agency leaders, and a state legislator were analyzed to explore the potential role that educational collaboratives could play in state and district education improvement efforts. The study found: (1) school districts in Massachusetts continue to use educational collaboratives for the same purposes as they did when collaboratives were first created; (2) the majority of school district leaders have positive perceptions of collaborative programs and services; (3) school district input, perceived cost-effectiveness, and collaborative responsiveness are major factors that influence school district utilization of educational collaboratives; and (4) unstable funding and the absence of a structured statewide network constrain the capacity of educational collaboratives. The study also identified the need for more research on the cost-effectiveness and impact of programs educational collaboratives offer. Without additional research, policy makers in Massachusetts risk creating duplicative regional systems of support. State leaders also risk assuming that collaboratives have the capacity to address problems when evidence may indicate otherwise.

Two types of religious education administrators serve the parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The professional religious education administrator is commissioned by the ELCA, and the paraprofessional religious education administrator was noncommissioned. This study examined the theoretical orientation, skill level, preparation, and preference for alternative religious education models of religious education administrators. Two hundred professional and two hundred paraprofessional religious education administrators comprised the sample population for this study. The survey study was guided by two research questions: (1) What is the prevailing framework adopted and applied by religious education administrators, i.e. traditional, social cultural, contemporary and social science models? (2) Are there differences between professional and paraprofessional religious education administrators in preparation for their work, their theoretical orientation, and their perception of their skill level and work? Results of the study identified the contemporary model as the preferred religious education model. The social science model was second, followed by the social cultural and traditional models. No significant differences were found between the professional and paraprofessional religious education administrators in their preparation, theoretical orientation, and their perception of their skill level and work.