A literal reading of the United States Constitution finds no mention of education.  Because no fundamental federal mandate exists to provide public education for citizens, the Tenth Amendment gives states the authority for public education policy.  Because states have different constitutional standards for education, civics requirements have little national consistency.  This thesis explores the connections between state constitutional provisions for public education and graduation requirements for civics in each state. The research examined how state constitutions address education policy and whether states with language specifically connecting education to the maintenance of democracy required more stringent civics requirements for students to graduate from secondary school.  Further investigation explored whether and how state constitutions in Minnesota and Wisconsin appeared to influence the development of graduation requirements.  Indeed, Minnesota, whose constitution connects education to the maintenance of democracy, had a curriculum policy process far more rooted in its constitutional traditions than did Wisconsin, which had no such constitutional language or curriculum process. / Master of Arts

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Teacher turnover is a well-studied phenomenon, particularly in highly urbanized locales, but not well researched in a state as geographically and demographically diverse as Pennsylvania, which is a composition of two major metropolitan areas combined with smaller urban centers and expansive rural regions. Those retention studies that do exist have been mainly exclusive to the Philadelphia region, with limited research devoted to the remainder of the state. This lack of a comprehensive empirical approach that compares turnover in three distinct settings limits a nuanced understanding of the issue and, in turn, can lead to incomplete policy considerations. This study utilizes Pennsylvania Department of Education data from 2012-2017, which describes the entire public-school workforce in all local education agencies (LEAs), to study how compensation and auxiliary spending (per student spending sans instructional costs) influence teacher turnover using multiple, parallel Cox Proportional Hazards survival models. Findings suggest that despite a “one size fits all” approach to public school funding policy popular amongst politicians on both sides of the political aisle, the effects of a monetary increase in reducing the likelihood of turnover varies considerably when accounting for the region, Title I status, experience and subject matter. The study highlights how the lack of monetary investment can lead teachers to seek employment elsewhere since low pay functions as a strong demotivator. Additionally, the results suggest that while a pay raise may arrest turnover risk, it is a poor long-term motivator or cause of job satisfaction. The study concludes by offering state and LEA leaders with policy recommendations that may improve both retention and job satisfaction. To date, this is the only study in the current literature that explores teacher turnover extensively in the nation’s fifth most populous state. / Urban Education

This diploma thesis explores the emergence of the welfare state in developing countries, in particular shown on the example of Botswana, Ghana and India. The inquiry is focused on the period beginning in 1990, when the neoliberal paradigm was dominating, untill 2010. The recent years are in token of the shift from the neoliberalism to the post-neoliberalism characterized by a number of concepts, which are taking into account. The common feature of these concepts is the diversion from the narrow focus on GDP, as the only indicator of the growth, to the social dimension of the development. This shift is also being distinguished as a transition from the basic-needs concept to the rights-based approach. Therefore, the thesis explores, if these shifts are remarkable in the analyzed countries, eventually, if there are any divergences as compared to the theoretical concepts. To achieve this goal, a broader analysis of the welfare state was used, which involves social, health and education policy. Based on this analysis, the diploma thesis tries to classify the analyzed countries into the welfare state typology; eventually, in case such classification is impossible, it describes the weaknesses of this welfare state the typology. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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