The purpose of this study is to determine if there are any effects of school gardens on low socio-economic first grade classroom located in the Southern Region of the United States. It is crucial for students to understand food sources and where it originates. Data was gathered through interviews using qualitative research methods. Analysis consisted of examining data from themes and discriminate cases. Personal interviews were done with teachers and students involved in the garden project. Permission was received to interview the students at school. All participants will remain anonymous. The results of the study found that the garden project did provide the participants with a positive new experience and hands on learning. Academic effects were not measured due to the age and developmental stage of the first graders. School gardens provide students with an opportunity to learn not only what they should eat, but also obtain a greater appreciation for how food is grown. Garden projects at school are a great way to make classroom subjects more interesting and significant to students.

Registered Nurses comprise the largest group of healthcare professionals in the United States, and forecasts predict a nursing shortage of epic proportions on the horizon. Significant factors include approaching retirement of Baby Boomer RNs, increased demand for care for aging Baby Boomers in the population, approaching retirement of nurse educators, and rejection of qualified applicants secondary to enrollment restrictions in nursing programs. Nursing student attrition further contributes to the pending shortage. Successful retention programs promote best-practice utilization of scarce resources. Understanding student characteristics serves as a basis for effective selection and retention programs. This study described characteristics of nursing students in a diploma nursing program in the southern United States who graduated within the expected program length; a time frame non-inclusive of completion of 25 credit hours of specified prerequisite general education courses. Using secondary data from students enrolled between January 1998 and January 2008 yielded outcome data for cohorts graduating between December 1999 and December 2009 (or are projected to graduate in December 2010). This 11-year sample allowed description of students and graduates on demographic characteristics of age, race, gender, marital status during program enrollment, and number children. Further, program admission criteria required completion of the Nurse Entrance Test (NET®) with required minimum critical thinking scores for main idea of passage, inferential reading and predicting outcomes and a minimum composite percentile. Graduates are described according to NET® components, GPA for prerequisite courses and a program predictive GPA for specified prerequisite courses. The study describes the program Non-completers on academic and demographic characteristics and withdrawal factors. Further, comparison was made between program Completers and Non-completers. This comparison of admission criteria between the groups yielded statistically significant differences between the groups and provided support for admissions criteria utilized by the Admissions and Selections Committee. Comparison of retention among students experiencing interruption in enrollment was made using the same admission criteria. Admission criteria did not yield statistically significant differences between the groups. This lends support to the admission criteria being significant to overall selection; however, following readmission, unidentified variables may have a greater influence on the students ultimate retention in the program.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of board members of non-profit organizations in Louisiana on board development. According to the literature review, boards of directors play a pivotal role in the life of non-profit organizations. Thus, it is essential that they operate effectively. Provision of a continuous development program promotes board and organizational performance as board members augment their knowledge, skills and abilities of their roles and responsibilities, and cultivate board, staff, and stakeholder relationships. The target population for this study was board members of non-profit organizations in Louisiana. A total of 267 non-profit organizations were contacted with five board members from each organization to complete the survey. Of a survey sample of 1,335, 110 board members responded to the survey for a final response rate of 8.2%. Eighty-four respondents provided usable data; therefore, twenty-six respondents who provided unusable data were dropped from the study. Follow-up of non-respondents was not possible because the researcher did not have board members e-mail addresses. The Hollins Board Development Survey was a 52-item researcher-designed questionnaire, which consisted of a five-point anchored rating scale and multiple-choice items. Post hoc comparisons of board members responses on the size of the non-profit board were performed using the Tukey HSD test, which revealed a significant amount of variance on non-profit board size at the p<.05 level. Results suggested that larger boards of directors are more likely to have board development activities. A regression model with three independent variables, Size of the non-profit board - 5-9 members and 10-14 members, and Age of non-profit board member explained a significant portion of the variance of selected demographic traits on the Hollins Board Development Survey score.

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of housing arrangement and selected personal and academic characteristics on the engagement of full-time university freshmen. A sample of 1,119 full-time freshmen was used in the study. A 14-item Likert-type scale, the Student Academic/Social Interaction Questionnaire, was used to measure the engagement level of the students. Housing information was also self-reported, but all ther demographic and academic information was obtained from the institutions registrars office. When compared to the overall mean engagement score, there were five significant findings. Significant differences were found between living off-campus, living off-campus with family, living on-campus in discipline-based residential colleges, and first-generation college attendance status and the overall mean. No significant differences were found between respondents gender or race when compared to the overall mean engagement score. Multiple regression analysis revealed an overall model of five predictors of engagement of freshmen students: ACT score, living off-campus, living off-campus with family, first-generation college attendance status, and living on-campus in discipline-based residential colleges. This model accounted for 6.6% of the variance in the level of engagement. Findings suggested that, overall, students are only mildly engaged, and mean scores from items on the Student Academic/Social Interaction Questionnaire revealed that students are engaged with their peers, but not with faculty and staff. There was no difference in the engagement level among the various on-campus housing arrangements. Whether or not students lived on-campus or off-campus was what made the difference in students engagement level.

This dissertation examines the influence of the state police law enforcement academy on the performance of commissioned officers in the field training officer (FTO) program in a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The law enforcement training academy is paramount in preparing cadets for the roles, responsibilities, and activities that graduates assume independently in the field. As such, it is important to understand the value added to future performance in the field through adequate preparation in the training academy. This dissertation analyzes a sample of officers in the Southeastern region of the United States and explores the relationship between their performance as cadets in the academy and their performance as commissioned officers in the field training officer program. Further, this study examines the existence of differences in performance among the various troops of the selected state law enforcement agency. Through stepwise regression, the researcher concluded that the law enforcement training academy accounts for between 2.3% and 17.6% of the performance variance of newly commissioned officers in the field officer training program. Further, through an analysis of variance, the researcher concluded that there are significant differences in at least one of the performance variables selected throughout the troops of the agency. The researcher recommended further analysis of the law enforcement curriculum and of the field training officer program. This research should focus on the specific goals and objectives of the FTO program to ensure that the curriculum taught in the academy is properly aligned with the performance measures of the FTO program. Further, it was recommended that a systematic training methodology be implemented to ensure that all field training mentors are fully educated on the programs goals, objectives, and evaluation system. Finally, it was recommended that a structural equation model be developed to allow the agency to understand the unique contribution of their current recruiting, selection, and training programs to the performance of their officers in the field.

The United States of America was built on the foundation of a representative democracy. Citizens engage in various political activities to elect representation to create policies and programs that may benefit individuals, groups of individuals, and special interests. A citizens type of political engagement and level of political engagement may be influenced by the individual and group resources a citizen possesses, as well as the citizens level of trust in government to respond to their individual or group needs. This study contributes to the literature on political engagement by suggesting factors that predict political engagement in the United States. The goal of this study was to explore predictors of political engagement in the United States. Data from the National Politics Survey 2004 was used to analyze and interpret findings related to the nine hypotheses in this study. Survey items were selected from the survey to measure political trust, social capital, and political engagement. Citizen level of trust in the national government was used to measure political trust. Individual and group resource variables such as income, educational level, ethnic mix of friends, ethnic mix of neighborhood, closeness of ideas and interests to people, and maintaining or blending cultures were used to measure social capital. Three dependent variables were used to measure political engagement; voting, talking to others to persuade them to vote for or against a party or candidate, and attending a political rally in support of a particular candidate. Each dependent variable was measured separately against the independent variables in a hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicated that certain Socioeconomic Status variables, social capital variables, and the political trust variable failed to meaningfully predict citizen political engagement related to voting and attending political meetings or rallies, and had minimal meaningful predictability to talking to others to persuade citizens to vote for a specific party or candidate. The results also indicated noteworthy biases in the dataset that contributed to the models inability to meaningfully predict political engagement based on the variables suggested in this study.

Stakeholders of higher education expect a positive return for their investment. One of the measures of success for higher education is persistence; one of the measures of persistence is retention rate. One segment of higher education, community colleges, receives a significant outlay of public resources in terms of government appropriations, student financial aid, and individual investment. This study follows the framework of Ryan (2004) and Gansemer-Topf and Schuh (2006) who successfully created models using the allocation of financial resources to predict graduation and retention rates for four-year colleges. Using data from the U. S. Department of Educations Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), this study examined the relationship between the allocation of financial resources and selected institutional demographics with freshman retention for community colleges. This study found no relationship between financial allocation and selected institutional demographics with freshman retention. In addition, this study found no predictive model using financial allocation to determine freshman retention, but found a minimally effective model by adding selected institutional characteristics as predictors. Further research adding additional predictors may discover an effective predictive model for freshman retention.

In the year 2009, 667 individuals lost their lives in a highway construction or maintenance work zone (National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, 2010). Since the year 2003, 6,438 individuals have been killed in a highway construction or maintenance work zone, which is approximately 805 deaths per calendar year (National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, 2010). This eye-opening and unfortunate statistic points to the need for a re-evaluation of training methodology as it relates to work zone safety. This study reports on the use of virtual learning technology for work-zone training. This research tested the use of an Immersive Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) simulating real-world highway work zones. IVLEs go beyond traditional visual learning by presenting images that combine a new form of visual learning and virtual-experiential learning in a way that is more congruent with an individuals visual images stored in memory, thus improving knowledge transfer and retention (Dede, 2000; Kapp & ODriscoll, 2010). The visual cues that the learner experiences in the virtual world are so similar to the visual cues in the real world that recall of virtual world lessons stored in memory are triggered by the same cues in the real world. Additionally, the student can experiment, make mistakes, and repeat the activity as often as necessary, achieving a virtual-experiential understanding of the concept that can only be duplicated in real-world experiential learning, which is often not practical (Dede, 2000; Kapp & ODriscoll, 2010). Such immersive engagement in the learning activity will allow the learners to move beyond the memorization of the presented concepts and into the application and synthesis of the material. A significant benefit of this research will be a better understanding of how educators can implement this advanced, user-friendly, semi-transparent technology to positively affect the inclusion of marginalized populations into virtual learning environments. This research will establish a solid theoretical and evidence-based link between use of the virtual world learning environment and improved knowledge transfer and retention for that marginalized population that forms the bulk of the employment pool for military, construction, maintenance, and many other industrial entry-level positions.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how 4-H programming may support positive youth development in youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Using Wehmeyer‟s Functional Model of Self-Determination as the theoretical framework, sixteen youth aged 14-21 years in an intact vocational training classroom engaged in a semester-long program utilizing direct instruction and environment theorized by Wehmeyer to enhance the emergence of self-determination in youth with IDD. This study drew from the fundamental principle that a person who was self-determined exhibited behaviors that reflected certain essential characteristics (Wehmeyer & Field, 2007). The study utilized data collected from three phases; pre-program, on-going, and post-program, and multiple sources including the students, their parent(s), the classroom teacher and the researcher. The data points elucidated the experiences of these participants and provided evidence as to the degree their 4-H experience supported positive development of independence, primarily in the realm of self-determination, by youth with IDD. Findings suggested that 4-H programming provided a context for youth with IDD that enhanced understanding and performance of behaviors related to self-determination. 4-H members demonstrated changes in their personal autonomy and autonomous functioning within their families and community settings. They demonstrated greater interest and competence in self-directed lives; and their families expressed increased confidence in permitting the youths to exercise more autonomous decision-making behaviors. 4-H members developed a higher level of cognitive understanding of self-regulation and demonstrated an increased ability to perform the behaviors related to self-management: self-monitoring, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement. 4-H members revealed a psychologically empowered personal posture within their families and community settings in reporting an increased feeling of control in their lives, realistic self-efficacy, a heightened sense of ownership and response to coaching for more effective performance of behaviors related to self-determination. Lastly, the 4-H members became better able to identify personal strengths and limitations and transfer this self-realization to other settings. Implications for 4-H agents and volunteer leaders and recommendations for future research on youth with IDD in 4-H programming were provided.

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and entrepreneurship is of critical importance to women because it provides a means to becoming self-sufficient, in charge of ones own career path, and as a way to rise about the glass ceiling of the corporate world. Women who perceive themselves as having the necessary skills and knowledge to start their own companies have a higher likelihood of starting a business than those who do not. Therefore, it is important to understand the training needs and perceptions regarding the efficacy of entrepreneurship training programs specifically targeted to women. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected demographic characteristics and business related variables on perceptions of entrepreneurship training effectiveness among women and to compare the perceptions of training effectiveness by whether or not the participants were business owners. This study was conducted through an analysis of archival data collected from participants in the Women in Business workshops offered by an entrepreneurship institute in a College of Business at a large research institution located in the southeastern portion of the United States. Findings revealed there were very positive perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the program on the part of most participants, both business owners and non-business owners. However, analysis of qualitative data collected in the study identified issues and important factors not found in the quantitative data. Some of those factors included importance of familial support and the role of a female mentor. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that having a female mentor is important to all Women in Business attendees as is support from family members. The researcher recommended that mentoring, both in terms of finding a female mentor and becoming a mentor for other women preparing to become entrepreneurs, become a central component of the Women in Business training program.