UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
8 results
Search Results
Item EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF EXPENSE DISAGGREGATION AS A FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TOOL IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH A MIXED METHODS APPROACH(2024) Baker, Dylan R; Joyce, Philip; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This mixed methods dissertation investigates the impact that cost-disaggregating tools like the Delaware Cost Study (DCS) have on the expenditure patterns at large, public research universities. It draws on public budgeting and higher education finance literature to form a theory of action that hypothesizes that expense management at such institutions will result in the internal realignment of resources but will not alter the total amount spent. The quantitative model employs a 15-year panel data set comprised of financial and operational activity data for 69 R1 universities to tests the influence of DCS participation against this idea. The primary quantitative outcome shows that total costs are indeed not altered by cost disaggregation efforts, but that spending at universities employing such approaches is, on average, higher for Instruction and Scholarships and lower for Institutional Support and Student Service activities than the spending at non-DCS participants. The results inform the contrasting case selection strategy that highlights three similar constituted universities with differing quantitative results in an extensive interview-based qualitative analysis. The interviews detail the varied positive and negative outcomes of the use of DCS and similar tools, sheds light as to why the quantitative results occurred at each university, and documents the commonalities. Recommendations derived from the combined results of the two research methods signal key tenets that policy makers may utilize to enhance the effectiveness of public financial management for large, complex state-sponsored universities.Item PRIVATIZATION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AFGHANISTAN(2021) QARGHA, GHULAM OMAR; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates the trends, nature, and driving forces behind the privatization of primary and secondary schools in Afghanistan. More specifically, this research investigates the role of national decision-makers and international donor agency representatives in influencing privatization policies. The study focuses on 20 years, starting with post-Taliban initiatives in 2002 to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the resumption ofof Taliban rule in August of 2021. An instrumental case study approach that combines a review of available policy documents and interviews with key national and international stakeholders is used to conduct this investigation. Interviews are the primary instruments used to collect data. The study draws upon international literature on privatization and aid dependency. Theoretically, this study uses a combination of Kingdon’s (1995) Multiple Streams Framework and the education policy transfer literature to understand the liberalization of private school policies and the discussion surrounding them in Afghanistan. The study uses Dolowitz and Marsh’s (2000) continuum of policy transfer to determine the level of coercion in educational policy transfer. It uses Cairney’s concept of ‘policy transfer window’ to operationalize the synthesis of the Multiple Streams Framework with the educational policy transfer literature. The study found that events in the problem and political streams opened a policy transfer window that allowed for the liberalization of private school policies in Afghanistan. These findings contribute to policymakers’ and other stakeholders’ understandings of the education policy transfer in fragile, aid-dependent nations. Moreover, this study is one of few in the field to focus on the critical role of policy entrepreneurs in joining together the multiple streams while also providing a nuanced view of the educational policy transfer process in a fragile state environment.Item EXAMINING HOW TENNESSEE STATE MERIT AID INFLUENCES INSTITUTIONAL GRANT AID: A DIFFERENCE-IN-DIFFERENCES APPROACH(2018) Burczek Dreier, John Paul; Titus, Marvin; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The creation of the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) program provides a natural experiment where a difference-in-differences estimation design is employed to isolate how state merit aid funding may lead institutions to change their institutional grant aid. Principal agent and resource dependence theories together establish state and institutional context as well as inform potential institutional responses to the TELS program. Data are primarily observed at the institution-level from 2000 to 2009 and come from the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS). The difference-in-differences estimation strategy incorporates multiple comparison groups and separate specifications by Carnegie Classification. The results indicated that the nine Tennessee public four-year institutions reduced their recipient average institutional grant post-TELS. However, institutional responses differed across Carnegie Classification. Tennessee Doctoral Extensive public institutions increased the number of students receiving institutional grant aid post-TELS. Tennessee Doctoral Intensive public institutions reduced their total institutional grant and number of recipients post-TELS, and thereby decreased their average institutional grant aid post-TELS. Tennessee Master’s College and Universities, excluding Tennessee Technical University, also reduced their institutional grant aid post-TELS. The results from this study provide some informative commentary for theory, research and policy. First, the combination of principal agent and resource dependence theories provide a more comprehensive set of potential responses that move beyond the Bennett hypothesis to suggest that institutions might not just reduce institutional grant aid. Second, this study created a comparison group of institutions subject to a state governing or coordinating board with budget authority, which produce more efficient estimates. Future research on financial aid or institutional finances may benefit from moving beyond the tradition governing board classification to include state coordinating boards with budget authority. Third, state policy on financial aid should better align new initiatives with existing institutional financial aid to ensure state funding is used effectively. With better goal alignment between state governments and institutions, it could reduce the agency problem that develops and ensure state does not duplicated existing financial aid strategies.Item CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS FOR STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL DISABILITIES AND PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR PUBLIC SCHOOL CASE MANAGERS(2016) Wright, Anthony Dwayne; McLaughlin, Margaret J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Placement of students with disabilities in private special-education schools remains costly and controversial. This is particularly concerning, given the lack of research on the characteristics and quality of these restrictive settings. The purpose of this study was to identify the academic and vocational course offerings and behavioral supports provided in private special-education schools the serve high school students with emotional disabilities (ED). Second, the research examined the perceptions of the quality of services in these setting from the perspectives of public school case managers. Using a mixed-method design to collect data, 9 administrative heads of private special-education schools were surveyed, and 7 public school case managers were interviewed. Results indicated that (a) private special-education schools offer the basic academic core courses needed to meet graduation requirements, (b) vocational options for students enrolled in these schools are quite limited, (c) these schools provide a variety of behavioral interventions and supports, and (d) case managers are concerned with the lack of academic rigor and inconsistent programming at these schools but applauded the notion that students with ED are exiting with a high school diploma. Findings from this study may have policy implications for improving and developing programming options for high school students with ED.Item EXAMINING HOW STATE FUNDING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IS INFLUENCED BY LEGISLATOR POLICY PREFERENCES: A DYNAMIC PANEL ANALYSIS(2014) Williams, Joseph; Titus, Marvin A; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Guided by the spatial theory of voting, this study examines the influence of state legislator policy preferences, higher education interest groups, and other variables on state funding to higher education. Using data from all 50 U.S. states over a period of twelve years, this study utilizes a dynamic panel model with Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) techniques to examine how a number of independent variables influence state funding for higher education. Dynamic panel modeling with GMM techniques addresses methodological limitations of prior research by accurately examining a lag of the dependent variable included as an independent variable while accounting for unobserved state-specific fixed-effects, time-related fixed-effects, and possible endogeneity of one or more of the independent variables. The results of this study indicate that more conservative state legislatures are associated with lower levels of funding to higher education while more liberal legislatures are associated with higher levels of funding. Other variables, including prior year higher education appropriations, K-12 appropriations, gubernatorial strength, and the share of enrollment in private higher education are related to current year state appropriations to higher education. The results from this study have a number of implications. First, this study utilizes the spatial theory of voting, a theory which has never been previously utilized in higher education research, to guide the selection of political variables, including state legislator policy preferences. Future research within political science and other academic disciplines can employ the spatial theory of voting to examine the influence of state legislator policy preferences on different policy outcomes. Second, future researchers may consider employing dynamic fixed-effects panel modeling with GMM techniques when including a lag of the dependent as an independent variable. Third, future studies can utilize the newly developed measures of policy preferences to understand the influence of state legislator policy preferences on a variety of state level policy outcomes. Fourth, an understanding of the influences of higher education funding will allow policymakers and administrators to better predict funding levels and plan future budgets.Item Supporting Community-Based Summer Interventions Serving Low-Income Students to Narrow the Achievement Gap: An Analysis of the Challenges of Securing and Maintaining Funding(2014) Hall, Lavinia Jane; Rice, Jennifer K.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research suggests that the summer learning gap between lower- and upper-income students makes a significant contribution to the achievement gap and that quality summer programs can be important interventions in addressing the differential learning over the summer months. Because the quality and effectiveness of summer interventions may be related to their funding, this multi-site case study analyzed the challenges of securing and maintaining funding for four community-based summer interventions located in Maryland. I used resource dependence theory in my study to highlight the dependence of community-based summer interventions on external providers to fund their summer programs. This theory draws attention to the demands that external providers place on community-based summer interventions for funding as well as highlights the role of internal capacity in how organizations respond to those demands. I focused on community-based summer interventions, and not school-based summer interventions, because community-based summer interventions may be a productive means to implement summer programs and address the summer learning gap. Literature suggests that, in comparison to school-based summer interventions, community-based summer interventions may face unique challenges in funding their programs and utilize different internal resources to respond to the demands of external providers. My four cases were community-based summer interventions that focused on academic goals, targeted low-income, elementary or middle school students, and offered a minimum of 80 hours of programming. To create a purposeful sample of cases that reflect potential differences in internal capacity, I selected programs that varied in the type of community-based summer intervention (e.g., nationally-affiliated versus grass-roots), whether or not the program received 21st Century Community Learning Center funding, and location. To provide contrast in the challenges of funding summer interventions, I allowed several criteria to vary, including funding sources and quality indicators of the program. To understand the challenges of securing and maintaining funding for community-based summer interventions, I interviewed administrators, staff members, and board members in each program. I collected documents from each program to provide additional insights into the summer programs and their funding. This exploratory study answers questions about the challenges of funding community-based academic summer programs serving low-income students. Four findings emerged. First, the community-based summer interventions included in this study relied upon multiple funding sources, but different primary funders to support their summer programs. Second, the most persuasive challenges in depending upon external providers for funding were revenue volatility and the pressure for accountability. Third, the community-based summer interventions mediated their funding challenges through a unique combination of their internal capacity and program characteristics. Data highlights the role of human and social capital and the importance of program location, type of community-based organization, program size, and years of operation in the response of programs to funding challenges. Fourth, funding challenges were most likely to affect the quality indicators of differentiated or advanced-skills instruction, prior interaction between students and teachers, and adequate contact hours through limited teacher salaries, teacher training, and materials. This study is significant because it begins to answer questions about the challenges of funding community-based summer interventions, the role of internal capacity to mediate the funding challenges, and the relationship between funding sources and challenges and the quality indicators of summer interventions.Item WHO GETS WHAT: A WITHIN-SCHOOL EQUITY ANALYSIS OF RESOURCE ALLOCATION(2014) Wolf, Rebecca; Davis, Thomas E; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study analyzes resource allocation within schools, and it is one of the first in the literature to analyze the equity of monetary resources at the individual student level. The study calculates teacher resource expenditures (TREs) per pupil by allocating teacher salaries to individual students for each high school student in a large urban public school district. Next, the study compares the degree of within-school variation in per-pupil TREs to the variation between schools and concludes that the variation within schools is much larger than the variation between schools. The study then uses Berne and Stiefel's (1984) equity evaluation framework and develops an analytic approach that is appropriate for conducting a within-school equity analysis of per-pupil TREs. The findings indicate that inequities in the allocation of teacher salaries at the student level do exist. Specifically, the study finds violations of horizontal equity, vertical equity for low-income students, and equal opportunity for students of differing achievement levels. These findings also suggest that district leaders may be unaware of how resources are ultimately allocated to students.This study also evaluates the equity of the within-school allocation of specific resources to identify if resources are equitably allocated in academic courses that are critical for academic success. This study evaluates the equity of the allocation of class size, teacher experience, and social capital in students' English and math courses only as well as the number of advanced placement (AP) courses taken by students, which indicates access to rigorous curricula. In analyzing the equity of these specific resources within each school in the district, this study determines if multiple resource advantages or disadvantages exist for some students.
Findings indicate that multiple resource inequities may exist for low-performing, low-income, and minority students. Further, the study finds that schools with greater socioeconomic and racial diversity have more occurrences of within-school resource inequities for low-income and minority students than schools with homogeneous student populations. The study is among the first to analyze the equity of the within-school allocation of multiple resources simultaneously to gain a better understanding of whether students in the same school receive equitable resources.
Item Beneath the District Averages: Intradistrict differences in teacher compensation expenditures(2012) Malkus, Nathaniel Nelson; Rice, Jennifer K; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous research indicates that typical district budgeting practices mask large between-school teacher compensation expenditures (TCE) differences, that teacher sorting drives those TCE differences, and that TCE differences drive overall resource inequities. While scarce accurate school-level resource data has hindered intradistrict equity research, extant analyses have shown substantial TCE differences disadvantage schools with more non-white, poor and low-performing students. Though compelling, these findings are limited empirically because they examine small numbers of districts and conceptually because they examine average salaries, which cannot control for between-school differences in pupil-teacher ratios or student compensatory needs that could legitimately alter TCE between schools. Empirically, this study expands evidence of intradistrict inequities by measuring TCE variation using universe teacher-salary data for schools and districts in 16 states. Conceptually, this study allows for improved intradistrict TCE equity comparisons through a novel weighting approach that adjusts per-pupil TCE to control for differences in schools' compensatory needs and pupil-teacher ratios. Using detailed data for four states, each district's de facto staff-allocation weights are estimated and used to weight schools' student counts to statistically control for different allocations of teachers relative to student compensatory needs. Schools' TCE is indexed by weighted pupil counts to control for legitimate TCE differences associated with compensatory needs. By measuring TCE at the student level while controlling for compensatory needs, this weighted per-pupil TCE approach provides a more precise measure of intradistrict TCE equity than the average salaries used in previous research. Using descriptive statistics, district-level OLS regressions and hierarchical models on schools within districts, these analyses gauge the scope of TCE inequity and identify the district and school characteristics associated with it. Findings reveal that TCE variation is a widespread district phenomenon, and that districts with greater between-school variation in student poverty, race, and performance have more TCE variation. Within districts, schools with more poor, non-white, and low performing students receive below-average TCE. At the district and school levels, teacher sorting is strongly associated with the distribution of TCE. These findings suggest that intradistrict TCE inequities are widespread and divert targeted compensatory funds. Moreover, intradistrict resource equity deserves increased policy and research attention.