UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
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Item Vellathinai Dhahikunna Vezhambal (As a Bird Searches for the Rain Water) Social Perceptions of Indian American High School Youth Within Home, School, and Community Spaces(2018) Titan, Caroline; Brown, Tara M; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Broadly, this dissertation study examines: 1) the role of space in influencing social perceptions of Malayalee, Indian American, Christian youth and the ways these spaces and perceptions influence these youth’s schooling experiences; and 2) the role of human agency in and larger structural influences on Indian American youth’s schooling experiences. This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature, drawing on interview data from 7 Indian American youth (5 girls and 2 boys) who attended high schools in a single district located in the mid-Atlantic, United States and archival documents, specifically the school district’s English and history standards. To make sense of the study data and findings, I used a conceptual framework composed of key concepts from intersectionality, structural racism, and spatiality. Three key conclusions emerged from the present study: 1) teachers’ and peers’ perceptions of participants influenced their schooling experiences; 2) participants’ assigned importance to the social aspects of school as much as academic aspects; and 3) participants experienced racial/ethnic bias in their interactions with teachers and learning materials (e.g. curricula) which also influenced their schooling experiences.Item INTENTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION: A SELF-STUDY EXAMINING AND EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL TOOLS TO FOSTER ACADEMIC WRITING IN THE ENGLISH SECONDARY CLASSROOM(2017) Alcoser, Michelle Elaine; McCaleb, Joseph L; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This self-study examines the planning, practices, policies, and procedures present in a blended learning classroom environment to develop academic writing with tenth and eleventh grade public high school students. Digital technology is a prevalent and powerful force intertwined with most aspects of the human experience in the twenty-first century. As school systems, educators, and teacher educators try to respond to and within this rapidly evolving climate, they are confronted with challenges on many fronts, including infrastructure, professional development, teaching practice, policy, and further compounded by fiscal limitations. This effort is additionally challenged by a high-stakes testing climate in which state exam scores are used to evaluate the performance of the student, teacher, school, district, and state levels. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is the frame predominantly used in academic literature to articulate, explore, and understand the aspects in play in the 21st-century classroom. Two practices implemented with digital tools to support academic writing development, discussion boards and digital document submissions/revisions were studied. Digital document submission/revision was found to have a positive relationship with fostering improved attitudes towards revision and about students’ own writing efficacy. This practice was most successful when classroom policies were modified to account for the shift in the nature of the task and its role in student learning. This self-study suggests a fourth dimension of knowledge is necessary to understand and implement digital technology in the classroom. Organizational knowledge (OK) includes: classroom policies, the arrangement of physical and virtual spaces, and classroom management in physical and virtual spaces. Technological Organizational Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TOPACK) would integrate OK into the framework, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of what teachers need to know when implementing instructional technology in their classrooms. While some have included classroom management under the pedagogical knowledge branch of TPACK, I suggest that this fails to acknowledge the larger OK needed beyond the knowledge of how best to teach and is a limited perception of the purpose of classroom management. Navigating institutional and procedural considerations also impact classroom operations. Additional research is needed in the area of OK and how its components are impacted by the inclusion of digital technologies in the 21st-century classroom and to confirm the findings.Item High School Journalism Resource Study(2017) Glick, Jenny Lynn; Steiner, Linda; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Abstract Jenny Glick High School Journalism Resource Study The objective of the High Journalism Resources Study was to gain greater insight into whether journalism teachers have the training and resources they need to teach scholastic journalism as the profession has moved into the multi-media arena. Surveys were sent out to high school journalism teachers who are members of the Journalism Education Association, one of the largest associations of journalism teachers in the country. Fifty-seven teachers participated in the survey, answering a range of questions including their level of education, computer usage in the classroom, and whether they are satisfied with the level of technical support and training they get from their schools. This study found a large percent of journalism teachers had Master’s degrees, and all of the teachers used computers in the classroom. Yet teachers expressed high levels of dissatisfaction with the level of training and support they are getting from their school systems. Teachers indicated high levels of support for additional training in all suggested technical areas, including digital editing and Photoshop. Moreover, teachers indicated school system financial support for workshops and trainings were minimal, indicating many teachers would have to shoulder that financial burden on their own.Item A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship between Physical Education Requirements and Student Academic Achievement in High School(2015) Kim, Sang Min; Valli, Linda R.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although national recommendations and guidelines have called for schools to play a greater role in enhancing physical activity through physical education to prevent sedentary lifestyles or physical inactivity of children and adolescents, many schools have reduced or eliminated physical education time or programs despite state or district mandates. These policies and practices are often part of schools’ efforts to increase students’ standardized test scores given the pressures of accountability reforms in education. Guided by Argyris and Schön’s (1974) theory of action, the effectiveness of schools’ policies and practices of decreasing or eliminating physical education time or programs to improve students’ academic achievement was tested in this study. In particular, this study aimed to examine the relationship between schools’ physical education graduation requirements and students’ academic achievement growth in reading, mathematics, and science in high school settings. To this end, the study used a multilevel analysis from a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. high schoolers from the NELS database. Results showed that time requirements of physical education for graduation were either positively or neutrally related to student academic achievement growth in mathematics and science while time requirements of physical education for graduation had only a neutral relation to student academic achievement growth in reading, after controlling for student, family, and school characteristics. Also, there were gender differences in the relations between time requirements of physical education for graduation and student academic achievement growth in mathematics and science with no gender difference found in reading. Overall, although there was not strong evidence that more time requirements of physical education for graduation were associated with higher student academic achievement growth, the findings of this study indicate that certain time requirements of physical education for graduation are positively associated with student academic achievement growth especially in mathematics and science. The findings of the study further imply that increased time requirements schools set aside for physical education for graduation do not decrease or compromise student academic achievement growth in the three core high school subjects.Item CROSSING THE BORDERS THAT DEFINE DIFFERENCE: THE CULTURE, POLITICS, AND PRACTICE OF SOLIDARITY IN TWO HIGH SCHOOLS(2012) Cohen, Beth Anne Douthirt; Finkelstein, Barbara; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This multi-sited ethnography explores the experiences of high school students in the United States as they enact solidarity across various identity borders including race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and mental/physical ability. Specifically, the study focuses on relatively privileged young people in two distinctly different schools--an urban coeducational public school and a suburban all-boys private school. The students entered into solidarity across difference in order to protest the marginalization of minority groups. Using observations and in-depth interviews, this study documents the process of how, when, and why these students came to enact solidarity as a tool to alter systems of power and privilege. For these students, their journeys towards enacting solidarity began with a discovery of the borders that maintain inequality. These discoveries included a process of 1) experiencing or witnessing marginalization, 2) questioning the borders that maintain systems of power and privilege, 3) re-imagining identity categories, 4) integrating new ways of interacting across difference into their sense of self and sense of the world, and 5) seeking out opportunities to learn new ways of thinking about "others." In an attempt to alter the borders that maintain inequality, the students took on the roles of helpers, messengers, advocates, and activists. They enacted solidarity in different ways at different moments based on their skills, capacities, perceived risks, and on their own understandings of justice, inequality, power, and social change. Over time, the student's enactments of solidarity became dynamic and fluid, while navigating various pitfalls such as paternalism. They employed various forms of solidarity, including human, social, and civic solidarities, and sought to build what this study calls "cultural solidarity" in their schools and communities in order to achieve social, political, and, perhaps most prominently, cultural change. The findings suggest that the agency of relatively privileged students is an effective tool that educators and scholars can harness in interrupting inequality in schools. Dynamic and less rigid conceptions of solidarity better reflect how young people enact solidarity in their daily lives. Through curricular, philosophical, and pedagogical choices, high schools can enable or limit the manner in which students approach difference across groups.Item Lifting the Voices of High-Achieving, Middle-Class, African American Students(2012) Brown, Stacey Marvetta Price; Quaye, Stephen J.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The state of African American education is complex. Beginning in the 17th century, African Americans fought for an education that allowed them to read and write. During the 21st century, African Americans value on education extends beyond only reading and writing to using these skills and other skills to maintain strong academic and leadership backgrounds for a higher education. The purpose of this study was to understand the college preparation process of high-achieving, middle-class, African American students at a large research institution in the mid-Atlantic United States. This study was important because despite high-achieving, middle-class, African American students' success, there still exists an achievement gap between African American students and their White and Asian peers. Three theoretical frameworks and models were used as a guide for this study, critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), Perna and Titus' (2005) integrated conceptual model on college enrollment, and the predisposition stage of the college choice research (Hossler & Gallagher, 1987; Hossler, Braxton, & Coppersmith, 1989). Utilizing a constructivist case study methodology, data was collected using personal interviews, a focus group, and personal documents (college admissions statement and/or resumes). Through a within-case and cross-case analysis, school, family, and community contexts that influence the college preparation process were explored.Item An analysis of elementary education majors' and music majors' experiences with Comprehensive Musicianship principles in high school general music courses(2010) Sitarz, Jane Margaret; Montgomery, Janet M; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to determine the percentage of elementary education majors and music majors at a mid-Atlantic university who experienced principles of the Comprehensive Musicianship approach during their high school general music experiences. Principles of the Comprehensive Musicianship approach came from Heavner's (1995) theoretical Comprehensive Musicianship curriculum model, and include concepts, content, activities, instructional literature, and evaluation techniques. Two hundred seventy three elementary education majors and music majors were invited to complete a questionnaire about their high school general music experiences, and 43 usable responses were obtained. Percentages of participants who experienced each of the Comprehensive Musicianship principles were calculated, and results indicated that Comprehensive Musicianship principles were not experienced equally. These findings reveal the need for greater attention to the equality of Comprehensive Musicianship principles in high school general music courses.Item School Climate and Public High School Student Achievement(2009) Shaw, Fortune; Holcomb-McCoy, Cheryl; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The goal of this study was to examine the influence of school ecology, milieu, social system, and culture on public high school student achievement. Utilized data from the ELS:2002 restricted-use dataset, a series of multilevel model analyses were conducted. The results indicate that performance gaps exist between 12th-graders of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds, but they are merely reflections of the differences that already existed two years prior in 10th-grade. Further, the gap between high and low achieving students becomes narrower from 10th-grade to 12th-grade. The highest mathematics course taken in 12-grade produces a positive estimate of mathematics achievement in 12th-grade, and ethnic minority and lower SES students are less likely to be enrolled in the advanced level courses. Contradicting to the classic view of school influences on achievement, public high schools exhibit relatively little variability in mathematics performance after controlling for student individual characteristics. Among all school climate variables, school average prior mathematics achievement is significantly positively associated with later mathematics achievement. The nonsignificance of contextual effect, however, suggests that the differences across schools do not matter; rather, the differences among students do. Students in schools located in economically disadvantaged communities make more gains in advanced mathematics course-taking than their peers in more affluent schools. The gap between high and low-achieving students grows slightly wider in schools located in more affluent communities, but becomes slightly narrower in fully computerized schools. Contradicting to most existing findings, school size, noisy environment, quality of light, ethnic composition, teacher certification rate, counselor-student ratio, safety concern, student civility, and general positive climate do not show significant influence on achievement. Suggestions about implications and limitations are provided.Item Life Story(2007-06-07) Ruggiero, Leigh Ann; Casey, Maud; Creative Writing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Writing stories is more than fantastic structure. It's character, too. This statement is something I hope to illustrate with my thesis: a collection of short stories that focus on characters at different stages in their lives. This thesis represents seven characters (not necessarily in search of an author, but an author in search of their story) who at one time were (some of them most likely still are) trapped in a structure imposed on them by their author. Though I do think these selections are more than character sketches. Maybe a better way to phrase it is character slices. If we take these stories, the first "crush" (though Brooke would be sure to call it love), the first death of someone you really cared about, the moment when all you want to do is disappear from "it all" (or try to), they are all of our stories.Item Recognizing High Achievement in Context: A Multilevel Analysis of Friends' Values and Individuals' Motivation and Background as Associated with the Identification of Tenth-Graders by Teachers and Test Performance(2007-04-25) Barber, Carolyn; Torney-Purta, Judith; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The relationships of school context, motivation, and individual background to receiving teacher nominations for advanced work and/or scoring in the top decile on a standardized test of achievement were examined in both English and mathematics using survey data collected from a nationally-representative sample of tenth grade students as part of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. This study builds upon previous research examining the relationships between students identified as high-achieving by test score criteria and by teacher nomination criteria by exploring whether certain characteristics of students and their schools systematically make them more or less likely to meet them. Students' individual perceptions of their school context were only associated with achievement criteria met in math. Students who perceived their friends to be the least socially-oriented were most likely to meet both criteria. Further, male students who perceived their friends to be the least academically-oriented were the most likely to have high test performance but no teacher nomination. Students who were self-efficacious and intrinsically motivated were the most likely to meet both criteria in English and in math The relationship of intrinsic motivation in math to having high achievement recognized by teachers in this area was especially prominent for male students. Further, students of Black or Hispanic ethnicity were more likely than were white students to be nominated as high achieving by teachers despite lower test performance, as were students from lower socioeconomic statuses. Male students, on the other hand, were more likely than females overall to have high test performance without being nominated as high-achieving by teachers. Specific aspects of these relationships vary between subject areas. In addition to several associations with individual characteristics, the proportions of students identified as high-achieving only by teachers differ systematically among schools. This variation can be explained by several school-level variables, including school socioeconomic status and minority composition. These findings affirm that there are systematic differences between students identified as high-achieving by teacher nominations and by test scores. Learning more about these differences will help teachers and administrators to consider explicitly these factors when identifying adolescent students for special programs and other recognitions.