Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    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.
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    Philosophical Arguments of Membership: The Case of Undocumented Immigrants and Financial Aid for Postsecondary Education
    (2004-04-30) Perry, Andre Montel; Strike, Kenneth A.; Education Policy, and Leadership
    Several conceptualizations of membership exist within different proposed policies that limit or expand educational benefits to undocumented students. Two policies in particular, Plyler and IIRIRA, offer juxtaposing moral positions on who should be eligible for instate tuition benefits. Consequently, there are different ideas about what type of membership status (i.e. citizens, residents) should receive financial aid. The primary goal of this study seeks to identify stakeholders' basic beliefs around membership, which can be considered in moral and ethical arguments of whether to allocate undocumented immigrants instate tuition benefits. If we can agree that a political community is generally obligated to distribute resources to its members or that members are inherently obligated to one another, then a framework that captures our expectations for membership can be helpful. The study responds to the primary research question, should undocumented immigrants receive financial aid? However, the thesis endeavors to achieve this goal by pursuing a conception and framework of membership. The study aims to answer the sub-question, what does it mean to be a member of society? Methodologically, the thesis uses Rawls ideas of formulating a conception. The study organizes and collects empirical evidence from stakeholders involved in Texas House Bill 1403, legislation that grants instate tuition to undocumented immigrants, to help me conceptualize membership. To acquire stakeholders' rational beliefs of membership, the study employs case study techniques including semistructured interviewing, document analysis, and literature review. The study found that the principles of residency, social awareness, reciprocation, investment, identification, patriotism, destiny, and law abidingness form a philosophical framework of membership that explains what it means to be a member of a political community/nation-state (substantive membership). I argue those undocumented immigrants who have developed into substantive members as defined by its eight principles should receive financial aid.