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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Item An Analysis of a Project Management Oversight Committee as a School Improvement Model in One School District(2018) Alston, Anthony Reginal; Imig, David G; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There are persistent and significant gaps in performance between various racial and ethnic sub-groups, particularly between African American and White groups of students, on both state assessments and discipline measures (Rothstein, 2014). Effectively closing the gap requires improving the performance of all students while accelerating the achievement of low-performing student groups in order to catch up to their higher-performing peers. Researchers have found that a variety of school, community, economic and familial factors correlate with low student performance and the achievement gap, but views are mixed on how to improve performance for all and narrow the gap (Alliance for Excellence Education, 1999; Cancian & Danziger, 2009; Jacob & Ludwig, 2009; Janet, 1999; Mitra, 2011; Organization for Economic Co-Operation (OECD), 2012). Over the past decade, federal, state and local policies have made the improvement of low-performing schools and the closing of the achievement gap a top priority. This descriptive quantitative study focused on the efforts of one Mid-Atlantic system to address low performance among certain groups of students using a Project Management Oversight Committee (PMOC) model. The model utilizes data and a heightened level of accountability to yield quick, yet sustainable growth and progress. For this study seven schools (three high schools, two middle schools and two elementary schools) were identified as a result of persistent participation in the process. The academic and discipline data were reviewed to determine trends in performance. In addition to the achievement and demographic data, a satisfaction survey was reviewed to understand the impact of the PMOC process in improving low student performance. Analysis of the data did not find any relational impact upon achievement data. Although the PMOC process did not have the promised impact, it does not deminsh the possibilty that there were gains that would not have occured if the process had not been used. Based on these findings,it is recommended that the system consider allocating funding for further studies to examine the impact of the PMOC process.Item Minding the Gap: Uncovering the Lived Experience of Starting a School(2014) Felix, Debra Anne; Hultgren, Francine; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This phenomenological study explores the lived experience of school founders. My work is guided by the research question: "What is the lived experience of school founders from the time they conceive of starting a school through the first year of operation?" As phenomenology demands, my work is grounded in philosophy, and I turn to the writings of a wide variety of philosophers to inform the hermeneutic interpretation of the text. For methodological guidance, I rely on the work of Max van Manen. Through the voices of participants, I excavate the essence of, and meaning beneath, their experiences. The school founders' experiences share certain essential elements. Being caught in a gap between existing schools and the schools they imagine emerges as a central theme, as each school founder discovers one or more gaps in the educational landscape s/he then seeks to fill. The journey includes rebellion against established norms with a distinct philosophy and vision, and focus amidst a barrage of risks and naysayers. Beneath this lies a sense of purpose and an obligation to develop other people's children. School founders' experiences highlight various tensions in education today - the assumptions we make about "old" and "new" educational practices; how we select the values we wish to pass along to children; the ways in which we evaluate schools; the challenge of implementing new ideas; the role of parents in education; the lack of access many have to a free and appropriate education; and our general discomfort with change and reform. The pedagogical insights from this study lead me to suggest that school founders share their practices and advice with one another and with others to enhance both new and existing schools. I also suggest we re-visit how to assess hard-to-measure outcomes, how to involve parents more in education, and how to move ideas from theory to implementation. Finally, I encourage education leaders to transform the education mindset to one that allows for a greater diversity of school options and choices for the benefit of both teachers and students.