The purpose of this mixed methods research is to explore how global studies programs are designed and implemented at public community colleges in the United States and to identify the challenges and the opportunities facing the faculty and administrators tasked with establishing global studies. Despite the fact that most global programs have been…

In a local middle school, students were not meeting standards on the state mathematics tests. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore mathematics teachers' perspectives on effective mathematics instruction vis-a-vis the principles of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Within this framework, the 6 principles in the…

Preparation for and application to medical school, as well as the subsequent medical training of matriculating students, can have an important impact on psychosocial development. The premedical baccalaureate is the traditional preparation for medical school, although many medical schools also offer a separate entry path through early assurance…

The postsecondary acts of violence at Virginia Technical University (VT) and Northern Illinois University (NIU) forced Illinois legislators to approve the "Campus Security Enhancement Act" in 2008 (110 ILCS 12/20). The "Act" requires all private and public postsecondary education institutions to develop a Campus Violence…

This dissertation examines the trajectory of research programs on women and gender in American universities between 1970 and 2010. The dissertation melds perspectives in the sociology of science with organizational analyses of the development of academic disciplines. The analysis forwards a new understanding of how local conditions in research…

The increasing demands on community colleges to broaden access and provide for the community's economic welfare, while maintaining its traditional educational role, have served as a powerful impetus for institutional change. Concurrently, institutions have been forced to explore non-traditional avenues to counteract resource scarcity.…

Concerns about the value and quality of higher education have led to increased scrutiny of the U.S. system of peer accreditation. Public policy-makers have begun to question the extent to which accrediting agencies achieve their quality assurance and quality improvement objectives in the colleges and universities they accredit. Some have begun to…

Although several school districts in a southern US state use a three-tiered Response to Intervention (RtI) model to supplemental core reading instruction and positively impact student achievement, the model appears to have had nominal impact. The theoretical foundation for this study is anchored in a constructivist approach to education. Three…

This dissertation studies the creation and implementation of service learning policy and the implications of these programs for democratic citizenship and political participation. The project focuses on service learning centers at three universities in the Los Angeles area, framing the creation and implementation of these campus-wide centers as an…

Software has an important role in supporting scientific work. This dissertation studies teams that build scientific software, focusing on the way that they determine what the software should do. These requirements engineering processes are investigated through three case studies of climate science software projects. The Earth System Modeling…

Over the past three decades, researchers have studied doctoral research training programs using large scale surveys making visible trends in numbers of and kinds of research courses required, or using focused qualitative methods to gain rich, textured accounts of graduate school experiences. Both kinds of studies fail to capture the local,…

This study explored the components of six Michigan community college teacher education programs that were members of Michigan Association of Community Colleges in Educator Preparation (MACCEP) in 2006-2007. Data were collected from face to face interviews and institutional resources. Each interviewee was an identified "champion" of their…

In many rural school districts in a midwestern U.S. state, special education service implementation conflicts with initiatives to improve and maintain an effective school-wide educational environment. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate how differences in levels of teacher training in special education affected the…

Broadband holds a critical position in the progress of economic and social indicators by connecting consumers, businesses and governments. South Korea has consistently been the global leader in broadband deployment since 1999. In the last ten years the Korean government has pursued several strategies for its broadband policy. The purpose of this…

This policy analysis project is designed at uncovering specific standards that can be utilized by a school district in developing and evaluating their Type II Alternative Schools to ensure high levels of student success within their programs. While there is a substantive body of research in alternative education, there are no universally accepted…