Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: Education Policy
- Creators: Danzig, Arnold
Description
This study examined the enactment of a high school district's college-going mission. Treating mission enactment as a case of policy implementation, this study used the lens of complexity theory to understand how system actors and contexts influenced variation and adaptation. Data collection methods included observations, interviews, focus groups, and surveys of various system actors including district staff, principals, counselors, teachers, and students. This study used a mixed methods analytic inductive technique and Social Network Analysis to describe the mission's implementation. Findings reflect that the mission was a vaguely defined value statement; school staff reacted to the mission with limited buy-in and confusion about what it really meant in practice. The mission lacked clear boundaries of what constituted related programs or policies. Consequently, in this site-based district, schools unevenly implemented related programs and policies. School staff wanted more guidance from district staff and clear expectations for mission-related actions. To help meet this need, the district was moving to a more centralized, hierarchical approach. Though they were providing information about the mission, district staff were not providing specific, responsive support to organize school staff's efforts around implementation. District staff were trying to find an approach that both supported schools towards a common vision and provided flexibility for school-level adaptations. Yet, the district had not yet fully formed its position as a facilitator of implementation. Further, as the district lacked a cohesive measurement system, the effectiveness of this initiative was unknown. This study sought to present policy implementation as varied phenomenon, influenced by system actors and conditions. Findings suggest that while policy cannot determine actions, district staff could help create conditions that would support implementation.
ContributorsDunn, Lenay Danielle (Author) / Berliner, David (Thesis advisor) / Danzig, Arnold (Committee member) / Smith, Mary Lee (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Lead is a neurotoxin that has been shown to have a long and lasting impact on the brains, bodies, and behaviors of those who are poisoned. It also has a greater presence in communities with high levels of poverty and minority populations. Compounded over time, the effects of lead poisoning, even at low levels of exposure, impact a child's readiness and ability to learn. To investigate the relationship between the risk of lead poisoning, school level academic achievement, and community demographics, three sets of data were combined. The Lead Poisoning Risk Index (LPRI), used to quantify the risk in each census tract of being poisoned by lead, standardized state assessment data for third grade reading and eighth grade math, and census 2000 demographic data were combined to provide information for all Arizona schools and census tracts. When achievement was analyzed at the school level using descriptive, bivariate correlation, and multivariate regression analyses, lead's impact practically disappeared, exposing the powerful effect of poverty and race on achievement. At a school in Arizona, the higher the percentage of students who are poor or Hispanic, African American or Native American, these analyses' predictive models suggest there will be a greater percentage of students who fail the third grade AIMS reading and eighth grade AIMS math tests. If better achievement results are to be realized, work must be done to mitigate the effects of poverty on the lives of students. In order to improve schools, there needs to be an accounting for the context within which schools operate and a focus on improving the neighborhoods and the quality of life for the families of students.
ContributorsGehrman, Matthew Paul (Author) / Berliner, David C. (Thesis advisor) / Garcia, David (Committee member) / Danzig, Arnold (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT Research literature relating to the use of humor as a teaching method or curricula specifically designed to include humor was reviewed to investigate the effects of humor on student learning in various environments from elementary schools to post-secondary classrooms. In this multi-method study, four instruments and a humor treatment were selected to test the hypothesis that students who receive humor-embedded instruction would perform better on assessments than students who did not receive humor instruction. These assessments were analyzed to show student growth in achievement and memory retention as a result of humor-embedded instruction. Gain scores between a pre- test and two post-tests determined student growth in achievement and memory retention. Gain scores were triangulated with student responses to open-ended interview questions about their experiences with humor in the classroom. The gain score data were not statistically significant between the humor and non- humor groups. For the short-term memory gain scores, the non-humor group received slightly higher gain scores. For long-term memory gain scores, the humor group received higher gain scores. However, the interview data was consistent with the findings of humor research from the last 20 years that humor improves learning directly and indirectly.
ContributorsMcCartney Matthews, Melissa Lee (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Satter Anderson, Kelly (Committee member) / Davey, Lynn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this study was to explore features of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) implementation at the district level. In the study beliefs, goals, and actions of district office administrators were analyzed against the backdrop of changing federal guidelines and challenges faced by SES implementers across Arizona. The case study focuses on implementation in the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 school years. The study uses the 2005 and 2009 Department of Education guidelines, survey responses from Arizona district and school implementers, as well as documents and interviews from an urban Arizona case district. The study separates the implementation activities into task areas, which are analyzed separately. Using a loose coupling perspective, the separate task areas are furthered used as coupling domains and represented in social network graphs. Results show that the case district personnel were highly focused on their primary role, maintaining district compliance with federal guidelines. The district personnel employed several changes over the case study period to centralize their control of SES operations within district. The employment and training of site level coordinators was the most impactful of the strategies. As boundary spanners, the coordinators allowed greater access to information, oversight, and influence at the site level. Despite the growing capacity and earnest efforts of the district personnel, the case district was still very far from being able to measure or assess the impact of SES on student achievement. Centralization in the scholastic task areas was relatively low, and had marginal changes over the case study period. Years into the program, there was still no avenue to accurately gauge the effectiveness. As the district personnel were chiefly concerned with compliance, they had suspended judgment on the program and focused primarily on improving their processes.
ContributorsBlankson, Gerald Kotey (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Glass, Gene (Committee member) / Powers, Jeanne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study explores community development initiatives and school-community partnerships that took place during the period 1998 - 2010 in Barrio Promesa, a Hispanic immigrant neighborhood within a large metropolitan area of the South Western United States. More specifically, it examines the initiatives and partnerships carried out through three main sectors of social actors: a) elected officials, public administrators and their agencies of the city; b) the neighborhood elementary school and school district administration; and c) civil society inclusive of non-profit agencies, faith-based organizations and businesses entities. This study is bounded by the initiation of development efforts by the city on the front end. The neighborhood school complex became the center of educational and social outreach anchoring nearly all collaborations and interventions. Over time agents, leadership and alliances changed impacting the trajectory of development initiatives and school community partnerships. External economic and political forces undermined development efforts which led to a fragmentation and dismantling of initiatives and collaborations in the later years of the study. Primary threads in the praxis of community development and school-community partnerships are applied in the analysis of initiatives, as is the framework of social capital in understanding partnerships within the development events. Specific criteria for analysis included leadership, collaboration, inclusivity, resources, and sustainability. Tensions discovered include: 1) intra-agency conflict, 2) program implementation, 3) inter-agency collaboration, 4) private-public-nonprofit partnerships, and 5) the impact of public policy in the administration of public services. Actors' experiences weave a rich tapestry composed of the essential threads of compassion and resilience in their transformative human agency at work within the global urban gateway of Barrio Promesa. Summary, conclusions and recommendations include: 1) strategies for the praxis of community development, inclusive of establishing neighborhood based development agency and leadership; 2) community development initiative in full partnership with the neighborhood school; 3) the impact of global migration on local development practices; and 4) the public value of personal and civil empowerment as a fundamental strategy in community development practices, given the global realities of many urban neighborhoods throughout the United States, and globally.
ContributorsBusch, Jay S. E (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Danzig, Arnold (Committee member) / Knopf, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014