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- All Subjects: Education Policy
- Creators: Dorn, Sherman
Description
ABSTRACT
Closing the achievement gap between low-income, marginalized, racially, and linguistically diverse students has proven difficult. Research has outlined the effects of funding on student achievement in a manner that focuses the attention on dollars expended, in order overcome barriers to learning. Arizona has long been recognized for its education funding disparity, and its inability to balance fiscal capacity in a manner that serves to improve educational outcomes.
This dissertation examines how Arizona funds its education system. It measures horizontal inequity in a robust manner by examining those fiscal capacity resources directly related to learning and poverty. Recognizing districts with higher concentrations of special needs students will impact fiscal capacity at the district level, this dissertation applies a non-linear analysis to measure how English language learners/ limited English proficient (ELL/ LEP) student proportionality impacts federal and state revenue per pupil, ELL expenditures per pupil, and total expenditures per pupil.
Using the Gini Ratio, McCloone Index, Coefficient of Variation, and Theil inequality index, this dissertation confirms that significant education funding disparity exists across Arizona’s school districts. This dissertation also shows the proportion of English language learners is negatively related to local revenue per pupil, and ELL expenditures per ELL pupil.
Arizona has characteristically funded the public education system inequitably and positioned its students in a manner that stratifies achievement gaps based on wealth. Targeted funding toward ELLs is in no way meaningfully related to the proportion of ELLs in a district. Conceptually the way in which equity is defined, and measured, may require re-evaluation, beyond correlated inputs and outputs. This conceptual re-evaluation of equity must include the decision making process of administrative leaders which influence the quality of those resources related to student learning.
Closing the achievement gap between low-income, marginalized, racially, and linguistically diverse students has proven difficult. Research has outlined the effects of funding on student achievement in a manner that focuses the attention on dollars expended, in order overcome barriers to learning. Arizona has long been recognized for its education funding disparity, and its inability to balance fiscal capacity in a manner that serves to improve educational outcomes.
This dissertation examines how Arizona funds its education system. It measures horizontal inequity in a robust manner by examining those fiscal capacity resources directly related to learning and poverty. Recognizing districts with higher concentrations of special needs students will impact fiscal capacity at the district level, this dissertation applies a non-linear analysis to measure how English language learners/ limited English proficient (ELL/ LEP) student proportionality impacts federal and state revenue per pupil, ELL expenditures per pupil, and total expenditures per pupil.
Using the Gini Ratio, McCloone Index, Coefficient of Variation, and Theil inequality index, this dissertation confirms that significant education funding disparity exists across Arizona’s school districts. This dissertation also shows the proportion of English language learners is negatively related to local revenue per pupil, and ELL expenditures per ELL pupil.
Arizona has characteristically funded the public education system inequitably and positioned its students in a manner that stratifies achievement gaps based on wealth. Targeted funding toward ELLs is in no way meaningfully related to the proportion of ELLs in a district. Conceptually the way in which equity is defined, and measured, may require re-evaluation, beyond correlated inputs and outputs. This conceptual re-evaluation of equity must include the decision making process of administrative leaders which influence the quality of those resources related to student learning.
ContributorsMartinez, David G (Author) / Pivovarova, Margarita (Thesis advisor) / Berliner, David C. (Thesis advisor) / Dorn, Sherman (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Affirmative action is an education policy adopted by higher education institutions in the 1960s, where an applicant’s race is taken into account to some degree when being evaluated for admission to a college or university. The practice of affirmative action, or race conscious-admissions, has been repeatedly challenged in the legal system and remains a controversial and polarizing topic amongst the general public, campus leaders, and policy makers. Despite a vast amount of research on the effects of affirmative action policies on student and institutional behaviors and outcomes, such as college applications and enrollments, considerably less research has examined students’ attitudes towards race-conscious admissions policies. Even less research has focused on students in academic disciplines, especially STEM or engineering. Likewise, there is a paucity of research that explores students’ perceptions and knowledge of how affirmative action is implemented in practice. To address these gaps, this study investigates undergraduate engineering students’ knowledge of and attitudes towards affirmative action admissions policies in higher education. The Student Attitudes Towards Admissions Policies Survey (SATAPS) was designed to assess students’ knowledge of and attitudes regarding affirmative action practices in higher education admissions. This survey was administered to undergraduate engineering students and a comparison group of education students at 42 colleges/universities in the United States. Data were analyzed utilizing confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression. Results demonstrated that students have low levels of knowledge about affirmative action, and have misconceptions about how the policy functions in practice. There was no difference in engineering and education students’ level of support for affirmative action; however, underrepresented minority students in engineering were more supportive of affirmative action. Results also indicated that students’ beliefs and values were the strongest predictors of attitude towards affirmative action, so much so that this negated the significance of demographic and personal characteristics, which was observed in the majority of previous studies. Results highlight a complicated relationship between demographic characteristics, personal variables, knowledge, institutional context, beliefs/values, and attitude towards affirmative action admissions policies in higher education.
ContributorsRoss, Lydia (Author) / Judson, Eugene (Thesis advisor) / Dorn, Sherman (Committee member) / Powers, Jeanne M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In the Cold War era, educational broadcasting became a new technological instrument in less industrialized countries, to enhance the quality of education. Specifically, the use of mass media in classrooms was starting to be considered a modernized way for developing the educational system in less industrialized regions. This study argues that educational broadcasting in less industrialized areas, including South Korea, reveals the effects of Cold War politics in educational development in many countries. Through the concept of localized modernization, this study highlights American educational aid programs in establishing an educational broadcasting system in a foreign country and its effects on changing the entire educational system focusing on the case of South Korea.
By investigating various archival sources published by governmental agencies, international organizations, and local governments, this dissertation reveals how some less industrialized regions sought to change their educational system by using a new modern technology, educational broadcasting, and how a new educational idea—that the use of mass media in school instruction can change the entire educational system—influenced, changed, and was adopted in these areas.
Although the U.S. Agency for International Development introduced mass media to modernize education, this study shows how local people adapted a new educational broadcasting system to their own purposes and unique circumstances. Korean policymakers and educators agreed with some parts of the U.S. recommended system, but used them for their own needs. The educational broadcasting system in Korea proceeded differently from the U.S. recommended system. The author thus argues that the case of educational broadcasting in South Korea is an example of how local countries constructed their own educational broadcasting systems, how individual countries adapted U.S. systems during the Cold War era to their own needs, and how the localization of the modernization process can be an alternative lens for an overview of the historical pathway of U.S. educational aid projects in the Cold War era.
ContributorsKim, Woo Yeong (Author) / Dorn, Sherman (Thesis advisor) / Silova, Iveta (Committee member) / Powers, Jeanne M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The emergence of machine intelligence, which is superior to the best human talent in some problem-solving tasks, has rendered conventional educational goals obsolete, especially in terms of enhancing human capacity in specific skills and knowledge domains. Hence, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword, espousing both crisis rhetoric and ambition to enact policy reforms in the educational policy arena. However, these policy measures are mostly based on an assumption of binary human-machine relations, focusing on exploitation, resistance, negation, or competition between humans and AI due to the limited knowledge and imagination about human-machine relationality. Setting new relations with AI and negotiating human agency with the advanced intelligent machines is a non-trivial issue; it is urgent and necessary for human survival and co-existence in the machine era. This is a new educational mandate. In this context, this research examined how the notion of human and machine intelligence has been defined in relation to one another in the intellectual history of educational psychology and AI studies, representing human and machine intelligence studies respectively. This study explored a common paradigmatic space, so-called ‘cyborg space,’ connecting the two disciplines through cross-referencing in the citation network and cross-modeling in the metaphorical semantic space. The citation network analysis confirmed the existence of cross-referencing between human and machine intelligence studies, and interdisciplinary journals conceiving human-machine interchangeability. The metaphor analysis found that the notion of human and machine intelligence has been seamlessly interwoven to be part of a theoretical continuum in the most commonly cited references. This research concluded that the educational research and policy paradigm needs to be reframed based on the fact that the underlying knowledge of human and machine intelligence is not strictly differentiated, and human intelligence is relatively provincialized within the human-machine integrated system.
ContributorsGong, Byoung-gyu (Author) / McGurty, Iveta (Thesis advisor) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Dorn, Sherman (Committee member) / Zheng, Yi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Presidents exercise influence over policy discussion and options in America by the frequency and language they use to describe the current conditions, the perceived problems, and the solutions. The ability for presidents to articulate problems and solutions assumes an underlying purpose exists. This study examines how presidents frame the policy discussion for education in America and how they describe the purpose of education in the public record: the benefit of education is for society (common good), or the benefit it to the student (private good). Then the study examines the extent to which those frames stay consistent or are variable within and between administrations. The study utilizes presidential issue framing and agenda-setting to examine historical documents in the Public Papers of the President archive to determine the articulated purpose using the framework proposed by David Labaree. This study focuses on three administrations of the most recent period of federalism in education policy in America, starting with Bill Clinton and ending with Barack Obama. The study found that President William Clinton used the purposes of Social Mobility and Social Efficiency most frequently, President George W. Bush used Social Efficiency – Public Good and Social Efficiency – Private Good most, and President Barack Obama used Social Efficiency – Public Good more than all other frames. All three presidents maintained relatively consistent use of their prominent frames throughout their administrations with some indication that slight shifts may occur. All three presidents had low utilization of the frame Democratic Equality, and all used the combined frame Social Efficiency the most. Some variation between the utilization of the second-level codes of Private Good and Public Good do exist between administrations. The prominence of the combined frame Social Efficiency across administrations may suggest a more crystalized definition for the purpose of K-12 education in America.
ContributorsBryant, Aaron C (Author) / Dorn, Sherman (Thesis advisor) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Judson, Eugene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023