Within the past decade, American politics seemed to have become more divided, and with this has come the spread of more radical beliefs in mainstream culture. This includes conspiracy theories, which can be described as an attempt "to explain the ultimate causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors" (Brugger 2022). This study aims to show how conspiracy theories are spread and why people believe them. This was done by administering surveys to both students and adults, primarily at Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, New Jersey, to get an idea of what an average person understands or believes about various popular conspiracy theories. Interviews were also conducted with both believers and nonbelievers to further learn about the mindset of both groups. Finally, analysis was conducted of two major conspiracy theory websites, in order to see what kind of information is commonly spread among conspiracy theory circles.
During the 2016 Presidential elections, former President Donald Trump called on Americans and politicians to work together to “Make America Great Again.” In their efforts, right-wing conservatives have worked diligently to limit and reinvent knowledge and history to students. Between 2021-2022, PEN America reported 1,648 books being banned across the nation. This censorship of knowledge is not new, but it is also not a good sign for the trajectory of America. Should these book bans continue, the United States May find itself succumbing to fascist ideologies and control. The ways in which books are currently being banned fall in line with fascist tactics meant to uplift a false utopia, create divide amongst people, and promote fear. This thesis will look at the ways in which book banning is used as a political tool and its increasing premonition of the possibility of America becoming a fascist state.
This study focuses on understanding the impact of voice on a student conduct administrator’s role and retention in that role at community colleges. By understanding the development of student services from the Colonial era to present day and providing background information about the different types of approaches utilized to address student conduct violations, this study builds the framework to understand the impact of voice on a student conduct administrator’s role and retention in that role at community colleges. The theoretical frameworks-exit, voice, loyalty, (Hirschman, 1970), use of the ProSocial Voice (Dyne, Ang, & Botero, 2003), and principles of effective retention (Tinto, 1987) provide the foundation for the use of a qualitative narrative approach to answer the research questions (1) what impact does the ability to use voice as a student conduct administrator have on the professional’s remaining in the position? (1a) what, if any, impact does the ability to facilitate change in the institution’s student conduct process influence the professional’s remaining in the position? (1b) what, if any, impact does a student conduct administrator’s ability to advocate for the use of an approach of their choosing to address conduct violations influence his or her remaining in the position? 12 60-90 minute interviews were conducted with current student conduct administrators that work at the community college institution. Chapter 1 informs the reader about the problem, chapter two provides a detailed literature review, chapter 3 outlines the methodology and sample while chapter four provides themes of the study and data analysis. The final chapter, chapter five, discusses the findings, and recommendations for policy, practice and future studies.
The demands of high-stakes testing, tenure reform, and teacher accountability have dominated the landscape of education for almost two decades. The expectations placed on public schools require leadership that supports and motivates teachers to perform at extremely high levels. Public schools therefore must fill their institutions with principals who possess a leadership style that can inspire and empower teachers to tackle these demands and set a clear vision for the future of their schools. Transformational leadership is a model of leadership that has been shown to elevate and motivate followers to perform beyond organizational expectations. The purpose of this study is to examine the common transformational leadership behaviors and methods of application utilized by public school principals. This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods of research separated into two stages. In the first stage, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire-Self (MLQ) was used to survey 66 public school principals in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The results of the survey were analyzed and used to develop a cohort of 10 principals to participate in the qualitative stage of the study. In this second stage, the cohort of 10 principals participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews in order for the researcher to further examine their behaviors and methods of application. The data from the MLQ and the interviews revealed that transformational leadership exists in public schools in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The results from this study identified specific behaviors and methods of application that align with the four domains of transformational leadership. This study contributes to the existing research on transformational leadership and also provides current public school principals with information regarding behaviors that can be implemented to enhance their practices. Further research that builds upon the application of transformational leadership and its effect on variables such as school climate, teacher turnover, and student achievement would reveal the influence that transformational leadership has on other aspects of school leadership.
Using paraprofessionals to meet the social, self-care, and instructional needs of special education students began in the 1960s. The roles, duties, and expectations for these paraprofessionals evolved over the subsequent fifty years. Special education paraprofessionals play an important role in the education of students with disabilities. Since the inclusion of students with disabilities in nationally mandated assessments, their utilization has increased (Brenton, 2010). The research literature has shown that these paraprofessionals have not received adequate training for, or supervision while, performing their responsibilities and duties. Findings from the literature also highlight that these individuals provide a disproportionate amount of instruction to students with disabilities when compared to certified educators. This study focused on the responsibilities, duties, and professional needs of special education paraprofessionals in kindergarten through sixth grades. Using a concurrent mixed methods design, it utilized a three-part survey and one-time interviews to inform recommendations for expanding data collection and creating a sustainable learning community for the specific sample analyzed during this study. The current study found that many of the responsibilities and duties of this sample of special education paraprofessionals are different from those revealed in previous research. According to their responses, they do not operate independently, and they spend a significant amount of time following the teachers’ lessons plans and working under the teachers’ direct supervision. This sample of professional development needs focused on duties and responsibilities that they would like to learn more about or perform better, including training in behavior management and one-on-one tutoring.
Teacher evaluation has existed in many forms throughout history. With or without formal processes teachers are held accountable for student learning and achievement gains through a variety of measures such as standardized test scores, parent feedback, administrative feedback and students' grades. Recent political movement has spurred legislators to support more rigorous and specific evaluation systems that increased accountability of teachers and school districts to link teacher evaluation to student learning. New Jersey adopted the TEACHNJ act in 2012 which required set number of evaluations for tenured and non-tenured teachers, criteria for each evaluation through a variety of models, and test scores and teacher developed assessments were tied into a final score for teachers. If the teacher evaluation system aims to improve practice and identify areas for professional growth, it is important to understand teachers' perceptions on the new system. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of teachers related to the effectiveness of the teacher evaluation system in New Jersey and the perceived benefits and limitations of the new system. This mixed-methods study surveyed teachers from six suburban districts in New Jersey. The districts varied in size and socioeconomic factors, but all districts were in their second year of the new teacher evaluation system. Teachers answered eight survey questions using a Likert scale and two open-ended questions that allowed respondents to expand on any of the questions or any other related comments not addressed in the survey. The study revealed that teachers believe in the fundamental principles that serve evaluation processes. Teachers understood the research behind the systems and the need for accountability. The key in successful teacher evaluation is comprehensive training opportunities for teachers not only in what constitutes effective teaching practices, but with the implementation of these practices into the classroom. Further, teachers need to have training on how to utilize the tools used to manage the evaluation systems so that teachers are not tied up with bureaucratic practices that take away from the time to plan effective lessons or collaborate with colleagues. Additionally, evaluators need to continue to learn alongside the teachers to ensure reliability and consistency within the different evaluations a teacher receives from multiple observers. Further research that aligns teacher evaluation with student achievement, as well as teacher evaluation within a variety of settings with specific evaluation models would be valuable. As new teacher evaluation systems become the norm in districts across the nation, further study would provide school leaders with ways to ensure successful and effective implementation policies that support both students and teachers.
This dissertation investigated the degree to which economic trends in the United States, since the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, have influenced subsequent education policy from 1983 to 2010. It aimed to examine the interrelatedness of economic trends within American society, as defined by employment, earning power, and the gap between the rich and poor; how corporate and private philanthropy have created the economic impetus for educational foundations; and how corporate needs, as dictated by economic trends, influence educational policy. This influence effectuated the inception of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), an educational reform movement that has resulted in the expansion of government, the advancement of a nationalized curriculum whose primary concern is developing “college and career readiness” skills, and the establishment of new industries driven by the demands of markets associated with a nationalized curriculum.
The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate the impact of New Jersey’s permanent Interdistrict School Choice Program relative to equity as perceived by participating school superintendents. This researcher measured the impact of New Jersey’s Interdistrict School Choice program utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collected via a web-based survey instrument, the New Jersey Interdistrict School Choice Perception of Equity Inventory. In this approach, data from Likert questions and open-ended responses were used to evaluate superintendent’s perceptions based upon the independent variables of district socioeconomic status, district geographic classification and district enrollment dynamic. A triangulation design mixed methodology was employed to converge both the quantitative data and qualitative data for analysis. The quantitative survey data was utilized to compute inventory scores for each participant that were disaggregated based upon the independent variables. This researcher subsequently conducted ANOVA tests to determine if there were significant differences in the superintendents’ perceptions of the impact of the Interdistrict School Choice Program. The qualitative data, generated from the survey open-ended responses was pattern coded and analyzed for frequency. Finally, this researcher validated and interpreted the combined quantitative and qualitative results. The results of the study were that 71 participating superintendents held overall positive perceptions of the impact of the New Jersey Interdistrict School Choice program relative to equity. There were no significant differences in the perceptions of participating superintendents based on district socioeconomic status, district geographic classification and district enrollment dynamic.
The construction industry in New Jersey has long provided a viable opportunity to young men and women searching for employment as an alternative to continuing education beyond high school. Although New Jersey's county vocational school systems were established and are funded for the purposes of educating and training students in prerequisite skill sets for work force positions, discussions with the administration of today’s county vocational school districts suggests that enrollment in many of the programs developed to prepare students for construction industry or building trades programs has been decreasing. This mixed methods study examined the evolution of building trades education in New Jersey’s county vocational high school system through the perspective of the administrators charged with leading the districts currently offering programming in the same. More specifically, these administrators were asked to identify the variables they believe to have contributed to a perceived decline in enrollment in these courses. The null hypothesis tested as part of this study was that there is no statistically significant relationship among New Jersey county vocational school administrators’ perceptions and the variables that impact enrollment in high school level Building Trades programming. In addition to testing the null hypothesis, role emphasis was placed on answering the following, research questions: 1. What are the variables that have impacted enrolment in Building Trades programming at the high school level? 2. Are there notable differences in beliefs of the respondents based on the population of the county in which the school districts operate? 3. Is there a program structure that is more effective at maintaining consistent enrollment than others, i.e. shared time programming vs. full time programming? 4. Are county vocational school districts moving away from offering prerequisite coursework in traditionally less academic trades and more towards traditionally highly academic trades, i.e. engineering, technology and medicine?
Study abroad has been a part of the curricular and co-curricular programming of higher education since 1875. Yet, despite the long history, a literature search revealed that study abroad is the least examined of the high impact practices (HIPs) related to engagement theory. Further, despite its promise as a retention strategy, study abroad has never been fully explored as a solution to the retention ills of higher education. Therefore, using data from the 2011 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), this study analyzed the engagement and retention value of higher education, principally through the use of MANOVAs and Mann-Whitney U tests. To learn more about the engagement practices of students who study abroad and elucidate learning style characteristics of study abroad participants, an analysis using Chi-square testing was conducted about students’ participation in study abroad, other voluntary high impact practices, and co-curricular activities. The results of the analysis illuminated that study abroad participants have a significant, impactful tendency to hyper-participate during and after their study abroad experience, suggesting an overall positive effect on the outcome variables. Students who studied abroad made significant gains in relation to Tinto’s construct of social integration; this was consistent across race/ethnicity, academic major, and gender factors. The students made different gains in retention, albeit to varying degrees, as measured by level of academic integration and positive feelings about institutional actions. Finally, students demonstrated engagement gains that were mostly significant; these differed by race/ethnicity, academic major, and gender. As a result of these findings, leaders in higher education should consider study abroad as a tool to help students socially integrate, increase their engagement, and, among certain student populations, increase retention. If study abroad were integrated as a part of the core curriculum, study abroad would stifle the high dropout rates currently plaguing American higher education.
Are fraternities still relevant to the college student experience? By examining the moral, student, and leadership development of IFC fraternity men, while controlling for institutional and student characteristics, the current study analyzed the roots of the purported value-added nature of fraternities using data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL). Specifically, the current study examined fraternity men’s gains in self-authorship, internalized moral perspective, advancement along Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning, and the individual “c’s” of the social change model while controlling for the variables of race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and parental education. This quantitative study used both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data from a national dataset; inferential analysis was performed using Kruskal-Wallis one-way Analysis of Variance and the Mann-Whitney U test as a post hoc analysis. The interesting and troubling findings of this study allowed for the elucidation of much needed policy change, new best practice, and a call for reform in the fraternity movement.
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a PLC model as theorized by Hord (1997) and as influenced by Bandura's (1997) theory of self-efficacy on grade 4 mathematics and language arts literacy achievement on High-Stakes Criterion-Based Assessments (HSCBA). The researcher conducted this study in an urban New Jersey elementary setting and utilized a longitudinal non-experimental quantitative design. The researcher measured total population, ethnic sub groups and special education achievement through an analysis of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) among 1,479 4th grade students to determine if there was a statistically significant link between PLCs and student achievement levels. The researcher subsequently conducted a series of ANOVAs on the NJASK4 data obtained. The study results support the benefit of PLCs as capacity-building, efficacy-supporting structure that improves student achievement.