Browsing GSE Theses and Dissertations by Title
Now showing items 3-22 of 231
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A Sandbox for Innovation: My Exploration of Pay for Success in K-12 Education
(2018-04-30)Pay for Success is an innovative financing tool through which private investors provide upfront capital for high quality, evidence-based social services programs, and are paid back by government once pre-determined outcomes ... -
Advancing and Sustaining the Oceanside Promise: A Collective Impact Initiative Anchored Within Oceanside Unified School District
(2017-05-01)In addition to preparing students academically, public schools are increasingly expected to address the complex social, emotional, and safety needs of students. Collective impact, first defined by Kania & Kramer (2011) as ... -
Adventure Girlz: A Restorative Leadership Program Model for Interrupting Black Girls’ School Pushout in New York City
(2016-05-02)Young, poor, and undereducated women of color make up the majority of women who are incarcerated in the U.S. correctional system (Covington & Bloom, 2003). Black girls, in particular, are at risk of incarceration when ... -
Algebraic Functions, Computer Programming, and the Challenge of Transfer
(2015-05-17)Students' struggles with algebra are well documented. Prior to the introduction of functions, mathematics is typically focused on applying a set of arithmetic operations to compute an answer. The introduction of functions, ... -
Applying Lean Methodologies to the Development of an Entrepreneurial Venture in Education
(2015-05-04)“The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.” - Marc Andreessen Many educational products have flooded the American K-12 market in recent years, launched by startups and established educational institutions ... -
An Assets- and Equity-Based Approach to Multilingualism, Multiliteracy, and Multiculturalism: Harnessing the Development of a District-Wide Strategy to Foster Learning, Shift Mindsets, and Seed System-Level Change
(2017-05-01)In the United States and globally, there is growing recognition of the extensive cognitive, emotional, social, and economic benefits of multilingualism, multiliteracy, and multiculturalism. At the same time, a double ... -
The Baby and the Bath Water: Improving Metaphors and Analogies in High School Biology Texts
(2017-02-10)This dissertation is concerned with understanding how metaphors and analogies function in biology education and whether some of the philosophical critiques of the language used in the field of biology — and in particular ... -
Beyond Minimally Adequate: Building Public Support for High-Quality, Accessible Charter Schools in South Carolina
(2017-05-01)This capstone examines a strategic initiative to bring about policy changes that would facilitate the growth of high-quality charter schools specifically serving historically underserved students in the state of South ... -
Beyond the Fourth Grade Glass Ceiling: Understanding Reading Comprehension Among Bilingual/Bimodal Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
(2015-05-08)Research has found that, on average, deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students graduate from high school reading at the fourth grade level (Allen, 1986). Additionally, DHH children of deaf parents (Charrow & Fletcher, 1974) ... -
A Bias Toward Teams: Are We Teaming Well? Does It Even Matter? Implications for Teams in Public School Districts From a Case Study at Boston Public Schools
(2017-05-01)Teams are at the heart of change efforts in public school districts all over the country. Within central offices, the nature of systems-level reform generally requires collaboration amongst diverse people with diverse ... -
Botho – “I Am Because We are.” Constructing National Identity in the Midst of Ethnic Diversity in Botswana’s Junior Secondary Schools
(2017-05-05)Multiethnic states globally face the dilemma of how to negotiate ethnic diversity while promoting a unified national identity. In Botswana, a remarkable example of peace and stability in Sub-Saharan Africa, two highly ... -
Brave Community: Teaching and Learning Race in College in the 21st Century
(2017-05-09)Sociological evidence consistently demonstrates that racial progress coexists with persistent racial inequality in American society. Recently, increased evidence of police brutality against black citizens, as well as the ... -
Bringing Leaders Together: Social Capital Development in a Principal Network
(2017-10-27)This thesis is made up of three articles that investigate one district’s attempt to promote collaboration among its principals. The first article uses the lens of design, focusing on the affordances and constraints of ... -
Building an Organization That Can Help the Sector Learn: Creating Team Interdependencies at the Learning Accelerator
(2018-04-30)In a growing number of school districts across the country, educators are using blended learning (the strategic integration of in-person learning with technology) in order to provide more equitable, accessible and engaging ... -
Building Influence and Leading Change to Connect K-12 and Postsecondary Systems of Learning at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
(2016-04-29)This capstone documents a strategic project at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation aimed at increasing college readiness and postsecondary success by creating greater alignment and shared collaboration between K-12 and ... -
Building Regional Intermediary Capacity Towards Equity, Access, and Excellence in Tennessee’s Grades 7-14/16 College and Career Pathways
(2017-05-01)Career pathways help direct students’ futures direction and provide relevant, engaging learning experiences that are designed to lead them to and through a postsecondary degree or credential and ultimately on to successful ... -
Can States Take Over and Turn Around Low-Performing School Districts? Evidence on Policy Effects and Political Dynamics From Lawrence, Massachusetts
(2016-05-13)Turning around persistently low-performing K-12 schools and districts has been an elusive goal despite prioritization at the highest levels of government. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Education encouraged states ... -
A Case Study in Realigning Public Value in School Choice and Enrollment
(2016-05-02)What role does an enrollment system play in providing every child in the United States with a high-quality education? Integration and school choice literature highlight the saliency of the topic (Ben-Porath, 2012; Orfield ... -
The Causal Impact of Attending High Tech High’s High Schools on Postsecondary Enrollment
(2015-10-22)In recent years, a small but growing number of empirical studies have examined the causal impact of attending charter schools on academic achievement (Betts and Tang, 2011). In assessing achievement, researchers have ...