Browsing by Subject "Education."
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Item Bad behavior? Understanding the correlation of racial mismatch and teachers' perceptions of student behavior.(2012-08-08) Martinez, Matthew James.; Tolbert, Charles M.; Sociology.; Baylor University. Dept. of Sociology.Research shows that teachers’ treatment and perceptions of students will vary based upon the race of the teacher and student. When teachers share the same race as the student, the student will benefit in the way of higher expectations, evaluations, and treatment from teachers. This study examines teachers’ perceptions of students’ behavior at varying levels of racial mismatch. Hierarchical OLS models are used to test for contextual affects in schools with varying percentages of minority composition. This study finds support for racial mismatch theory as white teachers perceive more student behavior problems in schools consisting of 50% or more minority students. The nonsymmetry hypothesis holds in this study as minority teachers do not think any more positively or negatively of student behavior at schools in which they are racially mismatched. The importance of these findings is discussed, reasons for the differences are theorized, and prescriptions for remedying these differences are presented and considered.Item Between isolation and engagement : the history of the Dutch Calvinist school movement in the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada.(2010-06-23T12:25:41Z) Sikkema, David A., 1984-; Hankins, Barry, 1956-; History.; Baylor University. Dept. of History.Over 200,000 Dutch immigrants have settled in Canada since the end of World War II. The Dutch Calvinists within this larger body have largely maintained their distinct religious and ethnic identities through the establishment and maintenance of separate civic institutions. The purpose of this thesis is to trace the historic development of one institution in particular, the separate school. The underlying motivations behind the creation of separate schools in Canada are rooted in a century long struggle in the Netherlands known in Dutch parlance as the schoolstrijd where the Dutch fought to set up their own educational institutions and won financial equality with their secular counterparts. This thesis will also discuss two strains of Calvinism that emerged within the Reformed body, each having a significant impact on the schools' identity in the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada. Finally, the thesis will offer a case study of one particular school in Southern Ontario, Canada. As this school emerged from a schism within the church, it provides an opportunity to explore another stage in the development of Dutch Calvinist education.Item Graduation rates, success and high school quality.(2013-09-24) Cooper, Cassidy J.; Mencken, Frederick Carson, 1964-; Sociology.; Baylor University. Dept. of Sociology.The efficacy of high school grades in retention modeling has been criticized as ineffective, owing to the diversity in both grading standards in high schools and competitiveness of high school curriculums. Informed by theories from status attainment, credentialism, and cultural capital, the present study aims to create a standard with which to test both the efficacy of G.P.A. as a predictive variable, and the relationship that individual student characteristics have to the institution from which they graduate. Using student retention data from Baylor University and high school level institutional data from the Texas Education Agency, I assess the individual and institutional level factors influencing student success in college. Student success is operationalized as college G.P.A., four year graduation, five year graduation and six year graduation. Ordinary least squares regression models, and hierarchical linear models are run to assess the relative effect of individual level variables and institutional level variables on students’ undergraduate G.P.A. Binary logistic models and multinomial models are run to predict the relative effect of individual and institutional level variables on students’ four year, five year, and six year graduation rates. The results of this research support the importance of individual level variables in predicting student success. In addition to individual and institutional level variables, interaction variables are included to assess the relationship between students’ high school G.P.A. and the quality of their high school. The institutional level variables were found to have random effects on predicting student success.Item Relationships between college knowledge and college-going beliefs of eighth grade students.(2013-09-24) Wisely, Lynn Woodward.; Johnsen, Susan K.; Educational Psychology.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Psychology.The present study examined the relationships of college knowledge and parent education level with these college-going beliefs: (a) self-efficacy, (b) outcome expectations, (c) likelihood both to go to and graduate from college, (d) choice intentions, and (e) educational goals of eighth grade students. Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) provided the theoretical framework. Data collected included the following instruments: College-Going Self-Efficacy Scale (Gibbons, 2005), College-Going Outcome Expectations Scale - Positive (Gibbons, 2005), Career Expectation and Intentions Scale - Revised (Betz & Voyten, 1997) and the Texas College Knowledge Inventory (TCKI) (Wisely, 2012), a revision of the North Carolina College Knowledge Inventory, (NCCKI) (GEAR UP, 2008). The study defined parent education level as one of two conditions: either one or both parents had more than a high school education, or parent(s) did not have more than a high school education. Participants included 324 inner-city public middle school students from a school district in central Texas. Ninety percent of the sample were on free and reduced lunch; 54% were female (46% male); 68% were Hispanic, 24% African American, 8% White, 1% other; and 51.5% were prospective first-generation college students (48.5% non-first-generation). Simple linear regression analyses indicate that, in general, college knowledge accounted for between 1-10% of the variance, while parent education level accounted for up to 2% of the variance in college-going beliefs. Although analyses failed to detect an interaction effect between the predictors, including both predictors in the model was an improvement over either predictor model alone, accounting for up to 11% of the variance. Multinomial logistic regression determined that increasing college knowledge or parent education level greatly improved the odds of a student choosing educational goals of four-year institutions or graduate school over the educational goal of high school or less. A secondary purpose of the study was to assess the TCKI as a tool to measure college knowledge. Implications of these findings extend to school personnel, researchers and public policy advocates.