Browsing by Subject "Case Study"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Building Evaluation Capacity in Educational Organizations: A Longitudinal Case Study of One Metropolitan School District
    (2016-07) Rohmer-Hirt, Johnna
    Although evaluation capacity building (ECB) is relatively prevalent in the literature, there is not an extensive empirical body of work related to the topic. The purpose of this study was to add to the existing literature through a 30-year historical longitudinal case study of a large metropolitan school district from the perspective of its leadership. This research examined the longitudinal evidence of the context, processes, and activities that impact ECB within a K-12 educational setting. In addition, it traced the development of an internal evaluation department and the steps to build supports for data use and evaluation in the midst of accountability, using process use as the primary strategy toward ECB. The study consisted of interviews with 14 district leaders, along with document reviews over the years 1985 to 2015, encompassing significant legislative enactments such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the public accountability era in K-12 education. The district leadership was found to value data use across time, along with community involvement and input, and demonstrated a strong legislative awareness and presence. The leaders who were interviewed also viewed evaluation as mission and vision critical across time. Substantial changes were made over the 30-year time frame in the number and types of staff members in the department, the internal process and activities of the department, how the department collaborated with others across the organization, and the organizational reporting structure. In addition, organizational factors such as the shift from evaluation for mandatory reasons (such as grants and legislative requirements) to evaluation for internal decision making and inquiry occurred over the 30-year span, along with important changes in technology and data integrity, accessibility, and understandability. Eight key recommendations to propel ECB emerged from the research: 1) attend to data integrity, accessibility, and understandability – including technology; 2) capitalize on one-time and special funding; 3) recognize that leadership matters and change is disruptive; 4) hire the right people; 5) remember that disposition/personality matters; 6) make ECB an intentional, ongoing focus; 7) work toward consistency, not the new next best thing; and 8) build on previous work instead of completely starting over.
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    An In-Depth Focus on An Emerging STEM School, A Community-Based Framework for STEM Integration, and Fostering Students’ STEM Interest
    (2019-08) Leammukda, Felicia Dawn
    The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been and continue to be dominated by White men (Corbett & Hill, 2015). Women and students of color are underrepresented in post-high school STEM majors and careers in relation to the current demographics of the United States population (Corbett & Hill, 2015). The middle school years mark a decline in interest and positive attitudes toward STEM (Riegle-Crumb, Moore, & Ramos-Wada, 2010). Researchers argue that teaching and learning through STEM integration and the creation of STEM schools, particularly in areas with a high population of under-represented students, could ameliorate this situation. This three-paper dissertation focused on an urban, community middle school located in the Midwestern United States working to develop a STEM focus. The first paper is a case study that explored the factors that impact how teachers and administrators work to develop as an emerging STEM school. The second paper develops a conceptual framework for STEM integration which takes an inclusive approach and incorporates social justice, community strengths and expertise, and personal relevance, and explores the implementation of this conceptual framework. The third paper focuses specifically on ways to foster STEM interest in female students through their participation in inclusive, integrated STEM units. Overarching themes from the three studies include the need for: (i) an inclusive approach to STEM integration; (ii) STEM integration with community connections; and (iii) awareness of social justice-related issues in STEM that promote gender and racial equity in STEM education.
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    Intractable Conflict in Pediatric Critical Care: A Case Examination and Analysis of Futility
    (2019-05) Wolfe, Ian D.
    The focus and reliance on a concept can often blind us from the real things that exist that cause a concept to come into being. Futility as a concept has been painstakingly debated in the literature. This study takes a different approach and seeks to discover complexity and dynamics of what happens during the course of the care of a child that leads to intractable conflicts. A single case study method is used. Participant interviews, chart review, and policy review were the sources of data explored. Transcriptions of interviews were inductively and deductively analyzed using Walker’s expressive-collaborative model of morality. The roles, relations, objects, and concepts were critically analyzed through systems theory and critical realism. The results of this study suggest reframing discussions away from definitions of futility and movement towards conceptualizations and dialogues that include the moral community, and relationships between and among clinical and organizational ethics. The study advocates a moral and ethical need for early identification of futility dynamics, continuity in communication, and a perspective about managing polarities and problems versus solving them.
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    Issues of Identity and Equity in STEM Education STEM Teachers Identity and Gender Equity in STEM
    (2018-12) El Nagdi, Mohamed
    Abstract This three-paper dissertation addresses issues of equity and identity in STEM education through three studies conducted with teachers in two emerging STEM schools in the Midwest United States (U.S.), graduates of a girls STEM school in Egypt, and the teachers of a STEM school in Egypt. The studies comprising this dissertation utilized case study as a research design to explore the issues of equity and identity in STEM education. Participants in each study were selected using criterion purposeful sampling. Though these studies were not intended to be comparative, the results of the three studies reveal context-based results with several global assumptions regarding nature of STEM education and the pertinent issues of equity and identity. In the three studies STEM education is viewed as having a transformative power for both teachers as providing an opportunity for change at the professional level; and for female students providing an equitable learning environment for girls aspiring to pursue STEM fields. The evolving nature of the STEM teacher identity was evident across all cases. The American teachers conceptualize STEM as providing valuable tool for better learning opportunities for students based on integrated curriculum and with emphasis on equity and inclusion. Egyptian teachers viewed STEM from two lenses: as a pedagogical tool to facilitate learning complex concepts, and a system level reform initiative to reform the existing failing education system in the country and prepare students for the labor market. Characteristics of STEM teachers were uniform across the three studies; flexibility, collaboration and open to change. The challenges for teachers’ identity development in the Egyptian experience are mostly related to lack of resources and bureaucracy while in the U.S. case they are more connected with professional development and time needed for more practice. While the studies making up this dissertation denote the centrality of the context regarding STEM design and implementation, they still have implications for STEM education as a global reform initiative.
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    The Lived Experience Of Participating In Diversity Training: A Phenomenological Case Study
    (2018-12) Clark, Jeremy
    Despite significant expenditures on diversity training by organizations and increasing interest in the study of diversity training as a phenomenon by organizational scholars and practitioners, little research has been conducted regarding the lived experience of diversity training. The present study utilized hermeneutic phenomenology and case study methodologies to investigate the lived experience of participating in diversity training in a county government setting. Six county government employees who recently attended a diversity training at a large Midwestern county served as study participants. Study participants shared their insights, feelings, thoughts, emotions, and experiences regarding this unique and complex phenomenon. The analysis revealed that participating in a diversity training is a complex and emotional phenomenon. A summary of findings suggests that the diversity training experience required participants to confront strong visceral emotions. Additionally, these emotions were cultivated over time and influenced by many facets external to the course itself with the course serving as the catalyst and providing the motivation for this convergence to take place. Finally, results indicate that study participants were left with a motivation to take personal responsibility, albeit to varying degrees, for mobilizing for change. The knowledge acquired from this study may assist Human Resource Development (HRD) practitioners by providing additional, in depth insights and analysis beyond trainee reaction measures which may inform the design, delivery, and evaluation of diversity training interventions. Furthermore, the insights obtained from this study may assist HRD scholars by contributing a new line of research for HRD scholars as it concerns the study of this complex organizational phenomenon.
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    The Role of Transit Service Area Definition in Accessibility-based Evaluation
    (2016-08-01) Palmateer, Chelsey; Owen, Andrew; Levinson, David M; Ermagun, Alireza
    This empirical study examines the importance of service area definition, when utilizing accessibility-based evaluation in transit projects. We analyze two transit projects: (1) Metro Transit A-Line in Minnesota and (2) Harris County Transit Re-Imagined Bus Network in Texas. The results indicate that the choice of transit service areas have a significant impact on the value of ab- solute accessibility measures. The trend shows the narrower the service area, the higher the value of the absolute accessibility measure. The results, however, are inconsistent between projects when relative accessibility measures such as percentage change between scenarios is used as an accessibility-based evaluation measure. We conclude service area definition is of only moderate importance for scenario comparisons within the same analysis boundary. When comparing different regions or areas within different boundaries, the service area definition could have a significant impact on all results. This is case-dependent and varies greatly from project to project, which requires calculating both the absolute and relative accessibility measures in an accessibility-based evaluation. In addition, decomposing the accessibility changes in the separate portions of transit projects reveals that the light rail investments have negligible impacts on accessibility levels, while restructuring of the bus network has a slight positive impact on accessibility levels. The findings have important implications for the deployment of accessibility-based evaluation on transit projects.
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    What motivates Minnesota's Fortune 500 companies to create equitable work environments for GLBT people?
    (2012-05) Opall, Brent S.
    Due to rapidly changing social movements U.S. organizations have paid increasingly more attention to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace. Organizations are ranked and evaluated by national organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC) on work policies about, and inclusion, beliefs, and treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) employees. These factors, combined with the larger GLBT social movement, have caused many organizations to invest heavily on initiatives to create equitable work environments for GLBT people. Developing and adapting Human Resource (HR) policies and practices to accomplish this is difficult, time consuming, and costly to organizations--which begs the question: What motivates organizations to create equitable work environments for GLBT people? To that end, using a qualitative collective case study approach this in inquiry provides a deeper understanding of why organizations spend significant resources to create equitable work environments for GLBT employees. The focus centered on the 21 Fortune 500 corporations headquartered in the state of Minnesota. This study found five primary reasons why these organizations have created GLBT inclusive work environments. These five factors are: positive return on investment, element of a broader diversity initiative, internal organizational pressure, parity with other Minnesota companies, and chance.