The South Omaha Community Scholarship Program: A Qualitative Study of Persistence of Hispanic Students at Bellevue University

The purpose of this case study was to determine the impact of the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program on the persistence of the Hispanic students who participated. Previous research on Hispanic student persistence has focused on the reasons why students do not persist and more recent research has been conducted on programs and retention efforts, colleges and universities are implementing on their campuses. This study researched a specific program, The South Omaha Community Scholarship Program, designed to provide financial, academic and other needed resources to help Hispanic students persist to graduation. The researcher believes this study was important because it provided an overview of how the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program is affecting students both on campus and in their community. Eight interviews were conducted, with eligible students, in person. Students eligible for the study were current students or recent graduates of the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program and had attained at least junior or senior status as of the fall of 2009, as defined by Bellevue University. Research questions were based on the four components of the program and the affect the program had on the student’s life, outside of Bellevue University. The four components of the program were: financial aid, academic advising, the scholarship aid, and the Professional Enrichment Program. The results of the study were broken into five components with an additional section that provided other themes that were derived from the interviews. The five components were: (a) financial aid counseling, (b) academic advising, (c) scholarship aid, (d) Professional Enrichment Program, and (e) the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program beyond Bellevue University. Other themes that were derived from the interviews were: class format, deciding on a college, higher education class, campus resources, and a sense of community on-campus. The research found that the scholarship, provided by the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program, was the primary motivating factor for students to attend Bellevue University and persist in college. The interviewed students also commented on how the scholarship had given them the opportunity to attend college, even though that opportunity had seemed out of reach. The interviewed students also commented on their academic advising experience, campus resources, and feeling a sense of community on-campus as other campus related areas that were affected by the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program. Finally, students provided examples of how the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program impacted their connection to their South Omaha community through volunteer and employment opportunities. Adviser: Richard Hoover

Student and Faculty Perceptions of Technology’s Usefulness in Community College General Education Courses

Educational institutions of all levels invest large amounts of time and resources into instructional technology, with the goal of enhancing the educational effectiveness of the learning environment. The decisions made by instructors and institutions regarding the implementation of technology are guided by perceptions of usefulness held by those who are in control. The primary objective of this mixed methods study was to examine the student and faculty perceptions of technology being used in general education courses at a community college. This study builds upon and challenges the assertions of writers such as Prensky (2001a, 2001b) and Tapscott (1998) who claim that a vast difference in technology perception exists between generational groups, resulting in a diminished usefulness of technology in instruction. In this study, data were gathered through student surveys and interviews, and through faculty surveys and interviews. Analysis of the data used Kendall’s Tau test for correlation between various student and faculty variables in various groupings, and also typological analysis of the transcribed interview data. The analysis of the quantitative data revealed no relationship between age and perception of technology’s usefulness. A positive relationship was found to exist between the perception of the frequency of technology use and the perception of technology’s effectiveness, suggesting that both faculty members and students believed that the more technology is used, the more useful it is in instruction. The analysis of the qualitative data revealed that both faculty and students perceive technology to be useful, and that the most significant barriers to technology’s usefulness include faulty hardware and software systems,lack of user support, and lack of training for faculty. The results of the study suggest that the differences in perception of technology between generations that are proposed by Prensky may not exist when comparing adults from the younger generation with adults from the older generation. Further, the study suggests that institutions continue to invest in instructional technology, with a focus on high levels of support and training for faculty, and more universal availability of specific technologies, including web access, in class video, and presentation software. Adviser: Ronald Joekel

The Impact of Teaching Presence in Intensive Online Courses on Perceived Learning and Sense of Community: A Mixed Methods Study

This mixed methods concurrent triangulation design study was predicated upon two models that advocated a connection between teaching presence and perceived learning: the Community of Inquiry Model of Online Learning developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000); and the Online Interaction Learning Model by Benbunan-Fich, Hiltz, and Harasim (2005). The objective was to learn how teaching presence impacted students’ perceptions of learning and sense of community in intensive online distance education courses developed and taught by instructors at a regional comprehensive university. In the quantitative phase online surveys collected relevant data from participating students (N = 397) and selected instructional faculty (N = 32) during the second week of a three-week Winter Term. Student information included: demographics such as age, gender, employment status, and distance from campus; perceptions of teaching presence; sense of community; perceived learning; course length; and course type. The students claimed having positive relationships between teaching presence, perceived learning, and sense of community. The instructors showed similar positive relationships with no significant differences when the student and instructor data were compared. The qualitative phase consisted of interviews with 12 instructors who had completed the online survey and replied to all of the open-response questions. The two phases were integrated using a matrix generation, and the analysis allowed for conclusions regarding teaching presence, perceived learning, and sense of community. The findings were equivocal with regard to satisfaction with course length and the relative importance of the teaching presence components. A model was provided depicting relationships between and among teaching presence components, perceived learning, and sense of community in intensive online courses.

Differentiation in the Content-Area Classroom for English Language Learners

This paper explores the idea of using differentiation strategies in the content-area classroom to improve reading skills and comprehension. In particular, this thesis explores methods and strategies that can be used in the classroom to help address the individual needs of English language learners (ELLs). A broad range of experts in curriculum, differentiation, and English language acquisition were consulted in the development of this review, which synthesizes the research on ELLs’ needs, differentiation, and differentiation strategies for ELL readers. The models for best teaching practices are then placed within a ninth grade language arts unit.

Information Acceptance and ICT Resistance: Promoting the Role of Information in Rural Community Development

Rural community development is a major issue for developing countries. Much attention has been given Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects to connect rural communities with the global network. However, ICT resistance is a deterring factor in addressing the digital divide in developing countries. It is postulated that reversing the resistance to to ICT can be strategizedthrough "information acceptance." ICT can be accepted by rural communities by creating demand for information. The paper calls for the refocusing on the role of information in rural community development and ICT as a tool for change agent. Initiatives for rural community development must emphasize the importance of information in rural communities.

Trade Liberalization, Corn Prices and a Rural Community in Guatemala

Trade liberalization policies in Guatemala have impacted agricultural production. This thesis focuses on how trade liberalization has happened, what have been the impacts at a national level and describes how a community has adapted to the implementation of these policies. The implementation of trade was influenced by several, international and national institutions. Among the international institutions are the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the United States Agency for International Development. At the national level the institutions that have partaken in shaping the trade policies are the military and the owners of capital and labor. The implementation of trade policies at a national level has affected national corn prices, population level diets and to some extent reduced poverty levels. At a local level trade liberalization policies have impacted land holdings, increased intensification of agriculture, including agrochemical, machinery and crop plantations per year, and consumption rates of corn have been affected. Maximization of the benefits and minimization of the detrimental effects can happen with the implementation of policies that promote food security, improve access to health and education, and prevent environmental and human health consequences from the intensification of agriculture and at the same time continue with the production of non-traditional agricultural products.

An Assessment of Local Peoples Opinions of Community Conservation Initiatives in Relation to Livelihood Strategies in Kenya

Abstract This paper analyzed the changing livelihood strategies in Kenya, and their cultural impacts via a literature review. I then combined this understanding with the data I collected while in Kenya to examine the opinions local people have of community conservation initiatives, based on their changing livelihood strategies. I expected to find that the following factors would have an affect on the opinions local community members have of community conservation initiatives: livelihood strategy, gender, ethnicity, whether or not they believe the distribution of benefits coming from wildlife conservation is equitable, what issues they would like to see improved within community conservation initiatives, and their overall satisfaction with community conservation initiatives. Through correlation tests done using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Scientists) I found that all five of these factors do influence the perceptions local community members have of community conservation initiatives within the Amboseli region in Kenya.

Tailoring Rural Community Web Sites to New Residents

Recruiting and retaining new residents is critically important to communities that are experiencing either job growth or a declining population. City councils and village boards across the state often ask the question, “How can we bring in and keep new people today?” This issue has not gone unnoticed by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development or the University of Nebraska.

Infant Mortality as a Potential Measure of Community Health in Urban Growth

This document is one of a series which contains the results of research carried out during a 1969 Summer Study of Urban Decentralization at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The summary of the Summer Study is contained in "An Introduction to Urban Decentralization Research," ORNL-HUD-3.

Integrating Visual and Verbal Literacies in the Early Childhood Classroom

Young children have the strong desire to use all of the communicative tools their cultures and families offer them. They want to be able to do all of the things that the powerful people they admire can do, including talking, writing, drawing, using the computer, and otherwise creating and sharing ideas, memories, solutions, even jokes and feelings. Today, we live in a time when the communicative tools are changing rapidly, practically exploding before our eyes in terms of the formats and media available to us in complex combinations not seen before. What do these technological changes mean for how we can support children's development toward literacy? An integrated arts curriculum has long been favored by many educators, but today there are more reasons than ever to implement such a philosophy. From communications theory comes a new understanding of how modern technologies demand that children learn to "read" and "write" messages involving complex combinations and integrations of visual and verbal formats. From psychology come insights about intelligence being multiple not unitary, as well as ecological perception theory offering a well-accepted framework for analyzing the affordances and expressive possibilities of different media. From education come fresh approaches to integrated curriculum, including a philosophy and pedagogy from Reggio Emilia, Italy, that combines well with current thinking by North Americans. Altogether, we have many rationales and exciting strategies at hand for launching young children toward an integrated visual and verbal literacy that involves substance, challenge, and discipline, as well as innovation, creativity, and freedom.

Literacy Research: Issues of Authority, Ownership, and Representation

With the “social turn” of language in the past decade within English studies, ethnographic and teacher research methods increasingly have acquired legitimacy as a means of studying student literacy. And with this legitimacy, graduate students specializing in literacy and composition studies increasingly are being encouraged to use ethnographic and teacher research methods to study student literacy within classrooms. Yet few of the narratives produced from these studies discuss the problems that frequently arise when participant observers enter the classroom. Recently, some researchers have begun to interrogate the extent to which ethnographic and teacher research methods are able to construct and disseminate knowledge in empowering ways (Anderson & Irvine, 1993; Bishop, 1993; Fine, 1994; Fleischer. 1994; McLaren, 1992). While ethnographic and teacher research methods have oftentimes been touted as being more democratic and nonhierarchical than quantitative methods—-which oftentimes erase individuals lived experiences with numbers and statistical formulas—-researchers are just beginning to probe the ways that ethnographic and teacher research models can also be silencing, unreflective, and oppressive. Those who have begun to question the ethics of conducting, writing about, and disseminating knowledge in education have coined the term “critical” research, a rather vague and loose term that proposes a position of reflexivity and self-critique for all research methods, not just ethnography or teacher research. Drawing upon theories of feminist consciousness-raising, liberatory praxis, and community-action research, theories of critical research aim to involve researchers and participants in a highly participatory framework for constructing knowledge, an inquiry that seeks to question, disrupt, or intervene in the conditions under study for some socially transformative end. While critical research methods are always contingent upon the context being studied, in general they are undergirded by principles of non-hierarchical relations, participatory collaboration, problem-posing, dialogic inquiry, and multiple and multi-voiced interpretations. In distinguishing between critical and traditional ethnographic processes, for instance, Peter McLaren says that critical ethnography asks questions such as “[u]nder what conditions and to what ends do we. as educational researchers, enter into relations of cooperation. mutuality, and reciprocity with those who we research?” (p. 78) and “what social effects do you want your evaluations and understandings to have?” (p. 83). In»the same vein, Michelle Fine suggests that critical researchers must move beyond notions of the etic/emic dichotomy of researcher positionality in order to “probe how we are in relation with the contexts we study and with our informants, understanding that we are all multiple in those relations” (p. 72). Researchers in composition and literacy stud¬ies who endorse critical research methods, then, aim to enact some sort of positive transformative change in keeping with the needs and interests of the participants with whom they work.

United Way and University partnerships in community-wide human services planning and plan implementation: The case of Lincoln/Lancaster County, Nebraska.

Given the similar interests of United Way organizations and universities in planning, implementation, and evaluation of human services, the two social institutions could be extensively and effectively partnering with one another. However, there is little documentation that such cooperative efforts are taking place. This article describes one such collaboration in Lincoln, Nebraska. The purpose of the article is to show the potential of such collaboration to improve community-wide coordination and outcomes by following the principles of a community-engagement model, to generate more effective use of evaluative tools that can assist in developing evidence-based practices in community planning, and to connect areas of study within the university to United Way efforts.

The Importance of Community and Its Impact on the Quality of Campus Life and Success for African American Students

“While we are accustomed to viewing special programs as efforts to ensure the success of underrepresented students, we may overlook that what these programs communicate about these students are part of the structure of higher education that they must struggle against.”

Community Life and Housing in Rural Nebraska: 2005 Nebraska Rural Poll Results

Many rural communities are experiencing population decline. However, rural residents have continued to show a strong attachment to their communities. How do rural Nebraskans feel about their community? Are they satisfied with the services provided? Do they own their home? What is the condition of their home? This report details 2,851 responses to the 2005 Nebraska Rural Poll, the tenth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their community and housing. Trends for some of these questions are examined by comparing data from the nine previous polls to this year’s results. For all questions, comparisons are made among different respondent subgroups, that is, comparisons by age, occupation, region, etc. Based on these analyses, some key findings emerged: Rural Nebraskans’ views of the change in their community are similar to those expressed last year. This year, 28 percent believe their community has changed for the better, compared to 26 percent last year. And, in 2005, only 20 percent think their community has changed for the worse, compared to 22 percent last year. The proportion of expected movers who plan to leave the state decreased this year. Last year, 56 percent of the persons planning to move from their community expected to leave the state. That proportion decreased to 47 percent this year. Rural Nebraskans living in or near the largest communities are more likely than persons living in or near the smaller communities to say their community has changed for the better. Thirty-nine percent of persons living in or near communities with populations of 10,000 or more believe their community has changed for the better during the past year, but only 15 percent of persons living in or near communities with less than 500 people share this opinion. The community services and amenities that rural Nebraskans are most dissatisfied with include: entertainment, retail shopping and restaurants. At least one-third of rural Nebraskans express dissatisfaction with these three services. They are most satisfied with parks and recreation, library services, basic medical care services, highways and bridges, and education (K - 12). At least one-half of rural Nebraskans are satisfied with the following items in their community: appearance of residential areas (66%), crime control (61%), maintenance of sidewalks and public areas (57%) and noise (54%). Rural Nebraskans generally have positive views about their community. Sixty percent agree that their community is an ideal place to live and 52 percent say their community has good business leaders. Rural Nebraskans have mixed opinions about the future of their community. Fortyfour percent agree that their community’s future looks bright, but 42 percent disagree with this statement. Fourteen percent have no opinion. Rural Nebraskans living in or near the larger communities are more likely than residents of the smaller communities to think their community’s future looks bright. Fifty-nine percent of persons living in or near communities with populations of 10,000 or more agree with this statement, compared to only 25 percent of residents living in or near communities with less than 500 people. Further, 61 percent of the residents of the smallest communities disagree with this statement, compared to only 28 percent of the residents of the largest communities. Over three-quarters of rural Nebraskans disagree that younger residents of their community tend to stay there after completing high school. Seventy-six percent disagree with this statement, 16 percent have no opinion and eight percent agree that younger residents stay after completing high school. When comparing responses by age, younger persons are more likely than older persons to agree that younger residents stay in their community after high school. Sixteen percent of persons age 19 to 29 agree with this statement, compared to only six percent of persons age 50 to 64. Younger persons are more likely than older persons to be planning to move from their community next year. Fifteen percent of persons between the ages of 19 and 29 are planning to move next year, compared to only two percent of persons age 65 and older. An additional 17 percent of the younger respondents indicate they are uncertain if they plan to move. Most rural Nebraskans own their home. Eighty-four percent of rural Nebraskans own their home. Older persons are more likely than younger persons to own their home. Eighty-eight percent of persons over the age of 50 own their home, compared to only 52 percent of persons age 19 to 29. Housing in rural Nebraska has an average age of 50 years. Twenty-four percent of residences were built before 1930. Another 24 percent were built between 1930 and 1959. Twenty-nine percent were built between 1960 and 1979 and the remaining 24 percent were built in 1980 or later. The housing stock in smaller communities is older than the housing located in larger communities. Over one-third (35%) of the residences in communities with less than 1,000 people were built before 1930. Only 12 percent of the homes in communities with populations of 10,000 or more were built in this time period. Most rural Nebraskans appear satisfied with their home. Only 24 percent say the current size of their home does not meet their needs. The same proportion (24%) say their home is in need of major repairs. Thirty-eight percent agree that their home needs a lot of routine maintenance, but 87 percent like the location (neighborhood) of their home. One-third of rural Nebraskans living in or near the smallest communities say their home is in need of major repairs. Only 19 percent of persons living in or near communities with populations of 5,000 or more are facing this problem. Home ownership is very important to most rural Nebraskans. Eighty-two percent believe it is very important to own their home. An additional 12 percent say it is somewhat important and six percent say it is not at all important. However, persons who do not currently own their home do not feel it is important for them to do so. Only 32 percent of renters say it is very important to own their home, compared to 91 percent of home owners. And, 35 percent of renters say it is not at all important to own their home.