Why Does Employment Discrimination Persist against People with Mental Illness? Effects of Negative Stereotypes, Power, and Differential Discrimination

Mental illness affects a sizable minority of Americans at any given time, yet many people with mental illness (hereafter PWMI) remain unemployed or underemployed relative to the general population. Research has suggested that part of the reason for this is discrimination toward PWMI. This research investigated mechanisms that affect employment discrimination against PWMI. Drawing from theories on stigma and power, three studies assessed 1) the stereotyping of workers with mental illness as unfit for workplace success, 2) the impact of positive information on countering these negative stereotypes, and whether negatively-stereotyped conditions elicited discrimination; and 3) the effects of power on mental illness stigma components. I made a series of predictions related to theories on the Stereotype Content Model, illness attribution, the contact hypothesis, gender and mental health, and power. Studies tested predictions using, 1) an online vignette survey measuring attitudes, 2) an online survey measuring responses to fictitious applications for a middle management position, and 3) a laboratory experiment in which some participants were primed to feel powerful and some were not. Results of Study 1 demonstrated that PWMI were routinely stigmatized as incompetent, dangerous, and lacking valued employment attributes, relative to a control condition. This was especially evident for workers presented as having PTSD from wartime service and workers with schizophrenia, and when the worker was a woman. Study 2 showed that, although both war-related PTSD and schizophrenia evoke negative stereotypes, only schizophrenia evoked hiring discrimination. Finally, Study 3 found no effect of being primed to feel powerful on stigmatizing attitudes toward a person with symptoms of schizophrenia. Taken together, findings suggest that employment discrimination towards PWMI is driven by negative stereotypes; but, stereotypes might not lead to actual hiring discrimination for some labeled individuals.

The Design and Implementation of an Educational Computer Game and Its Study as a Motivational Tool for Middle School ESOL Students

Gemstone Team ILL (Interactive Language Learning)

An Examination of Parental Engagement During the Middle School Years

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the previously unexamined phenomenon of middle school parental engagement in a large urban/suburban/rural school district of 209 schools in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Across 22 middle schools serving grades six-eight, this study collected and examined perceptions of the three key adult stakeholder groups – administrators, teachers, and parents – most actively involved in middle school parental engagement as described within the theoretical framework of academic socialization. Their reports of observable parental engagement activities were used to document how district stakeholders operationalize behaviors that represent the five actionable constructs and three themes of academic socialization to determine how the district “fares” in employing academic socialization as a middle school parent engagement strategy. The study also applied quantitative descriptive analysis through a one-way ANOVA to determine the significance of observable variations in actionable constructs between the perspectives of the three stakeholder groups. Finally, the study illuminated, through regression modeling, when confounding factors/independent variables such as race, income, school size, administrator and teacher experience, parents’ educational background, etc., impacted operationalization of academic socialization behaviors for middle school parent and family engagement. Rejecting the null hypothesis, the study found that the three stakeholder groups had statistically significant differences in perceptions of their implementation of activities aligned to academic socialization. This study ultimately illuminated ways in which these adult stakeholder groups share similar and varied perceptions about their engagement actions that support the achievement and maturation of middle school students. Significantly, this study provided key findings that illuminated areas that can be systemically addressed to transform middle school parent engagement practices through applied academic socialization theory into consistent and effective collaborative efforts between the home and school. The process of operationalizing academic socialization was outlined in terms that any school or district can follow to improve programs and practices of middle school parental engagement to serve in the best interests of students during this period of great transition for both child/adolescent growth and development and adult navigation of systems to provide support for students in this unique stage of growth and maturation.

"Natural Enemies" or Intentional Allies? Teachers' & Parents' Perspectives on Middle School Boys of Color

This study examined the perspectives and “shared knowledge” of parents and teachers of boys of color. The following overarching research question guided this study: “What do parents and teachers want each other to know about their middle school son or student of color regarding academics, engagement, and behavior?” Additionally, it explored the challenges and opportunities for shared knowledge and understanding of their (respective) son’s’ or students’ academics and engagement. The methodology was qualitative in nature and the intent in conducting this case study was to describe, interpret, and explain the “shared knowledge” between these stakeholders at a predominantly minority middle school. A sample of seven parents and seven teachers from one school in a mid-Atlantic state participated in interviews and focus groups. Results indicated that parents and teachers of boys of color viewed each other as “intentional allies.” Results further showed that parents and teachers were aware of the challenges faced by boys of color in and out of school. That awareness was reflected in strategies that both groups employed to support, prepare, and protect their son/students. Lastly, the study found that teachers received no formal training in building parent-teacher partnerships, but gathered experimental knowledge on how to build those relationships. These findings have implications for teacher education programs, schools, parents, and teachers.

An exploration of parent ivolvement in Response to Intervention (RTI) in Title I schools

Research demonstrates that parental involvement positively impacts student achievement and enhances targeted instruction. Notably, however, little research currently exists on how schools involve parents in Response to Intervention (RTI), a framework for implementing targeted, tiered, research-based instruction. The purpose of this study was to interview selected parents, teachers, RTI specialists, and principals in three Title I elementary schools in one school district, plus one district-level administrator, in order to examine how elementary schools currently involve parents in RTI prereferral interventions, and to understand the factors that might facilitate or challenge such parent involvement. I employed a comparative case study qualitative design with each elementary school as the main unit of analysis. I conducted individual, in-depth interviews that lasted approximately 45-60 minutes with a total of 33 participants across the three school sites, including 11 parents, 12 teachers, and six RTI specialists, three principals, and one district-level administrator. I also analyzed documents related to RTI processes that are available through websites and participants. I used Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) three-step scheme for thematic/grounded theory analysis, and Atlas.ti as the electronic tool for management and analysis. Analyses of the data revealed that personnel across the sites largely agreed on how they explain RTI to parents and notify parents of student progress. Parents mostly disagreed with these accounts, stating instead that they learn about RTI and their child’s progress by approaching teachers or their own children with questions, or by examining report cards and student work that comes home. Personnel and parents cited various challenges for involving parents in RTI. However, they all also agreed that teachers are accessible and willing to reach out to parents, and that teachers already face considerable workloads. It appears that no district- or school-wide plan guides parent involvement practices in RTI at any of the three schools. Finally, I present a discussion of findings; implications for teachers, RTI implementation leaders, and Title school leaders; study limitations; and possibilities for future research.

The Promise of Access: Hope and Inequality in the Information Economy

In 2013, a series of posters began appearing in Washington, DC’s Metro system. Each declared “The internet: Your future depends on it” next to a photo of a middle-aged black Washingtonian, and an advertisement for the municipal government’s digital training resources. This hopeful discourse is familiar but where exactly does it come from? And how are our public institutions reorganized to approach the problem of poverty as a problem of technology? The Clinton administration’s ‘digital divide’ policy program popularized this hopeful discourse about personal computing powering social mobility, positioned internet startups as the ‘right’ side of the divide, and charged institutions of social reproduction such as schools and libraries with closing the gap and upgrading themselves in the image of internet startups. After introducing the development regime that builds this idea into the urban landscape through what I call the ‘political economy of hope’, and tracing the origin of the digital divide frame, this dissertation draws on three years of comparative ethnographic fieldwork in startups, schools, and libraries to explore how this hope is reproduced in daily life, becoming the common sense that drives our understanding of and interaction with economic inequality and reproduces that inequality in turn. I show that the hope in personal computing to power social mobility becomes a method of securing legitimacy and resources for both white émigré technologists and institutions of social reproduction struggling to understand and manage the persistent poverty of the information economy. I track the movement of this common sense between institutions, showing how the political economy of hope transforms them as part of a larger development project. This dissertation models a new, relational direction for digital divide research that grounds the politics of economic inequality with an empirical focus on technologies of poverty management. It demands a conceptual shift that sees the digital divide not as a bug within the information economy, but a feature of it.

Principal Effectiveness: Middle School Leaders' Perceptions Of Principal Practices To Improve Middle School Reading Achievement

ABSTRACT Title of Document: PRINCIPAL EFFECTIVENESS: MIDDLE SCHOOL LEADERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PRINCIPAL PRACTICES TO IMPROVE MIDDLE SCHOOL READING ACHIEVEMENT Kathleen R. Brady, Doctor of Education, 2016 Directed By: Dr. John Norris, Department of Education The purpose of this exploratory and descriptive study was to examine school leaders’ perceptions of leadership practices that contribute to principal effectiveness in improving reading achievement in middle schools in a large public school district. The data was gathered through the use of a Web-based survey that was emailed to 97 school based leaders including 20 principals, 40 assistant principals, 17 reading department chairpersons, and 20 professional development lead teachers in middle schools with grade 6-8 and 7-8 configurations. Data were collected and analyzed in order to make inferences about principal practices at middle school. The findings of this study indicated few differences between middle school principals’, assistant principals’, reading department chairpersons’, and professional development lead teachers’ perceptions of principal leadership practices that are most important to and have the greatest impact on student reading achievement success. Furthermore, the findings indicated that participants’ three top ranked resources needed to increase the effectiveness of principals in order to improve reading achievement at middle schools include implementing a collaborative planning protocol to support literacy instruction, adding a reading coach to the middle school staff, and providing professional development activities focused on literacy instruction across the content areas. The results were used to make recommendations that may contribute to middle school principal effectiveness.