Master of Science in Criminal Justice, Youngstown State University, 2020, Department of Criminal Justice and Consumer Sciences

Do police body-worn cameras create an unintended risk to officers and citizens? The implementation of body cameras has been one of the most popular solutions to a perceived problem of police misconduct, but solutions sometimes bring new problems of their own. To examine this potential risk, I have analyzed data from an experiment that scientifically monitored police officers going through simulated use of force scenarios. These officers were advised they were being recorded to be analyzed by a third party for review of their actions. The study simulated high-stress, critical incidents and forced officers to make split-second decisions to use or not use simulated weapons to address potential threats. Studying the data from this experiment will help determine if the presence of a camera had any bearing on the actions of the police officers, and to what extent. This will provide a better understanding as to whether the presence of cameras has unintended implications.

Committee: Patricia Wagner JD (Committee Chair); James Willock (Committee Member); Michael Pieton (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Law; Legal Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2025, Leadership and Change

As schools increasingly adopt restorative practices, a parallel shift in leadership is occurring, challenging traditional leadership models like servant and transformational leadership. While research has largely focused on student outcomes, there is a critical gap in understanding how restorative practices influence school principals' leadership. Given their central role in sustaining and expanding restorative initiatives, this study aimed to address that gap by developing a definitional framework for restorative leadership, grounded in the experiences of women school leaders in grades 5 to 12. Using sensemaking theory, the research examined how leaders conceptualize and apply restorative values in practice. Key questions included how restorative leadership is understood, how it shapes leadership identity, and how it is enacted in practice. A mixed-methods design was employed, integrating survey data (N = 52) and semi-structured interviews (N = 12). Findings revealed that while 51.92% of participants recognized the term “restorative leadership,” many were already practicing it without labeling it as such. Restorative leadership emerged as a dynamic process of knowing, being, and doing, rooted in self-awareness, relational repair, participatory decision-making, and collective well-being. It challenges hierarchical paradigms and fosters inclusive school cultures, with the potential to disrupt inequitable systems, improve school climates, and promote leader well-being. Based on these findings, several key recommendations for action are proposed: establishing Restorative Leadership Intensives (RLIs) to deepen principals' engagement with restorative practices, integrating restorative leadership into leadership development programs and professional certifications, advocating for gender-equitable leadership models that emphasize relational strengths, and embedding restorative practices into school policies to create inclusive cultures. These actions a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Betty Overton-Atkins PhD (Committee Chair); Woden Teachout PhD (Committee Member); Linda Kligman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Continuing Education; Curriculum Development; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Educational Theory; Ethics; Gender; Management; Peace Studies; School Administration; Social Psychology; Social Research; Sociology; Teacher Education; Teaching; Womens Studies

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

This critical participatory action research study lays the groundwork for a bottom-up evaluation framework for dropout recovery high schools, also known as Type I Alternative Education Campuses (T1AECs). By gathering qualitative data documenting the unique experiences and goals of T1AEC students, the research seeks to amplify the voices of young adults who reclaim their educational journey in alternative settings. The findings aim to construct an evaluation framework that centers on students' needs, supports meaningful engagement, and captures a broader range of outcomes than traditional accountability measures allow. The study holds potential to inform policy recommendations, improve school evaluation practices, and ensure that alternative education programs meet the diverse needs of students who are disenfranchised by traditional high schools.

Committee: Matthew Witenstein (Committee Chair); Carol Young (Committee Member); Satang Nabaneh (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Tests and Measurements; School Administration; Secondary Education; Vocational Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

In the past fifty years, governments across the world have experimented with a variety of market-based reforms to improve public service delivery. Market-based policies have been particularly influential in efforts to reform K-12 education governance in the United States. Prominent examples of these reforms include laws establishing public charter schools, private school choice policies, and performance accountability systems based on standardized tests. This dissertation explores the systemic consequences of these reforms on K-12 schools and students in Ohio. The first essay analyzes the cumulative effect of state and federal reforms on private school enrollments in Ohio from 1998 to 2018. The second essay estimates the impact of Ohio's original Educational Choice Scholarship Program, which provides publicly funded vouchers for eligible students to attend private schools, on private school enrollment patterns. Lastly, Essay 3 examines the impact of No Child Left Behind, a major performance management reform passed in 2002, on the distribution of students and resources by economic status across schools within districts in Ohio. Together, these essays explore ways in which education policies in the last two decades have reshaped the educational landscape in Ohio and redefined the roles of different types of schools in educating students.

Committee: Stephane Lavertu (Advisor); Vladimir Kogan (Committee Member); Trevor Brown (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Policy

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted longstanding issues in student achievement in the United States, with only 37% of students from grades 4-12 showing proficiency in math and reading, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The East Coast Charter Authorizer (ECCA), which oversees one of the largest and most diverse public-school systems, has taken on the responsibility to address these systemic issues. While there are initiatives to diversify the teaching workforce, and an intensive focus on evaluating schools, there is a critical gap in ensuring school leadership is representative of the student population and has the environment necessary to be successful in their roles as school leaders, and in implementing the kind of creative change needed to address systemic inequities. This study focuses on the experiences of Black Women School Administrators (BWSAs) and the necessary organizational conditions to improve their retention and effectiveness. This study employed a convergent social justice mixed methods research design to address the inequity in the experiences and presence of Black Women Principals in K- 12 schools. Quantitative data from a Qualtrics survey (N=12) and qualitative data from interviews (N=10) were collected concurrently to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research problem. The integration of both data types, as well as available research - known as triangulation, allowed for a robust analysis of the impact of perceived 4 experiences with the ECCA on Black Women Principals. Ensuring participant confidentiality and honoring their wishes to contribute comfortably were paramount and as such, prioritized throughout the study. The findings underscore the need for the ECCA to provide more tailored support to Black women leaders, addressing specific challenges unique to their experiences and fostering a more equitable educational environment. The study resulted in an equity-oriented (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Olive (Committee Chair); Novea McIntosh (Committee Member); Samantha Miller (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Educational Leadership

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch Seattle: Counselor Education & Supervision

Supporting the development of an antiracist identity in counselors could facilitate change toward equity, justice, and opportunity within the counseling profession and increase awareness of white counselors in working with clients of color. Understanding obstacles to and enablers of antiracist attitudes in white women counselors holds the potential to bring change to the profession as a whole, given their position in the majority. This quantitative study used instruments to assess white racial affects of white fear, anger, and guilt along with antiracist self-efficacy as influencing antiracist accountability in a sample of white women counselors in the United States (N = 64). White fear was shown to have a moderate inverse relationship with antiracist accountability, and white anger was demonstrated to have a moderate positive relationship with antiracist accountability. White guilt did not show a statistically significant influence. Both white fear and white anger were mediated by antiracist self-efficacy, and a strong positive relationship was shown between antiracist self-efficacy and antiracist accountability. Implications for the counseling profession, the practice of counseling, and counselor education are presented. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Shawn Patrick (Committee Chair); Stephanie Thorson-Olesen (Committee Member); Katherine Fort (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Counseling Education; Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Leadership

Collegiate men are overrepresented in student conduct systems across the higher education landscape as they are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors when compared with their female counterparts (Laker & Davis, 2011). There is a strong correlation between these high-risk behaviors and the ideology of toxic masculinity (Wagner, 2015). Many collegiate men yearn for a sense of belonging and when they are joining community with each other, it can re-enforce the adoption of this toxic masculine ideology (Harris & Struve, 2009). Restorative Justice while not a new concept, is still a relatively newer practice in higher education. As the toxic masculine ideology is leading to many collegiate men engaging in harmful behavior that is not being sufficiently corrected through historical punitive student conduct practices, this study aimed to see if restorative justice could be used a tool to support men engaging in high-risk behavior and combat toxic masculinity by aiding with their self-authorship and sense of belonging. 16 student conduct professionals from across the country participated in this constructivist phenomenological research and data was collected through semi-structured interviews, to learn from their experiences on challenging and supporting male college students with restorative justice practices and philosophy. Eight themes emerged from this study. The themes are as follows: 1) Versatility of restorative justice; 2) Traditional forms of student conduct have significant limitations; 3) Art of vulnerability; 4) Understanding of community impact; 5) Becoming an agent for change; 6) Finding authenticity; 7) Meaningful change; 8) Building and/or finding community.

Committee: Matthew Witenstein (Committee Chair); Bill Fischer (Committee Member); Davin Carr-Chellman (Committee Member); Mary Ziskin (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

Standards-based grading serves as a type of formative assessment in which students work towards mastery of learning objectives to complete a course. A North Texas School District has created a novel grading policy incorporating standards-based grading practices with a non-punitive, progression-focused, student-centered learning structure. Utilizing a phenomenologically informed methodology with a constructivist approach, this study explores how students are experiencing this grading policy as it relates to their engagement and academic accountability/follow-through in the classroom. Further, this study analyzes how students are perceiving their ability to achieve current and future academic success via this system. This action research takes place at one of the district's high schools and uses qualitative measures to investigate student responses of their shared opinions, thoughts, and emotions. Five main themes emerged from the study: overall approval of the features of the system, gaps in understanding regarding the purposes of the structure, awareness of the potential promotion of negative behaviors, a desire for more reward for effort, and fear of failure regarding future-ready preparedness. Utilizing these themes, an action plan was created to modify the system and provide a framework for holistic organizational improvement.

Committee: Elizabeth Essex (Committee Chair); Charlene Evans-Smith (Committee Member); Kevin Kelly (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Secondary Education

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

Champion Academy teachers in this mixed methods action research case study illuminate the conditions which support or hinder the process of making collective commitments with cycles for iterative improvement. The results of the study demonstrate how closely connected process is to outcome in the work of school improvement. Since the work of school revitalization hinges on change at the classroom level, it is paramount that teachers find the processes utilized favorable in order to increase the likelihood that they will want to engage and follow through. Cycles for iterative improvement are embedded in an intricate school ecosystem spanning multiple domains, from goal setting to instructional leadership, and therefore fidelity to enacting collective commitments rests on many factors. To understand the health of the professional learning community where teachers interface with cycles for iterative improvement, the Professional Learning Community Assessment-Revised was employed. Semi-structured interviews were then utilized to gain a more complete picture of the community prior to asking interview questions about cycles for iterative improvement and the process of making collective commitments. Teachers shared that working toward a shared goal, collegial, supportive relationships, and incremental capacity building are essential to the success of cycles for iterative improvement. Teachers unanimously reported that they are more likely to change practice, using new knowledge and skills in their classrooms, when their voice is included and valued in the process. According to Champion Academy teachers, choice and bounded autonomy is fundamental to the process but insufficient. During interviews, teachers repeatedly encouraged leaders to consider how to make cycles for iterative improvement more participatory in the future. The result of this study is an action plan which purposefully integrates teacher voice at the outset of the improvement p (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Davin Carr-Chellman (Committee Chair); Mary Frances Jones (Committee Member); Aryn Baxter (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Educational Leadership

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2023, Curriculum and Instruction

Though teacher attrition has always been an issue at the center of educational research, recent increased rates of turnover among veteran public education teachers before retirement suggests a new trend worth investigating. Prior research has shown connections between this trend and the increased focus on accountability mandates in the last two decades. The purpose of this study was to identify and explore changes within the human activity of teaching in the past twenty years for a group of veteran high school teachers, using the lens of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to shed a more comprehensive light on possible factors related to teacher satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the profession. The study focused on two main research questions: (1) How has the lived experience of the human activity of teaching for this particular group of veteran public-school teachers changed in approximately the last twenty years? and (2) Among those interviewed, if the human activity of teaching has changed, in what ways have these changes impacted their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the profession? The researcher used the six elements of Engestrom's second generation CHAT model (subject, object, rules, tools, division of labor, and community) to develop questions that were used in phone interview sessions with eight veteran high school teachers from three different school districts with over fifteen years of experience. The participants' responses indicated that satisfaction was primarily linked to changes in the activity of teaching when those changes were internally initiated and informed by the teacher based on their own intrinsic motivations, which were grounded in the experiences of the teacher and student, and the changes were supported, valued, and reinforced by the community. Dissatisfaction was noted when the changes were externally initiated and informed by someone other than the teacher based on extrinsic motivations, which were grounded in achie (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mark Templin (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education History; Education Policy; Educational Tests and Measurements; Educational Theory; Secondary Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, English

As a common touchstone for millions of college students annually, First-Year Writing (FYW) is an important site of research activity that seeks to determine high-impact teaching practices that serve this increasingly diverse student population. Many teacher-scholars have turned to principles of Learning Transfer as a solution for promoting student learning in the writing classroom. Learning transfer, the repurposing or generalization of knowledge between contexts, is an incredibly complex process. Discussions of transfer often lack critical attention to what prior knowledges, skills, dispositions, or literacies we expect students might bring into writing courses, as well as what we hope they will take with them. Writing studies scholarship needs a model that defines prior knowledges and transfer in ways that explicitly attend to sociocultural and linguistic diversity to establish practices for cultural accountability in teaching for writing transfer. To address this need, I designed a mixed-method study that was guided by four research questions: 1. What prior knowledges, if any, do First-Year Writing instructors expect students to possess? 2. To what degree do those expectations account for sociocultural and linguistic knowledges from home, school, and other contexts? 3. How are students' prior knowledges valued or mobilized by instructors? 4. What patterns, if any, exist across instructors' beliefs about teaching and learning, assumptions about student prior knowledges, and instructional practices? Through a framework of writing studies transfer scholarship and asset-based, multicultural education pedagogies, my mixed-methods analysis of participating instructors' survey, interview, and teaching document data offers two contributions to writing studies and transfer scholarship. The first is a systematic Typology of Prior Knowledges, makes it possible to account for the various expectations instructors have about students' prior knowledges. When used as a re (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kay Halasek (Advisor); Scott L. DeWitt (Committee Member); Beverly J. Moss (Committee Member); Timothy San Pedro (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Literacy; Rhetoric; Teacher Education

Doctor of Education, University of Toledo, 2022, Educational Administration and Supervision

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) spends almost $50 billion, or 19% of its $254 billion budget, on education, but student achievement is still lagging in most international measures (e.g., TIMSS & PISA) relative to other countries, many of which spend far less than the KSA. These discrepancies between spending and achievement raise concerns about the KSA's public school finance system and its potential areas of inequity, inefficiency, inadequacy, and unaccountability. In research on public school funding, a few principles of a sound school finance system have emerged, namely the principles of Horizontal Equity, Vertical Equity, Adequacy, and Accountability (Crampton & Whitney & Crampton, 1996). However, most of the research on these principles has been on public school finance systems in various states around the United States, and to a lesser extent on some European and African countries. To date, little research on public school finance on the Saudi education system has been conducted in general, let alone on the principles of a sound school finance system listed above. Thus, the purpose of this study was to address this gap by studying the attitudes of General Supervisors in the Saudi Ministry of Education (MOE) towards the school finance principles of Horizontal Equity, Vertical Equity, Adequacy, and Accountability. Data was collected using a translated and modified version of Park's (2010) survey, named Attitudes toward Funding Equity in Public Education, in which the principles above were operationalized as four scales with seven items per scale (28 items total). The translated and modified survey was reviewed by experts in educational finance (n = 2) and instrument design (n = 1) in both English and Arabic and was distributed to participants electronically as a Qualtrics survey via email. A Classical Test Theory (CTT) approach was used to assess the measurement aspects of the data. The data was analyzed using descriptive and scores among each scale were exami (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Randall Vesely Ph.D (Committee Chair); Nancy Staub Ed.D (Committee Member); Michael Toland Ph.D (Committee Member); Edward Janak Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Finance; Education Policy

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Gender scholars contend that accountability for "doing" gender within interactions between individuals is how the gender structure can be challenged or "redone" (Connell 2010; Hollander 2013, 2018; Risman and Davis 2013; West and Zimmerman 1987). Some scholars point to consent culture practiced by the BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Domination/Submission, Sadism/masochism) community, as a model to teach consent and accountability (Buchwald, Fletcher, and Roth 2005; Cagwin 2018; Dixie 2017; Harding 2015; Pitagora 2013; Stryker, Queen, and Penny 2017). Other research indicates that the BDSM community might "undo" gender, but more likely simultaneously challenges and reproduces gender inequality (Banerjee, Merchant, and Sharma 2018; Deutsch 2007; Simula and Sumerau 2017). However, little literature focuses on how consent is socially constructed to include interactional accountability that might challenge gender inequality within BDSM. In this research, I consider how interactional consent scripts socially construct consent culture, how "doing" consent in the kink community provides an empirical example of "redoing" gender across the gender spectrum, and how BDSM identifying individuals and communities experience the conflict between consent culture and the hegemonic gender structure. I found that socially constructed interactional consent scripts guide interactions in BDSM through stringent rules that aim to maintain agency and bodily autonomy through enthusiastic consent, boundaries, and limits. The BDSM community reinforces consent scripts with strict social control and accountability through formal and informal methods including social sanctions and reputations. I found that interactional consent scripts form the basis of "doing" consent, where individuals enact consent scripts in their interactions to uphold consent culture much like "doing" gender upholds the gender structure. Individuals in BDSM across the gender spectrum shared how “doing" consent allowed them to "r (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Tiffany Taylor (Advisor); Kathryn Feltey (Committee Member); Clare Stacey (Committee Member); Katrina Bloch (Committee Member); Suzanne Holt (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

This dissertation aimed to adapt Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) to a substance-involved population in New Hampshire (NH). CoSA is a volunteer-based community program that provides accountability and various forms of support to previously incarcerated individuals rejoining the community. Program recommendations were created through qualitative realist thematic analysis of a literature review and interviews. Recommendations were integrated with existing CoSA manuals to create the proposed program. NH CoSA, through the principles of narrative reconstruction, risk-need-responsivity, and the Good Lives Model, aims to help individuals successfully re-integrate into their community over a period of about a year. The program will serve substance-involved individuals in NH county jails, with little pro-social support, who will be released to a NH community. Finally, the limitations of the study design and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Committee: Kate Evarts Rice (Advisor); Elena Balduzzi (Committee Member); Robin Belcher-Timme (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Criminology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2021, Educational Leadership

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) passed in 2002 was the "most extraordinary expansion of federal power over public schools in American history" (Sunderman & Orfield, 2006). NCLB had two major impacts on educational policy. First, it legitimized and strengthened the federal government's role in both influencing and regulating state and local compliance with educational policy mandates. Second, it codified student performance on content-specific standardized tests as the most reliable and valid measure of how well those who lead and teach in public schools are preparing students for the workforce (Bracey, 2009; Pinar, 2012; Schneider, 2017; Sunderman & Orfield, 2006). Without much public debate, and no longer questioned, performance metrics reduce the purpose of schooling to raising test scores and preparing students for the workforce (Eisner, 2001; Pinar, 2012; McDermott, 2011; Schneider, 2017). NCLB also set in motion market-based reforms expanding school choice options which threaten the very sustainability of public education (Bracey, 2009; Manna, 2007; Pinar 2012; Schneider, 2017). Anderson and Cohen (2018) have suggested that we are a pivotal moment where it is possible to move into a post-reform era which should be led by educators to reclaim their professional agency and the legitimacy of public schooling by decentering performance accountability as the primary driver of educational policy. This interpretivist, case study was comprised of five district superintendents from central Ohio who participate in a collaborative group called the Hart County Design Team (HCDT). The study found that participating in the HCDT collaborative facilitated the ability of the superintendents to engage in leadership practices to counter, not just resist, the impacts of performance accountability on their professional agency, the districts they lead, and the communities they serve. The HCDT functioned as an alliance that created a space where the group could discuss shared va (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Poetter (Committee Chair); Denise Taliaferro Baszile (Committee Member); Joel Malin (Committee Member); Brian Schultz (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this research study was to examine how novice teachers make sense of the realities of their chosen profession, given their initial motivations for entering the profession. My research into teacher motivation and retention provided evidence that teachers did enter the field for altruistic reasons and that as many as 50% of all new teachers in urban schools did not last beyond five years. When they begin teaching, they find a field that is heavily impacted by strict accountability standards and required mandated testing. I used Sensemaking Theory and Self-Determination Theory to examine how beginning teachers make sense of their chosen profession, how the principles of Self-Determination Theory interact with sensemaking to influence teachers' decisions to stay or leave teaching, and whether teachers would indicate points of influence that school leaders had used to help them decide to keep teaching. I used narrative inquiry to interview 21 teachers who were in their 3rd to 6th year of teaching from public schools at different grade levels and specializations. My interviews suggest that teachers who decide early in their lives to become teachers were more likely to have trouble making sense of the urban school classroom compared to teachers who decided to become teachers as adults, especially after working in a different field. This suggests that school leaders should consider teachers' motivation to enter teaching as they design professional development opportunities and assign teachers to teams. This dissertation is available in open access at Antioch University Repository and Archive (AURA), https://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, http://etd.ohiolink.edu/.

Committee: Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Chair); Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Member); Todd Hawley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Teacher Education; Teaching

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

The research examines whether and how performance-based funding formulas adopted by state policymakers for their public colleges and universities influence administrative behavior, both across and within institutions in states where the formulas are in place. The research builds from the public management literature and argues that despite the formulas being premised as a way to improve college and university performance, they must first influence administrative behavior at the institutional-level. If the formulas do not influence administrative behavior, there is little expectation for improved performance. However, if administrators do respond, how they respond can have a conditional effect on the success of performance-based funding and college and university performance. The research examines administrative responsiveness through a variety of managerial behaviors and decision-making, such as changes in budgetary patterns and capacity-building efforts.

Committee: Daniel Hawes (Committee Co-Chair); Anthony Molina (Committee Co-Chair); Mark Cassell (Committee Member); Alisa Hicklin-Fryar (Other); Mark Kretovics (Other) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Public Administration; Public Policy

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Leadership Studies

Closing the gap between academic achievement of the highest and lowest performing students has been a target of state and federal legislation for almost two decades. Currently, public school leaders and teachers operate in a system in which student achievement data are tied to the performance evaluations of districts, schools, teachers, and principals. This high-stakes environment has engendered a climate in public education in which leaders and teachers must collaborate to deliver effective instruction or suffer ramifications for their failure to do so. Because relational trust supports effective collaboration between teachers, leaders of school reform should attend to relational trust to support reform efforts. But building relational trust during times of school reform may be difficult because a high stakes environment may not be conducive to collaboration. Therefore, school leaders may be faced with a paradox: trust building may jeopardized by the reform efforts for which trust is needed. The purpose of this study was to explore collaboration among teachers during school reform. Specifically, this study investigated collaboration between general and special educators, teachers' perceptions of leader support for collaboration, and leaders' perceptions of teacher collaboration. Participants in this study included 35 teachers and nine leaders from elementary, middle, and high schools in one school district. Results indicated that general and special educators often struggled to build relational trust. General and special educators who experienced trusting relationships, however, promoted symmetry between their roles and developed norms to support collaboration. Further, leader and teacher participants in this study both supported the notion that a trust paradox exists, suggesting that accountability pressures complicate trust building among colleagues. Participants identified several leader behaviors that were supportive of collaborative relationships amon (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christy Galletta Horner (Advisor); Dryw Dworksy (Other); Kristina LaVenia (Committee Member); Chris Willis (Committee Member); Kelly Wohlgamuth (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2020, College of Education and Human Services

For decades, urban school reform has been a persistent issue. Research suggests that urban school reforms that connect equitably to broader community improvement efforts are more sustainable and that principals play a pivotal role in leading such efforts. Although the role of the school principal is a front-line leader charged with the execution of policy and legislation, the experience of principal leadership is an area of limited research particularly how the creative leadership of the school principal connects with school transformational improvement efforts. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the experiences of urban principals, particularly their roles, responsibilities and leadership styles within an era of accountability of student performance outcomes as measured in state test scores. Central to the study was the principal narrations of their experiences as they navigated between policy compliance and creative leadership through the specific context of the Cleveland Plan implementation. In this study, creative leadership is defined as a multi-dimensional and transformational in its integration of distributed, authentic, and adaptive in its response to complex urban environments. It involves a view towards change that steps outside of the existing practices through collaborative, distributed, and authentic leadership to strategically move through a problem-solving framework (Puccio, Mance, & Murdock, 2011). Using a case study design, the research focused on the principal leadership skill set as narrated by principals within a context of a specific period of school reform beginning when the Cleveland Plan was legislated as H.B. 525 in 2012 through 2019 and the issuance of the last full year state report card. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with principals of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The research sought to both expand the study of school administration and leadership in new dir (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anne Galletta PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Frederick Hampton EdD (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; School Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Public Policy and Management

Salient incidents of officer misconduct, violence, and disrespect toward citizens threaten public safety and weaken the legitimacy of the police. With an eye toward improving police-community relations, law enforcement organizations employ multiple strategies to alter the approaches of line-level officers. Law enforcement organizations implement recruitment and retention strategies to better represent the demographics of communities they serve, body-worn cameras to improve accountability in police-civilian interactions, and early-intervention systems designed to identify problematic officers. Alternatively, some organizations implement community-focused reform efforts that shift the approach of police from an “us vs them” mentality to a co-productive, community-centered approach, which has been shown to improve citizen satisfaction with police. Despite efforts to improve police-community relations, law enforcement organizations have been unable to overcome decades of unequal service provision and repeated instances of officer misconduct. Some of these failures may be a product of the informal systems within policing that are charged with carrying out reform, highlighting a need to better understand how informal systems within policing inform the attitudes and approaches of line-level officers. Efforts to understand these effects exist in a limited but growing body of research investigating intra-organizational dynamics and the motivations or attitudes of line-level officers. This study builds on this work by examining the influence of servant leadership practices and work-unit climate on officer support for procedurally fair policing practices, officer willingness to report peer misconduct, and officer community citizenship behavior. There is evidence that leaders play a role in informing the attitudes of street-level bureaucrats (e.g., Wright and Pandey 2010; Keulemans and Groeneveld 2020); however, there are fewer examples of research investigating the influen (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Shahidul Hassan Ph.D. (Advisor); Amanda Girth Ph.D. (Committee Member); Trevor Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Administration