Search

Equity in education matters for all. Many innovative policies and practices have been established to disrupt the devastating history of inequities enshrined in every stage of education. Yet, ever-changing social, economic, and environmental circumstances bring another layer of tensions and complexities to these educational efforts, often exacerbating preexisting disparities in our lives. Then, how can we change policies and practices in ways that advance equity in education, especially when everything around us comes with more challenges, uncertainties, and risks? This three-article dissertation attempts to tackle this problem by providing conceptual research base on educational innovation and evaluating the equity potential of two innovative efforts for traditionally disadvantaged students. Specifically, my dissertation focuses on the following key questions: (1) What does innovation mean in the education field conceptually and how is innovativeness in policy operationalized empirically? (2) How does decentralization affect innovativeness of a state's equity-focused policy and students' academic outcomes? and (3) Can a technological intervention such as a virtual internship provide an equitable work-based learning space for traditionally marginalized college students with respect to its access, quality, and outcomes? To address these questions, I draw on two cases of equity-oriented innovative initiatives--the school turnaround policy of Florida in the K-12 setting and virtual internships under COVID-19 in higher education. In Chapter 2, qualitative content analysis and quadrant mapping were used to measure and provide visibility of the innovativeness of the school turnaround policy. The analysis revealed that the Florida turnaround model is generally positioned in the exploitation zone, suggesting a transfer of greater authority back to SEAs alone is unlikely to yield significant transformation in policy designs targeting traditionally underserved students. In addition, the quadrant mapping showed conflicting views surrounding the innovativeness of the new model--cognitive tension between the federal and state authorities. In Chapter 3, the regression discontinuity analysis finds no evidence that the Florida-brand school turnaround generated substantial differences in student test scores, probability of meeting high standards, or making gains in math and reading. Results of subgroup analyses exhibit the largest positive impacts across all outcomes for students at schools with the most intensive level of support. Using a series of multinomial logistic regressions and latent profile analyses, Chapter 4 uncovered that a virtual internship is a mixed bag of progress and challenges towards the goal of creating an equitable and inclusive career development pathway for young students. This series of inquiries extends our focus on the equitable educational system to the social structures, policy contexts, and design features of policies and practices that may widen or reduce such gaps. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Learners have difficulty making sense of and using multiple and diverse texts and applying complex reading strategies to solve problems on the Internet in academic settings. Some research suggests that opportunities for working together may help scaffold learners' learning and develop multilevel comprehension strategies. Despite the potential of peer interaction in educational contexts, more work is needed to explore how working with a partner to solve problems influences specific literacy outcomes, such as gains in knowledge, strategic use of comprehension processes, or comprehension outcomes. This study used a quantitative-based qualitative approach (Chi, 1997) to: (1) examine the value of peer interaction by comparing the individual and pair's online QGT performance and results; and (2) determine the factors that influence the online QGT results. Through an independent samples t-test, this study compared the quality of the questions generated by the students and the use of strategies by individuals and pairs during the online QGT. Two sets of two-way mixed ANOVAs were used to analyze both pre-post and individual-pair differences in knowledge and the attitudes toward tasks. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict the quality of the outcome of the online QGT. Follow-up qualitative analysis was conducted to illuminate shared or unique patterns of frequent strategy use between individual and paired participants who performed well on the online QGT. Results show that all participants learned content knowledge and developed positive attitudes toward online inquiry activities. Among the two groups, pair students produced higher quality joint outcomes, but there was no difference between individuals and pairs in knowledge and attitude. Another main finding of this study is that performing an inquiry task together through peer interaction activated the use of reading strategies such as self-monitoring and meaning making of participants. In particular, as revealed through multiple regression analyses, self-monitoring and meaning making strategies were significant variables in predicting the quality of outcomes. The verbalization of thinking (e.g., think-aloud) and the negotiation process (e.g., peer interaction) played a major role in the activation of participants' reading strategies and consequent cognitive development. In particular, when performing tasks together, the joint monitoring process increased the likelihood of performing tasks more successfully. Implications for educational practice, theory, and research are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]