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In this paper, the researcher presents the findings of this original qualitative study on the human experience of the participants of The Purkal Project, change-makers in social innovation that provide free, world-class education and vocational development in an economically challenged rural community in the Himalayan region of Northern India. In this paper, the researcher explored the history of the conditions of poverty for women in India, reviewed the development of the Purkal Project, and shared personal perspectives from participants. Societal engagement through family and education are core fundamentals of development and community empowerment; however, social conditions exist which contribute to and perpetuate women's state of poverty in this region. The researcher addressed the unprecedented challenges to the international research process, as well as the effect on the Purkal Project's participants, based on the lockdown conditions created by the COVID-19 global pandemic. An examination of these past and present conditions was essential before presenting the participants' stories to determine their perception regarding social intervention projects, which can have a lasting impact on societal development in rural Northern India. Changes in rural societies must begin with the examination of women's status, which is related to other components of development that benefit children and society, as well as oppositional factors which could impede women's agency. The purpose of this study was to explore the history of the conditions that created and continue to perpetuate the feminization of poverty. The researcher also examined participants' perspective on the effect of the Purkal Project as a social intervention which has developed sustainable methods of poverty alleviation, thereby encouraging agency and empowerment for women and their families in economically challenged rural communities in the Himalayan region of Northern India. [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.]

The purpose of this study was to foster learning through the Multiple Intelligence Approach in achieving educational objectives across the levels of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Multiple intelligences approach facilitates ways for students by ensuring that curriculum and instruction validate the strengths and build on the assets that students possess and value them. Teachers encourage students to be independent thinkers and learners, and provide different types of learning experiences so that students discover meaning in content and engage in active learning through a wide range of activities by expanding the gamut of techniques, tools and strategies beyond the typical and predominant ones that are used. This was a quasi-experimental study following the Counter Balanced Design (Two Groups Equivalent Materials Post Test Design), Factorial design to find out the main effect and interaction effect of the variables--levels of achievement, gender and types of school. The sample for the study were 736 students of Grade 6 from four different Boards of school education (SSC,CBSE,ICSE,IGCSE) from 2009/10-2011/12. The findings of the study indicated that: (1) the Multiple Intelligence Approach of curriculum transaction seemed to have an overall positive impact on the learning in realizing the educational objectives among secondary school students, it was effective in transforming as a constructivist learning environment. There was significant main effect as well as interaction effect of the approaches to curriculum transaction Multiple Intelligence Approach (MIA), Traditional Approach (TA) and the Levels of Achievement (Average, Below Average and Above Average) on the achievement of educational objectives of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT) among secondary school students. There was significant main effect of approaches to curriculum transaction on the achievement of educational objectives of RBT among secondary school students; (2) There was significant main effect on the type of schools on the achievement of educational objectives of RBT among secondary school students; (3) There was no significant interaction effect of approaches to curriculum transaction and on the types of schools on the achievement of educational objectives of RBT among secondary school students. There was significant main effect of approaches to curriculum transaction on the achievement of educational objectives of RBT among secondary school students; (4) There was no significant main effect of gender on the achievement of educational objectives of RBT among secondary school students; and (5) There was no significant interaction effect of approaches to curriculum transaction and gender on the achievement of educational objectives of RBT among secondary school students. Teachers should provide extensive opportunities for guided practice, repetition, and review for their students, giving them ample opportunities to practice before they are given tests or other forms of assessment. Variety of instructional materials can be used during the teaching- learning process to make learning enjoyable and student centered. Teachers need to break down the shackles of rote memorization and invent new pedagogical practices for students welfare. The following are appended: (1) Personal Data Sheet, (2) Multiple Intelligence Tests, (3) Lesson Transcript, (4) Field Notes, (5) List of Teachers, (6) Science Question Paper (Energy), (7) Science Question Paper (Pollution), and (8) List of Experts. Individual chapters contain references.

This paper provides a skeleton of a one-year course in Asian and African civilizations intended for upper school students. The curricular package consists of four parts. The first part deals with the basic shape and content of the course as envisioned. The remaining three parts develop a specific unit on classical India with a series of teacher notes, a set of student readings that can be used according to individual needs, and a prose narrative of content with suggestions for extension and inclusion. (EH)

Community colleges are a large part of the nation's higher education system and provide an important access point to post-secondary education for many students. Transfer to a four-year institution is one of the many functions served by community colleges. Despite the importance of the transfer function, the process of transferring between higher education institutions can be confusing for students. In order to reduce the uncertainty surrounding the transfer process, states have formalized and expanded pre-existing institutional transfer agreements to provide clearer linkages between two-year and four-year institutions of higher education, and many schools also maintain institution-to-institution agreements. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a closer look at institution-to-institution policies, and changes in state policies, respectively. Chapter 1 explores the effects of the transfer admission guarantees (TAG) between California Community Colleges and some University of California (UC) campuses. Specifically, I investigate the impact of TAG policies on transfer to and bachelor's degree completion at UC campuses. These analyses indicate that TAG is positively related to transfer rates and bachelor's degree attainment, but not to the rate at which transfer students graduate. There is no association between TAG policies and the grade point average (GPA) attained by transfer students. Chapter 2 adds to a growing literature examining the relationship between state post-secondary transfer and articulation policies and the final educational attainment of students who begin at public two-year institutions. Researchers have used both the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and various cohorts of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS). Previous studies use cross-sectional differences in state policies to investigate the effect of such policies on educational outcomes. Most of these studies conclude there is little cross-sectional relationship between state articulation policies and education outcomes such as transfer, credit accumulation, persistence, and degree attainment. In Chapter 2 I build on the existing literature by using multiple cohorts of the BPS, allowing for the examination of changes in state policies over time. I find no evidence of a relationship between state transfer policies and either transfer or degree attainment for beginning public two-year or public four-year students. However, these results are sensitive to the sample used, as well as the policy definition. Chapter 3 contributes to the important but small body of research on the role of private schools in Indian education. It uses a household dataset from India with a rich set of household covariates and student performance data on reading, writing, and mathematics. For both rural and urban India the results from regression analyses indicate that private school students perform better on tests controlling for covariates. In both contexts, however, the private school benefit becomes largely, statistically, insignificant after conducting multivariate analysis on data balanced using the propensity score matching technique. The paper also makes an initial attempt to identify `low-fee' private schools; within the regression framework it finds that children in such schools may perform no better than their public school counterparts. The data and methods used in this paper are not without limitations; however these analyses call into question the claim that private school effect may be unequivocally positive and highlights the potential heterogeneity in private school performance in the Indian context. [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.]