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SF State Ed.D. in Educational Leadership
New Leaders Newsletter
May 2011, Vol 1:7
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Preparing California's Next Generation of Educational Leaders
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Ed.D. Program Announcements
Dr. Raymond Kaupp, a member of the 2011 graduating class, will be presenting his research at the Online Technology Conference 2011, June 24th, in Anaheim, CA as well as at the Research and Planning Group Strengthening Student Success Conference in San Francisco, in October. His work has been accepted to be published in the Journal of Applied Research for Community Colleges, Spring 2012 issue.
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Ed.D. Faculty and Student Awards
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Faculty Honors and Awards Committee Chair Genie Stowers presents the winners of the 2011 Distinguished Faculty Awards at the final Academic Senate meeting. Recipients of the honors and awards are:
The Excellence in Professional Achievement Award, Gustavo Yep, Communication Studies
Excellence in Service Award, Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Asian American Studies
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Congratulations on the success of Ed.D. student, David Wick, who won second place recognition for his study of Study Abroad Students of Color. He was the first winner who presented as an Ed.D. student in the CSU-wide competition.
I am pleased to have played a role in putting the SF State Ed.D. on the map at the CSU Research Competition. I am absolutely thrilled with this recognition of the work that I completed thanks to the SF State Ed.D. program. I hope that my success will inspire many more students in the Ed.D. program to participate in the CSU Research Competition and the Graduate Research Showcase. Both were great opportunities to focus my ideas, hone my presentation skills, and share my research. --Dr. David Wick, Ed.D. Class of 2011
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Congratulations to the Ed.D. Class of 2011! Below you will find summaries of the work produced from the 2008 Cohort.
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Breaking Barriers: A Qualitative Study of the Educational and Social Transformational Experiences of Latino Males
by Luis Escobar
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The dissertation titled "Breaking Barriers: A Qualitative Study of the Educational and Social Transformational Experiences of Latino Males" explores practices that work to support the social and academic needs of Latino males. The dissertation draws from the voices of Latino boys that moved from the edge of being pushed out of high school to graduation, college enrollment, and community activism. These voices are used to better understand what works, why it works, and how it works in the schooling lives of Latino youth that find themselves on the margins of schools and our society.
The students stories revealed that it was the combination of having access to quality teaching, of developing their critical consciousness, of identifying a bigger purpose for their education, of the bond and support they built among each other, and the family support that all led to their educational and social transformation. The findings of the study found that the most critical factor to students' transformations was access to quality teaching. The findings of this study have implications for improving teacher quality, teacher preparation programs, educational leadership, and educational policy.
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Compassion, Accountability, and Collaboration: Effective Teachers in High Poverty Schools
by Michael Gallagher
|  This study generated theories about the characteristics and practices that contribute to and support teacher effectiveness in two high performing, high poverty elementary schools in San Vicente (pseudonym) County, California while identifying the outcomes teachers in these schools seek for their students. The study included surveys of teachers in the two schools, interviews with principals, and interviews and observations of two teachers at each school as representative case studies. Effective teachers in these high poverty schools sought both academic and social-emotional outcomes for their students and displayed characteristics of compassion: demonstrating authentic caring, building social capital, and employing aspects of critical pedagogy. These qualities were bound by high expectations. Effectiveness was supported by collaboration among teachers and the application of comprehensive data/accountability systems. |
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SER EDUCADA: The Persistence and Resistance Strategies of First-Generation Latinas
by Angelica Garcia
|  First-generation college students of color are one of the most frequently targeted groups for access and retention programs in higher education. However, literature on the persistence and resistance strategies of this student population remains predominantly limited to quantitative research, ignoring the specific strengths-based characteristics within this student population.The dissertation was undertaken as a mixed methods study focused on a case study of one private, four-year predominantly white institution. The importance of this study is that while access to higher education has increased for marginalized groups, the persistence and graduation rates of first-generation students of color are alarmingly low in comparison to white students. Significantly, the study introduces a new conceptual framework to the literature, Ser Educada [to be educated], which uncovers the educational experiences of first-generation Latinas as they successfully navigate and persist in higher education. The quantitative data demonstrate how these trends play out at the site of study, especially among first-generation Latinas. Through qualitative data, gathered through focus groups, the women add their testimonios to the literature. Data were analyzed through the lenses of LatCrit, Critical Race Feminism, and borderlands. The study finds that the mujeres negotiate their identity by creating opportunities for transformational resistance through their familia, as they define their educación, in owning their feminidad, and in finding hermandad. The findings of this study have great potential to contribute to policy in higher education at the institutional level, in terms of admissions practices, advising practices, reforms to teaching practices, increased hiring of Latina/o faculty and staff, and the support of student diversity groups. |
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The Gap Between Latino and White Student Achievement in Online Classes
by Raymond Kaupp
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Despite a substantial body of research on the effectiveness of distance education at the post-secondary level, little is known about the impact of online course delivery on the achievement gap. In California, the gap between white and Latino post-secondary student outcomes is significant and persistent, with Latino students overrepresented in community colleges and underrepresented in transfers to four-year institutions. There is a broad consensus in the literature that online courses produce outcomes at least as good as face-to-face courses. However, in California community colleges, students enrolled in online classes don't do as well, in the aggregate, as their peers in face-to-face classes, experiencing lower completion rates and lower success rates. This explanatory, mixed methods study disaggregates statewide outcome data to assess the impact of online instruction on the achievement gap between white and Latino community college students, and examines factors contributing to this inequity. Online instruction was found to significantly exacerbate the achievement gap, with Latino students experiencing a nine percentage point lower success rate, grades that average two-tenths of a grade point lower, and withdrawal rates over twice as high, as Latino students in face-to-face sections of the same classes. Interviews with Latino students enrolled in online courses provided insight into the importance of relationships to Latino student success. The absence a strong student-instructor relationship was identified as the key difference between their face-to-face and online educational experience.
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The Impact of Thinking Maps on Students' Expository Texts
by Anita Sunseri
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Many students struggle with structuring their writing in composing expository texts. This dissertation examined the scaffolding strategies inherent in the Thinking Maps program to see if students' compositions were more organized if they used a Thinking Map in responding to a writing prompt. The participants were 71 students in three fourth grade classes in the South Bay School District (pseudonym).Two of the classes were experimental in that the teachers helped students create and use Thinking Maps in addressing two writing prompts. The other class was a Control Class because Thinking Maps were not used with students. The results were that Thinking Maps did not have a statistically significant impact on students' writing. However, English Language Learners (ELLs) in the Experimental Classes appeared to realize a slight benefit in using Thinking Maps compared to the non-ELL students in the Control Class. Although the evidence is weak, students appear to benefit from using Thinking Maps.
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Study Abroad for Students of Color: A Third Space for Negotiating Agency and Identity
by David Wick
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Consistently low levels of study abroad participation by students of color have fueled extensive anecdotal advice literature and a few empirical studies that examined perceived barriers to access. Literature that explores the experiences of students of color who studied abroad remains extremely limited. The primary goal of this research was to add the narratives of study abroad of students of color to the literature. Documenting these experiences allowed me to investigate the role of identity in the study abroad process and to develop a conceptual framework of the study abroad experience for students of color from a Critical Race Theory perspective. This longitudinal qualitative research included 47 study abroad returnees who participated in six interviews and five focus groups that took place 3-6 and 12-18 months after return. Participants had studied abroad for a semester or year in cross-cultural immersion programs in 16 countries. The findings indicated that study abroad was a unique context for leveraging and building social and cultural capital, critically negotiating intersecting identities, and developing agency. These results helped to re-conceptualize study abroad as a transformative process that begins when students first believe that it is possible and continues well beyond return. Additionally, these findings suggested that study abroad acts as a Third Space for students of color in which they can freely reconsider their social locations and the impact that they want to have on the world. The student narratives in this study lent support to arguments that study abroad can promote citizenship, democratization, and humanization for participants and their host communities.
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Graduation Spotlight
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Excerpts from A Community of Leaders for Educational Equity
by David Wick
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Coming into the program we students all knew that we would learn from our professors, readings, and assignments - what we may not have known was how much we would learn about ourselves and how much we would gain from our fellow students. Today, seeing the family and friends who were frequently mentioned in our class discussions and social interactions, I am reminded of the vital role that each of you played in supporting our development as educational leaders. These two observations led me to realize that educational leadership, and more specifically leadership for equity and social justice, is not an individual pursuit- leadership requires a community. Community, multiple perspectives, passion, educacion, professionalism, vision, hope, compassion, precision, commitment, scholarship, humor, self-criticism, and love are all necessary for educational leaders committed to equity and social justice. |
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We welcome your feedback and your ideas for what should be covered in this newsletter. Please send your thoughts to our newsletter editor, Tonesha Russell {tmr@sfsu.edu}.
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Robert Gabriner
Director, SFSU Ed.D.in Educational Leadership
gabriner@sfsu.edu
Norena Norton Badway
Graduate Coordinator
nbadway@sfsu.edu
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