Education master\u27s students\u27 perspectives on leaving the academy

Graduate student attrition is arguably one of the most significant challenges facing the higher education community, and determining why master\u27s students attrit is an important consideration for all universities. Despite the vast research on graduate education, little is known about master\u27s student attrition. This dissertation explored why education master\u27s students depart from one institution and provides recommendations for future practice. Key finding of the study indicate that financial, personal, and dissatisfaction with course content were reasons that influenced education master\u27s student attrition. In-depth qualitative interviews with 12 former students challenged the notion that attrition is intrinsic. Participants\u27 points of view were gathered, interpreted, and synthesized to achieve insight and knowledge into this important topic. This study utilized the Satisfaction-Retention Matrix along with well-known attrition theories, academic integration, social integration, academic and institutional attributes, and consumer behavior to create a conceptual framework to examine education master\u27s student attrition. The key findings of this study provide a leadership perspective, ideas for future research, and suggestions that would enhance the lives of future graduate students

Allocating Opportunity: The Role and Impact of School Counselors in Promoting Access to AP Coursework

In the K–12 education setting, professional school counselors are uniquely positioned to support high quality educational opportunities for all students. At the secondary level, student participation in Advanced Placement (AP) programming can be viewed as one such example of opportunity. School counselors serve as student advocates by channeling information and creating access to educational opportunity like AP. This important work takes place in the context of a bureaucratic policy environment that necessarily shapes the way AP opportunity is allocated in the local context. Charged with promoting equity and access to educational opportunity for all students, school counselors operate in a space of tension, and even conflict, when district policy, school site policy, and organizational norms related to AP participation signal less-than-open access. In this environment, school counselor advocacy and leadership become increasingly important determinants of opportunity and academic outcomes, particularly for students in the margins. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine the extent to which school counselors (a) are enabled and/or constrained in their ability to create student access to AP coursework, (b) use discretionary decision making as they navigate local AP course-taking policy, (c) consider efficiency and equity as values associated with policy and counseling practice, and (d) identify and perceive justice in their local context of professional work