Advisor and Student Experiences of Summer Support for College-intending, Low-income high school graduates

Summer melt occurs when students who have been accepted to college and intend to enroll fail to matriculate in college in the fall semester after high school. A high rate of summer melt contributes to the lower postsecondary attainment rates of low-income students, in particular. This article presents qualitative findings from two interventions intended to reduce summer melt among low-income, urban high school graduates who had been accepted to college and indicated their intention to enroll. Results from student and counselor surveys, interviews, and focus groups point to a web of personal and contextual factors that collectively influence students' college preparation behaviors and provide insight into the areas of summer supports from which students like these can benefit. The data fit an ecological perspective, in which personal, institutional, societal, and temporal factors interact to affect students' behaviors and outcomes. A model of summer intervention shows that obstacles in completing college financing and informational tasks can lead college-intending students to re-open the question of where or whether to attend college in the fall after high school graduation. Given the pressure of concerns about how to actualize their offer of admission, students rarely engage in the anticipatory socialization activities that might help them make optimal transitions into college

The construction and evaluation of the International Morse Code Selection Test.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University

The development of the collegiate percussion ensemble: its history and educational value

The purpose of this study is to determine if participation in percussion ensemble has a distinct value as compared to participation in larger ensembles, and whether it promotes a specific form of percussion education not available to members participating in larger ensembles. People who participated in or who are currently instructional leaders, coaches, or conductors of collegiate percussion ensembles were contacted to better understand how experiences in the percussion ensemble influenced their approach to teaching percussion once they entered the teaching field. Research conducted for this study included interviews with preservice, inservice, and university percussion professors. Findings suggest that participation in a collegiate percussion ensemble is beneficial for percussion education and for teachers in the field. Students who participate in collegiate percussion ensembles have the opportunity to get a more specialized percussion education, from which they gain better quality skills in basic musicianship, score study, repertoire selection, and percussion performance than they would have simply preforming in a larger ensemble. In addition, students who participate in a collegiate percussion ensemble reported that it provided a greater sense of self-worth and a camaraderie with fellow percussionists that was not available in large ensemble performance

THE HOMOSEXUALITY DEBATE IN THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Religious Ethics, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, and The United Methodist Moral Landscape

Since the inclusion of a statement prohibiting "the practice of homosexuality" in The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church in 1972, The United Methodist Church has vigorously debated homosexuality. As the debate has progressed, two distinct groupings of United Methodists have formed. One group has developed arguments for the preservation of The United Methodist Church's prohibitive stance against sexual relationships between persons of the same gender, while the other advocates a revision of The United Methodist Church's Discipline that would remove any statements referring negatively to homosexuality. This study provides one account of how two groups of United Methodists have "mapped" their moral landscape while engaged in the debate of homosexuality. These two groups each utilize the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience in similar yet distinct ways. In providing an analytical account of the mechanisms that guide United Methodist ethics, this study suggests the possibility that United Methodist teaching on homosexuality may change, arguing against Amanda Udis-Kessler (2008). This study employs what one might call an existential map model, allowing for a fresh evaluation of the method employed by United Methodists in ethical reasoning, and has value for religious studies by providing an approach to understanding how selected religious actors make ethical decisions. As Jonathan Z. Smith suggested in his article "Map is Not Territory (1978), it may be that another "map" is required; in this case one that better embraces the discrepancies that exist between United Methodist pronouncements on sexuality and the lived experience of United Methodists. This account also has practical utility for The United Methodist Church, as it is a comparative study of the views expressed in Sample and DeLong (2000) and Dunnam and Malony (2003). At present these two works represent the two main lines of argument regarding this issue in The United Methodist Church