Performance funding has become a popular policy structure for public higher education institutions across the United States. The implications on budget and student success are considerable. This study examines performance funding through the perspective of chief executive officers (CEOs) at public community colleges in a southern state. Utilizing…

State funding for higher education is one of the most pressing issues facing both institutions and policymakers in 2022. Colorado has seen significant declines in the amount of state funding per student over the past two decades, resulting in increases in student burdens for tuition. Policy discourse analysis through a poststructural and…

This dissertation utilizes performance-based funding for higher education in Europe as the mechanism through which to interrogate broader relationships between universities and their external resource environments. Structured as three distinct journal-length articles, I first explore the emergence of performance-based funding systems for higher…

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand how and why different state financial aid policy designs have developed, with particular attention to external influences, and what effect those design choices have on student outcomes. In the first essay, I use the theoretical framework of diffusion to understand the design and adoption of…

The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the decision-making and policy development of local governing boards acting in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative and qualitative data was gathered through open-ended items in a mixed-methods survey and through a focus group interview. This research sought to…

Missing values that fail to be appropriately accounted for may lead to reduced statistical power, biased estimators, reduced representativeness of the sample, and incorrect interpretations and conclusions (Gorelick, 2006). The current study provided an ontological perspective of data manipulation by explaining how statistical results can…

The cost for higher education increased nearly 55% from 2002 to 2012, while state appropriations decreased 12% over the same time period (Government Accountability Office, 2014). The cost burden has been shifted heavily on students and their families as institutions have raised the cost of attendance in order to make up for declines in state…

Despite the expansive literature on higher education performance-based funding (PBF) policies, there is an oversaturation of quantitative studies focused on measuring metric performance at the statewide level. These studies have largely found that PBF fails to meet its goal of improving graduation rates and has unintended consequences for…

Nebraska's Educational Service Units (ESUs) are under threat of de-funding, consolidation, and even elimination. For too long, the ESUs have been an invisible asset to school districts, providing equity to our rural schools, and expertise to our more urban schools. ESUs work from the expectation of efficiency and effectiveness, to be good stewards…

Lottery policies have been created by many states to generate additional funds to support public initiatives, such as higher education scholarships. In 2009, Arkansas adopted a lottery to generate higher education scholarships. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the Arkansas state lottery policy design process to better…

Pakistan is among those South Asian countries that are still striving for a successful education policy to be in place for achieving the goals of quantity and quality. For more than 66 years there have been many interventions and initiatives to reform current practices in public educational institutions. In 2009 a similar initiative was taken by…

This project examined the training needs of school board members in the state of Missouri. Of the 520 school districts in Missouri, 382 are members of the Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA). The school board members of the MSBA schools were surveyed in this project. Data was gathered relating to the training needs of board members with 1 to…

This project examined the training needs of school board members in the state of Missouri. Of the 520 school districts in Missouri, 382 are members of the Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA). The school board members of the MSBA schools were surveyed in this project. Data was gathered relating to the training needs of board members with 1 to…

Adequate funding has become a critical issue for institutions of higher education, affecting outcomes such as accessibility, affordability, and quality of education. The recent economic recession has been detrimental for state funding, resulting in budget cuts for higher education in a majority of states. Overall, state funding has not kept pace…

This study sought to identify major school improvement reform programs and initiatives in Louisiana during the period of 1997 to 2005. The criteria used to identify each program included: state funding that averaged at least $2 million per year in state funds; programs that affected teachers and students for school improvement purposes; and,…