Combs, Julie
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11875/4611
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Browsing Combs, Julie by Author "Bustamante, Rebecca M."
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Item Hispanic Student Access to Advanced Placement Courses(Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, 2011) Borg, Susan; Combs, Julie P.; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.; Bustamante, Rebecca M.This qualitative, collective case study describes the perceptions of academically successful Hispanic students regarding their access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses in 4 suburban Texas high schools. A multistage, purposeful sampling scheme was used to select 28 participants for 4 focus groups. Six participants from the focus groups participated in interviews. The conceptual framework focused on Coleman’s (1988) theory of social capital. Classical content analysis revealed 4 major themes: (a) future, (b) course placement, (c) educational work ethic, and (d) relationships. The theme of relationships varied the most with discussion of the value of relationships with counselors, peers, parents, teachers, and other family members. Participants had both positive and negative experiences with two subcategories, counselors and teachers, who influenced their opinions about their placement in courses. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided.Item Research Courses in Education Leadership Programs: Relevance in an Era of Accountability(International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership, 2011-05) Bustamante, Rebecca M.; Combs, Julie P.Master’s degree research course offerings of 72 university education leadership programs were examined to explore how relevant the courses were to the inquiry needs of practicing school leaders. Research course titles and descriptions were analyzed using content analysis. Findings revealed considerable variation in research course requirements, course titles, and course descriptions. Analysis of course descriptions indicated minimal emphasis on the research skills required for school improvement. Results also suggested a lack of consensus on the importance of developing research skills for school leaders across university education leadership programs. Implications for education leadership preparation programs are discussed with an emphasis on the need for further studies on the research skills required by practicing school leaders.Item School Size and Incidents of Violence among Texas Middle Schools(Journal of Educational Issues, 2015) Kohler, Elizabeth A.; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.; Combs, Julie P.; Bustamante, Rebecca M.; Edmonson, Stacy L.Although many studies have been conducted regarding (a) school violence in middle schools and (b) the size of schools, to date, no researcher appears to have examined the role that the size of the middle school plays in determining incidents of violence specifically fighting, assaults, and aggravated assaults. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the incidents of school violence, specifically fighting, assaults, and aggravated assaults, and the size of middle schools in the state of Texas for 3 school years. All 842 middle schools in Texas were included in this study. Compared to small schools, medium schools, and large schools, very small schools had a statistically significantly lower proportion of students involved in assaults, proportion of students involved in aggravated assaults, proportion of incidents of assaults, and proportion of incidents of aggravated assaults. Further, very small schools had a statistically significantly lower proportion of students involved in fights and proportion of incidents of fights than did large schools. A trend emerged across the 4 school sizes for all 6 indicators of school violence, which, in every case, reflected a sharp increase from very small schools to small schools—peaking at small schools. Thus, very small schools appear to be at a greater advantage than are other types of schools with respect to incidents of school violence. Implications of the findings are discussed.Item Team Performance Pay and Motivation Theory: A Mixed Methods Study(The Journal of Research in Education, 2013) Wells, Pamela; Combs, Julie P.; Bustamante, Rebecca M.This study was conducted to explore teachers’ perceptions of a team performance pay program in a large suburban school district through the lens of motivation theories. Mixed data analysis was used to analyze teacher responses from two archival questionnaires (Year 1, n = 368; Year 2, n = 649). Responses from teachers who participated in the team pay performance system reflected high levels of expectancy. Results were mixed for teachers’ perceptions of equity. Some teachers expressed concerns related to distributive justice and procedural justice of the performance pay process. Implications for researchers and practicing educators are discussed.