Dissertation

1995 USP graduate Deborah Jewell Sherman, superintendent, Richmond (VA) Public Schools

After the six-month internship, USP students research and write a dissertation, which is an in-depth analysis of a complex, policy or practice-based problem facing an urban school district. It must meet the standards required of all doctoral dissertations at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The dissertation can be undertaken from any location, at Harvard, in the student's home state, or elsewhere and typically takes a minimum of 24 months to complete.

2006 Graduates

"My dissertation has empowered me to more accurately assess the multiple dimensions of any issue. It has enabled me to better understand and appreciate the voices that I hear and to use all of these voices and perspectives to marshal strategies that help me more effectively advocate for children." --Deborah Jewell Sherman

Andres Antonio Alonso - "Leadership in the Superintendency: Influence and Instruction in a Context of Standards-Based Reform"

Sheila Polk - "Creating School Cultures that Support Strong Internal Accountability Systems: "It's all about the Relationships"

Anthony Lee Pope - "Principal Instructional Leadership: Building Relationships with Central Office to Meet the Demands and Expectations in the Context of Standards and Accountability"

Traci Elizabeth Teasley - "Principals as Strategists: Distributed Leadership for Instructional Improvement"

2004 Graduates

Antonio J. Cediel - "With An Army: Mobilizing Parents for School Improvement"

Christine Michele Johns - "Success or Survival: Beginning Elementary Teachers' Experience with theMathematics Curriculum"

Hillary Jane Johnson - "The Potential for Pedagogical Expertise in a Whole School Early Literacy Model"

Sonja Brookins Santelises - "Being Smart, Being Black: African American High Achievers in the Context of High School"

2003 Graduates

Laural W. Dyson - "Working Collaboratively: A Case Study of a Labor-Management Partnership and Its Educational Reform Efforts in an Urban School District"

Janet Marie Schulze - "Voices of Transition: The Educational Experiences of Hmong High School Students"

2002 Graduates

Arlene A. Ackerman - "The Superintendency: A Multi-Site Case Study of Shared Leadership"

Meria Joel Carstarphen - "Superintendent Leadership in a Curriculum Management Audit: A Micropolitical Perspective"

Amalia Cudeiro-Nelsen - "Superintendents and Instructional Leadership: How Three Superintendents Promote, Develop and Support Principals in Their Instructional Leadership"

Valencia Douglas - "How Do Successful Female African-American High-School Seniors Speak about Their Experiences That Helped Them to Graduate?"

Timothy F.C. Knowles - "The Principal and the Academic Imperative"

Jose A. Martinez - "Teachers' Conceptualizations of Their Accountability and Capacity to Improve Student Outcomes"

Raymond J. Reynosa - "Attaining School Success: How Mexican American College Students in Texas Perceive the Influences on Their High School Academic Success"

Mary Ann Bermudes Schuler - "Women and the Superintendency: The Stealth Career Paradox"

2001 Graduates

Janice Barclay - "High Achieving African American High School Students Account for Their Access to and Success in An Academically Advanced Program"

Susan Dyer - "A Comparative Analysis of High School Experiences of Urban African American Female At-Risk Students Who Remain in High School until Graduation and Those Who Leave High School Prior to Graduation"

Renee Grant - "Visions and Voices: At-Risk African American Male Adolescents, An Ethnography of Their School Experiences and Relationships"

Janice Jackson - "Thoughts behind the Work: Teacher Thinking and the Implementation of a Complex Curricular Innovation"

Paul McKendrick - "Caring Community's Effects on the Experiences of Retained Eighth Graders at Coastal School District's Center City Academy"

Amanda Olson - "The Artistry of Exemplary Educators: Building a Model of Effective Teacher Practice"

Joshua Starr - "Leadership and Local Context: A Qualitative Case Study of Interagency Collaboration in a New Jersey Community"

2000 Graduates

Dori Collazo Baker - "Boundary Spanning Leadership in Full-Service Schools: A Case Study of Principals and School-based Community Directors"

Eileen Coppola - "The Power of Culture for Professional Learning: How Teachers Learn Constructivist Teaching with Computers and How the Organizational Culture of the School Can Help Them"

Elaine T. Koury - "Reconstitution: The Principal's View"

L. Ben Sanders - "Watching the Gap: Teacher Learning in History-Social Science"

Samona Joe Tait - "Shaping the Work of Principals: An Analysis of the Management Behaviors of District Leaders in a State Operated School District"

1999 Graduates

Robert Joseph Britto - "Responding to the District-wide Implementation of New Academic Standards: A Case Study of Principals' Behaviors and Teachers' Reactions"

Linda Rawson González Kaminski - "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow: The Impact of Student Mobility on Learning"

Jean Shelley Murray - "Top-Down High School Curriculum Change Requires Bottom-Up Support from Teachers: Factors Influencing Teachers' Responses"

1998 Graduates

Beth Lisa Bernstein - "Learning Relationships: Teacher-Student Connections, Learning, and Identity in High School"

1997 Graduates

Margaret King Beck - "Persistence in High School: Graduating Seniors from High Risk Urban Environments"

Deanna T. Burney - "Professional Development: An Analytical Study of Effects on Teaching Practices"

Sonia Díaz Salcedo - "Successful Latino Students at the High School Level, A Case Study of Ten Students"

Clarence Welton Tolbert - "Principals as Change Agents"

Belinda Joy Tucker - "Navigating School: The Experience and Perspectives of Successful Mexican-Origin High School Students"

1996 Graduates

Virginia Lawrence Mayo Hardy - "School-based Health Centers: Informing Future Site-based Interagency Collaboratives"

Douglass Ann Kinkade - "Factors That Affect a School-Based Management Team's Ability to Make and Implement Teaching and Learning Decisions"

Betty Awilda Rosa - "Cooperative Teaching in the Inclusive Classroom: A Case Study of Teachers' Perspectives"

Julian Stafford - "An Urban Superintendent's Entry: A Case Study of Dr. Franklin L. Smith, Superintendent and Chief State Officer, District of Columbia Public School System, Washington, D.C."

1995 Graduates

Mary Brown Daniels - "Flattening the Administrative Pyramid: A Case Study of the Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky"

E. Wayne Harris - "Identification and Analysis of Significant Factors that Influence Black Male High School Students to Take College-Preparatory Mathematics Courses"

Deborah Moira Jewell-Jackson - "Ending Mandatory Busing for Desegregation in Norfolk, Virginia: A Case Study Explaining the Decision Making Process in a Formerly De Jure Southern School District"

1994 Graduates

Claudia L. Bach - "Interest Based Negotiation: A Study of Efforts to Improve Labor-Management Relations in a Public School District"

Sarah Ann Gonzales - "An Observational Case Study of Site-based Shared Decision Making"

1993 Graduates

Patricia Conn - "Teens, AIDS, Condoms, and Homosexuality: A Case Study Explaining Urban School District Decision Making"

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Director's Message

Robert Peterkin
Making good teaching happen for every child, every day, in every classroom, is the single most important means by which public schools can deliver on their promise to enable all children to learn and achieve at high levels.