Barbara S. S. Hong

Portraits of Leaders: Striving for a Fuller Humanity

This case study uses real events and hypothetical elements associated with the struggle for school finance equity in Texas. It involves a superintendent faced with difficult choices brought about by a convergence of events and issues, namely, by a national and state economic crisis, the demographic realities of his district, a historically contentious political landscape of his state, a tradition of leadership for social justice established in his school system, and by his own career aspirations. This work is particularly significant because it prompts specific questions related to elements of social justice leadership that are not often specifically addressed in professional preparation programs, namely, the chosen means of advocacy and the resulting consequences to the actor. It also directly addresses a critical domain of social justice action, school finance equity.

A ten‐year analysis of the post‐secondary outcomes of students with disabilities at The Pennsylvania State University

10.1080/02607476.2011.558291 Journal of Education for Teaching 0260-7476 (print)/1360-0540 (o line) Research in P ogress 2 11 Taylo & Fran is 370 002 11 B rb aHong bsh 5@psu.edu With increasing demand for postsecondary education, there has been an increasing number of students with disabilities attending colleges and universities (e.g. Hall and Belch 2000; Henderson 1999; Hodgkinson 1985; Wiseman, Emry, and Morgan 1988). Estimates indicate that increases range from 10% (Henderson 1999) to 26% among four-year colleges (Newman et al. 2009). Given that students with disabilities who obtain a college education are 63% more likely to find employment than students who do not have a college degree (Dutta, Kundu, and Schiro-Geist 2009), these increases are understandable. As they relate to investigations of post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities, there are two axiomatic and consistent conclusions from the empirical literature. First, in comparison to their non-disabled peers, students with disabilities have significantly lower rates of pursuing and successfully completing college; and second, we know virtually nothing about how university support services such as those offered through an Office for Disability Services (ODS) contribute to retention, persistence and graduation. The proposed exploratory study represents the largest and first investigation in the USA that will purposefully analyse and track students who have sought disability services over a 10-year span (academic years 2000–2011). Using ex post-facto data on a non-probability purposive sample of approximately 6000 undergraduates, the research team will address the following research questions: