Pennsylvania public schools: The fiscal landscape. A descriptive analysis 2008-2013

Perrin, Jason C The Pennsylvania State University ProQuest Dissert 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

This research study examined public school district responses in Pennsylvania, through analysis of fiscal patterns, given decreased revenues and increased mandatory expenditures from 2008-2013. This descriptive quantitative study examined both revenues and expenditures for the aggregate group of Pennsylvania school districts and further explores fiscal patterns by average wealth through the use of deciles. The study was organized around the following four research questions: (1) How did school district revenues change? (2) How did school district expenditures change? (3) Did revenues and expenditure patterns vary by wealth? (4) What were the major legislative events in education and fiscal factors that occurred during this time period and how did they impact the fiscal pattern for revenues and expenditures?. The methodology used was primarily quantitative incorporating descriptive statistics specific to revenue and expenditure data from 2008-2013. Fiscal data was collected from the Pennsylvania Department of Education web site for all five hundred public school districts in the state. Secondary sources were also utilized to determine the impact of policy, legislative actions, and overall economic variables on fiscal elements specific to the public school finance landscape during the period of study. Analysis of key fiscal elements and secondary information was completed for all public school districts and further examined by average district wealth through decile information. This study found that between 2008-2013, fiscal responses and patterns changed due to revenue and expenditure variables for the aggregate group of Pennsylvania districts and differed for these districts based on average wealth. Key findings of this study included: (1) State policy decisions and legislative actions, specifically the reduction of state funding and lack of full restoration that coincided with the infusion and elimination of federal ARRA funding, had adverse effects on total school district revenues, especially 2011-12. (2) The recession of 2007-2009, along with limitations on local real estate tax increases imposed by Act 1 of 2006, restricted the ability for school districts to raise local revenue in order to counterbalance state revenue decreases, especially in 2011-12 when the Act 1 base index reached a five year low of 1.4%. (3) Increased benefit expenditures, due primarily to increased mandatory payments to PSERS, constrained the ability for school districts to meet overall obligations and forced challenging decisions, especially from 2011-13, when employer contribution rates increased from 5.54% to 12.36%. (4) State policy decisions and legislative actions, with regards to the interaction of state and federal revenues, adversely affected poorer districts to a greater degree than wealthy districts, counter to the intent of how those revenues were designed to be allocated. (5) The decrease of total revenue and increase of mandatory expenditures, specific to benefits, adversely affected poorer districts to a greater degree than wealthy districts, in the ability to meet rising costs associated with staff, more often forcing decisions fiscally necessary, but not educationally sound. (6) With mandatory expenditures projected to rise, as employer contribution rates to PSERS continues to rise, school districts will face further challenges in the future in an Act 1 environment, unless future policy and legislative actions provide relief in the form of increased state funding, equitable allocation and overall pension reform. Findings assert that long-range fiscal planning is paramount when addressing school district fiscal needs and that managing costs such as collective bargaining agreements and competing in a choice environment, given Charter School Costs, are important in managing the balance between revenues and expenditures. Future research aligned to further exploration of legislative impacts on school funding along with possible reform efforts specific to the state pension system and revenue generated through local real estate taxes will emerge in the coming years as key focus areas for understanding and practice.

The use of collaboration, community involvement and vocational programming for youth with disabilities placed in six state-operated facilities for delinquents in Pennsylvania

Morrison, Marybeth The Pennsylvania State University 2004 해외박사(DDOD)

Collaboration among stakeholders, community involvement, and access to vocational programming as part of education, are three components researchers indicate contribute to successful transition of adjudicated juveniles from placement to post-placement. The researcher analyzed these three components in six of thirteen state-operated juvenile placement facilities in Pennsylvania for youth with disabilities. This was a qualitative case study using, primarily, Yin's (1994) method of case study research. Interviews with key staff were conducted at five of the six sites and 296 student files were selected for review as part of the study. Students selected were: participating in career or vocational education, qualified for special education and had a transition component in their individualized education plan, released from the facility in 2000 or 2001. Five questions framed the data collection: (a) how and why do students with disabilities placed in state-operated facilities for delinquents in Pennsylvania participate in vocational or career education, (b) how and why do educators in state-operated facilities for delinquents in Pennsylvania collaborate with the staff from the students home school to deliver education or transition services, (c) how and why do members of community organizations such as religious institutions or civic organizations and members of community service providers such as the office of Vocational Rehabilitation or Mental Health and Mental Retardation collaborate with education personnel from state-operated facilities for delinquents in Pennsylvania on transition and educational programming, (d) how and why do personnel teaching in state-operated facilities for delinquents in Pennsylvania select the programming components they use in their facility for youth with disabilities who are in placement and, (e) how and why do parents, and their children who have disabilities and who are in placement, participate in the education and transition process in state-operated facilities for delinquents in Pennsylvania?. The researcher found that collaboration between stakeholders was problematic and community involvement was limited. However, vocational programming was extensive, was based on data from a variety of sources, and all students had access to participate. A systems approach using Bronfenbrenners ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) was used to analyze the results relating to collaboration, community involvement and vocational programming.

Evaluation of instructional use of the ANGEL course management system at the Pennsylvania State University

Lin, Hung-Chang The Pennsylvania State University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

ANGEL (A New Global Environment for Learning) is a Web-based tool that enables faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants who have no knowledge of HTML to use the Web to enhance their courses. In fall 2001, ANGEL 2001 replaced CourseWeb, the previous course management system at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). Since then, the number of ANGEL users has increased significantly each semester. However, despite the many users involved in ANGEL, there have been few studies or evaluations of ANGEL's use in support of faculty members' teaching. To explore how Penn State faculty implement ANGEL in instruction, this study sought to ascertain whether there were relationships between the use of ANGEL features and each of the following three factors: (a) The rate of ANGEL course adoption in an academic unit, (b) the average number of ANGEL course sections implemented by a faculty member in an academic unit, and (c) the average ANGEL class size in an academic unit. The material in this thesis is derived mainly from the ANGEL course database, which is maintained by Information Technology Services (ITS) at Penn State. The database contains statistics from spring 2002 to spring 2004. As the purpose of the study was to examine the latest instructional use of ANGEL, the data from spring 2004 was chosen as the main analysis resource. Since certain instructional features, such as Syllabus, Calendar, Lessons, Quiz, Question, Folder, Drop box, Page, File, Message board, Message, Email, and Chat room provide the most insightful information on how faculty use ANGEL, this study's analytical focus was on the use of those features. The findings from the analysis of ANGEL feature use at Penn State indicate that the average university-wide ANGEL adoption rate in spring 2004 was 29%. The adoption rates for some campuses and colleges were lower than 10%; however, other campuses or colleges had an adoption rate higher than 40%. In terms of the rate of use of ANGEL features, the study results reveal that some features such as Syllabus, Lessons, Folder, and File had a use rate higher than 44%, while some features, such as Calendar, Message board, Message, Quiz, and Question, had a use rate lower than 15%. Also, Chat room was utilized at a lower rate by users. These results reveal that some important ANGEL features, such as Calendar, Quiz, Message board, and Chat room, were not often employed by users. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

University autonomy in the Colombian public universities

Beltran, Yolima Ivonne The Pennsylvania State University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

In 1991 university autonomy was introduced in the Colombian higher education as a constitutional principle, which affected higher education. The changes were mandated with the 1992 Law # 30, whose implementation has caused tensions between the concepts of university autonomy based on self-regulation verses the control and vigilance from the government, and the notion of free trade of private universities and the economic dependence of public universities, an enormous growth of the Colombian higher educational system; a lack of efficient quality control mechanisms, and the politicization of the election process of university authorities. Some of these effects may be attributed to confusion in the interpretations of the autonomy concept, which generated the interest for the study. It was done under Neave's and Van Vught's (1994) conceptualization and Berdahl's (1990) conceptualization to analyze the relationship between the government and the higher education institutions regarding autonomy; and Levy's (1980) areas of autonomy to identify the repercussions of exercising autonomy at organizational level. The methodological approach involved a historical analysis focusing on the history of Colombian higher education with the purpose of revealing the evolution of educational policies, and the origins of university autonomy; and a multiple case study of two public universities located in the Andean region. The case studies involved members of superior councils of the two institutions, as well as a dean, professor, rector, ex-rector, student, and an administrative employee of each university. The results revealed that throughout history, the concept of university autonomy in the country has been a rhetorical issue, since it has been so far from the notions of democracy, participation, and intra-university power distribution, which characterized the claims of the <italic>Movimiento de Córdoba</italic>. The concept has been linked to the political parties in power and the policies of international funding agencies who impose their agenda on Colombia, which in turn has impacted the organizational level of the universities. During the last decade the government has oscillated between two opposite extremes for mechanisms of coordination without success, being the market and the rigorous control over public universities. As a consequence, the public universities have limited academic, administrative, and, financial autonomy.

Educating Pennsylvania Germans: Franklin College in the early Republic

John, Barbara Bastendorf The Pennsylvania State University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

Franklin College, founded in 1787 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the first college for Germans in America and seemed initially to enjoy the support of the most powerful currents in late eighteenth-century American society: religion and politics. However, within three years, the religious and political divisions and loyalties among the various constituencies associated with the institution affected its success, and the fledgling institution failed. The founders of Franklin College were leading clergymen in the Lutheran and German Reformed churches in America. The trustees were among the most prominent politicians, businessmen, and professionals in America and included four signers of the Declaration of Independence, two future governors of Pennsylvania, and two future United States senators. Relying on primary source materials, the thesis is an analytic history, using a single case study approach that focuses on relevant religious, political, and ethnic issues. In the eighteenth century, Lancaster County was the center of the German population in Pennsylvania—a population that held fast to a strong ethnic identity shaped by religion and language. Lutheran, German Reformed, Mennonite, German Baptist, Moravian, and Seventh Day Baptist, the Pennsylvania Germans held varying and, in some cases, contradictory views of education. The men who signed the petition to the Pennsylvania Assembly for the establishment of the college and the trustees of the institution had diverse religious and political affiliations and had personal agendas, grounded either in their religious convictions or political pragmatism, which were inimical to the success of the new institution. The clerics' vision and the politicians' aim for the provision of higher education to the Pennsylvania Germans were different. If the clerics and politicians hoped that religion would serve as the cement that held Franklin College together, they were wrong. The failure of Franklin College was rooted in the founding alliance, the religious and political issues associated with the alliance, and the attitudes of many Pennsylvania Germans regarding education, especially higher education. Franklin College was the first college founded in America affiliated with more than one religious denomination—an attempt at ecumenism before the movement toward ecumenism became part of the fabric of the American experience.

Silicon nanowire field effect devices

Ho, Tsung-ta The Pennsylvania State University 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

First and foremost, I offer my sincerest gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Professor Theresa Mayer, for her invaluable advices and devotion during my years at the Pennsylvania State University. I thank her for recognizing me as a potential doctoral candidate when I applied for PhD program in the summer of 2003 as well as her continuous support in providing research assistantship. I specially appreciate Professor Mayer's efforts in making herself accessible to each of her students while managing her many other responsibilities. Her ingenuity and work ethics has set a great example for her fellow students concerning scientific research and inspired us for many years on. My doctoral work would not be possible without her support. I am also indebted to my dissertation committee members, Professor Joan Redwing, Professor Jerzy Ruzyllo and Professor Suzanne Mohney for their support in my research work. I thank them for their guidance and providing insightful advices from their expertise which made my work possible to bridge across difference disciplines. During the 5 years at Penn State, I had the honor and pleasure to work with some of the brightest and kindest people that I have ever met. I want to thank the following persons for their support in my doctoral work and continuous encouragement that helped me to get through the lows of the 5 years and make the high notes worth celebrating. These special people are: Dr. Yanfeng Wang, Dr. Bangzhi Liu, Dr. Kok-Keong Lew, Dr. Sarah Eichfeld, Dr. Pramod Nimmatoori, Dr. Mingwei Li, Dr. Chad Eichfeld, Dr. Marco Cabassi, Dr. Alexey Kovalev, Dr. Yan Tang, Dr. Changjun Huang, Dr. Heayoung Yoon, Dr. Jaekyun Kim, Jim Mattzela, Wenchong Hu, Aaron Vallett, Meng-wei Kuo, Seokho Yun and Nick Dellas. I would also like to thank the National Science Foundation and Semiconductor Research Corporation for providing research foundings and career placement opportunities. Also, I want to thank the Penn State University MRI-Nanofab, MRI-MCL and EE-Microfab for providing first-class research facilities, trainings and supports that are required in my doctoral work. Last but not least, I thank my family in Taiwan for their patience, encouragement and support all these years. Their love is felt from the other side of the Earth here in the United States without time zone difference. I specially want to thank my better half, Alice Chen, for her devotion to my life since we met at Penn State. I could not have been happier or achieved what I have today without her support.

United atoms to superatoms and the isoelectronic principle

Peppernick, Samuel John The Pennsylvania State University 2009 해외박사(DDOD)

The work described in this thesis pertains to the photoelectron spectroscopy of negatively charged atomic ions and their superatomic counterparts. The molecular ions studied in this work, TiO-, ZrO -, and WC- can be interpreted as superatomic manifestations of the respective isoelectronic elements appearing on the periodic table. The superposition principle, in the context of the unified atom picture from molecular orbital theory, allows for the assignment of molecular electronic transitions to be referenced to the atomic frame. This approach represents a novel method of determining the electronic state origins of transitions appearing in the photoelectron spectra of molecular anions by directly comparing the known spectroscopy for the isoelectronic element. In Chapter 3, a remarkable correspondence is presented between the separate PADs produced independently by TiO- and Ni- , suggesting the bound ionic state of the diatomic is mimicking that present in the negative atomic ion. Application of the beta-wave approach provides supporting evidence that the dominant photodetachment channel in TiO- arises from electron emission of the highest ocuupied 9sigma molecular orbital. This provides an immediate assignment of the ground electronic state of TiO- as the doublet 2Delta 3/2 configuration. Similarly, the ground electronic state of Ni - is 2D5/2 with 4s orbital ejection describing the ground state electron affinity transition. Obtained in Chapter 4 is an improved measurement of the electron affinity of ZrO-, determined to be 1.29(1) eV. This energy arises from the assigned anion to neutral ground state, 1Sigma + ← 2Sigma-, electronic transition. Further indentified are features assigned to the 2Delta 3/2 and 2Delta5/2 electronically excited states of the anion, with the 2Delta3/2 spin orbit component measured to lie ∼ 0.10 eV above the 2Sigma - ground state. The first measurement of the photoelectron binding energy spectrum of Pt-, at a fixed frequency photon energy of 2.33 eV is presented in Chapter 5. Intense signatures in the PAD were observed from the electron affinity transition, 3D3 ← 2D5/2. Other observed electronic transitions accessed the closely coupled first and second excited states, 1D2 and 3F4, of neutral Pt. Several weak intensity features were assigned to excitations stemming from the electronically excited states, 2D3/2 and 2S1/2, of metastable Pt- ions. Chapter 5 also presents the photoelectron image of the isoelectronic diatomic molecule, WC-, acquired at a photon energy of 2.33 eV (532 nm). Several electronic transitions originating from the 2Delta3/2 electronic ground state were observed, and the evaluated electron affinity, defined by the transition 2Delta 1 ← 2Delta3/2, was found to be in good agreement with a previous measurement. However, new assignments were made for transitions stemming from the fine structure 2Delta 5/2 component and higher energy 4Sigma- metastable electronic state of the anion. These spectroscopic designations were found to mirror those in the isoelectronic element, Pt- both in energetic term level ordering and total angular momentum symmetry of the occupied molecular orbitals. Discussed in Chapter 6 are the photoelectron imaging experiments conducted on small silicon cluster anions, Sin- (n = 2--7), acquired at a photon energy of 3.49 eV (355 nm). Electronic transitions arising from the anion ground states are assigned, and the evaluated vertical detachment energies are observed to agree well with previous measurements. The anisotropy beta parameters have also been determined for each unique feature appearing in the PADs at the photon energy employed. Presented in Chapter 7 are the results of a high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometric study on large silicon hydride cluster anions, Si nHx- (where n = 8--12, 0 ≤ x ≤ 25). The relative abundances of the majority isotopes constituting a precise mass were completely analyzed allowing quantitative assessments of the relative stability for a particular SinHx - cluster to be ascertained. The SinH x- clusters are observed to possess varying stabilities depending on the extent of hydrogenation and the number of silicon atoms constituting the cluster. These trends, and several others, are interpreted with the aid of available theoretical density functional calculations, suggesting geometrical distortions create energetic stabilizations by removing the degeneracy associated with partially filled electronic states. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Dynamic public opinion and policy responsiveness in the American states

Pacheco, Julianna The Pennsylvania State University 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

When public opinion changes, how closely do policies follow? Central to democratic theory, the principle of popular sovereignty implies some degree of dynamic policy responsiveness: new policies should be enacted when mass opinion becomes supportive of that new policy. But, for a successful democracy, public opinion must also be attentive to what government does; citizens have to react to policy changes otherwise there is little incentive for elected officials to respond to public opinion. While dynamic models of policy responsiveness have been tested at the national level, much less is known about the American states. This is an important shortcoming, particularly in light of evidence that state public opinion is directly responsible for policy differences across the fifty states. Moreover, because states differ in their institutional and political contexts, testing models of dynamic responsiveness at the state level provides many opportunities to specify the conditions when policy responsiveness is higher or lower. I advance our knowledge about dynamic policy responsiveness at the sub-national level by measuring the longitudinal variation in state public opinion on different policy areas and linking these measures to various policy outputs at the state level. Specifically, I show that multilevel regression coupled with imputation and post-stratification can be used to measure public opinion over time when augmented by a small (e.g., three year) moving average. I use this approach to estimate yearly state public opinion on global attitudes (e.g., party identification and ideology) as well as specific attitudes (e.g., the death penalty, abortion, education spending, welfare spending, and smoking bans). I then use these measures to explore the dynamic properties of state public opinion and to test models of policy responsiveness at the sub-national level. In regard to the former, I find that the dynamic pattern of public opinion varies across issues. For instance, preferences towards the death penalty, welfare spending, and anti-smoking legislation are dynamic with heterogeneous trends, preferences towards education spending are dynamic with homogeneous trends, and abortion attitudes are fairly stable. Through various time series analyses, I find that state opinion plays a critical role in policy changes at the sub-national level for three issue areas: education, welfare, and anti-smoking legislation. Moreover, I provide additional evidence that the impact of public opinion on policy is causal. To give just one example, I estimate that if support for education spending increases by three percentage points, spending per classroom increases by over $500 immediately (assuming 25 students per classroom). State opinion also plays a large role in whether a state adopts a new policy, such as a smoking ban in restaurants. I also find that the causal relationship between public opinion and policy is a two-way street, although how opinion responds to policy changes depends on the issue. For education and welfare, policy changes exhibited a negative relationship on public opinion, albeit, only in the long term. On the other hand, attitudes towards anti-smoking legislation become more supportive as states enact additional restrictions. These analyses suggest that state opinion responds in rational and reasonable ways to policy changes. The broader impacts of the study are embodied in the original dataset that is publicly available, along with the details of the methodology used to generate and validate dynamic measures of state public opinion. The methods of estimation can be extended to measure other preferences at the state level over time, as well as other attitudes such as tolerance, trust, efficacy or confidence which may also exhibit over time change across states.

Reproducing the gendered and racialized body of the nation-state: Changing discourses of Estonian national identity in the homeland and diaspora

Tammeveski, Peeter The Pennsylvania State University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation inquires into how and why nation-states as interactive collectives attempt to control women's bodies by regulating their fertility. My theoretical framework draws on feminist, critical race, and organismic theories of the state, and on Foucault's concept of biopower. I question the disembodied conception of the nation-state and maintain that nation-states seek to regulate women's bodies and fertility, because states are imagined to have some characteristics of biological organisms and because they have racial and patriarchal interests. In the name of protecting their organismic integrity, patriarchal states sanction gendered and racialized hierarchies of exclusion and privilege, which affect women in fundamental ways. The empirical part of the dissertation employs ethnographic and historical methods in conjunction with discourse analysis. I analyze how the state-mediated fertility discourse of 'increase and multiply' changed throughout the life-course of a group of Estonian women, and how ideas about the racial origin of Estonians contributed to these changes. I also examine how women promoted, negotiated, and resisted the discourse which sought to transform Estonian women's bodies into public territory, charged with the task to 'naturally' reproduce and strengthen the ethnoracial state. The interview participants were born in the 1910's and 1920's and reached young adulthood in interwar Estonian Republic (1918--1940). They fled from the Soviet occupation of Estonia and spent a few years in refugee camps in Germany. Around 1950, they resettled in the United States, spending the rest of their lives in America (1950--2003). The main finding of the empirical section is that the increase and multiply discourse was used in interwar Republic (1918--1940) and after 1991 (the post-Soviet independence period); however, it was not used in the exile/Soviet occupation period (1945--1991). This pattern can best be explained in reference to Foucault's thesis that nation-states have forged a special relationship between the individual's body, reproduction, population size, and biopower. In other words, the nation-state has become one of the few contexts in the West within which the otherwise private issue of family size can be discussed publicly. Because Estonians did not have their own nation-state between 1945--1991, the exiles did not engage in a public discourse about the national and political significance of having more children.

Photoelectron spectroscopic investigations of transition metal silicides and oxides

Gunaratne, K. Don Dasitha The Pennsylvania State University 2012 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation presents the experimental progress in the use of photoelectron imaging spectroscopy to probe the electronic structure of negatively charged transition metal silicides and oxides. By measuring the electronic transitions that occur due to the use of an appropriate photon energy, the electron affinity of the neutral species can be measured and the ground and excited electronic states of the anion and neutral can be deduced. The introductory chapter explains the basics of photoelectron spectroscopy and how it is coupled with recently developed imaging techniques to simultaneously obtain energy and angular distribution of the photodetached electrons. The beta parameter, which is instrumental in quantifying the angular distribution, is discussed in detail. The motivation for pursuing the transition metal silicide and oxide studies and their increasing importance in technology is also emphasized. Photoelectron imaging spectroscopy employed in our laboratory involves custom-built ultra high-vacuum instrumentation which couples a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer with an electron imaging apparatus. Chapter 2 discloses the details of the experimental setup required to conduct these studies; from the laser ablation techniques that form the species of interest, to the mass selection of the negatively charged clusters and the subsequent photodetachment of electrons from the highest occupied molecular orbitals of the anion. The modifications made to the safety features of the instrument, in addition to the improvements to the high-vacuum configuration, are described in detail. The first known photoelectron spectroscopic investigation of the ZrSi - diatomic species has been conducted as part of this dissertation. Chapter 3 discusses the results of the 532 nm and 355 nm wavelength experiments on ZrSi-. Conflicts between the two previous theoretical studies which proposed the ground state of the neutral has been noted while new electronic state assignments have been assigned based on experimental evidence. This study supports the 2Sigma+: (1&sgr;) 2 (1pi)4 (1delta)0 (2&sgr;) 2 (3&sgr;)1 anion ground electronic state (and valence orbital electron configuration) which is in agreement with theoretical results. The assigned ground state of the neutral, however, differs from that based on current theoretical results. The ground state of ZrSi was assigned as the 3Sigma+: (1&sgr;)2 (1pi) 4 (1delta)0 (2&sgr;)1 (3&sgr;) 1 based on the angular distribution and the relative intensities of the photoelectron signal. A low-lying excited state of the neutral was assigned as 3pii with valence orbital configuration, (1&sgr;) 2 (1pi)3 (1delta)0 (2&sgr;) 2 (3&sgr;)1. The electron affinity of ZrSi is measured as 1.584 eV, while a low-lying excited state of the neutral is identified 0.238 eV above the ZrSi neutral ground state. Additionally, Franck-Condon simulations were performed to compare with the experimental photoelectron spectrum and estimate the vibrational temperature of the anions created in our cluster source. Extending the transition metal silicide studies to other metals, Chapter 4 presents results of NbSi, MoSi, PdSi and WSi diatomic anions which were photodetached by photons with a wavelength of 532 nm. Similar to ZrSi, two major transitions originating from the anion were observed and the transition energies are reported. A significant finding of this study is the change of photoelectron angular distribution among the 4d-row transition metal-silicon diatomics. The main feature (X) changes from having an anisotropic distribution for ZrSi- and NbSi- to an isotropic distribution for MoSi- and PdSi-. The basis of this observed change is explored further and connections are made to the increasing stability of the transition metal d-orbitals when moving from Zr to Pd. Correlated with the metal d-orbital stability is the increased donation of silicon 3p-electrons to the highest occupied molecular orbitals of the diatomic. The atomic electron negativity values also support these conclusions. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first use of anion photoelectron imaging spectroscopy to examine the evolution of bonding trends in transition metal silicides. Investigations regarding transition metal oxides are presented from Chapter 5 onward. The photoelectron spectroscopic features of ZnOH- are discussed in a combined experimental and theoretical study. The vertical detachment energy of ZnOH- was measured to be 1.78 eV, while that of ZnO- is 0.3 eV higher. The curious broadening of the photoelectron spectra of ZnOH- when compared with ZnO - is investigated. The effects of the vibrational states and even rotational states on the photoelectron spectrum is considered in order to explain the experimental photoelectron signal. The vibrational spectrum could explain the broadening if the source temperature is much higher than the range we estimated in Chapter 3 (150-300 K). Also, as expected, the rotational states were not significantly effecting the broadening of the photoelectron spectrum. Due to the importance of ZnO-based material for dilute-magnetic semiconductors, ZnO-cluster formation, growth and stability has been investigated in Chapter 6. Large ZnO-based clusters have been observed with stoichiometries, Zn nOn, ZnnOn+1 and ZnnO n+2 (n=3-6). The ZnnOn+1 unit was concluded to be the relatively stable species and it has been proposed as a suitable building block for doping with magnetic atoms. The electron affinity of Zn3O 3 (1.14 eV) is lower than Zn3O4 (2.02 eV), supporting the argument that the Zn3O4 unit is more stable. Chapter 7 provides a summary of the research presented in this dissertation while sharing insights regarding possible avenues of extending this research.