Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Student Athletes’ Perception Of Sexual Harassment, Lynn Hunt Long, Regina Rahimi, Delores D. Liston

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, & Reading Faculty Publications

Purpose: This qualitative study examined the perceptions of student athletes regarding sexual harassment and other forms of gendered harassment (homophobic bullying) as well as knowledge of and/or experiences with harassment in high school and university settings, primarily in athletic school culture.

Methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-seven former high school athletes/active university athletes. The data were analyzed regarding theme and their relationship to the reviewed literature.

Findings: Findings indicate that the athletic culture poses particular issues pertaining to the vulnerabilities and persistence of sexual bullying and harassment.

Discussion: Educators, coaches, and administrators must understand harassment, work to establish and …

Understanding Student Evaluations : A Black Faculty Perspective., Armon R. Perry, Sherri L. Wallace, Sharon E. Moore, Gwendolyn D. Perry-Burney

Faculty Scholarship

Student evaluations of faculty teaching are critical components to the evaluation of faculty performance. These evaluations are used to determine teaching effectiveness and they influence tenure and promotion decisions. Although they are designed as objective assessments of teaching performance, extraneous factors, including the instructors’ race, can affect the composition and educational atmosphere at colleges and universities. In this reflection, we briefly review some literature on the use and utility of student evaluations and present narratives from social work faculty in which students’ evaluation contained perceived racial bias.

The Perceptions Of Elementary Stem Schools In Missouri, Kelli Michelle Alumbaugh

Dissertations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, or STEM, is an area that is currently growing in popularity with educators (Becker & Park, 2011). A qualitative study consisting of interviews was conducted and data were gathered from three leaders in professional STEM organizations, four principals from elementary STEM schools, and six teachers from elementary STEM schools to gain their perceptions of elementary STEM schools in Missouri. The perceptions of leaders in professional STEM organizations regarding STEM education were consistently all positive, and each leader was a proponent of STEM education at the elementary level. The perceptions of principals and teachers were …

Exploring An Accelerated College Program For Adult Learners: A Program Evaluation, Charlene Engleking

Dissertations

Many colleges and universities have expanded their mission to include adult learners. Programs range from scheduling traditional courses in the evening to designing new programs tailored to meet the needs of working adults. Program designers have relied on theorists such, as Mezirow (1991), Houle (1996), and Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (1998), to develop programs that apply adult learning theory. Lindenwood College, now Lindenwood University, established The Lindenwood College for Individualized Education (LCIE) in 1975 to serve adult students in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The program has evolved over the course of 40 years, and this program evaluation evaluated the …

Financing Education: An Overview Of Public School Funding, Charles J. Russo, William E. Thro, Frank M. Batz

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Financial resources for public education are increasingly scarce, and district leaders at all levels continue to struggle to maintain adequate levels of financial resources for their students and programs using complex funding formulas unique to their own jurisdictions. To help educators and education stakeholders better understand the dimensions of paying for public education, we begin with an overview of the historical development of school finance litigation that has shaped the funding mechanisms in most jurisdictions. The next section highlights developments in four representative jurisdictions from the funding formulas currently available in ASBO International’s Funding Formula Library. The library, available on …

Reporting And Protecting Students From Child Abuse, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A tragic reality of American life is that a significant number of children are abused and neglected, even killed, by the hands of their parents and caregivers. In fact, 2013 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that 678,932 incidents of child abuse and neglect were reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) nationally, with about 27% of those cases involving youngsters under the age of three (CDC 2015).

Moreover, the CDC noted that the CPS data suggest that their reports may underestimate the occurrences of child abuse and neglect. That same report estimates that about 1,520 children …

Qualitative Phenomenological Study Exploring Instructional Practices That Contribute To Academic Success For Public Elementary School English Language Learners, Mechelle Champion

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore effective instructional strategies of mainstream classroom teachers working with English Language Learners (ELLs). Many teachers feel unprepared to adequately educate English Language Learners. School systems have attempted to rectify this situation by providing teachers with professional development that provides instructional strategies which may or may not be effective. This study answered the questions: What teaching strategies do teachers and administrators perceive to have the most positive impact on learning for ELLs?; How does the culture of the classroom and school impact ELLs’ academic success?; and What are building level administrators’ …

A Study Of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support And Behavior Intervention Support Teams And Their Impact On Student Behavior In Six Missouri Middle Schools, Cody Guy Hirschi

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) and Behavior Intervention Support Teams (BIST) and their impact on managing student behavior in sample schools in Missouri by using methodological triangulation. Office disciplinary referrals (ODRs) and Safe School Act Violations during the 2012- 2014 school years in the SW-PBS, BIST, and No Model (control group) sample schools were analyzed to determine if there was a significant difference in the numbers of ODRs and Safe School Violations. Teachers from the sample schools were given the opportunity to participate in a survey to gather their perspectives about the …

A Study Of The Perceptions Of First-Year Teachers As Prepared Classroom Teachers, Vida Jane Ward

Dissertations

The quality of teacher education allows first-year teachers to meet mandates at federal and state levels (Darling-Hammond, 2010a). The teaching profession is complex and requires new and innovative quality preparation programs (Wei, Andree, & Darling- Hammond, 2009). This study involved examination of the perceptions of 17 building principals and 16 first-year teachers to determine the effectiveness of teacher preparation. First-year teachers identified essential elements of teacher preparation and weaknesses of programs. The study addressed building principals’ perceptions of differences, if any, in the effectiveness of first-year teachers graduating from traditional teacher preparation programs and first-year teachers who choose alternative routes …

Grit And Student Performance: A Mixed-Method Analysis Of A Non-Traditional Technical High School And A Traditional High School, Ronda L. Wallace

Dissertations

Grit, defined as the tendency to pursue long-term goals with sustained zeal and hard work, was shown to predict achievement in academic, vocational, and avocational domains. In 2009, Duckworth and Quinn found that grit predicted student effectiveness in school and the concept of grit was largely unrelated to talent. Grit provided incremental predictive validity for achievement outcomes, particularly in settings of high challenge. From the combination of persistence, self-control, and more broadly, conscientiousness, emerges the concept of grit. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative grittiness of students from two different high school settings. The first of …

Two Case Studies Of The Contribution Of Emotional Intelligence, Communication Style, Job Competency, Vision, And Ethics To Constituent Buy-In For Leaders, David M. Schall

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the similarities and dissimilarities of leadership traits that create leader buy-in for an educational leader and a football coach; specifically, emotional intelligence, communication style, job competency, vision, and ethics, between an educational leader and a sports coach. The rationale of this study was to create recent literature that provided insight for leaders in multiple areas on how to transfer leadership skills to establish common goals and missions within their organizations. Data was collected using a survey completed by 154 volunteer participants, along with interviews of 12 volunteer participants. A focus group of …

Failing Ninth-Grade Students In A Missouri School District, And The Comparison To Inadequate Learning Resources, Eric Wayne Ramsey

Dissertations

This study involved a mixed design to generate the perceptions of students and teachers about failing ninth-grade students and the impact of learning resources. The participants in this study were a purposive selection of ninth-grade students and ninth-grade teachers in one Missouri school district. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the premise that ninth-grade students who failed multiple classes also lacked learning resources. The learning resources were categorized into cultural and physical resources. To determine if learning resources had an impact on the ninth-grade students’ academic performance, the perceptions of the failing ninth-grade students were analyzed through …

A Comparison Of Single Gender And Coeducational Classrooms, Student Engagement, And Achievement Scores, Myra Pendleton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the academic achievement in reading among students enrolled in single-gender and coeducational classes, as well as the impact of teachers’ perceptions on the outcome of academic achievement. The study used a mixed-method approach to address this purpose. This study reported quantitative findings from reading scores on the Acuity test for 396 students in grades two through eight, from four elementary and two middle schools within an urban district in Missouri. Acuity scores were examined in several ways: comparison of the means for coeducational and single-gendered classrooms …

Student Involvement In Extracurricular Activities And Post-Secondary Education Placement, Courtney J. Martin

Dissertations

Extracurricular activities have been an important part of adolescents’ lives for generations (Kremer-Sadlik, Izquierdo, & Fatigante, 2010). Extracurricular activities take place outside of the classroom and result in several benefits to students (National Federation of State High School Associations [NFHS], 2010). With the recent recession in the United States, many school districts are having to find ways to cut budgets and are looking at eliminating extracurricular activities to save money (Lamb, 2011). Data from graduating seniors were reviewed in the largest accredited public school district in a Midwestern state. Graduates are required to take a post-follow up survey upon graduating …

Academic Interventions And Academic Achievement In The Middle School Grades, Toby G. Kite

Dissertations

After the passing of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004, many schools began to use a Response to Intervention (RtI) model instead of the discrepancy model when identifying students with specific learning disabilities (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). When elementary schools adopted the RtI model, it was shown to be successful with any students who need academic interventions (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). The success at the elementary level has led to middle schools adopting the model with varying success (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). In this study, middle schools that have developed …

Academic Practices To Gain And Maintain Student-Teacher Connectedness And Classroom Behavioral Management, Related To Educator Demographics, Leslie Threadgill Kendall

Dissertations

Connectedness and classroom management has been defined as the ability to relate to students and keep order and maintain successful relationships with individuals. This qualitative study utilized surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and observations to examine the best practices implemented by educators to develop and maintain connections with students based upon the age, gender, ethnicity, and experience of a studied educator. The research investigated how classroom management positively and/or negatively affected the educator, students, and classroom environment, with respect to connectedness, as evidenced by behaviors such as off-task, aggressive, and non-academically productive behaviors. The research also examined how a teacher’s intonation and …

Implementation Of Positive Behavior Intervention And Support At The High School Level, Bernadette D. White

Dissertations

With schools having an ever-increasing interest in reducing acts of violence and reducing the incidence of out-of-school suspension, new interventions are constantly being sought. How the program is implemented can play a significant role in program effectiveness. Durlak (1998) found that many evaluation methods did not consider the implementation process because they were done after the implementation of the program. Whether an evidence-based intervention would have a positive effect depended on closely following the details of the implementation process (Durlak, 1998). This study was motivated by four research questions: (a) Was the process used to implement Positive Behavior Intervention and …

Evaluation Of The Counseling, College And Career Specialist, And Social Work Programs In A Midwest School District, Shona O. Ambers-Phillips

Dissertations

In education, much emphasis is placed on academic achievement without fully understanding the role counseling programs can have to ensure all students are learning at high levels and are college and career ready. The staff of Midwest School District believes that guidance and counseling is an integral part of each school’s total education program. As a commitment to this belief, the district developed a program evaluation plan to both consistently and effectively evaluate district programs. An essential component of a school counseling program’s accountability is to provide evidence that what school counselors do makes a measurable difference in the lives …

The Study Of Effective Tier Ii Reading Interventions For Primary Grade Students, Sheila Cox-Hines

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine effective reading interventions for primary grade students, utilizing the Response to Intervention (RtI) model. The purpose of RtI is to enhance the quality of education for children, if appropriate levels of academic instruction are present (Hanover Research, 2015). The research questions were posed to garner perspectives of the Intervention Team (IT) leaders as to Tier II interventions that aided students who indicated difficulty with reading, and the duration of the intervention, prior to achieving progress toward the specified goal. Additionally, research questions were stated to determine which Tier II reading intervention yielded …

Early Literacy Acquisition With The Inclusion Of The Five Components Of Research Based Reading Instruction, Jill Wright

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the existing research on early literacy and the types of approaches used in schools at the time of this writing. Although researchers could not agree on which types of reading programs are the most effective, there was a large amount of research supporting the work done in 2000 from the National Reading Panel, emphasizing the importance of the five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The study site historically used a traditional Balanced Literacy program, and reported proficiency scores in the 30th percentile overall. This research study investigated …