Digital Commons Network^™

Middle Grade Academic Achievement And Socioeconomic Status On North Carolina State Report Cards, 2012 - 2013, Lauren Dotson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the era of accountability in our nation‘s public schools, high-stakes standardized testing is the primary methodology for determining academic achievement; results from end-of-grade standardized testing are published annually in state and national report cards that are used as an instrument for determining school and teacher quality. What standardized tests do not take into consideration, however, are external environmental factors that have an impact on academic achievement; this research project focuses upon the effects of socioeconomic status on academic achievement on the middle grade student in North Carolina in 2012 and 2013. These years were chosen to comparatively analyze student …

Leaders' Accounts: A Study Of Transnational Ngos Leadership Views On Accountability, Paloma Raggo

Dissertations - ALL

The increased involvement of non-state actors such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in The increased involvement of non-state actors such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in shaping various national and global policy processes raises serious questions about the accountability, authority, and legitimacy of these important yet unelected actors. Although there is no consensus on how to define accountability, broadly the concept refers to the idea that some hold others responsible for their actions according to a set of standards defining proper behavior. However, deciding to whom and to what standards NGOs are accountable and how they are (or should be) held accountable …

Perceptions Of Practitioners In A Voluntary Prekindergarten On Probation, Susan Evelyn Weber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the perspectives and beliefs that practitioners have about prekindergarten in a Voluntary Prekindergarten program unable to meet minimal accountability requirements. The exploratory questions included: What are the beliefs and perceptions about effective and appropriate early childhood education among practitioners in a Voluntary Prekindergarten program on probation? And in what ways does probation influence practitioners' perceptions and beliefs about early childhood education? I used participants from a school where I conducted a pilot study. My data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews, resumes, my research reflective journal, and the centers program improvement …

Distinguishing Assessment From Accountability: Honoring Student Learning And Values In Assessment, Erin Elizabeth Pearce Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Accountability is documented as one of the two major forces for engaging in assessment (Ewell, 2002, 2009; Keeling, 2006; Keeling et al., 2008; Love & Estanek, 2004; Terenzini, 1989). Due in part to neoliberalism's influence on education assessment rhetoric and discourse, accountability dominates how assessment is understood and practiced. The dominance of the accountability rhetoric effects how student affairs educators perceive and value assessment. The purpose of this study is to explore why assessment is not a pervasive or consistent practice within student affairs. Through an interpretivist case study examination of Manresa University's division of student affairs, participant observation, document …

High School Teachers' Perceptions Of Data Driven Decision Making Within A Response To Intervention Framework, Benikia Kressler

Open Access Dissertations

A general education initiative supported by IDEA (2004), Response to Intervention (RtI) holds promise for improving the academic achievement of at-risk students through evidence-based instruction and data driven decision making (DDDM). However, most of the research on RtI has been conducted within elementary settings. Thus, this study examined high school teachers’ perceptions of DDDM for improving academic performance of at-risk high school youth within an RtI framework. Using qualitative methods consisting of interviews and field observations of six high school teachers implementing RtI in two Title 1 high schools, constant comparison methods of data were conducted. From this data, three …

An Historical Perspective To Examine How Federal Policy Influenced The Definition And Evaluation Of Teacher Effectiveness Since 1950, Janine M. Mathesz

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Increased public demand to hold teachers accountable for student learning and to remove ineffective teachers has challenged state department of education officials to develop teacher evaluation systems that include student assessment data. Many educational researchers theorize teacher effectiveness is the variable under the control of the school with the most influence on student success.

This study examines the influence of federal government education policies on state teacher evaluation systems and how this influence has shaped the definition and evaluation of an effective teacher over the past 62 years. Teacher evaluations, when used as a proper tool, assist administrators in providing …

Authority Migration And Accountability In Canadian Type Ii Multilevel Governance, Robert W. Waterman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In advanced industrial democracies, including Canada, elections act as important mechanisms of democratic accountability. However, the migration of public decision-making responsibility away from elected representatives and toward new governance models may alter accountability relationships. As authority is dispersed horizontally to new governance actors that exist beyond the reach of the ballot box, questions of public input and accountability within the democratic governance process arise.

The objectives of the dissertation are: 1) to evaluate the extent to which Canadian provinces have opted to migrate decision-making authority horizontally in response to policy issues and why; and 2) to evaluate the existence and …

The Influence Of No Child Left Behind (2001) On The Leadership Of Elementary School Principals In Massachusetts: Highlighted Responses From Asian American Principals, Wesley P. S. Manaday

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the influence of the No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB), one of the most influential educational reform acts in the U.S. and the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) upon the role of principals in elementary schools throughout Massachusetts. The thesis covered the leadership practices pre- and post- NCLB Federal Law of 2001, the leadership roles of principals, their decision making, and the types of practices they developed as a consequence of NCLB. In addition, principal's backgrounds and cultural influences on their leadership were specifically highlighted in the role of mainstream and non-mainstream principals of ethnic groups …

The Impact Of Georgia's Accountability System On School Performance And Subgroup Populations, Ashley Custard

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation examines the impact of Georgia’s accountability system on both school and student performance. We focus on two components within Georgia’s accountability system – the sanctioning of failing schools and binding subgroup requirements. Schools within Georgia become subject to sanctions upon two consecutive years of failing to show Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The subgroup binding requirements, introduced by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, hold schools independently responsible for the performance of given subgroups contingent upon enrollment.

The first question of this dissertation examines the factors that influence a school’s ability to meet assessment standards. We examine the …

The Treatment Of Missing Data When Estimating Student Growth With Pre-Post Educational Accountability Data, Jason P. Kopp

Dissertations, 2014-2019

To ensure program quality and meet accountability mandates, it is becoming increasingly important for educational institutions to show “value-added” for attending students. Value-added is often evidenced by some form of pre-post assessment, where a change in scores on a construct of interest is considered indicative of student growth. Although missing data is a common problem for these pre-post designs, missingness is rarely addressed and cases with missing data are often listwise deleted. The current study examined the mechanism underlying, and bias resulting from, missingness due to posttest nonattendance in a higher-education accountability testing context. Although data were missing for some …

Tennessee Teachers' Support For The Curriculum Component Of State Accountability Policies, Shannon Lee Strahan

Doctoral Dissertations

The existing research on accountability policies rarely examines individual components of an accountability policy (i.e., curriculum, assessments, use of assessment results, and stakes). This mixed-methods study investigated the curriculum component of Tennessee’s accountability policies from the perspective of middle-grades, TCAP-tested subjects teacher participants from three East Tennessee districts. The Accountability Policies Supports and Stressors Questionnaire (Berryhill, Linney, & Fromewick, 2009) measured the support for the curriculum component of the state’s accountability policies. Further, interviews with sixth grade science and eighth grade social studies teachers examined how the curriculum component of the policies influenced teachers’ self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977), one of three …

Achievement Of Elementary School Students And Attendance In Preschool Programs In Johnson County, Tennessee, Emogene C. South Mrs.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference in achievement scores exist between students who attended the Johnson County School System preschool program and those who did not as measured by standardized TCAP achievement test Reading/Language Arts and Math scores of students in the third and fourth grades. The variables of grade level and preschool attendance were considered. The population consisted of students who were in the third or fourth grades in the Johnson County School System during the 2010-2011 school year through the 2012-2013 school year. Data gathered were from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program achievement …

Investigating The Professional Values Of Teachers: The Differential Impact Of Accountability On Teachers' Career Decisions, Cortney Rowland King

Dissertations

Education reform and policy efforts have focused a great deal on teachers over the past decade or more. Reform efforts focused on accountability have altered how teachers are paid, how they spend their time, how they are evaluated, what they are accountable for, and what sort of control they have over their daily tasks. At the same time, teacher attrition continues to rise. This study employed principal component analysis (PCA) on a subset of questions from the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and 2008-2009 Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) data. I examined the extent …

Systemic Incongruity: Bringing Down The Risks Of Conformity And Deviation Biases, Shefali V. Patil

Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations

Employees often have to decide whether to conform to or deviate from the status quo. Exhibiting consistent preferences for either preserving or maintaining the status quo (i.e., conformity biases) or for challenging or rejecting the status quo (i.e., deviation biases) can be costly. Conformity biases prevent employees from adapting to changing task demands and deviation biases hamper the predictability and reliability of decisions. It is therefore important for scholars and practitioners to understand how to engineer work environments that, to the degree possible, enable employees to bring down both types of risks. However, our understanding of this issue is limited …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Oil Spill Disclosure: A Case Of Royal Dutch Shell In Nigeria, Sanja Pupovac

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Purpose: This thesis examines environmental narrative disclosures of Royal Dutch Shell plc (hereafter Shell) of oil spills in Nigeria to explore accountability for social and environmental disasters in a developing-country context. Shell has been under intense public scrutiny over its oil operations in the Niger Delta, especially following the activities of anti-oil activists in the late 1990s. This thesis highlights the discursive construction of oil spills and explores issues of responsibility where multinational corporations exist alongside extreme poverty.

Design/Methodology/Approach: In order to interrogate the discourse and explore power relations in the production of public documents, this thesis adopts a critical …

A Comparison Of Eighth-Grade Mathematics Scores By State And By The Four Census-Defined Regions Of National Assessment Of Educational Progress (Naep), Laurel Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the information regarding the comparative relationship between the proficient mathematics scores of eighth-grade students on the 2009 state mathematics assessments and the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment by state, census-defined regions and AYP subgroups. Analysis was completed and six research questions were used to guide the study. A multiple regression was used to assess the relationship between the percentage of eighth-grade students who were proficient in mathematics as assessed by the 2009 NAEP and those who were proficient in mathematics as assessed by their 2009 state assessment. A …

Intelligible Accounting For The Future: A Critical Study Of Worth And (Dis)Placement, Stephanie Perkiss

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

This thesis is inspired by the promise and the ambiguity that surrounds terms like ‘sustainability’ as indicators for the well-being of future generations in a globalised world. The concept, as well as the realities of place – of how and where humans live, is the focus of the study. Place is complex, and the processes that give rise to the often horrible realities of displacement are even more complex. This thesis examines the multifaceted concept of displacement in three historical cases and one imagined, but unfolding case – the portending displacement of Pacific Islanders in the 21st century. The three …

Examining The Costs Of Providing An Adequate Education For Michigan's K-12 Public School Students, Sean Haskin Wightman

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

EXAMINING THE COSTS OF PROVIDING AN ADEQUATE EDUCATION

FOR MICHIGAN'S K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS

by

SEAN WIGHTMAN

February 2014

Advisor: Dr. Michael F. Addonizio

Major: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Because the Federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which requires students to perform at predefined proficiency levels on state standardized testing instruments, adequate school funding has become arguably the single most important factor influencing the success of children in schools. Because State legislators are the one's primarily responsible for establishing annual budgets for K-12 public education, it is essential they are made aware …

Impact Of Career And Technical Education On College And Career Readiness In Kentucky, Linda Smith Floyd

Online Theses and Dissertations

The study examined the college and career readiness (CCR) results of a persistently low achieving (PLA) high school located in rural Kentucky. The study included a quantitative analysis examining the statistical role of career and technical education (CTE) in the Kentucky accountability system for high schools. The study assessed student results on academic and technical assessments required by the state's accountability model for CCR as reported for the 2012 and 2013 school years. Frequencies and independent sample t-tests were utilized.

The absence of significant statistical differences between preparatory students, those completing two credits and enrolled in the third credit in …

Elementary Teachers' Achievement Goal Orientations In A High-Stakes Accountability Context: A Validation Study, Amanda Turner

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated teacher motivation in a high-stakes accountability context. Specifically, this study examines elementary teachers' achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy for teaching, and perceptions of help-seeking in the context of high-stakes testing and school accountability under No Child Left Behind and an Elementary and Secondary Education Act waiver. Butler's (2007) teacher achievement goal orientation framework provided the theoretical basis of the present study; high-stakes tests and school accountability status were thought to impact teachers’ achievement goal orientations. Additionally, teachers' achievement goal orientations were thought to impact teaching self-efficacy and perceptions of help-seeking. The sample included 381 elementary school teachers. …