Education Commons^™

A Novel Approach To Measuring Teacher Engagement With Resources: Using Social Network Analysis To Understand Teacher Satisfaction And Retention, Jennifer M. Murray

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to investigate how teacher engagement with resources at the school-site and district-level predicted teacher satisfaction and intention to stay in the profession. Teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools need support as educators in the fourth largest district in the nation. To better understand how teachers engage with resource networks, three measures of interaction were captured, (1) engagement or use of the resource; (2) frequency of interaction with the resources within the network; and (3) the quality of supportiveness of resources within the network. A survey was sent to 967 math (n=523) and …

Male Teachers' Exit Decisions: A Qualitative Interview Study Examining The Experiences Of Male Teachers Who Left Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-Dcps), Tierney E. Hunter

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative interview study utilizing phenomenological methods investigates the experiences of three male teachers who exited Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS).

The goal was to identify their rationales for resigning from M-DCPS. Using phenomenological methods, this study reduces individual experiences with the phenomenon of being a male teacher to a description of the essence of the participants’ experiences. The participants were chosen from M-DCPS because it is the fourth largest school district in the country, and it is grappling with teacher attrition just as many other large, diverse, urban districts in the nation. Three participants who shared the characteristics of …

How Ethnic Minority Single Mothers Characterize The Influences That Led Them To Leave The Teaching Profession, Janelle Bravo-San Pedro

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers are leaving the profession at high rates. Salary, support, and workload are factors that have contributed to this phenomenon. Teachers who are single mothers and are the sole providers of their households in all aspects, including financial, emotional, and physical find themselves questioning their career choice and the constant inner struggle of being an effective teacher and super mom. Little research has explored the personal lives and responsibilities of educators, particularly those of single mothers, to understand and address their needs and reasons for leaving the teaching profession. This research holds implications for policy, practice, and future scholarship on …

Retention Of Beginning/Novice Teachers Who Sign Out-Of-Field Waivers, Heather Dawn Tyler

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research investigating teacher shortage and teacher retention is well known. There is little research focusing on the retention outcomes of beginning/novice teachers who sign Out-of-Field Waivers. This nonexperimental, quantitative research study was conducted to describe the retention outcomes of beginning/novice teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the fourth largest school district in the U.S. The project focused on three academic school years/cohorts (1,037 beginning/novice teachers). Of the 1,037 new teachers, 128 of them signed Out-of-Field Waivers. The results indicated that signing an Out-of-Field Waiver was not associated with leaving the school district, and beginning/novice teachers hired in schools with …

The Relationship Between Gifted Selection Criteria And Student Performance On Fifth-Grade Science Achievement, Teresa Vega Cereijo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education policymakers have struggled for decades to provide equal opportunities for all students. Persistent disparities exist between subgroups of students, based on factors such as race, disability, ethnicity, and socio-economic status (SES), which leads to over-representation of minority students in special education and their under-representation in gifted education. Efforts to ensure equity in school districts in identification and support of minority and low SES students have been lagging. Failing to reach students’ potential and educating them with appropriately challenging curriculum is a disservice not only to them, but also to our nation. Although gifted programs were developed with the intent …

"A Virtual Community Literacy Partnership: A Place-Based Reading And Writing Initiative Between College Of Education Students And Urban Middle School Students", Anne Katz Ph.D., Justin Hanson

Literacy Practice and Research

How can I reflect on my practice as a literacy teacher? “I want to be the type of teacher who inspires great writing from my students, and makes them yearn for more knowledge.”

As a reading professor, I am inspired by the words Justin wrote in the pre-project survey at the beginning of the semester. In the midst of a pandemic, how could I create a learning experience to facilitate a literacy collaboration with local middle school students? I planned the community literacy partnership in the context of a College of Education grant written the previous year. This format anticipated …

Potential Associations Of Racial Similarity And Certification Pathways On Teacher Retention, Mary Michelle Atherley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What has caused the struggle to retain teachers? Like other school districts, Miami-Dade County Public School district has a high percentage of minority teachers and continues to seek ways in which to address teacher retention. Such findings are of importance since retaining effective teachers has been linked to positively affecting student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible associations of teacher retention with certification pathways (Traditional Preparation Programs or Alternative Certification Programs) and the racial similarity of the teachers to the students at their schools. Additionally, teacher and school factors such as gender, age, college majors, …

Investigating Individual Difference Among Workplace Incivility And Its Organizational Outcomes In The Chinese Context, Yuejia Chen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of workplace incivility is on the rise. As a workplace stressor, workplace incivility is linked with detrimental outcomes for both individuals and organizations, such as increased intention to turnover, reduced job performance, and job dissatisfaction. The current study gains fresh insights about how targets of incivility interpret and respond to this uncivil behavior as an occupational stressor.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between targets’ perceptions of workplace incivility and its organizational outcomes (i.e., job performance and turnover intention), as moderated by personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness) in the context of China. …

The Relationship Between Teachers’ Measures Of Resilience And Self-Efficacy With Their Intent To Remain In The Teaching Profession., Krisdhal E. Ugarte-Torre

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study examined MDCPS teachers’ measure of resiliency and self-efficacy and their intention to remain in the teaching profession. A survey was sent to 2,000 MDCPS teachers who work within schools located in the Central Region. The survey consisted of the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale, the Teacher Resiliency Survey, and the Intent to Stay Scale. Demographics information, teaching assignment, preservice preparation program, and Title I school status questions were part of the survey to account for them as control variables. The survey concluded with questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. An ordinary least-squares regression analysis was used to predict the …

The Novice Assistant Principal: Support Needs In The Transition To The Administrative Role, Alyssa Nicole Maestas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Novice assistant principals are expected to be ready to serve as key leaders in a school from the first day of their appointment as a school administrator. Research has shown that the role of assistant principal is multi-faceted, the pace of the job is unrelenting, the level of responsibility is overwhelming, and the number of new tasks encountered is daunting (Barnett, et al., 2012; Craft et al., 2016). This study examined how novice assistant principals experienced support as they transitioned into the administrative role. The researcher used a phenomenological research design for the collection of data. The results indicated that …

The The Relationships Between The Leadership Styles Of Principals Assigned To Title I Middle Schools, Staff Longevity, School Climate, And Overall School Achievement, Anna L. Rodriguez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The achievement gap stands as one of the top priorities framing educational policy through the past half-century. The middle school level amplifies this gap especially in urban areas. The role of principal leadership in closing the achievement gap is key.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the leadership styles of principals assigned to Title I middle schools, staff longevity, school climate, and overall school achievement. The researcher applied a non-experimental, ex-post facto research design to investigate the research hypotheses. Utilizing the Google Survey Platform, 290 staff members across 30 middle schools within a large urban …

The Validity And Reliability Of An Adapted Problem-Solving Inventory (Psi): The Exploration Of Paradoxical Problem-Solving As A Means To Manage Organizational Conflict, Salma A. Hadeed

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed method research was used to develop and validate an adapted survey that incorporates the paradoxical problem-solving concept under the context of social conflict theory, and to provide employees and employers more creative techniques to manage organizational conflict. One aspect of social conflict theory, problem-solving theory, focused on how individuals respond when confronted with unfamiliar tasks (Newell, Shaw & Simon, 1958a).

A concurrent mixed methods design was used to determine validity and reliability evidence. This study consisted of four phases. Phase one was a qualitative phase that utilized 11 experts, examining for validity evidence of test content. Phase two …

School Climate In The School Choice Era: A Comparative Analysis Of District-Run Public Schools And Charter Schools, Christopher Damian Duszka

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Comparative analyses of district-run public schools and charter schools are limited to performance outcomes. There is a dearth of research on how the school-types vary on factors consequential to performance such as school climate. Public-private distinctions, such as in organizational autonomy, value orientations, funding structures, and management practices, could result in school climate dissimilarities between district-run public schools and charter schools.

The aim of this dissertation is to assess the influence organizational factors have on school climate and determine if school-type affects school climate. Student and staff school climate survey data from the Miami-Dade school district were utilized for this …

Liderar Para Innovar. Innovar Para Crear, Sebastián Melgarejo Seoane E. Melgarejo Seoane, Silvia V. Quintana Svq

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

Nos proponemos que a partir de nuestra práctica reflexiva situada, aquellos partícipes de la jornada puedan vivenciar las etapas atravesadas en el desarrollo y la aplicación del Marco de Enseñanza para la Comprensión en todos los espacios curriculares del Nivel Secundario de nuestro colegio, a partir de la ruptura con los paradigmas tradicionales de la gestión de la enseñanza en el aula.

Se enunciarán los modos de hacer, desde el asesoramiento y la supervisión del equipo de conducción. Se presentará una unidad didáctica planificada desde el Marco de EPC y evidencias que avalan la mejora significativa en dicha práctica áulica. …

Creating New Schools In The 21st Century That Inspire, Motivate And Empower A Whole New Generation Of Learners And Global Citizens, Maxine A. Driscoll Ms

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

This workshop will share with you the big questions, the thinking, the innovation and the lessons learned in creating a new school based on the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, entrepreneurialism and international mindedness and provide you valuable insights and strategies to consider for your context.

The Development And Initial Validation Of A Self-Assessment For Global Leadership Competencies, Sabrena A. O'Keefe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Global leadership has been a growing area of research as our world becomes interconnected. The National Association for College Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies Work Group even added an eighth competency: global/intercultural fluency. Employers have also expressed a skill crisis regarding students graduating from college without the necessary global leadership skills. However, there are often not enough resources at institutions of higher education to add specific co-curricular programs around global leadership. At the same time many institutions have begun to use the Student Leadership Competencies (Seemiller, 2013) as learning outcomes for their co-curricular programs.

This research study aimed to combine …

The Relationship Between District Concert Band Music Performance Assessment Participation And Student Achievement In Miami-Dade County Public Middle Schools, Arthur J. N. Scavella

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the implementation and achievement score pressures of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, elective course offerings such as music have been drastically reduced, especially in the middle school setting. A great deal of correlational research has shown a positive correlation between music education in school and students’ overall academic achievement.

This study examined the correlation between those middle school students that participated in the District Concert Band Music Performance Assessment (MPA) versus those middle school students that did not regarding their achievement scores on the 2016 English language arts (ELA) and mathematics subtests of the Florida Standards …

Multidimensional Leadership: Masculine And Feminine Leadership Approaches In Public Education, Joseph P. Eberhard

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With two-thirds of new leaders being women, it has become increasingly more clear that the face of our educational organizations is changing both symbolically and substantively. The demands placed on public education have also grown exponentially. If society demands that schools become better, then it is necessary to investigate the approaches that school leaders utilize in making decisions.

The purpose of this research was to explore the different approaches that educational leaders implement during their decision-making processes. The present study asked 20 school leaders within Miami Dade County Public Schools to report and explain their personal approaches to leadership to …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Subjective Objective Assessment Plan (Soap) Formatted Post-Observation Conversations, Carla C. Hozebin Ed.D.

South Florida Education Research Conference

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the efficacy of structuring post-observation conversations through the use of medical SOAP notes to incorporate key principals of effective feedback as evidenced by teacher perceptions. Additionally, this research determined how SOAP formatted postobservation conversations influenced changes to instruction. Understanding teacher perceptions about the post-observation conference led to more clearly collaborative processes that enhanced teaching and learning

An Analysis Of The Connection Between Workforce Development And Higher Education Within State Policy And The Sharing Of Best Practices, Arthur C. Evans Iii

South Florida Education Research Conference

Workforce development policy is a major cornerstone for many governments. The success can be linked to educational programs that support the training of the workforce. Sharing of best practices among higher education institutions supporting workforce development can help newer institutions and support regional workforce development goals.

High School Content-Area Teachers’ Responses To An Exploratory, Investigative, And Experimental Professional Development Program For Content Area Literacy, Laura E. Ferreira Vesga

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent literacy rates for students who struggle, particularly those with disabilities are alarming, especially in light of increased educational standards. As higher standards place a greater emphasis on reading and writing, addressing students’ literacy needs in the content areas has become a topic of interest in reading education. Although there is much debate about how to address this need, it is clear that content area teachers need support addressing literacy in their subject areas.

An exploratory case study design was used to examine the responses of high school content area teachers to an EIE (exploratory, investigative, and experimental) professional development …

Authentic Servant-Leadership Exemplified By Early Childhood Educator David Lawrence Jr.: A Case Study, Blanca Correa-Cespedes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advocacy and leadership style are essential concepts in education. This qualitative case study was undertaken to demonstrate how Robert K. Greenleaf’s servant-leadership framework could be a useful framework to adopt by educational leaders and child advocates. Servant-leadership identifies the needs of others as a primary goal of leadership. The study contributes to understanding the value of exemplary servant-leadership and advocacy in public education as demonstrated by David Lawrence Jr. The researcher addressed questions regarding how Lawrence embodies servant-leadership traits and explored how a servant-leader has been positively influencing early childhood public educational policy in Florida to benefit all children.

There …

Program Evaluation Primer: A Review Of Three Evaluations, Craig M. Mcgill, Mia R. Heikkila, Ardith Clayton-Wright

South Florida Education Research Conference

Program evaluation—a “tool used to assess the implementation and outcomes of a program, to increase a program’s efficiency and impact over time, and to demonstrate accountability” (MacDonald et. al, 2001, p. 1)—is an essential process to program assessment and improvement. This paper overviews three published program evaluations and considers important aspects of program evaluation more broadly.

English Language Learners: A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between A Proficiency Level Assessment And End Of Course Test Scores At One Georgia High School, Jacqueline Caroline Ellis

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the language of one’s cultural environment is important for effective communication and function. As such, students entering U.S. schools from foreign countries are given access to English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs and they are referred to as English Language Learner (ELL) students. This dissertation examined the correlation of ELL ACCESS Composite Performance Level (CPL) score to the End of Course tests (EOCTs) and the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGTs) in the four content courses (language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies). A premise of this study was that English language proficiency is critical in meeting …

Pedagogical Perceptions Of Classroom Performance In The Teacher Evaluative Process: A Mixed Methods Study, Kim Makeba Hinckson Pendleton

South Florida Education Research Conference

This sequential explanatory, mixed methods research design examines the role teachers should enact in the development process of the teacher evaluation system in Louisiana. These insights will ensure teachers are catalysts in the classroom to significantly increase student achievement and allow policymakers, practitioners, and instructional leaders to direct as learned decision makers.

Teachnj: An Evaluation Of Two Years Implementation, Kathe Callahan, Leila Sadeghi

South Florida Education Research Conference

The Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act was adopted by the New Jersey legislature in August 2012 with the intent to raise student achievement by improving the overall quality of instruction. As a result of this act, new teacher evaluation systems are being introduced in school districts across the state in an effort to more accurately assess teacher performance. The new teacher evaluations will be based on multiple classroom observations as well as the academic achievement of their students as measured on standardized tests. In addition, professional development opportunities are likely to change under …

The Response To An Esl Population Boom In The Beaufort County, South Carolina School System: A Case Study, Amanda G. De Varona

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to examine the why the English language learners (ELLs) in the Beaufort County, South Carolina school system have been so successful. This school system has recently experienced a boom in its ESL student population, and this population has performed very well on standardized tests. This study used critical theory as its theoretical framework and examined why the students have been successful rather than marginalized in Beaufort County schools. This phenomenon was investigated using semi-structured interviews with the ESOL Coordinator for Beaufort County, 4 ESL-lead teachers, and 6 mainstream teachers.

Data were collected using …

The Relationship Of Instructor Technical Literacy To The Academic Performance Of Students In Career Academies, Jorge Gomez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Career Academy instructors’ technical literacy is vital to the academic success of students. This nonexperimental ex post facto study examined the relationships between the level of technical literacy of instructors in career academies and student academic performance. It was also undertaken to explore the relationship between the pedagogical training of instructors and the academic performance of students.

Out of a heterogeneous population of 564 teachers in six targeted schools, 136 teachers (26.0 %) responded to an online survey. The survey was designed to gather demographic and teaching experience data. Each demographic item was linked by researchers to teachers’ technology use …

The Relationship Between Job Structure, Burnout, And Coping Methods Among Public School County Bus Drivers, Bus Aides, Mechanics, And Clerical Workers, Monica Restrepo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the structure of jobs and burnout, and to assess to what extent, if any this relationship was moderated by individual coping methods. This study was supported by the Karasek's (1998) Job Demand-Control-Support theory of work stress as well as Maslach and Leiter's (1993) theory of burnout. Coping was examined as a moderator based on the conceptualization of Lazarus and Folkman (1984).

Two overall overarching questions framed this study: (a) what is the relationship between job structure, as operationalized by job title, and burnout across different occupations in support services …

Occupational Stress In Private Schools: A Teacher Profile, John P. Davies

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was threefold. The primary purpose was to develop a stress profile for teachers in private schools. This study also addressed two exploratory issues. The first, consisted of an examination of the possible differences in the levels of on-the-job stress among teachers in different types of private schools. A second issue was to discuss the findings on private school in light of the extant literature on public schools, specifically using the data collected by Fimain to develop the Teacher Stress Inventory. This study was conducted utilizing 316 full time teachers from seven schools from six …