Education Commons^™

Can Effective Urban Teachers Be Developed In An Online Environment?, Sueanne Mckinney, Cynthia Tomovic, Elizabeth Langran (Ed.), Jered Borup (Ed.)

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if an online Teacher Education Program course could assist in the development of effective urban teacher characteristics of preservice teachers. The Urban Teacher Selection Interview was used to assess seven midrange functions that determine the dimensions of effective urban teaching. Results communicated that although the preservice teachers gained essential knowledge and skills in regards to urban teaching, a link could not be established between specific urban online course activities and the development of effective urban teacher characteristics.

Career And Technical Education And Its Relationship To Engineering Technology Pathways In Marine Mechatronics, Vukica M. Jovanovic, Otilia Popescu, Petros Katsioloudis, Ana M. Djuric, Mileta M. Tomovic, Thomas Stout, Roger R. Lagesse

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Students coming from families with low household incomes often cannot afford to rely on a regular pathway from high school to the university because of college tuition rates. Other students might not seek out available opportunities in their guidance counselors' offices to learn about existing scholarships or learn about different engineering technology or engineering careers. There are also students, who realize that a four-year university degree is not always necessary to find a career that matches their skills and talents. They may also have another educational path to receive a technician, engineering technology, or engineering degree, such as technical or …

Stem Outreach Efforts For Urban Students, Otilia Popescu, Vukica M. Jovanovic, Jennifer G. Michaeli, Stacie Ringleb, Alok Verma

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Four-year universities and community colleges rely on outreach efforts to bring the awareness of STEM-related careers to students, who might be interested in joining their student body in the future. These events are of utmost importance for students, who do not have all of the necessary role models to engage them in conversation about their future careers. Some students might not perceive a STEM career as valuable and feasible in their future career paths, even if their own schools offer information and resources related to STEM career pathways. Hence, various outreach efforts at different levels of education have to be …

The Effects Of Technology On Urban High School Students' Sense Of Classroom Community, Mervyn J. Wighting

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study measured the sense of classroom community among students from two different grades in an independent urban high school (N = 181). A standardized instrument was used to compare sense of community in classes whose teachers used computers frequently and consistently in their instruction with others in which the teachers seldom or never included computer use in the classroom. Quantitative analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between the classes in terms of one of the sub-scales of the instrument; students whose teachers used computers frequently and consistently scored higher on the learning sub-scale of the sense …

Variables Associated With A Sense Of Classroom Community And Academic Persistence In An Urban Community College Online Setting, Cynthia P. Cadieux

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

No abstract provided.

The Transfer Promise: An Investigation Of Impediments To Academic Success And Persistence In A Mid-Sized Urban University, Mary H. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This study adapted and validated, for use with transfer students, an existing freshman survey instrument designed to identify patterns of noncognitive factors related to academic performance and persistence. This study also explored the transfer experience by combining a qualitative interview approach with that of a survey, thus developing a method to ascertain those transfer students who were at risk of attrition.

To identify noncognitive predictors, the researcher examined the percentage of transfer students in academic difficulty for every response to each of the 152 items on a Transfer Student Survey (TSS). Respondents were separated into 4 groups based on their …

Post Doi Moi Urban Higher Education In The Socialist Republic Of Vietnam: The Case Of Hong Duc University, Jeanne Beth Natali

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is experiencing unprecedented peace and prosperity. Although Vietnam's war-damaged economy continued to decline for ten years after hostilities ended in 1975, everything changed in 1986 when doi moi, a moderate economic reform program, was introduced. Doi moi put enormous stress on higher education, whose function in the past had been to train workers for the state sector. Suddenly, higher education had to respond to the changing needs of Vietnamese society.

A 1992 educational sector study found that higher education was irrelevant to the needs of the transitional Vietnamese society. Universities were too small and …

A Meta-Analysis Of The Effects Of Multicultural Education On The Racial Attitudes Of Pre-K Through Grade 12 Students: A Comparison Of Curricular Intervention And Reinforcement Dimensions In Suburban And Urban Educational Settings, Ogochukwu Nkeiruka N. Okoye-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This meta-analysis examined the effects of multicultural education on the racial attitudes of students in prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Multicultural education, which evolved as a direct result of the push for ethnic studies in schools, was operationalized for this study as programs and curricula dealing with racial and cultural diversity.

The findings of thirty selected studies were synthesized in this meta-analysis to examine whether students exposed to multicultural education developed more positive racial attitudes than students who did not. This meta-analysis compared the effect sizes of two dimensions of multicultural education, curricular intervention and reinforcement, to see the relative effectiveness …

The Effects Of School Uniforms On Student Behavior And Perceptions In An Urban Middle School, Jacqueline M. Mccarty

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Public opinion polls have consistently highlighted the prevalence of violence in America's schools. Specifically, school personnel have witnessed increased assault and theft related to the wearing of expensive clothing. Concomitantly, administrators have noted decreased attendance rates triggered by clothing issues. Given the gravity of these problems, school officials nationwide have enacted uniform policies in hopes of improving school safety and student behavior. However, current research establishing the effectiveness of these policies is largely anecdotal. The few studies utilizing empirical measures mainly highlight short-term outcomes and often fail to address student perceptions regarding clothing-related problems.

By contrast, this study investigated the …

Factors Which Contribute To Successful Schools For Disadvantaged Students: An Exploratory Case Study Of Two Urban Elementary Schools In Norfolk, Virginia, Lula Saunders Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This exploratory case study examines the perceptions of parents, teachers, students and principals on eight factors of school effectiveness. Two low income elementary schools in the City of Norfolk, Virginia served as the research setting for this study. Though both schools consist almost entirely of African American students, and are otherwise similar in demographics, they have achieved at different levels. While one has been recognized as a national model, based on continuous improvement in students' academic achievement, the other has not attained the same level of achievement, based on standardized test scores.

A case study methodology has been used to …

The Effects Of Inclusion Of Students With Learning Disabilities On Urban Fourth-Grade General Education Students, Brenda E. Cox

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study examined the impact of fully included students with learning disabilities on the academic achievement and classroom behavior of urban elementary fourth grade students. To achieve these purposes, data were collected by using the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills Multilevel Battery (ITBS) of general education students and students with at-risk profiles, Kaufman Tests of Educational Achievement (KTEA) of students with disabilities, completed Individualized Education Program (IEP) objectives of students with disabilities, report card grades of all students, and referrals to principal for inappropriate behavior of all students. Staff and parent surveys and student interviews were another source of data. …

An Analysis Of Practicum Student Attitudes In Urban Professional Development School And Urban Traditional School Programs, Ira Carroll Starling

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study compares practicum student attitudes (N = 46) in urban Mature PDS, urban Newly Established PDS, and urban Traditional Schools on five professional attributes: diversity, collaboration, reflection, theory-to-practice, and motivation/efficacy. The researcher also compared practicum expectations of students, principals and clinical faculty to identify differences in attitudes among the three practicum environments.

With regard to the five professional attributes, the Mature PDS environment was most successful in encouraging positive professional attitudes, the Traditional School environment was moderately successful, and the Newly Established PDS was least successful. Qualitative findings showed that the clinical faculty in the Mature PDS environment were …

The Influence Of An Early Childhood Program On The Academic Achievement, Attendance, And Attitudes Of Urban At-Risk Students, Daisy Mccray Murphy

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of an early childhood preschool program on the achievement, attendance, and attitudes of at-risk students in an urban Southeastern school division in Virginia. The study compared two groups of Title I eligible four-year-olds, those who participated (n = 88) and those who did not non-participate (n = 54), in a preschool program. A review of the literature revealed that early intervention efforts have addressed the school success dilemma for at-risk students with varying degrees of effectiveness. Increased attention toward the implementation of developmentally appropriate learning environments have afforded at-risk students …

The Influence Of Reading Comprehension And Other Selected Factors On Student Dropouts In An Urban Southeastern School District In Virginia, Viola Garris Morgan

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of reading achievement on the dropout status. The major research question was to determine to what extent does reading comprehension influence the dropout rate after controlling for demographic and performance characteristics?

The target population consisted of 677 urban twelfth-grade students attending schools in an urban southeastern school district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Of the 677 students, 142 were dropouts, and 535 were nondropouts. Simple and partial correlations were used to determine the relationship between variables after partialing out performance and demographic variables. In addition, the discriminant analyses were used …

The Effects Of Applied Technology Instruction On Mathematics Achievement And Career Interests Of Urban Seventh-Grade Students, Eric M. Fischer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The present study has been implemented to provide insight as to how, given limited resources, Technology Education curricula might be developed to best support the unique goals of an urban middle school aerospace magnet program. It was hypothesized that applied academic strategies, including interdisciplinary hands-on aerospace and computer-assisted instructional activities, would affect larger gains in mathematics achievement and would enhance career-interest development of urban seventh-grade students to a greater degree than would non-participation in such instruction. A randomized subjects, pretest-posttest control group design was used to assess treatment effects upon 71 urban seventh-grade students. Dependent variables were measured using the …

The Impact Of Total Quality Management On Student Achievement And School Improvement Team Performance In An Urban Elementary Setting, Jennette Ann Straus

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between TQM and student achievement, and TQM and faculty scores on the High PERFORMing Team Survey.

Currently, there exists no research which indicates that TQM can solve the problems of the urban schools. TQM is recommended by experts when the staff is highly educated, when management supports TQM, when team leaders can run meetings effectively, and when the organization can afford lost time and productivity while its team learns necessary skills.

The TQM schools used in this study began the transition to TQM in 1991. Reading comprehension and mathematics scores …

An Urban Education Study: Implementing Problem-Solving Strategies In Mathematics As A Function Of Teacher's Learning Styles, Mary Lou Meinhold Fogarty

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This qualitative research was designed to ascertain the impact of teachers' learning styles on an active teaching program. Using grounded theory procedures, the researcher explored the second-year implementation of Moretti and associates' Problem Solver Program by 67 second- through fifth-grade teachers in order to gain information on the major research question: How effective are teachers with different learning styles in implementing problem-solving strategies in mathematics that require an active teaching style? Three Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) instruments were used in this study. Two quantitative instruments were used: The Stages of Concern (CBAM) to determine the degree of program implementation …

The Routinization Of Innovations In An Urban School System, Thomas Mcanulty

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The purpose of this study is to identify conditions which make the success of innovations in public education more likely, thus helping administrators make better use of scarce resources. Nine innovations in Norfolk Public Schools in Virginia were examined. These included an automated student information system, electronic mail, an alternative school for pregnant teens, and a special education parent center.

A multiple case study methodology was employed in conducting this research. Data was gathered from interviews conducted with administrators, practitioners and other key actors involved with each innovation. Additionally, site visits were made for each case, relevant documentation examined, and …

An Analysis Of Urban Higher Education Ceo's Perceptions Of Critical Leadership Behaviors, Linda Ferguson Banis

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The research question for this study asked if CEO's (Chief Executive Officers) of urban higher education institutions hold the same values and beliefs as those attributed to business and industry CEO's through the business literature. Through survey methodology, the analysis of urban higher education CEO's perceptions of critical leadership behaviors revealed very similar belief patterns. The primary discrepancies between the research group and their industry counterparts lie in the degree to which critical behaviors are espoused and in the acceptance of transformational leadership as a proactive model for effective organizational change. The responses to the open-ended portion of the questionnaire …

Computer Technology For Executive Decision-Making In Urban Public Education Divisions In Virginia, Richard Kenneth Byrd

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the study determines if Virginia urban public school executive leadership used automated informational systems to support policy, goal setting, and decision making typical of its job requirements. Secondly, the study describes the planning techniques specific to automated system development used by the school division where such automated executive support occurs.

The personal interview method was selected because it helps to insure 100 percent of the desired sample to participate. The interview technique insures responses to direct questions, to narrative responses sought, and to follow-up discussions necessary to insure clarification.

The instrument follows …