Education Commons^™

Evaluation Of A Local Adult General Educational Development (Ged) Program, Dérnecia A. Phillips

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The General Educational Development (GED) is a high school equivalency credential sought after by millions of Americans who do not hold a traditional high school diploma. This program evaluation offers insight to a local adult GED program as it seeks to increase the retention and GED completion rates of the students in their program. The evaluation utilized a participatory approach and qualitative design, with document review and semi-structured interviews as the primary data sources. Thematic analysis was utilized to organize evaluation results into themes representing areas of effectiveness and improvement. The recommendations include addressing learner barriers through individualized education plans, …

The Nebraska Teacher Pipeline: Trends In Perceptions Of Preparedness Of Novice Teachers, Cassandra A. Destefano

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The increased attrition in the teacher workforce has policy makers at state and national levels attempting to fill vacancies from a candidate pool that is drying up. Particularly of interest is the percentage of beginning teachers who are leaving the profession early in their careers. Researchers have examined elements of preparation or induction programs in relation to teacher effectiveness to understand needs of preservice and novice teachers. Elements such as required coursework, clinical experiences, mentoring programs, and professional development have been studied. Some studies have examined preparedness in relation to student achievement or supervisor appraisals of novice teachers. Researchers have …

Weathering The Storm: Veteran Elementary Principals Navigating Hyperstress Through The Covid-19 Pandemic, Matt Hilderbrand

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

School Districts across the nation are looking for the best principals to lead their schools. There is a need for highly effective school principals in public schools for the benefit of students, staff, and the general community. The role of the principal can offer extensive challenges and elevated levels of stress. School principals face this elevated pressure and stress on a continuous basis. Veteran principals, those who have led for a decade or more, have come to understand this stress. However, the consuming impact of the COVID-19 pandemic created hyperstressful conditions for elementary principals. Hyperstressful environments are classified as intense …

Principals’ And School Counselors’ Perceptions Of School Counselor Leadership Roles, Donald R. Ferree Jr.

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The complexity school counselors’ many roles can conflict with one another.

Conflict also stems from how building principals perceive the roles of school counselor. This dysfunctional role conflict and ambiguity may lead to organizational stresses that negatively impact the ability to serve students well. Therefore, the purpose of this cross- sectional quantitative study was to explore and compare the perceptions that school counselors and administrators have about the roles of the counselor. This cross-sectional study focused upon the variance of perceptions and beliefs that school counselors and school administrators recognized as optimal for the role of school counselors. The Roles …

School Library Leader Behavior And School Board Selection Policy, Cynthia M. Stogdill

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

School librarians support access to information and resources in the school library. In a time of misinformation and fake news, access to accurate and timely information is key. School librarians work to serve the needs of all students in every learning environment including alternative, remote, and face to face. At the same time, school librarians are charged with providing multiple perspectives and resources which speak to the needs and interests of every student. Selection policy provides the framework for student access. The school library is a center for equitable student access to information and resources. District selection policies provide the …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Parents Choosing Remote Learning For Their High School Students During The Covid-10 Pandemic, Aaron J. Bearinger

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the educational system at the end of the 2019-20 school year and into the 2020-21 school year. Lockdowns of schools meant a shift to emergency remote learning. So as the 2020-21 school year began, parents had to make choices about the best educational experience for their student(s). Parents in the research study’s district had the option of continuing with remote learning or sending students back into the physical classroom. This phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of parents with multiple students at the high school level choosing the remote learning option. The …

Program Improvement Through Graduate Student Leadership Development Plans, Lakresha P. Clark

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to inform program improvement for one Metropolitan University graduate educational leadership program by reviewing adult educational personal leadership development plans completed during semesters Fall 2019 through Spring 2021.

At the beginning of their educational leadership program, graduate students complete a personal leadership development plan, also known as the L3 Learning, Leading, and Legacy Plan. In-depth review of these plans resulted in understanding the professional context and individual professional aspirations of future educational leaders. The variety of aspirations and current professional context is a reminder for all programs of the complexity of adult …

Hope In The Time Of Crisis: Interpretation Of School Psychologists During Remote Learning And Reliability Of A New Measure, Alysha Collins

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Hope is an important thing to study. Hope has been shown to have favorable outcomes for students. It has partially mediated the positive relationship between socioeconomic status and academic achievement (i.e., GPA) in young students (Dixson et al., 2018) and it has been proven to increase college students’ GPA and their likelihood to graduate college (Snyder et al., 2002). Hope has also been linked to lower mental health concerns and increase work productivity (Lopez, 2013). However, measures of hope for adults in the school setting (teachers, school psychologist, paraprofessionals, etc.) are rare. Therefore, the development of a reliable hope measure …

Discovering Necessary Administrative Supports For Co-Teaching In Secondary Schools From Core & Special Education Teacher Perspectives, Jeff Govier

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Numerous amounts of research have been invested into secondary co-teaching. However, results show that secondary co-teaching is not effectively occurring despite volumes of research information. Increased assessments, scheduling difficulties, and a vast curriculum are factors making co-teaching difficult. Another phenomenon found in secondary teachers is called the knowing/doing gap. Secondary co-teachers are knowledgeable of what is needed to effectively co-teach but do not apply their knowledge into effective actions within the classroom. The purpose of this research was to identify what school leaders can do to overcome secondary co-teaching obstacles and close the knowing doing gap. The objective of this …

A Study On The Relationship Between Elementary Teacher Engagement And Collective Teacher Efficacy, Amy L. Falcone

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

School leaders are continually looking for ways to improve instruction and increase student achievement. Collective teacher efficacy has shown to have a high effect size on student learning. However, as educators focus on building collective teacher efficacy and helping students, these same teachers may not be completely engaged in their work. With the complexity of building collective efficacy and potentially a disengaged staff, this poses a challenge to principals who have limited time and resources to make the biggest difference they can. If a positive relationship exists between the two, then principals could focus on increasing teacher engagement which would …

Family Engagement By Learning Together: A Program Evaluation Of Webinar Series Targeted To Serve Title I Families, Jaclyn Couch Gibbons

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

School districts across the nation seek parental involvement to increase student engagement and academic success. Families from Title I Schools, in comparison to dominant culture, may have a minimal opportunity of involvement with their child’s education in respect to partnering with schools in comparison to the dominant culture.

The Department of Equity and Diversity and the Title I Department of the Research School District collaboratively created a four-part webinar series titled Community to Classroom Connections (#C3 Webinar Series) open to staff and community-at-large. The topics addressed through #C3 include Access and Opportunity, Pursuing Diversity, Building Efficacy, and Social Responsibility. Each …

An Exploratory Study Of The Trends Emerging From A Forced Shift To A Digital Interface On University Faculty's Instructional Design, Ann E. Feldmann

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The COVID-19 crisis upended the typical college experience as educational institutions had to close campuses and send students home mid-semester in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic left educators around the world with limited choices on how to move forward with high quality education for all. This abrupt closing of higher education facilities forced an immediate pivot to online synchronous or asynchronous digital classrooms for faculty and students and ushered in emergency remote teaching. While higher education has gradually expanded online offerings every year over the past twenty years, for many college students, classes were still in person until …

Stakeholder Perceptions Of Success Within A Stem Ecosystem, Heather L. Daubert

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The Omaha STEM Ecosystem (OSE) is a multi-stakeholder collaborative network (MSCN) with active members from six key stakeholder groups (Business, Education, Family, Government, Non-Profit, and Science Centers and Museums). OSE serves as a connecting agency which leverages the social capital of these member stakeholders to address the STEM workforce gap by strengthening the availability of STEM pipeline learning opportunities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to synthesize the shared and nuanced definition of success for all key stakeholder groups in OSE with the STEM lexicon. This dissertation presents the findings of semi-structured interviews with a theory of success built …

Identity And Image: The Process Of Cultivating Perceptions Of Secondary Schools, Kathryn Mcwilliams

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Group associations are a fundamental aspect of the human condition, facilitating the most basic as well as more complex needs for survival. Tajfel’s research outlines the impact that such associations have on how humans create identities for themselves. Providing pride or shame, organizations have a profound opportunity to shape its members’ senses of self-efficacy. Organizations, therefore, need to be mindful of their group identity and image to positively influence the self-esteem of those members. Nowhere is this as important as secondary schools where students are not only at a formative age, but also are often assigned to their school based …

Mental Health Support: Through The Early Development Networks Team's Perspective, Heather Post

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to explore the implementation of Nebraska Rule 52 Primary Service Provider model from the perspectives of the Primary Service Providers as well as the Services Coordinator. This study explored how the Primary Service Provider model is effectively meeting the needs of the child and family in the areas of mental health and social emotional support.

This research added to the knowledge and information of our key stakeholders to determine a more intensive training for our Early Development Network team and how to best support these professionals as they are working with the …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Graduate Admission Criteria And Academic/Clinical Student Outcomes For Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students, Jill Kumke

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The charge for speech-language pathology graduate admission committees is to identify candidates who will be successful academically and clinically in graduate school, all the while ensuring career readiness. This retrospective study focused on graduate admission criteria and students ‘academic and clinical outcomes, for eighty students that completed the program between 2016-2020. Statistical analysis was used to determine if relationships existed between traditional admission criteria and students’ academic and clinical outcomes. In addition, further analysis was completed to determine if these findings varied by student characteristics including, gender, race/ethnicity, tradition/nontraditional students, undergraduate degree, and undergraduate institution. This study found the objective …

Determining Stakeholder Perspectives Within A Local Multi-Stakeholder Collaborative Network, Garret Higginbotham

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The need for a STEM literate workforce has presented a complex issue on both the national and local level. The Omaha STEM Ecosystem was established in 2016 as a connecting agency to leverage the social capital of member stakeholders in addressing STEM workforce gaps by strengthening the availability of STEM pipeline learning opportunities in the Omaha Metro Area. This study presents a qualitative analysis of organizational documents and semi-structured interviews. Stakeholder groups were divided into Producer (Business, Government, and Non-Profit) and Consumer stakeholders (Education, Families, and Science Centers and Museums). Interviews for this publication present the Consumer stakeholder group, while …

Middle School Parent Opinions Of Social Emotional Learning Competencies, Jason T. Sutton

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The purpose of this study was to explore parent opinions of the teaching of social- emotional learning (SEL) competencies in middle school. Three over-arching questions were examined. First, do parents believe that it is important for SEL competencies to be taught? Next, do sixth grade parents have a different opinion of the teaching of SEL than eight grade parents? And finally, do parents believe that the specific SEL program being utilized at the school is helpful for their children?

Quantitative data from the survey indicated that parents were supportive of the teaching of SEL in middle school. Sixth grade parents …

The Self-Efficacy Of First-Year Elementary Principals: A Case Study, Meredith Mohanty

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The principal holds a pivotal role within a school community. Approximately 15–22% of principals in their first 5 years resign from their positions (Fuller et al., 2018; Goldrink & Taie, 2018). High principal attrition rates decrease student achievement, the quality of learning, and staff morale and retention (Fuller, 2012; Louis et al., 2010; Wallace Foundation, 2013). This qualitative case study evaluated the relationship between the experiences and self-efficacy of first-year elementary principals serving in Midwestern schools. Within semi-structured interviews, seven research participants described experiences that shaped their self-efficacy during their first year of their principalships. The relationship between the research …

The Perceptions Of Benefits And Drawbacks Of Private, Corporate, And Local Funds On American High School Athletic And Activity Programs, James Abueg

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

To fight tightened funding, high schools across the United States are turning to banks and other big businesses for financial support. Not the type of support a loan would offer but that of a sports sponsorship (Garofalo, 2016). This has differed from the traditional models of raising money such as collecting athletic fees and pay to play. As high school budgets are trimmed, sports and activities programs continue to feel the squeeze, creating a greater emphasis on fund-raising efforts (Troha, 2014). Corporate sponsorships were once unheard of for high schools but fundraising ideas that were once relegated to professional and …

Principals' Empowering Leadership Behaviors And Collective Teacher Efficacy, What's The Relationship, Jennifer Langfeldt

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Collective teacher efficacy (CTE) has an enormous effect size (d = 1.57) on student achievement. Building principals are a key player in generating, fostering, and growing CTE in their team of teachers. However, principals do not know what leadership behaviors have the most impact on CTE. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine what relationship exists between principals’ empowering leadership behaviors and collective teacher efficacy.

This study sought to answer three questions: To what extent do first-year teachers perceive that their building principals exhibit empowering leadership behaviors? To what extent do first-year teachers perceive that they and …

Preparing Teacher Candidates To Support English Learners In The Grade Level Classroom: A Perspective Of The Opportunity To Learn And Demonstrate El Instructional Strategies, Andrea Karpf

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Teacher education programs seeking the Commission for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) accreditation or recertification must demonstrate proficiency in Specialized Professional Associations (SPA). For this specific study, the SPA emphasized is TESOL International Association, formerly Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) which has recently updated their learning standards of English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in accordance with CAEP. These TESOL standards are meant to prepare Teacher Candidates to work with English Learner (EL) students as well as to provide EL Strategies awareness. The purpose of this program descriptive study was to recognize one component of …

A Comparison Of Student Hope And Social-Emotional Competence Between General Education And Special Education Settings, Whitley R. Hettenbaugh

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Hope, the ability to establish goals, plan for the future, persist in the face of challenges, and motivate oneself throughout the goal cycle, is a social endeavor requiring the collective support and resources of families, school staff, and peers. Schools that teach and reinforce life skills (i.e., hope and social-emotional competence) are able to positively impact student outcomes by teaching the skills necessary to build social support systems, improve the safety of the school by facilitating social-emotional expression, foster collaboration and collective success, and give students meaningful voice and choice. In doing so, schools increase the resources available to students …

The Impact Of Financial Literacy Education In A Secondary Education Setting By Assessing College Students' Knowledge And Understanding Of Financial Literacy Concepts, Delayne Havlovic

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

A problem has been identified within the area of secondary education in determining what the role of school systems is in providing a guaranteed and viable level of financial literacy education to students before they graduate, preparing them for college, career, and civic readiness. Financial Literacy Education is a set of requisite skills that a person should have upon completion of a comprehensive course and program of study. Because the conditions of financial illiteracy or instability exist, researching the impact of secondary financial literacy courses and how they are perceived at the postsecondary level is worth investigating to contribute to …