Education Commons^™

Mentor Teacher And Administrator Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Mentoring Programs In K-12 Education In South Mississippi, Krystle Womack

Dissertations

The teaching profession relies heavily on mentor programs to promote teacher retention, to reduce attrition and to increase the quality of new teachers. Teachers grow professionally through gaining knowledge. Mentor teachers show professional growth through knowledge gained from mentoring programs and serving as mentor teachers.

There is a significant gap in mentoring research in that the mentoring literature is limited in perspective. Research focuses solely on the perspectives of the beginning teacher or the person being mentored, but the perspective of more than one stakeholder is needed to give the full picture of induction and mentoring. This study uses a …

Culturally Relevant Practices And Community: Increasing Minority Leadership In School Administration To Improve School Climate, Cassandra Suggs, Joy N. Rogers

Dissertations

This dissertation and research looks into the area of Culturally Relevant Practices and Leadership in K-12 schools and the potential effect on all students in having minority leadership present. The research dives into interviews of teachers, hiring leaders, district leaders and building leaders. It also uses survey results from over 700 students, with the central theme of the questions around school safety, climate, culture, support, academics and a sense of belonging. The research purpose was to look into the potential positive effect on students and staff, if Culturally Relevant Practices and hiring of minority leadership was in place within school …

How Exemplary Special Education Administrators Lead From The Heart Using Mark Crowley’S Four Principles (Building A Highly Engaged Team, Connecting On A Personal Level, Maximizing Employee Potential, And Valuing And Honoring Achievements) To Accomplish Extraordinary Results In Their Schools, Aimee Barnard

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how exemplary district-level special education administrators lead from the heart using Mark Crowley’s four principles (building a highly engaged team, connecting on a personal level, maximizing employee potential, and valuing and honoring achievements) to accomplish extraordinary results in their organizations.

Methodology: This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences and specific ways in which district-level special education administrators implemented and used Crowley’s (2011) four principles of heart-led strategies to understand the specific experiences and actions of the district-level special education administrators in relation to Crowley’s leading from the heart framework. …

Writing Instruction For Multilingual Learners, Leticia Kiwan

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the benefit of three key elements of instructional writing strategies: structured writing, visual learning, and collaborative tasks to assist Title 1 middle school site administrators and teachers in assessing the impact of the instructional writing strategies for multilingual learners to achieve reclassification to Fluent English Proficient.

Methodology: The qualitative case study included a thorough analysis of one-on-one interviews with seven teachers and seven administrators with more than three years of experience in a middle school from the Sacramento area.

Findings: Examination of the data indicated the following findings: (1) …

Experiences Of Implementing Developmental Education Redesign In Mississippi Community Colleges: An Administrators’ And Faculty’S Perspective, James Rush

Dissertations

Each year, after graduating from high school or after a number of years in the workforce, millions of students in America make the choice to further their education. Students who enter higher education are faced with the decision of choosing from a diverse pool of institutions that provide an array of services to meet the needs of a changing society. Many students entering institutions of higher learning are in need of some developmental instruction or course in order to complete their degree and/or training. Because of the integral part that developmental education plays in higher education, the cost versus effectiveness …

Missouri Legislator And Administrator Perceptions Of Federal Government Involvement In Education, Roger Allen Woods Jr.

Dissertations

here are very few studies on the views of school administrators and state legislators regarding federal government mandates for schools. Bolman and Deal (2015) believed people align themselves to survive and thrive in the political framework where resources are scarce, and the aspects of power and conflict inform decisions (Douglas & Mehra, 2015; Pourrajab & Ghani, 2016). This study focused on the thought processes of both school administrators who implement federal mandates and state legislators who navigate funding for federal mandates. Leaders of the political parties of Missouri and school administrators were interviewed to gain insight into the motivation and …

Perceptions Of Missouri Public School Early Childhood Teachers And Administrators In Regard To Technology And Current Practices, Lara Jean Wilbur

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of Missouri public school early childhood teachers and administrators in regard to technology and current practices. If educators have not analyzed their current perceptions regarding technology, they may not use developmentally appropriate technology practices with students (Dietze & Kashin, 2013). According to Anderkin (2015), the position statement from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning offers guidance for developmentally appropriate technology practices in early childhood. Participants in this study were asked interview questions to determine their perceptions of technology in …

Group Empowerment Capacity And Capability In Associate Degree Schools Of Nursing In The United States, Christy Lee Savell

Dissertations

The purpose of conducting this research was to determine the perception of group empowerment capacity (EC) and group empowerment capability (E) among faculty and administrators in associate degree nursing programs (ADN) in the United States (U.S.), whether there was a significant difference in the scores of EC and E between the two groups and if there was a significant relationship between the mediating variables and EC. The study was conducted online with administrators and faculty of ADN programs throughout the United States (U.S.). Information letters with questionnaire links were sent to all members of the Organization of Associate Degree Nurses …

Is There A Relationship Between Physical Fitness And Student Academic Achievement?, William Rushton Parker

Dissertations

The study utilized a quantitative approach to identify the relationship between students’ levels of fitness to students’ academic achievement as well as addressing the attitudes of elementary administrators, fifth grade regular education teachers, and elementary physical education teachers towards physical fitness and academic achievement. Instruments used in the study were the Mississippi Curriculum Test, 2^nd Edition (MCT2) and the FITNESSGRAM. The data from the FITNESSGRAM and MCT2 were archival, coming from the 2013-2014 academic school year. The MCT2 provided scores from the areas of language arts, mathematics, and science, and the FITNESSGRAM provided the fitness scores of those students. …

A Comparison Of The Attitudes Of Administrators And Teachers On Cell Phone Use As An Educational Tool, Karen Smith Lockhart

Dissertations

Youth continue to make up the largest share of the cell phone market in the United States. In 2010, 58% of all 12 year olds owned their own cell phone. By 2015, 88% of teenagers owned a cell phone. Today’s teenagers are constantly on cell phones, using them to text, talk, access the internet, and take pictures. Technology is such a part of teenagers’ lives that they have been labeled by Marc Prensky and others as digital natives (2001). They have always had technology and cannot conceive of a world without it.

School systems have faced challenges with the new …

The Relationship Between Students’ Achievement Scores Of Administrators Who Completed The Missouri Leadership, Excellence, And Development Program, Tina Turner

Dissertations

The focus of this study was to examine the impact of Missouri Leadership for Excellence, Achievement, and Development (MoLEAD) program on the school district administrators who attended and their constituents. After three cohorts of school leaders have attended the MoLEAD training, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education authorities have yet to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The purpose of this study was to determine the value and benefit of administrators attending the MoLEAD professional development. The participants of this study included school administrators who attended MoLEAD training in Cohort One in the state of Missouri. Data from the …

Preferences For Intrinsic And Extrinsic Sport Motivators Of Mississippi's Public Sschool Teachers, Jason Hugh Rayborn

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if Mississippi’s teachers teach for the same motivational reasons that athletes practice their sport. Certified teachers (N=380) from Mississippi were asked to complete a modified version of the Sport Motivation Scale-II (SMS-II) survey. This modified version of the instrument, the SMS-II-ED, included 18 questions from 6 different extrinsic, intrinsic, and a-motivational subgroups and one qualitative question for a total of 19 questions. Preliminary demographic items included teacher’s grade level taught (K-5, 6-8, 9-12), years’ experience (1-10, 11-19, 20+), and previous high school or collegiate sport participation (yes or no).

Descriptive statistics were …

Knowledge Of Special Education Law Among Administrators In A Southern California Special Education Local Plan Area, Suruchi Singh

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was (a) to identify the knowledge of special education law among administrators within a SELPA in California and (b) to identify the training needs of administrators; 65 administrators participated in this quantitative study, yielding a response rate of 84%. A survey created on the six principles of IDEA was used with administrators (principals and assistant principals) who serve approximately 42,000 students at 50 public schools. Analysis of data revealed that Hypothesis 1, which projected that 51% or more administrators would perceive their knowledge of special education law as average or better, was supported. Hypothesis 2, …

An Examination Of How Feminist Perspectives And Generational Differences Lnfluence The Leadership Practices Of Women Administrators In Higher Education, Marlene Kowalski-Braun

Dissertations

This study explored how feminist perspectives and generational differences influence the leadership practice of women administrators in higher education, specifically, how they lead and create institutional change. It examined the experiences of seven women who identified as feminists, who were part of Generation X, and who were at the mid-level, aspiring to senior-level, or in senior-level positions.

Phenomenology was the qualitative methodology used in this study to uncover how these women made meaning of their feminist and generational identities. The approach was grounded in feminist methodology and utilized feminist standpoint theory to legitimize women as “knowers.” It drew on a …

Attitudes, Knowledge, And Experience With Dropout Prevention Strategies Of Mississippi Teachers And Administrators, Harold Kirk Lucky

Dissertations

Mississippi has been overly burdened with a high dropout rate for generations but in 2007 began a program to correct this problem based on the requirements of No Child Left Behind that requires all school to reduce their dropout rate. The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes, knowledge, and experiences of Mississippi teachers and administrators with the State of Mississippi’s dropout prevention efforts and ultimately determine if they are supportive of the dropout prevention efforts. The study used a questionnaire designed by the researcher. A total of 386 questionnaires were returned from school districts across the six …

Cross-Racial/Cross-Gender Mentoring Of School Administrators, Zella M. Williams

Dissertations

Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine the perceived effectiveness of the professional mentoring which female African American school administrators and other school administrators have received from their school district, examining the cross-racial and cross-gender pairings of mentors and mentees. After an extensive review of the literature, a cross-sectional, self-reporting attitudinal survey was designed. The survey began with a section of closed-ended questions to gather demographic information. The second section gathered information about the mentoring experience using a Likert scale. The final section consisted of one open-ended question about mentoring effectiveness. The survey was distributed to all certified …

Administrators' And Teachers' Perceptions Of In-School Suspension, Amelia Shondra Jackson

Dissertations

Providing a safe and orderly school environment for students to learn is of paramount importance to school administrators, teachers, students, and the general public; however, the learning process should not be compromised while trying to maintain such an environment. There are many alternative approaches that can be utilized that would rectify the problem we as educators face in providing a safe and orderly environment. At-risk students are usually the ones who have the most serious infractions. These students exhibit a cyclical pattern of recalcitrant behavior. It is imperative that these at-risk students be identified as early as possible, and intervention …

Selected Roles/Functions Of Technical/Vocational Education Administrators In Barbados And The Need For Further Preparation And Continuing Professional Development, Cecil I. Cummins

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the roles/functions of technical/vocational education (TVE) administrators in Barbados and to ascertain their personal needs for further preparation and continuing professional development.

The population for the study consisted of 115 TVE administrators from the Ministry of Education, tertiary institutions, vocational centers, Grammar schools, and Newer secondary schools. The survey method was used to gather the data. All respondents were asked to complete a 87-item questionnaire which described various roles/functions associated with the administration of TVE programs under eight major categories. For each role descriptor, respondents were asked to indicate how important it …