Education Commons^™

Children Are The Messengers: A Case Study Of Academic Success Through The Voices Of High-Achieving Low-Income Elementary Students, Stephen Howard Mccray

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

For low-income minority and marginalized communities, American democracy’s educational mission remains unfulfilled. Student voices have provided insight into ways that schools disserve and serve students and how schools can improve in promoting academic achievement; however, academically successful low-income students’ voices—particularly those at the elementary school level—are largely excluded from the literature. Providing a platform for student voices, this qualitative, intrinsic critical case study explored six high achieving low-income students’ views of their academic success and how that success was achieved. Participants were six fifthgrade students, their parents, and teacher, in a school-wide Title I urban public school. Data were collected …

Teacher Alienation: Reconceptualizing The Educational Work Environment, Jesse Robert Soza

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation examined the relationship between dissatisfaction found within teacher working conditions and Melvin Seeman's theory of alienation. More specifically, it showed that all forms of teacher dissatisfaction engender feelings of alienation and that the oppressive nature of alienation is the root cause of all the negative consequences associated with teacher dissatisfaction. After an introduction, the literature review presents detailed descriptions of Seeman's theory of alienation, Paulo Freire's theory of empowerment, and the latest information surrounding the issue of teacher dissatisfaction. Next, qualitative narratives from interviews with six teachers about their experiences with dissatisfaction are presented. The researcher then …

An Analysis Of Fifth-Grade Teachers’ Mathematical Inputs On Eighth-Grade Students’ Mathematical Outputs, Neeraj Raj Satyal

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze which fifth-grade teacher inputs were the most important predictors of future outcomes of eighth-grade math students. This quantitative study looked at mathematical achievement through the lens of an education production function. The three inputs that were analyzed were fifth-grade teachers’ background; perception of professional development; and instructional practices and the relationship of those practices to achievement in eighth-grade math. In order to find the relationship between the above variables and student achievement, descriptive statistics, multiple correlations, and multi-variable regression analysis were conducted to examine which predictors had a stronger relationship …

Intergroup Relations In Inclusive Classrooms: The Development And Validation Of The Intergroup Relations Classroom Environment Scale (Irces), Matthew P. Cunningham

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Before the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), most efforts to educate students with disabilities happened in isolation. Within the last 40 years, a growing number of districts and individual schools have experimented with inclusive models in hopes of successfully educating students with and without disabilities in the same classrooms; however, general education students still hold negative attitudes toward students with disabilities. The contact hypothesis of intergroup contact theory postulates that prejudicial attitudes toward out-groups can be alleviated if the following conditions are present in and around contact situations: equal status, cooperation, common goals, and institutional support. The purpose …

The Triage Principal: An Autoethnographic Tale Of Leadership In A Catholic Turnaround School, Corena Marasco

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Catholic schools are in need of innovative change. The problem lies in how to construct the elements of change to create viability for a school in the face of rapid declining enrollment. Responding to this type of environment as an educational leader requires qualities and characteristics similar to those of first responders in a medical emergency, a term I coined as the triage principal. This autoethnographic research study was designed to answer three research questions:

1. As a new principal at Michael, the Archangel School (MAS), a Catholic school in danger of closing, what challenges did I experience?

2. As …