Education Commons^™

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Incentivized Learning And Libraries: A Comparative Study Of Summer Reading Programs In Connecticut, Andrew Morrison

Honors Scholar Theses

With digital forms of entertainment and media more inescapable than ever, it has become increasingly difficult to encourage children and teens to read. Simultaneously, despite an overwhelming amount of literature demonstrating the educational benefits of reading, especially as a necessity in the summer between academic years, library budgets are shrinking as federal funding nears its end. How do libraries promote summer reading amidst declining interest and decreased funding? Using data from public libraries across Connecticut, this paper investigates how libraries are adapting their children's summer reading programs to a changing landscape, how programs are designed to incentivize reading without eliminating …

Efficacy Of North Haven’S Response To Intervention In Reducing Over-Identification Of Specific Learning Disabilities, Karyn B. Gallagher

EDL Sixth Year Theses

In 2006, a reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act led to changes in how the state of Connecticut determined special education eligibility for a student with a specific learning disability. The Response to Intervention (RTI) approach replaced of the discrepancy model in making this determination. This retrospective case study looked at the perceptions of North Haven Staff on the efficacy of the RTI process in reducing the over-identification of students with specific learning disabilities. A mixed-methods survey was administered to 337 professionals in North Haven, CT. Of the 86 responses received, 73 were determined to be useful …

Evaluation And Student Learning Objectives In Connecticut Schools, Vittoria Fielosh

EDL Sixth Year Theses

Over the past several years, states across the country have been restructuring their teacher evaluation models due to changes in federal education policies. The focus of many of these models has become student achievement, and there are many ways states are measuring a teacher’s impact on student achievement. Connecticut, along with more than 20 other states, uses student learning objectives to measure a teacher’s impact on student learning. Unlike other states, Connecticut has not specified what assessment be used to measure student growth. This case study, of one school district in Connecticut, examines the type of assessments used as a …

Music Teachers’ Perceptions Of Efficacy: Student Learning Objectives And Data Driven Indicators, Geno Heiter

EDL Sixth Year Theses

Previous research explains that twenty-first century education has moved passed pedagogical ideologies that focus solely on student tasks that require the recall of facts or rote application of simple procedures. Unfortunately, the literature on music education has ignored the importance of measuring intrinsic attributes of music learning and fundamental musicianship. Measuring ‘valid’ higher-order and critical thinking skills as they relate to music learning is significant because states are now measuring student learning and teacher effectiveness by evaluating multiple data driven indicators. Determining ‘what’ valid higher-order learning ‘looks like,’ and the data that can be generated by this learning in a …

Wrack Lines Spring/Summer 2016, Margaret (Peg) A. Van_Patten Ms.

Wrack Lines

This is the entire Spring/Summer issue of Wrack Lines Magazine, which has a shellfish theme and a Connecticut focus. 24 pages.

Patient Education: Airway Viral Infections In Danbury Ct, Aniruddha Bhattacharyya

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Viruses are the most common cause of respiratory infections, and the most common illness encountered by patients. Antibiotics are frequently requested by the patient to treat viral infections, and efforts by physicians to educate patients on the inefficacy of this treatment plan is often unsuccessful.

Male Gender Disparity Gap: Does Gender Impact Education, Laura D. Smith

EDL Sixth Year Theses

This case study focuses on male gender disparity in education and the large numbers of males referred and receiving special education services. The data indicates that females outperform males academically, and that the males behaviors impacts their academic success. The connection to males at a young age being placed in low ability reading groups based upon behaviors, and their motivation and academic achievement is affected negatively. The eighth grade students at a PK - 8th grade rural Connecticut school participated in this researcher’s case study. The case study looked at, how students perceived their education, and what role their education …

Common Core Conversations In Ct: Analyzing Public Testimonies, Richelle Benjamin

Senior Theses and Projects

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is an effort to minimize the learning gap between high- and low-achieving students in the United States by providing a set of standards all students must meet by the end of each grade level. Although 43 states have adopted the CCSS, there are varied opinions on whether this new reform will create positive change within America’s school systems. This research examined the opinions of citizens in Connecticut by analyzing written testimonies from a public hearing that took place in Hartford on March 12, 2014. The results show that two main groups expressed support of …

Exploring Daca Recipients' Access To Higher Education In Connecticut, Chloe V. Shiras

Senior Theses and Projects

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients represent a new and somewhat unexplored population within the undocumented immigrant community. Having only been introduced three years ago, they live within a state of liminality, legally present in the United States for the first time but with the understanding that it can be stripped from them without a moments warning. DACA is an executive order announced by Obama in 2012, which stated that certain DREAMers (young undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the United States by their parents at a young age) would receive temporary relief from deportation, a work permit, …

Literacy Program Helps Bridgeport Teachers Better Understand And Teach Core Standards, Karen C. Waters

Karen C. Waters

Called “Navigating the Common Core: The Shifts, Text Complexity and Close Reading,” the workshop was designed to help teachers better understand the standards and utilize specific strategies that address student needs in implementing the national Common Core.

Online Professional Development: Criteria For Selection By Teachers And Evaluation By Administrators, Joshua C. Elliott

Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current qualitative case study was to explore which criteria administrators in a mid-sized public school district in Connecticut use when evaluating whether an online professional development program meets the needs of both the district and the teachers. The study also explored which criteria teachers use when they are selecting an online professional development program. The first research question was, what criteria do school administrators use in evaluating online professional development programs as effective professional development for teachers? The second research question was, what criteria do teachers use in selecting online professional development programs? Data were collected …

Little Soldiers, Macy F. Collins

Student Publications

"Little Soldiers" is a poem that examines the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on a personal level.

Shu Hosts First Literacy Conference, Karen C. Waters

Karen C. Waters

On April 13 2013 Sacred Heart University’s Farrington College of Education conducted its very first Literacy Conference, including interactive and innovative workshops conducted by this year’s reading certification candidates graduating from the CLSP. The theme of the conference was “Uncommon Teaching in a Common Core World,” embracing the new Common Core State Standards.

Teacher Evaluation Systems And Multi-Cultural Commonalities And Challenges: England, Mexico, Portugal, Finland, Ireland, And Turkey, Jacqueline P. Kelleher, Sandra Kase

Education Faculty Publications

Our hope is that policymakers, educators, and concerned citizens will focus on teacher evaluation (in the United States) as a way to ensure high quality teaching and to promote both professional development and reflective self assessment. We advocate for credible tools and appropriate preparation of evaluators conducting the assessment of teachers and school-based staff. Further, we argue for time - time allocation for school leaders to observe and evaluate in meaningful ways, followed by targeted, rich dialogue about practice and professional growth. District level policies will need to be developed and 17 implemented to ensure this exchange can occur right …

Shopping For Schools: How Public Education And Private Housing Shaped Suburban Connecticut, Jack Dougherty

Papers and Publications

Suburban historians have generally neglected the role of schools as an explanatory factor in the transformation of twentieth-century U.S. metropolitan space, since public education does not fit neatly into their narrative. At the same time, educational historians have focused so intently on the rise and decline of big-city school systems that they have largely failed to account for suburbanization. This article seeks to bridge the gap by examining the rising practice of “shopping for schools,” the buying and selling of private homes to gain access to more desirable public school attendance zones. This case study of three communities near Hartford, …

Book Review Of Christopher Collier, Connecticut's Public Schools: A History, 1650-2000, Jack Dougherty

Papers and Publications

Unlike so many institutional accounts that merely offer a glorified tale of a long stady march toward educational progress, Collier directly challenges popular historical myths of Connecticut's allegedly superior public school system.

Klapheke, Dorothy Davis, 1921-1992 (Sc 2170), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2170. Materials relating mainly to the career of Dorothy Klapheke, a Western Kentucky University graduate, as a middle school teacher in Stamford, Connecticut. Includes poetry, a performance assessment, retirement mementoes, reminiscences, photos, and an obituary.

Integrating Multimedia Into Moodle: Resources, Antoinette P. Bruciati

Education Faculty Publications

Create and share multimedia learning materials in your Moodle courses. This presentation introduces methods for embedding multimedia into Moodle for instruction, discussion, and assessment. An overview of free Web 2.0 applications that enable K-12 teachers and their students to produce multimedia files is also included.

The Relationship Of Self-Efficacy With Gpa, Attendance, And College Student Retention, Stephen P. Becker, Robert K. Gable

Higher Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-efficacy or belief in one’s capability (Bandura 1977b, 1986, 1993, 1997) and first-term GPA, attendance, and retention using a modified version of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) (Schwarzer, 1992, 1993, 2005; Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1993).

The study “College” is part of one of the world’s largest for-profit career education organizations. At the College, 100% of the students commute to classes and live in the metropolitan area. A large percentage of students live in difficult urban neighborhoods and grow up with low family income, abuse, gang violence, drugs, health problems, …

Literacy Initiatives In The Urban Setting That Promote Higher Level Thinking, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

How does an urban district become a twice-nominated candidate by the Broad Foundation? In a district in which 72 languages are spoken, 38% of the students live in homes in which English is not the dominant language, and 91% of the population is minority (African American, Asian, and Hispanic), this largest school district in Connecticut not only made student learning a priority, but focused on higher level thinking as part of the process. This chapter provides insight to grassroots implementation of district and department initiatives over the course of five years that emphasized cognitive and metacognitive strategies in advancing the …

An Examination Of Principal Leadership Practices And School-Level Variables In Connecticut Schools With Achievement Gains Above And Below The State's Average Performance Gain On State Assessments, David R. Cormier

Dissertations

Problem

Effective-schools research has demonstrated that a building level administrator’s leadership practices contribute to the success or failure of change efforts and impact school culture and student achievement. Research in this area has focused primarily on comparing high and low performing schools and the various antecedent/context variables of such schools. This study examined schools with annual achievement gains above and below the state’s average gain in student performance and sought to determine if there were significant differences in school antecedent/context variables, leadership practices, and mediating variables between these schools.

Method

Research participants represented a sample of Connecticut elementary schools with …

A Political History Of School Finance Reform In Metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut, 1945-2005, Lis Pennington, Emily Steele, Jack Dougherty

Papers and Publications

This historical study examines legislative debates over public school funding in Connecticut in the post-World War II era, focusing on a narrative of shifting urban-rural-suburban political coalitions amid demographic changes.

Service Learning And Faculty Involvement, Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper begins with an overview of service learning programs at colleges of business and specifically details faculty/student involvement in the service learning process at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. and its positioning with regard to other similar programs. The paper also highlights three specific areas of program differentiation; its Problem Based Service Learning program, a Community Based Service Learning program nationally recognized by Campus Compact, and a globally focused service learning program established between its students in the College of Business and students in an elementary school in Nepal.

The Challenge Of Inner-City Education, Lois Libby

Education Faculty Publications

There are two Connecticuts described in public education circles: One Connecticut includes a set of school systems that are suburban, educating primarily white and/or Asian students. The other set of Connecticut schools systems is urban, comprised primarily of students of color, and of low socio-economic status. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on the latter set of schools, provide some history of their development, look at the indicators of poor progress in more detail, review options of ameliorating the urban school systems, including assessments of state efforts so far, and offer some perspectives and conclusions.

Mathematical Mind Journeys: Awakening Minds To Computational Fluency, Susan Austine Ebdon, Mary Mcgee Coakley, Danielle S. Legnard

Education Faculty Publications

Connecticut's New Canaan Public Schools has a mission of mathematical literacy for all children and has undergone an extensive curriculum review process over the past six years. Designing reformed curriculum and ensuring computational fluency have been shared visions for the district's mathematics educators, including the authors of this article. We are three teachers who have taught across levels K-12 and have led the mathematics initiative as mathematics resource teachers, mathematics coordinators, and building administrators. We coined the term "Mathematical Mind Journey," or "MMJ," to describe the adventure we take our students on each day. MMJs support the Process and Content …

Integrating Environmentally Focused Experiential Learning Into The Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Case Study, Bridget M. Lyons, Marion Calabrese, Teresa Ralabate

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper details the use of a local environmental issue as a case study for an interdisciplinary project in an Economics and an English course.

Barbara Reed: Visionary Storyteller And Dramatist, Jane M. Gangi

Education Faculty Publications

Barbara Reed, now in her eighties, is an individual who, for over fifty years, has been a leader in both children's drama and storytelling (for children and adults). It is because of her tenacious love of the performing arts that they flourish—albeit in some places more than others-for us today. Because of her, the imaginative lives of children and adults continues cyclically, each generation passing onto the next the rich experiences to be found in drama and storytelling.

Introducing Aids Education In Connecticut Schools, William Sabella

New England Journal of Public Policy

Most of the nation 's schoolchildren are not infected with the AIDS virus (HIV). Since AIDS is a preventable disease, no one need become infected. In order to protect themselves, everyone, including children, must understand exactly how HIV is and is not contracted. The message of prevention, however, is controversial, since it must include advice on safer sex and drug use.

In 1984, Connecticut was forced to face the issue of a child with HIV infection entering school. The state responded by creating guidelines for prevention of disease transmission in schools and by subsequently developing an AIDS curriculum. Obstacles to …

Reverend James K. Healy C.S. Sp. Appointed Chaplain At Salve Regina College, Salve Regina College

Press Release Archive

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