Education Commons^™

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 …

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 …

Learning To Lead: Lessons Taken From The Wisest People We Know, Christine Kenney, Aviva Dorfman, Sapna V. Thwaite

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

How we engage and interact with young children and what we know about supporting them as they grow into the best versions of themselves is a window into what we also know about adults as they grow into the best leaders they can be. How we support and teach children has informative parallels for what leaders in education might learn and draw upon in their interactions and engagements with the people with whom they work. The goal of this paper is to introduce four principles of early childhood education (emotions and feelings are important, relationships are vital, process orientation is …

Remembering The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Missouri Education Policy And Lessons For Covid-19, Phi Nguyen

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Amid the disruptions of COVID-19 are opportunities to reimagine schooling and education. Taking a historical perspective, this article analyzes education policy following an earlier pandemic, the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, to explore if and how educational change might be possible. Drawing on primary source analysis of Missouri education policy, I argue that influenza-related policy talk was practically non-existent, and the talk that was present mainly focused on how the flu disrupted, but not changed, school operations. Without policy talk advocating for change, policy action the years following the influenza pandemic continued along the lines of Progressive reforms that were already …

The Pandemic Teaching Journey: Challenges, Lessons Learned, And Opportunities, Janice Garnett

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This paper aims to highlight the challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education, pivoting from in-person to remote course delivery. The information shared is based on the experience of an instructor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), College of Education, Health and Human Sciences' Department of Educational Leadership. In addition, this document will explore how teaching and learning shifted during the pandemic and potentially reimagined for virtual environments focusing on the role of faculty and engagement of students, emphasizing professional students.

Perceptions Of Self-Efficacy & Support Among Secondary Early-Career Teachers And Their Principals During The Covid-19 Pandemic, James A. Martinez, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Frances E. Anderson, Frederick L. Uy

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

In response to challenges faced by middle and high school educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study was conducted in the Spring of 2021 involving 33 early-career mathematics teachers and eight supervising school principals in the State of California. These participants completed detailed surveys which provided demographic information, as well as perceptions of support, efficacy and job satisfaction. Findings show a variety of associations among teacher perceptions of support and their efficacy and job satisfaction in the face of challenging circumstances. As it related to principal support and recognition, principal participants expressed confidence in their ability to support teachers as …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The Influence Of An Early Childhood Endorsement Program On Early Childhood Leadership Competencies, Kanyon Chism

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The call to improve high-quality educational opportunities for children ages birth – eight has received increased attention and federal and local funding opportunities have expanded to provide additional early childhood classrooms and to implement family engagement practices. Unfortunately, systems of support for principals aimed at increasing knowledge and skills necessary to lead an aligned Preschool – third-grade system within an elementary school remain relatively sparse. The purpose of this study is to examine the alignment between an early childhood endorsement program and early childhood leadership competencies.

This study will examine the perceptions of school leaders participating in an early childhood …

Impact Of Interdisciplinary Collaborative Behavior Coach Training For School Counselors, Social Workers, And Psychologists, Kristen Abueg

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Children’s social and emotional skill deficits can be predictors of a lifetime of academic and behavioral challenges and mental health concerns. Young children with challenging behaviors are at a higher risk for substance abuse and school failure. Behavior coaching is a current focus in many schools and is being utilized to support school-wide systems and teachers in relationship to students with behavior and mental health concerns. The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to investigate the impact of interdisciplinary collaborative behavior coach training for school counselors, social workers, and psychologists in a Midwest suburban school district. Interdisciplinary collaborative behavior …

The Lived Experience Of Psychological Occupational Stress In Early Childhood Teacher Leaders, Brooke Fletcher, Debora Basler Wisneski

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

The existence of occupational and specifically psychological occupational stress of early childhood education (ECE) professionals is well established. However, little qualitative research has been published describing the lived experience of psychological occupational stress in this setting. The aim of this study was to provide a deeper understanding of ECE professionals’ stress to better support their occupational health. This was accomplished through a secondary phenomenological analysis of interviews with ECE teachers (n=4) collected by the primary author for a larger study of professional development in ECE leadership. The researchers found that the essential description of psychological occupational stress for these ECE …

Keeping Teachers Of Color: Recruitment Is Not The Problem, Ferial Pearson, Monica Fuglei

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This article reviews some of the recent literature on teacher recruitment and retention published in the United States. It describes the merits of having a diverse teaching force, and explains that the issue of a lack of representation of teachers of color in American schools is not a result of recruitment; rather, it is the retention of these teachers that is the problem at hand. The article uncovers the reasons teachers of color leave the profession, and makes suggestions about changes that would make it possible for these teachers to stay.

First Year College Student Success For Black And Other Students Of Color: A Village Initiative At The University Of Utah, Bryan Hotchkins, Nedra Hotchkins, Bianca Bellot, Laurence Parker

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Our paper highlights the “Village Block U” program at the University of Utah, which was intended to provide a set of academic and campus/community leadership experiences for Black and other students of color. Through interviews and first hand observations by founders of program, the instructor and teaching assistant, findings indicated that supportive racial culture enabled the students for first year success. But it remains to be seen if this program can help students overcome major life challenges they face ranging from lack of financial aid and need to work, to undocumented immigrant status, family responsibilities and academic challenges.