Education Commons^™

Will They Stay Or Will They Go? Leadership Behaviors That Increase Teacher Retention In Rural Schools, Matthew T. Frahm, Marie Cianca

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Hard-to-staff rural schools often struggle to attract and retain promising educators. Experts have consistently identified administrative support in rural schools to be of unique importance for recruitment and retention, yet a lack of clarity continues to surround the specific leadership behaviors that new teachers interpret as supportive. This qualitative study collected data from three focus groups; including superintendents, principals, and teachers in a program for aspiring administrators; and found that rural schools have to try much harder and in more active ways to retain new teachers because of the constraints existing within rural education. Rural school support for new teachers …

Equity And Neuroscience In The Year Of Covid-19, Marie Cianca, Gina Ditullio

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the article's first paragraph:

In the era of COVID-19, difficult adjustments have been made. The world of education is very different. Many of us aren’t able to see our students every day. We monitor student progress and growth but worry that we are not doing enough. We are unable to give morning hugs and high fives. We can’t always be there to listen and comfort the way we used to do. As educators, though, we are problem solvers. We did not create this crisis, but we continue to figure out ways to make …

Social And Emotional Competencies And Science Performance In The Usa: Evidence From Pisa 2015, Guillermo Montes

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

This paper asks whether students with different socioemotional learning (SEL) profiles perform differently in science. Using latent class analysis, we found three distinct groups of students: a majority of students who are relatively unmotivated and isolated, a sizeable group of students who are strong co-operators, and a relatively small group of students who are highly motivated and enjoy science, but do not value cooperation. After controlling for student and family covariates, as well as classroom, teaching and school leadership and institutional variables, the highly motivated, individualist group substantially outperformed the isolated group, with the co-operator group having intermediate performance. These …

Factors That Determine Preschool Teacher Self-Efficacy In An Urban School District, Charles J. Infurna, Donna Riter, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

The aim of the present study is to determine what teacher variables are predictive of preschool teacher self-efficacy in an urban school district. A total of 83 preschool teachers participated in the study. Teacher variables, such as years of teaching experience, job satisfaction, location of employment, age, and self-efficacy were included in a series of ANOVA analyses. Linear regression modeling reported years of teaching experience outside the birth-2nd grade setting (β= -.232, t(1,79) = -2.124, p< .05) and job satisfaction (β = .294, t(2,78) = 2.793, p< .01) were statistically significant predictors of preschool teacher self-efficacy. This study found that teachers with a greater amount of teaching experience outside of the birth-2nd setting feel less efficacious about themselves and their abilities to positively influence student achievement and outcomes in the preschool classroom. Further policy implications, such as hiring practices are discussed.

Participatory Action Research And Student Perspectives In A Rural Postsecondary Education Program, Kristen Love, Martha Mock

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Students with intellectual disabilities have a unique pathway into college, and for many rural areas, this is a relatively new pathway. The reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-315) prioritizes inclusive postsecondary education opportunities with an emphasis on students accessing academic, social, and meaningful employment experiences. However, in this legislation, inclusion is vaguely defined and left to postsecondary education institutions to structure within their program model. This article provides perspectives from students with intellectual disabilities from a postsecondary education program situated on a college campus in a rural town. Through participatory action research, students shared their …

The Case Of Dinosaur Metabolism, Douglas Llewellyn, Caitlin Ullock

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the article's first paragraph:

To learn the critical skill of scientific argumentation, students need learning experiences that involve constructing evidence-based explanations. Students often struggle to propose, support, critique, refine, justify, and defend a scientific position (Llewellyn 2013). This article describes a lesson in which biology students are challenged to support their claims with evidence-based reasoning as they research the thermoregulation of dinosaurs.

Rural Meets Urban: Advanced Placement Rural High School Students Supporting Urban Dual Language Learners, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

High School Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish students from a rural school district in Upstate New York translated picture books for second grade students at Urban Primary, where Spanish is primarily spoken at home. Each child received books that were translated, intended to be read in English, Spanish. This gave the students and their parents opportunities to read in both languages. The purpose of the project was to facilitate language development for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds who are learning both Spanish and English in their homes. Children who come from low-income homes are at risk to enter Kindergarten performing below …

Unlocking Thinking Through And About Gps, James E. Schwartz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

The article offers information about global positioning system (GPS) and geocaching which started when GPS satellite signals were opened to public in the U.S. in 2009.Topics discussed include the Small Footprints nature education trail in a college which consisted of seven outdoor learning stations on campus that is used through geocaching; benefits of using GPS in education and use of GPS to develop critical thinking skills.

The Long Term Implications Of Lead Poisoning, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Despite efforts by the United States and the World Health Organization to decrease lead exposure in children, lead poisoning continues to exist in industrialized and developing countries. Any amount of lead can cause toxicity, and even low levels are associated with learning and behavioral problems. While Blood Lead Levels (BLLs) have continued to decrease in industrialized/developed countries, they continue to pose a major health hazard to marginalized populations, where 90% of children with elevated lead levels reside. Population-wide loss of IQ points leads to decreased productivity and loss of earning potential.

Poverty And Children With Special Needs: Implications And Strategies For The Classroom, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

The rate of poverty has steadily increased across the nation. Living in poverty affects health, academic growth, social-emotional development and classroom engagement. Many preservice teachers in our program come from suburban environments and have little experience working and interacting with diverse populations. Therefore, using service learning and civic engagement as a framework for understanding poverty as a whole, and students with special needs within that context, will help prepare Inclusive Education preservice teachers to address student needs.

Using Graphic Novels To Engage English Language Learners, Joellen Maples, Marie Cianca, Michael Maloy

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Seen in America’s schools and elsewhere, the United States is experiencing a dramatic change in demographics. The national population, which was approximately 300 million in the year 2005, is expected to be more than 360 million by the year 2030 (Doorn and Schumm, 2013). As a result, the United States has experienced, and will continue to experience, a profound increase in racial and ethnic diversity.

The Blended Course Design: The Role Of Agency In A Pedagogical Shift, Chinwe H. Ikpeze

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

We live in an era of learning convergence in which both the digital and the physical play critical roles (Leander & Hollett, 2013). In these hybrid spaces, boundaries are permeable and students are simultaneously involved in many settings; communications and other forms of digital and physical production alternate between the virtual and the physical rather than residing in one. This means that teaching and learning must address the issue of learning convergence. Meanwhile, research indicates that preparing prospective teachers to be proficient in digital technologies in order to use them to meet the needs of 21st-century learners continues to be …

Leading Head Start Turnaround: A Four-Stage Turnaround Model For Transforming Program Performance, Seanelle Tracy, Michael Wischnowski

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Head Start programs must meet federal performance standards or may now face a process of "recompetition", a situation where the current grantee could lose the Head Start program to other agencies. This article is based on interviews with Head Start directors who were faced with the threat of recompetition, but were able to turn around their programs in time to avoid the possibility of losing them. A model for Head Start turnaround emerged in these interviews and is shared in this article.

International Implications Of Lead Poisoning In School Aged Children, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

The United States and the World Health Organization have worked to decrease lead exposure in children, but despite these efforts lead poisoning continues to exist in industrialized and developing countries. Prevention is the only way to preclude the health, academic and behavioral problems that occur due to the effects of lead. Public awareness remains a critical factor in prevention as the problem has not gone away, yet research on the effects of lead poisoning on school aged children is largely absent in educational journals. The effect of lead poisoning on health, academics, and behavior is reviewed.

You Cannot Afford Not To Understand Me: Adhd As Difference, Not Disability, Lucia Guarino, Whitney Rapp

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Support for children with ADHD/ADD has grown in recent years in an effort to help them become more planful, organized and focused, like their logical-sequential peers. Personal experiences are shared to challenge this as a goal worth pursuing and to illustrate the harm that results from attempts to replace perceived weaknesses and disability with socially-constructed strengths. Ways to celebrate and nurture all minds are shared.

As a result of this presentation, participants will:

1. Identify the characteristics of students who are labeled as ADHD/ADD; the characteristics of logical-sequential processing; and explain that the value placed on one set of these …

Lead Poisoning In Children. An International Problem With Long Term Effects, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Lead poisoning is a world-wide problem that can affect children from all geographic communities and socioeconomic levels. Effects of lead poisoning often have long term negative effects on academic achievement and behavior. Lead poisoning is preventable; however, as educators it is often not on our radar.

Seven Steps To Emotional Intelligence, Marie Cianca, Shannon Cleverley-Thompson

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the article's first paragraph:

In New York State, one of the most contentious issues- even outside of education circlesis the overwhelming nature of student testing today. Teacher and administrator energies are focused on testing and test-taking at the expense of authentic instruction. In fact, the consequences of current testing in our schools resulted in an estimated 165,000 students opting out of this year’s standardized tests. Many educators continue to question the Common Core curriculum. Teachers are being asked to do more and deliver in ways that are industrializing our schools. Principals are faced …

Implementing Service Learning In Pre-Service Teacher Coursework, Susan Hildenbrand, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Service learning remains a topic of interest in higher education. It has become more prevalent in teacher preparation programs with the intent of providing the opportunity for pre-service teachers to become engaged with individuals who have different life experiences than their own. Lessons can be learned through a review of the literature and the examination of existing models of service learning, including an honest discussion of the advantages and potential barriers for all stakeholders.

Teaching Storytelling As A Leadership Practice, Shannon Cleverley-Thompson

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

The ability to tell stories can be an important leadership attribute and skill to master in order to be an effective leader (Baldoni, 2003; Denning, 2004; Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Storytelling is a central component of effective communication for student leaders and a skill to master for future leadership success. This session addresses active learning, group discussion and reflective practice as a way to teach storytelling as a leadership skill. In this workshop, leadership faculty will demonstrate three brief interactive teaching activities designed to help students understand how to develop stories, identity situations in which to tell stories, and also …

Transition By Design: The Power Of Vertical Teams, Linda Schlosser

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

It is no secret that middle school plays a key role in students' success in high school and beyond, but less well known is how innovative teacher-leaders use a strategy called vertical teaming to help young adolescents make that transition. This is the story of how one district in upstate New York used vertical teams to smooth the transition from the middle to high school, and in the process, improved students’ overall academic achievement and the district’s on-time graduation rates.

Lead Poisoning: Implications For Early Childhood And Childhood Education, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Lead poisoning has long range effects on children, both physically and academically. Even small amounts of lead toxicity can cause harm. Lead poisoning can affect any geographic area, although the focus of research tends to be in urban areas. Currently, one in thirty-eight children in the United States is identified with lead poisoning, impacting health, cognitive abilities and behavior. Public awareness remains a critical factor in prevention as the problem has not gone away.

It Is A Small World After All! Blurring Geographic Lines Through Technology, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Rural and urban schools often experience a digital divide, unable to keep pace with suburban counterparts. Technology inequities include lack of ‘tech savvy leadership,’ lack of resources and lack of ongoing professional development opportunities. Limited resources call for creative solutions such as community partnerships, and virtual experiences like digital field trips, augmented reality, and on-line instruction. Resources are recommended to help teachers integrate technology into the curriculum to support the varied and unique needs of a diverse group of students.

Don't You Dare Dumb It Down: Supporting High Expectations In Inclusive Classrooms, Whitney Rapp, Katrina Arndt, Susan Hildenbrand, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In successful inclusive classrooms, all students, including those with disability labels, are provided with high expectations as well as equitable supports to strive for those expectations. This session describes the theoretical foundation needed to realize successful inclusion for all students and the danger of lowering expectations or limiting supports. Exemplary lessons that respond to the needs of all students in an inclusive setting are shared. At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Identify that the theoretical foundation that best facilitates successful inclusion in diverse classrooms is a combination of high expectations and supports that are …

The Future Of Education Reform: The Role Of Emotional Intelligence For School Leaders, Marie Cianca, Shannon Cleverley-Thompson

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

With the demands for better outcomes and greater change from school leaders such as superintendents, principals, central and building-level administrators, there is a need to understand how emotional intelligence can help these leaders meet new demands in the near future. There are three models of emotional intelligence from Daniel Goleman, Salovey, Mayer and Caruso, and Bar-On that may have benefits to offer school leaders. The facilitators currently teach in an Executive Leadership Doctoral Program and wish to gain insights from program graduates who are current leaders in their fields. However, before a study is developed, it would be helpful to …

Students With Disabilities And The Common Core, Susan M. Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here are the article's first two paragraphs:

The adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards purports increased learning for all students. The Common Core, through the provision of rigorous standards, provides benchmarks for what students are expected to know or learn, to prepare them for college and the work force (http://www.corestandards.org).

Providing opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in the Common Core allows access to higher level curriculum. The Common Core standards provide a framework of what content should come before and after current standards, assert Saunders, Spooner, Browder, Wakeman …

Playing To Learn: How After-School Clubs Influence Teachers' Beliefs About Instruction, Linda Schlosser, Betsy Balzano

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

The purpose of the study was to uncover teachers’ emerging beliefs and perceptions about developmentally oriented instruction as they participated in professional development workshops and applied the strategies learned with students in after-school clubs. Twenty experienced, urban teachers volunteered to attend monthly workshops where they engaged in math games, simulations, and problem-solving activities based on the Common Core and modeled by college faculty. Teachers used the activities to offer 90-min weekly math clubs for sixth-and seventh-grade students at their schools. Twelve pre-service teachers enrolled in a college course on adolescent development acted as volunteers at the clubs. Data were collected …

Charter School Boards: Independence Or Isolation?, Marie Cianca, Charles Hertrick, C. Michael Robinson

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

Strong, stable charter school boards are critical to charter school success. The education of over two million students is entrusted to charter school boards and education reformers have an obligation to assure that these boards are properly supported, trained and informed. The purpose of this article is to underscore the importance of strong, competent charter school boards and to highlight the need for board support and training. The article describes the concept of charter schools, the functions of charter boards, problems encountered by charter boards, and recommendations for improving effectiveness.

Social Media As A Communication Tool For Individuals With Disabilities Living In Rural Settings, Susan Schultz

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the paper's first paragraph:

Along with the explosion of social networking comes the fear and promise of what these tools might mean for people who struggle with social interaction and communication difficulties. Living in a rural area can add further complexity for social engagement, as the chances for social interaction outside of the school day can be limited for some students due to the nature of their disabilities and the environments in which they live. The author argues that although online social networking has limitations, with supervision, social media holds potential for developing …

In Retrospect: Navigating Culturally Responsive Pedagogy In Teacher Education, Chinwe Ikpeze

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the chapter's first paragraph:

This chapter discusses my attempt to implement culturally relevant teaching in a graduate literacy course to increase my teaching effectiveness and to better my relationship with my students. The discourse on culturally responsive teaching (CRT) has centered on preparing mostly White, middle-class teachers to teach in highly diverse urban classrooms (Cochran-Smith, Davis, & Fries, 2004; Gay, 2010). However, what has not been addressed in the research literature is how foreign-born teacher educators negotiate culturally responsive teaching, especially in predominately White teaching colleges. Foreign-born scholars of color may add the …

Increasing Urban Students' Engagement With School: Toward The Expeditionary Learning Model, Chinwe H. Ikpeze

Education Faculty/Staff Publications

This paper documents the findings of a case study of one K-10 urban expeditionary learning (EL) school. Drawing on theoretical perspectives consistent with the sociocultural theory, data were collected from a variety of sources that included a survey, interviews, field notes from classroom observations and other school activities. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data. The study revealed that expeditionary learning in York school was successful because of the school culture, structure, teachers’ commitment, and community engagement. This implies that urban school reform hinges on choosing the right reform model, committed teachers and an engaging curriculum.