Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons^™

Black School Leader Truth: How Black School Leader Epistemology Influences Liberatory Mindset Development In Their Staff, Orpheus Williams

Dissertations

Black students in the United States have consistently been denied access to empowering, culturally affirming, and responsive learning experiences in the traditional public system. The epistemological and pedagogical beliefs embedded in a liberatory mindset can subvert this pattern of disempowerment (Shujaa, 1998). Black school leaders (BSLs) who understand the systemic and institutional pressures Black children may face and have to overcome, having undergone similarly racialized experiences in school, are uniquely placed to create liberatory spaces for Black students by recruiting and developing these liberatory mindsets in their staff. This instrumental case study used qualitative research methods of front-porch pedagogy (McTighe …

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of The Relationship Between Independent Study Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence And At-Risk Students Academic Success, Stephanie Niemeyer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to determine the relationship between independent study charter schoolteachers’ emotional intelligence (EQ) scores, as measured by the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), and the number of credits earned in a learning period by their students. An additional purpose was to describe how independent study high school teachers perceive their ability to model the EQ attributes of self-awareness, self-regulation, internal motivation, empathy, and social skill (Goleman, 2006) influences student credit completion.

Methodology: This study used a mixed methods approach to collect quantitative and qualitative data from highly qualified independent …

Discipline-Culture And Instructional Practices: An Integrated Leader's Role, Joe L. Griffin

Dissertations

The goal of this study was to identify the extent to which integrated leadership is present in schools, according to secondary teachers. Second, the study sought to measure the discipline-culture of schools. Discipline-culture is defined as the way discipline is administered daily in a school and how it contributes to the instructional practices that teacher’s use. Finally, integrated leadership, coined by Marks and Printy (2003), was examined relative to discipline-culture and instructional practices with this study. Leadership has been studied in multiple countries across various grade levels, but integrated leadership's influence on discipline-culture and instructional practices has not been researched. …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Educational Games That Keep Score Of Cooperative Performances, Theodore Alden Wohlfarth

Dissertations

The scoring systems used in traditional sports and games are founded on the zero-sum premise that players are on opposite sides and one side can win only if the other side loses. These scoring systems may be effective at nurturing zero-sum mindsets and providing data for assessing performance in win-lose relationships. If so, games that use different scoring systems can be used to facilitate the development of collaborative mindsets, nurture win-win skills between diverse groups, and enable objective self-assessment of performances in non-zero-sum events when engaging with those on “other sides.” Although economic game theory has rich reservoirs of research …

The Missouri Student Transfer Program, Howard E. Fields Iii

Dissertations

In 1993, the state of Missouri passed the Outstanding Schools Act. This law was created as a means to ensure that “all children will have quality educational opportunities, regardless of where in Missouri they live.” Section 167.131 of this law states that an unaccredited district must pay the tuition and transportation cost for students who attend an accredited school in the same or adjoining district. This portion of the law became known as the Student Transfer Program.

The Riverview Gardens School District (RGSD) was one of three unaccredited school districts in the state of Missouri in 2013. With close to …