Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons^™

“Don’T Hate, Peer Mediate!” – Teaching Students To Say Yes To Non-Violent Conflict Resolution, Jocelyn Lee, Wendy Williamson

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Rumors. Threats. Relationships. Bullying. The Mediation Center’s Peer Mediation Program has been successfully resolving these student-to-student conflicts (and more) since 2007. Through the use of non-violent conflict resolution training, Peer Mediators are helping their schools become more peaceful. Looking for a way to encourage positive student leadership and effective conflict resolution? Look no further - Peer Mediation is your answer! Target Audience: Teachers, Counselors, School Social Workers, Administrators, School Discipline Personnel.

"High Flying School" Showcase, Ken Hildebrant, Alonza James, Anissa Johnson

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Teachers and principals from three “High Flying Schools” showcase how they closed achievement gaps and raised achievement for all students in their schools. The audience is invited to hear their stories and ask questions. “High Flying Schools” meet six criteria: (1) high achievement, (2) high poverty, (3) high diversity, (4) community collaboration, (5) citizenship development, and (6) democratic education.

Communication And The Common Core: Disciplinary Opportunities, Joesph M. Valenzano

Communication Faculty Publications

The subject of how to strengthen primary and secondary education in the United States is widely discussed in news and popular media. While an extensive range of opinions have been expressed, the common thread is that these issues are normally situated in the domain of politicians and K-12 teachers. Primary and secondary education are rarely addressed by scholars who publish in Communication Education.

This divide between Communication researchers in higher education and K-12 practitioners reflects generally weak connections between the two domains. As seems fitting for our changing times, that situation is also ripe for change. In tandem with the …

The Role Of Nebraska Public Elementary School Principals In The Preparation For State-Wide Testing: A Mixed Methods Study, Carrie L. Kolar

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Assessment is used to determine whether students are meeting the goals of education. In Nebraska, the goals are measured through statewide testing to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. As the requirements of No Child Left Behind increase, this study described the strategies used by Nebraska public elementary school principals in an effort to improvement student achievement.

The researcher gathered literature in order to identify the role of the principal in the assessment process and found the focus to be on the preparation of the statewide testing but little on the role of the principal. The literature revealed …

"Friending" Students On Social Media, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The use of social media, particularly services such as Facebook and Twitter, has grown exponentially in recent years. Yet to date, relatively little litigation has arisen around the issue of teachers and other educators engaging in questionable or inappropriate use of social media when communicating with students. Even so, parental complaints do arise when teachers share inappropriate communications with students through social media. Consequently, as social networking continues to increase, school business officials and other education leaders should devise policies to help deal with this growing trend.

Given the widespread use of social media, this column examines emerging legal questions …

Secondary Administrators' Perceptions Of The Blended Coaching Model On Their Development As Transformational Leaders, Janine Ezaki

Dissertations

School principals are expected to lead the major changes and intense curricular work of implementing Common Core State Standards at their school sites. In addition to existing administrative duties and instructional responsibilities, this calls for site administrators to possess transformational leadership skills and attributes in order to lead effectively and purposefully through change in the 21st century. Since education has begun to value leadership coaching for school administrators, this study examined the coaching model as a viable means of support for novice administrators in their development as transformational leaders. The purpose of this ethnographic research was to study the culture …

Professional Development In Urban Schools: What Do The Teachers Say?, Tanya R. Green, Mishaleen E. Allen

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This quantitative causal-comparative study compared perceptions of professional development opportunities between high-achieving and low-achieving elementary-middle school teachers in an urban school district using the Standards Assessment Inventory (SAI). A total of 271 teachers participated including 134 (n=134) teachers from high-achieving schools, and 137 (n=137) teachers from low-achieving schools. Teachers in high-achieving schools reported receiving professional development more aligned to the 12 NSDC standards for quality professional development than teachers in low-achieving schools. In addition, teachers in high-achieving schools indicated receiving professional development modeled as Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Findings suggest that high quality professional development designed with elements of professional …

Socially Promoted Students' Lived Experience Of Transition Into High School, Anthony Hadzimichalis

Theses and Dissertations

Educational leaders nationwide cannot decisively agree on a preference for either social promotion or grade retention. Throughout history varied opinions have stimulated divergent public policy and practice. The longstanding divergence becomes understandable in light of consistently inconclusive achievement results. Nevertheless, social promotion and grade retention are commonly practiced in a number of New Jersey Public Schools. This study will undertake qualitative research into student experiences of social promotion. It will strive to understand the factors that contribute to some low achieving students passing later grades on merit while others continue to fail. Given this inconsistency of outcome, it is fitting …

Nurturing Young Learners In Practice: A Case Study Of Key Teacher Dispositions That Support Child Centered Practice In An Urban Preschool Environment, Lorraine Ricchezza

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines an educator's disposition to positively impact children's cognitive and social emotional development in the preschool setting as evidenced in child centered practices that arouse curiosity, foster social interaction, and promote children's learning as expressed in interpersonal interactions that affirm differences among young children in an urban preschool setting. Through examination and interpretation, this study delineates educator perspectives on child differences and reciprocal relationships as integral to developmentally appropriate practice. Seven female educators at the ABC Elementary School in Urban City, New Jersey participated in this study. This study involved key data sources. During 8 months of data …

Ceo Impact On Superintendents, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Noting that collaboration between business executives and superintendents was wide but not deep, a Harvard Business School monograph, "Partial Credit: How America's School Superintendents See Business as a Partner," identified positive findings regarding access. Nearly two-thirds of 1,117 responding superintendents said they had access to business leaders to whom they could turn for advice and support. In urban districts, the figure was 84 percent. However, responses to a question on the AASA's decennial survey suggested otherwise.

Small Schools: How Effective Are The Academics?, Jerome Thayer, Martha Havens, Elissa Kido

Faculty Publications

The North American Division’s 2013 school-opening report showed that out of 838 K-12 Seventh- day Adventist schools, 490 (58.5 percent) are small schools, with only one, two, or three teachers, multigrade classrooms, and no fulltime principal. Even in schools with four or more teachers, it is common to find multigrade classrooms.

Can small schools with multigrade classrooms be as effective in fostering achievement as larger schools with single- grade classrooms? This is a concern of many parents who are considering sending their children to the small local Adventist school. To illustrate two points of view related to small schools, consider …

How A Secondary School As An Organization Defines And Embeds The Term College Readiness, Michele Critelli

Theses and Dissertations

With the many reforms and initiatives regarding college readiness, understanding how organizations use rhetoric to determine and define what college readiness is and what it looks like can either reinforce dominant institutional structures and practices, or create new definitions and understanding leading to institutional change. Through a rhetorical framework (Alvesson, 1993), members of an organization are not only conformists but also strategic agents who through the use of rhetoric construct and shape knowledge and institutional life. A case study was conducted of one secondary high school that included administrators and teachers who work within the context of college readiness. Through …

Developmental Perspectives On Motivational Resilience: Predictors Of Eighth-Grade At-Risk Students' Academic Engagement And Achievement, Heather Anne Brule

Dissertations and Theses

This study uses the concept of stage-environment fit (Eccles et al., 1993) in conjunction with self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) to guide an investigation of at-risk eighth graders' motivational and academic resilience. A developmentally-calibrated method was used to divide students into motivational and academic resilience groups based on their resilient, average, or stress-affected levels of academic engagement and GPA. Data from 167 eighth graders and 155 sixth graders were used to examine the extent to which students' ratings of autonomy, teacher support, peer support, and engagement in garden-based education were related to resilience group membership, and whether these four …

La Formation Initiale Des Enseignants Au Québec Et En Finlande : Une Étude Comparative, Adriana Morales Perlaza, Maurice Tardif

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Initiée dans les années 1980 aux États-Unis, la professionnalisation de l’enseignement constitue aujourd’hui un mouvement international (OCDE, 2005). Comment a-t-elle marqué les systèmes de formation initiale des enseignants finlandais et québécois? En Finlande, la formation initiale dure 5 ans, tandis qu’au Québec, elle est de 4 ans après deux années d’études postsecondaires au cégep. Dans les deux contextes, les enseignants ont donc 17 ans de scolarité totale. Mais au-delà de cette durée commune, qu’elles sont les similitudes et différences spécifiques entre les programmes de formation des enseignants en Finlande et au Québec? Afin de répondre à ces questions, cette recherche …

Principals' Leadership And Teachers' Motivation : A Study Of The Relationship In The School Reform Era, Charlotte Rognmoe Gilbar

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the relationship between principal leadership behaviors and the level of teacher motivation in a specific region of Virginia, within school divisions that have at least one elementary school designated as a focus school. This study will examine whether the relationship between leadership and motivation differs in elementary schools classified as focus, in-improvement and those with no designation as defined by the flexibility waiver received by Virginia Department of Education. Of particular interest are the specific principal behaviors within each leadership style that support increased levels of motivation in elementary teachers. This study was relevant because there were …

Institutional Merit-Based Aid And Student Departure: A Longitudinal Analysis, Jacob P. K. Gross, Don Hossler, Mary B. Ziskin, Matthew S. Berry

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The use of merit criteria in awarding institutional aid has grown considerably and, some argue, is supplanting need as the central factor in awarding aid. Concurrently, the accountability movement in higher education has placed greater emphasis on retention and graduation as indicators of institutional success and quality. In this context, this study explores the relationship between institutional merit aid and student departure from a statewide system of higher education. We found that, once we account for self-selection to the extent possible, there was no significant relationship. By contrast, need-based aid was consistently related to decreased odds of departure.

The Influences Of Mathematics Self-Efficacy, Identity, Interest, And Parental Involvement On Stem Achievement In Algebra For Female High School Students, Nicol R. Howard

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictability of STEM achievement in Algebra for female high school students utilizing mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics interest, mathematics identity, and parental involvement. This study employed data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09/12) which consisted of 3,938 female eleventh-grade participants randomly selected from 944 public and private high schools during the fall 2009 academic year. The results of a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that mathematics identity was the strongest predictor of STEM achievement for female high school students, regardless of race. In spite of this significant relationship, STEM achievement outcomes …

Introduction To The Case Studies 2015 : A Compendium Of Cases & Voices From The Field, Mola Dad Shafa, Khadija Khan

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.

Countering Student Apathy To Increase Student Engagement, Rebecca Ann Schou

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At a suburban elementary school in Maryland, 3 years of data revealed that the school is grappling with the problem of student apathy. While there is a growing body of research on apathy and its effects on student achievement, few researchers have examined the problem from the perspective of the apathetic student. The purpose of this qualitative case study, grounded in the social learning and cognitive development theories of Vygotsky and Piaget, was to explore student apathy and the learning environment at the target school through the perspectives of 8 former students and their parents. The research questions focused on …

An Examination Of Teachers' Reading Instructional Challenges In An Alternative School Setting, Leslie Bowen Retchko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a suburban alternative school, educators of at-risk students reading below grade level often struggled to provide effective reading instruction. As a result, these students were likely to continue to experience academic difficulties, which could limit their career options and their opportunities to contribute to the betterment of society. This study addressed the gap between reading strategies teachers actually used in the classroom and the reading strategies they learned during professional development. The research questions focused on the instructional challenges teachers experienced while working with struggling readers in an alternative school setting. Mastery learning theory and the adult adragogical theory …