Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Connecting Response To Intervention And Grade Retention: Implications For School Leaders, Bret G. Range, Dorothy Jean Yocom

School Leadership Review

Within all classrooms of public schools, teachers greet general education students acknowledging broad differences in their learning readiness and social skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Compton, 2010; Martin, 2010). The needs of some students may be so diverse that educators find implementing differentiated instructional strategies with integrity extremely difficult. Many individually research-based strategies have been implemented to provide helpful instruction to all learners. This paper presents the concept of a merger between two of these strategies: Response to Intervention (RTI) and grade retention. As a result, the conceptual framework for this manuscript is anchored within the RTI and grade retention literatures, …

Leadership For The Long-Haul: The Impact Of Administrator Longevity On Student Achievement, W. Sean Kearney, Albert Valadez, Larry Garcia

School Leadership Review

The average turnover of the principal position at public schools in the state of Texas is 3 ½ years (Fuller, Young, & Shoho, 2010). This fact raises a number of important questions. Perhaps the most important of which is also the simplest – So what? Does principal turnover matter? What is the impact of high principal turnover? Does this leadership shuffle lead to lower test scores? This study was conducted in order to find out.

Effective Instructional Tools Or Costly Distractions: An Examination On The Effective Implementation Of Technology In The Classroom, Jonathon Archer, Alison Childs, Sharon Covaciu, Chad Deyoung

School Leadership Review

Technological advances have proliferated in the workplace, our daily lives, and even in the area of research. With each passing day different forms of technology are becoming increasingly available to people all around the world. The quick influx of technology has resulted in little time for technological professional development in the field of education. Although the majority of today’s youth have grown up in a technological world, the adults educating these students have little exposure and understanding of these new advances (Christensen & Knezek, 1999).

A Case For An Online Educational Administrator Practicum Experience, Texas Council Of Professors Of Educational Administration Compiled By Lloyd Goldsmith

School Leadership Review

The principal and superintendent practicum experiences have traditionally been entirely face-to-face (f2f) between university professors, interns and site mentors – typically a campus or district administrator (Figure 1). Advancements in technology combined with the exponential growth of online graduate programs give rise to additional incorporation of technology into the practicum experience.

Dennis Littky, The Educational Activist: Can His Model Revamp The Public Educational System?, Dana Mitchell Barnes

School Leadership Review

When an individual observes a classroom of today, he will see many elements that are recognizable to anyone who attended school during the last one hundred years, students working from textbooks, repetitive worksheets, and rows of desks holding students completing tasks directed by the teacher. Even though societal and technological advancements are increasing rapidly, our school system has stayed stagnant. What this means for students is the lack of individuality, teachers’ non acceptance of personal interests, lack of personal voice, and in many cases, a non relationship between teacher and student beyond the classroom assignment (Castleman & Littky, 2007).

What Students Tell Us About School If We Ask, Nancy K. Votteler, Mary E. Robbins, Debra Price

School Leadership Review

This article examines what school climate factors students perceive as helping them be successful in school, and what school administrators can do to aid the process. Specifically, the questions that drove this inquiry were

• How does sociocultural theory impact student voice and student engagement in the classroom?
• How does caring pedagogy impact student voice and student engagement in the classroom?
• What school climate factors do students perceive as helping them to be successful in school?

Framework For Understanding The Legal Structure Of Texas Public Schools, Gary Bigham

School Leadership Review

Texas public school stakeholders consist primarily of students, parents, faculty and staff, administrators, school board members, business leaders, community members, and taxpayers. While each of these stakeholders has a vested interest in the local school district, many fail to understand how public schools came into existence and the legal rationale upon which they operate. The problem lies in the structural complexity of schools, which is prohibitive to a complete understanding by its entire constituency. While the multiple layers of politics and numerous laws and policies that define the Texas public school structure may be necessary for proper operation, the intricacy …

A Messenger For Change, Mary Ann Whiteker

School Leadership Review

It is now time for all educators to embrace the power of a social epidemic. Schools across Texas are embracing a “New Vision for Texas Public Schools”. This vision embraces schools where all students are engaged in relevant, rigorous, meaningful activities and where classrooms reflect innovation, creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. In this new vision, daily standardized test preparation and boring fact-memorization skills are replaced with digital learning, curriculum standards relevant to real-world challenges, multiple assessments for student performance, and accountability that’s based on a combination of measures, not just one state mandated test. It is about creating …

Student Evaluation Of Teaching: The Inequity Of Faculty Scores In Online Versus Face-To-Face Courses, Sam L. Sullivan, Barbara Polnick, Lautrice Nickson, Robert Maninger, J. Yasmine Butler

School Leadership Review

Researchers have conducted a multitude of studies over the last century on Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET); however, very few have been conducted in the new digital age (Loveland, 2007). More work is in progress as researchers try to define the differences in student responses and thoughts about the online teaching environment. The unfortunate side of this can be the administrative decision to use a one-size-fits-all mentality when many authors including Dziuban and Moskal (2011) have outlined several research-based alternatives for evaluation of online instructional effectiveness. SETs are important to faculty because they often are the determining factor in merit …

Holistic, Ethical Leadership For The 21st Century, David C. Barrett

School Leadership Review

The New Oxford American Dictionary (2001) delineates two definitions for a leader: “1) The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country; a person followed by others. 2) A short strip of nonfunctioning material at each end of a reel of film or recording tape for connection to the spool.” How often does the latter definition seem more applicable for many of our educational leaders than the former? What are the philosophical foundations of leadership? What does a modern, ethical leader look like? These are just a few questions that will be explored in this article. The challenge …

Partnering With Districts In Principal Preparation: Key Program Features In Strengthening Aspiring Principals’ Understanding Of Issues Of Equity And Excellence, Betty Alford, Stacy Hendricks

School Leadership Review

The need for increased numbers of students of all ethnic groups to access and succeed in postsecondary education is a 21st century reality (Swail, Cabrera, & Lee, 2004). As Swail, Cabreraet al. (2004) reported, The act of going to college and earning a degree is more important than ever to today’s youth and our society. . . . Unfortunately, access to a postsecondary education is not equal in America. Students historically underrepresented at the postsecondary level – students of color, those from low-income backgrounds, and first-generation students- are still less likely to prepare for, apply for, enroll in, and persist …

Education Cannot Get Where It Wants To Go Because It Cannot See Where It Needs To Go: Seeing “Learning” In A New Light, Geoffrey Caine

School Leadership Review

Educational leaders and teachers are in a no-win situation. That is because most of the current tools and programs for improving education, ranging from the Common Core State Standards to iPads, cannot work. At least, as currently conceived.

Do Resources Matter? The Relationship Between Instructional Expenditures And College Readiness Indicators, Treva Franklin, Casey Graham Brown

School Leadership Review

Public schools face seemingly endless scrutiny. Educators have experienced an increased level of accountability and demand to graduate students who are college ready or well prepared to enter the workforce. The topic of educational funding is often at the forefront of public discussion and debate in Texas. While policymakers recurrently examine the way public schools have been funded (Fermanich, 2009), school district leaders are forced to unrelentingly evaluate and assess the efficacy and results of instructional programs and performance measures. With the push for college readiness for all students, the topic of funding adequacy has continued to be an issue.

The Texas School Finance Battle: “Ground Hog Day” All Over Again, Guy M. Sconzo

School Leadership Review

Like Bill Murray in “Ground Hog Day,” it was as if I were awakening to start the same day I had experienced the day before, only seven years later. It was time to head to court and testify again in the seemingly on-going constitutional challenge to the Texas school finance system. The names were different, many of the planned witnesses were different, the number of plaintiff groups grew to an all-time high, but the challenges to change an inadequate, inequitable and unconstitutional system of funding Texas public schools remained. The stakes for the children of Texas, and the future of …

The Minutes Of The Marshall University Staff Council Meeting, November 2018, Marshall University Staff Council

Staff Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

Playing Sports In College: Understanding The Factors That Influence The College Choice Process For High School Student-Athletes, Lauren Holzberg

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The college athletic recruiting process at times can be overwhelming, confusing, and intimidating. It is my hope that Playing Sports in College: Understanding the Factors that Influence the College Choice Process for High School Student-Athletes will alleviate some of the questions associated with the recruiting process and allow prospective student-athletes to pursue their college student-athlete dreams by offering simple advice, some basic ground rules, and plenty of inspiration.

This book is a go-to guide for the numerous questions that arise during the recruiting process and can be used when a student-athlete begins the recruiting process and it can be referred …

An Analysis Of The Self-Perceptions Of Women Leaders In Higher Education, Angela Mclendon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to (a) investigate perceptions of women administrators in higher education as they relate to their positions and (b) learn more about women’s perceptions as they relate to gender in leadership in higher education. and (c) determine where we need to go from here in terms of improvement. Investigating these issues in the 21st century will give us a current temperature and a snapshot of where we are and where we need to go from here as it relates to women leaders in higher education.

The focus of this study was women who are administrators …

Preparing School Leaders For Special Education: Old Criticisms And New Directions, David Dematthews, D. Brent Edwards, Jr.

School Leadership Review

In the context of accountability and high-stakes testing, professors of educational administration in Texas and across the nation are under tremendous pressure to develop innovative principal preparation programs that produce effective school leaders, especially as research methodologies emerge to disaggregate the effects of such programs. One area few programs adequately address, including more innovative programs, is special education - despite the fact that principals struggle with accountability for all students, but particularly those principals in schools and districts with limited resources and limited professional development opportunitie~ (Bays & Crocket, 2007; Wakeman, Browder, Flowers, & Ahlgrim-Delzell, 2006). Principals have long reported …

Insight For Teacher Preparation Program Administrators: Enhancing Pre-Service Educators' Lntercultural Sensitivity And Deep Proficiency In Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Short-Term Study Abroad, Gloria Gresham, Paula Griffin, Tracy Hasbun, Vikki Boatman

School Leadership Review

Teacher preparation program administrators face the issue of expanding curricula to prepare teacher candidates for the diverse population of students they will encounter {Trent, Kea, Oh, 2008). Globalization demands that teacher candidates grasp how to function in a more integrated and interdependent society (McGrew, 2005). According to Smith-Davis (2004) students from non-English speaking countries compose the fastest growing United States K-12 student population, and those identified as limited English proficient were over 10 million in 2004. The United States Census reported in the "New Census Bureau Report" the number of individuals five and older who speak languages other than English …

School Counselors' Perceptions About Lnterventions For At-Risk Students Including Grade Retention: Implications For School Leaders, Bret Range, Mary Alice Bruce, Suzanne Young

School Leadership Review

The term at-risk is used by educators and policymakers to describe a wide variety of students who struggle in schools (Kronholz, 2011). Factors associated with labeling students at-risk include minority status, poverty, language difficulties, low school attendance, and poor family support (Re~ Akpo-Sanni, Losike-Sedimo, 2012; Stockard, 2010). For many at-risk students, reading at a proficient level is a primary concern for school leaders and teachers (Allington, 2011; McAlenney & Coyne, 2011), especially with increased accountability including school sanctions for not closing reading achievement gaps (Chappell, Nunnery, Pribesh, & Hager, 2011). Although a plethora of interventions have been proposed to assist …