Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Implementation Of A Modified Reading Program In An Urban High School Setting, Ann Vayre

Dissertations

READ 180 is a popular reading program among high schools seeking to improve their reading scores. To date, few studies have examined modified versions of the program, with none focusing on the fidelity of implementation. This study examines a modified READ 180 program where scheduling only allowed for a 50-minute per day block of time, in contrast to the 90-minutes utilized in the original design. Research questions focus on urban high school teachers’ usage of READ 180 components and strategies, consistency with the program’s original design, the level of importance teachers attached to each of the components and strategies, and …

Impacts Of Daylighting On Preschool Students' Social And Cognitive Skills, Safak Yacan

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

The focus of this study is the element of daylight in preschools and its social and cognitive effects on preschoolers. The current study is a correlational study that assesses infants’ social and cognitive developments, and daylight in preschool classrooms. Participants were 69 children (30 boys and 39 girls), aged from four to five, who enrolled in two different early childhood facilities in Van in Turkey. It was hypothesized that preschoolers’ social and cognitive skills would be correlated with daylight in preschool classrooms. Results revealed that there was a crucial correlation between preschool students’ social behavior and cognitive skills and daylight …

The Relationship Between Job Satisfaction, Teacher Absenteeism, And Intermediate School Achievement In Math And Language Arts: A Correlational Study, Daniel Winters

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the relationship between teacher absenteeism and student achievement in math and language arts in the rural environment. Classical Economic Theory was used as a foundation in combination with Choice Theory and The Model of Learning to examine the role of the teacher and how the chronically absent teacher impacts the quality of learning for the student. The nature of substitute teaching was reviewed as well as how a break in continuity of instruction, caused by the chronically absent teacher, affects the overall quality of the educational environment. The amount of time teachers are absent from instructional duties …

The Role Of Trustees In A Capital Campaign At A Public Research University, Marcia Lynn Overby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The changing financial environment of public universities includes competing priorities for state funding. In today's economy, state appropriations for higher education do not always keep pace with institutional need. During periods of declining state revenue, universities endure budget cuts reducing state funding. When tuition dollars cannot be increased further and state appropriations are decreased or flat, public university administrators rely on fundraising to meet their mission, goals, and vision for their institutions. The fundraising program believed to produce the greatest results is a capital campaign. Large and ambitious capital campaigns can help institutions of higher education respond to decreases in …

Recruitment, Retention, Job Satisfaction Of Nurse Educators In Arkansas, Peggy B. Lee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Facing a crucial shortage of nurses and nurse educators, administrators of colleges and universities need to explore employment and individual characteristics that are related to recruitment and retention of nurse educators. Adding to the nurse and nurse educator shortage is the concern that the population of the United States is aging which creates a growing demand for more RNs. A further issue that complicates the nurse and nurse educator shortage is that nursing education is not producing enough RNs. Schools of nursing are positioned to have to prepare more new nurse graduates over the next decade in an effort to …

Access Barriers To Higher Education For Rural Community College Students, Shanda Carter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting the study was to examine factors related to rural low-income, first generation college students' obstacles to community college enrollment. The study examined barriers students overcame to attend college and focused on rural college students from two community colleges in Missouri and Arkansas. The following questions guided the research:

1.What attendance barriers did rural community college students identify as being most difficult for them to overcome?

2.Were there differences between the self-identified attendance barriers based on gender for male and female rural community college students?

3.Were there differences in attendance barriers for rural community college students based …

Exploring Community College Faculty Involvement In Assessment Of Student Learning, Leann Sellers Caudle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This narrative research study was conducted to explore the experiences of full-time community college faculty members involved in assessment of student learning beyond the course level. The participants in this study were employed at public two-year institutions of higher education regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission that had been recognized for their work in assessment. All participants in the study were involved in program or institutional level assessment during the time of the study. The central research question this study addressed was: What factors influenced community college faculty members to become involved with assessment of student learning beyond the …

The Effect Of Textbook Format On Mental Effort And Time On Task, Antonio Lamar Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The relatively little amount of time that some college students spend reading their textbooks outside of lectures presents a significant threat to their academic success. One possible solution to this problem is the use of digital games as an alternative to outside-of-class textbook reading, but a review of previous research did not reveal much information on their efficacy when compared to traditional textbooks. Using Astin's theory of student engagement as a framework, the purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine whether a significant difference in engagement, as indicated by mental effort and time on task, existed for college …

Mathematical Content Knowledge For Teaching Elementary Mathematics: A Focus On Whole-Number Concepts And Operations, Eva Thanheiser, Ian Whitacre, George J. Roy

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report represents part of a recent effort to summarize the state of knowledge of prospective elementary teachers' (PTs') mathematics content knowledge and the development thereof. Extensive reviews of the research literature were conducted by a recent PME-NA Working Group across various content areas. This report focuses on whole number and operations. Research in this area is scarce. What we do know from the literature is that PTs' knowledge of whole number and operations is insufficient and in need of improvement. PTs reason about whole numbers and operations in ways that are tied to the standard algorithms. At the same …

Making Meaning Of The Reel: The Media's Portrayal Of Community Colleges, Jena Lee Hawk

Dissertations

Due to its seemingly unclear and ambiguous mission, the community college has somewhat of a stigma attached to it as a four-year institution defines the American college experience (LaPaglia, 1994). Although only a few studies concerning media portrayals of community college students have been published within the last twenty years, the existing studies (Bourke, Major, & Harris, 2009; LaPaglia, 1994; Tucciarone, 2007) have failed to address if the media’s portrayal of community colleges influences students’ decisions or actions with regard to enrolling in a two-year institution. Using the theoretical framework of critical media literacy, the researcher will examine if media …

Eliciting Elementary School Students’ Informal Inferential Reasoning Through Storytelling, Dustin Owen Smith

Dissertations

One growing area of research on statistical learning is Informal Inferential Reasoning (IIR). Makar and Rubin (2009) describe IIR as having three components: making and evaluating inferential claims, supporting claims explicitly with data, and attending to the inherent uncertainty present in statistical inference-making. This dissertation study was built around developing a method for providing opportunities for elementary school students (Grades K, 2, and 4) to engage with IIR within the context of stories and storytelling through a method called Storytelling-Questioning. After interacting with and discussing two separate stories, it was found that students of each grade level were able to …

Career And Technical Education And The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award In Education, Patricia Crum-Allen

Dissertations

This study examined Career and Technical Education (CTE) Centers in the State of Michigan and their potential alignment with the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in Education. CTE center leaders and their faculty were asked to provide their perceptions of how well their organizations meet Baldrige quality elements, using a version of the Baldrige Assessment Tool. The study further queried CTE center leaders and their faculty with regard to quality awards received and their desire to pursue an external quality award. Differences between CTE leaders and faculty responses were explored.

This study was quantitative in design using survey research to gather …

Principal Emotional Intelligence And Teacher Perceptions Of School Climate In Middle Schools, Ashley Dawn Meadows Allred

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the correlational relationship of principals’ emotional intelligence on the perceptions that teachers have of a school’s climate. The Organizational Health Inventory for Middle Schools (OHI-M) served as the assessment for teachers’ perceptions of the school climate or the overall health of the organization. Principals’ emotional intelligence competencies were assessed using the Mayer Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test version 2, hereinafter referred to as the MSCEIT V.2.0. Participants of the study included 22 principals of public middle schools in Mississippi. There was an average of 45 teachers employed at each middle school.

A Pearson …

Organizational Structure And Resources Of Alumni Associations At Public Senior Universities In The Southeastern United States, Robert M. Plummer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the quantitative study was to analyze the staffing patterns, organizational structures, funding resources, practice of resource allocation, technology use, size of alumni population, size of institution enrollment, and age of the institutions at senior public colleges and universities in the southeastern United States. These institutions were derived from the membership of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education [CASE] during the academic years 2010-2012 in the United States District III region, generally the Southeast to lower Mid-Atlantic states. The study was further limited to public, comprehensive institutions as determined by the Carnegie Classification system. Data were …

A Phenomenological Study Of University Faculty Experiences With Disruptive Undergraduate Students In A Face-To-Face Classroom Or Laboratory Setting, Anne Marie Gillespie

Dissertations

Behavioral review teams on university campuses have become the standard since the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. An institutional assumption is that faculty members will make referrals to these specialized teams when encountering disruptive students within their classrooms. Unknown is what actions faculty members actually take when faced with disruptive students in the classroom. This phenomenological study captures the experiences of faculty members with disruptive undergraduate students in face-to-face university classroom or laboratories.

All of the participants in the study described experiences with disruptive undergraduate students. Three female and three male faculty members, split evenly between tenured/tenure …

Principals’ Experiences Of Autonomy In Nebraska Schools With Increased Hispanic/Latino Student Populations, Gary Czapla

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

This phenomenological qualitative study explored the autonomy experienced by five Nebraska public school principals as they lead their respective schools that have growing Hispanic/Latino student populations. This study determined if the principals’ autonomy has increased, decreased, or been impacted in any manner due to these changes of student demographics.

In-depth interviews were conducted with five principals working in schools where there has been an increase of Hispanic/Latino/ELL students over the last decade. This study revealed that the principals perceived that they have experienced a loss of autonomy. This study revealed the principals lacked autonomy to manage resources and personnel they …

Happiness In Us Schools: Students’ Subjective Well-Being As A Part Of School Improvement Planning, Richard E. Cleveland

Leadership, Technology & Human Development: Faculty Presentations

This paper presentation will begin with a brief overview of United States’ public education school improvement policy, the School Improvement Plan (SIP), and the focus on school climate. Next, the presentation will provide participants with an understanding of subjective well-being and a review of the literature addressing subjective well-being (SWB). Results from a psychometric investigation of two instruments measuring subjective well-being (SWB) with elementary-aged children will then be presented. The presentation will conclude with recommendations for application within the educational environment and future research.

Exploring The School Bus As An Environment For Bullying: A Phenomenological Study, Natalie Evans

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative research examined the school bus as an opportune environment for bullying behaviors. School bus drivers have the responsibility to transport students safely to and from school; however, when students use the school bus for bullying activities, the task of driving becomes a challenge to the school bus drivers. The study investigated the experiences from school bus drivers' stories of bullying behaviors on the school bus. A qualitative approach was used with a phenomenological design to obtain data for this research study. Seven school bus drivers from a metropolitan school system in southeastern United States participated in the study. …

University Administrators' Perception Of Online And Blended Doctorate Degrees, Ashley Tharpe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the perceptions of university administrators regarding prospective faculty candidates with online or blended doctoral degrees from accredited institutions located in Central Virginia. Administrators were interviewed to gauge their perceptions and completed a survey adapted from DePriest (2009) who adapted it from Levernier (2005). Data were collected through questionnaires, documents, and individual interviews. Data were analyzed using Creswell's (2007) data analysis spiral. Analyses were conducted using transcription, thematic coding, textural and structural descriptions, and a description of the essence of the experiences. The results indicated that administrators had a positive perception of …

Ua25 Newsletter, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Wku Internal Audit

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter regarding the office of Internal Audit, the new auditor and procurement card compliance.