Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Northern Michigan University: A Case Study Of The Perceptions Of Faculty Seeking A Balance Of Teaching, Scholarship And Service, Erica L. Goff Ms.

All NMU Master's Theses

No two institutions are mirror images of each other such that identical descriptions, policies, procedures or needs apply to all. Such an assumption is too simplistic when universities are adequately analyzed. Northern Michigan University is a primarily undergraduate institution in the Midwest region of the United States that sits on the coast of Lake Superior, is the home of the Upper Peninsula Brain Tumor Center, offers unique outdoor resources year-round, and boasts a set of strengths, weaknesses, faculty, policies, benefits and a climate that cannot be replicated. Thus, it is distinctive, but like many other comprehensive universities, fosters a confused …

Enhancing Education, Sheldon Rothman, David Slattery, Sarah Buckley, John Ainley

Indigenous Education Research

The ‘Little children are sacred’ report concluded that improving the quality of education provided the key to solving, or at least ameliorating, the incidence of child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. The report identified poor educational outcomes as being at the heart of the exclusion of Aboriginal people from confidently participating in either their own culture or mainstream culture.

Two years after the release of the ‘Little children are sacred’ report and after the introduction of the NTER, data were collected on the health and development of all Australian children. Data from the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) …

Case Studies Of At-Risk Middle Grades Students And Literacy Applications Including Technology, Francine Falk-Rose, Principal Investigator

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

The Hard Work Of Improvement, Geoff N. Masters

School and system improvement

A common strategy for promoting improved employee or organisational performance is to place a strong focus on organisational results. The perceived advantage of focusing on results is that it clarifies and concentrates effort on the main game: the key purpose of the organisation's work. It also provides a basis for evaluating employee performance. As part of their drive for improvement, organisations also sometimes attach incentives to results, either in the form of rewards or sanctions. There is growing evidence, however, that focusing on results alone is an ineffective improvement strategy in many contexts and often leads to unintended behaviours. There …

State Of The Nation: K–12 Online Learning In Canada, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

A variety of initiatives are driving online and blended learning in each of Canada’s provinces and territories. From teachers’ unions in Nova Scotia fighting to ensure online learning is an accepted method of educational delivery, to Ontario’s College of Teachers creating an e-learning endorsement for teachers or the British Columbia government creating policies to expand the growth and opportunities online learning provides, there are multiple, isolated initiatives happening across the country.

State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada is now in its fourth year of publication and can be seen as a national guide for understanding the field …

Phenomenological Study Of Postgraduate Researchers' Experiences Of Nanoscience And Nanotechnology Research, Deepa Chari, Paul Irving, Robert Howard, Brian Bowe

Articles

Over the past few decades, scientific disciplines have changed significantly with the introduction of new and complex aspects of interdisciplinary research, particularly in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology (N&N). The current attempts to develop science education programmes in N&N area to adopt these complex changes however are mainly focussed towards the core scientific knowledge, and, not much attention has been paid to identify the attributes knowledge, skills and competences necessary to successfully undertake N&N research. Identification of these attributes is important so that the core scientific knowledge can be embedded in the curricula more effectively. Also, to work successfully …

Five Obstacles To Grading Reform, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Education leaders must recognize obstacles to grading reform that are rooted in tradition—and then meet them head on.

Reading Aloud And Student Achievement, Rebecka R. Spencer

Dissertations

Although numerous studies have been conducted on reading aloud to elementary students, there is a need for additional research in reading aloud to middle school students. The main question is: are the benefits of reading aloud to elementary students comparable to middle school students? Reading aloud has proven to increase elementary students‘ comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, motivation, and encourage students‘ understanding of content matter. While reading aloud is a common practice among elementary teachers and students, the practice all but diminishes by middle school (Delo, 2008; Trelease, 2006). This mixed method study was conducted in three public school districts in Missouri …

Is Free Really Cost-Effective? A Case Study Of Open Access E-Textbook Usage In Several Undergraduate Business Courses., Arlene J. Nicholas, John K. Lewis

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This paper reviews the current trends and costs of e-textbooks and reports on the usage and satisfaction of students using freely available open access e-textbooks in six sections of different business courses. It also examines how students utilize their textbooks, and if the problems associated with using an e-textbook outweigh the main benefit of a free e-textbook.

Supporting Native Indian Preschoolers And Their Families Family–School–Community Partnerships, M. Susan Mcwilliams, Tami Maldonado-Mancebo, Paula S. Szczepaniak, Jacqueline Jones

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

In this urban midwestern public school district, families of Native Indian students, pre-K through grade 12, attend four multigenerational gatherings like this one during the school year—one of a number of events orchestrated by the Native Indian Centered Education (NICE) program. NICE is a program in the school district that partners with families to provide Native-centric educational opportunities for preschool children. Family events such as the storytelling activity in the opening vignette represent trends in early childhood education: building family-school-community partnerships to enhance learning and build family resources. The all- Native-Indian preschool program is unusual and rare in urban areas. …

Performance Comparison Between Ib School Students And Non-Ib School Students On The International Schools’ Assessment (Isa) And On The Social And Emotional Wellbeing Questionnaire, Ling Tan, Yan Bibby

Monitoring Learning

This report examines the performance of students enrolled in the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) on the ACER International Schools’ Assessment (ISA) compared with non-IB students from the same ISA cohorts. The ISA is an assessment created especially for students in international schools in Grades 3 to 10. The assessment asks both multiple-choice and open-ended questions in the areas of writing, reading and mathematics, and provides international normative information about student performance. The Reading and Mathematical Literacy are based on the internationally endorsed frameworks of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). …

Dropout Prevention: Factors Contributing To The Resiliency Of At-Risk Hispanic Students And Their Pursuit Of A High School Diploma, William Roach

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Dropping out of high school has become a reality for far too many Hispanic high school students. Some estimates have the Hispanic dropout rate at close to 50% (Stutz & Hobbs, 2008). Research on factors contributing to this high dropout rate is well documented and schools across the nation are well aware of the problem. But in spite of this knowledge, the dropout epidemic persists. The purpose of this study was to determine, from a student perspective, what can be done to reduce the number of Hispanic dropouts. Forty-six at-risk Hispanic seniors in a small Texas high school along the …

Evaluating Summer School Programs And The Effect On Student Achievement: The Correlation Between Stanford-10 Standardized Test Scores And Two Different Summer Programs, Alicia Kaye Bottorff

Dissertations

Educators have been looking for a solution to increasing yearly student achievement while at the same time ensuring that the achievement gap between students of high and low socioeconomic status does not continue to widen each year. Many studies examined show that students experience summer learning loss if not in school during the months of June through September. Because of this research, the district being studied extended their summer school program format from four-weeks to six-weeks. This collaborative, quantitative study examined assessment data from the SAT 10 to explore the correlation between middle school math and language arts test data …

Improving Educational Outcomes Of English Language Learners In Schools And Programs In Boston Public Schools, Miren Uriarte, Faye Karp, Laurie Gagnon, Rosann Tung, Sarah Rustan, Jie Chen, Michael Berardino, Pamela Stazesky, Eileen De Los Reyes, Antonieta Bolomey

Gastón Institute Publications

Using 4 years of student-level demographic, enrollment and testing and school-level characteristics, this study analyzes the enrollment and outcomes of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Boston Public School between SY2006 and SY2009 and assess the relative impact of individual and school level factors in testing outcomes of ELLs. The study reports on the improvement in ELL dropout rates and testing outcomes during the period of observation. It reports also on the outcomes of ELLs at different levels of English proficiency and finds (1) higher dropout rates and lower testing performance among low English proficiency students; (2) a minimal proportion of …

Learning From Consistently High Performing And Improving Schools For English Language Learners In Boston Public Schools, Rosann Tung, Virginia Diez, Laurie Gagnon, Miren Uriarte, Pamela Stazesky, Eileen De Los Reyes, Antonieta Bolomey

Gastón Institute Publications

Against a backdrop of increasing BPS ELL enrollment, district ELL leadership transitions, state and federal policies affecting ELL education, and with the knowledge that many teachers and administrators within the Boston Public Schools are expert practitioners with ELL students, we addressed the following research questions:

• In which BPS schools were ELL students performing at a consistently high level or showing steady improvement during SY2006-SY2009?
• What were some of the practices that these schools’ staffs credited with their success with ELL students during SY2006-SY2009?
• Which of the practices identified by school staff were shared among the selected schools?

Through case study …

Successful Assessment Leadership: Helping Senior Campus Administrators Help Faculty, Philip I. Kramer, Rita Knuesel, Kenneth M. Jones

Office of Academic Review and Curricular Advancement Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Supporting First Generation College Students, Kelli Hutchens, Matthew Deffendall, Michael Peabody

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

Seeking to help support first generation college students (FGCS), the University of Kentucky (UK) has developed new programming and initiatives in recent years aimed at enhancing institutional support for this student group. Among these efforts was the launch in 2009 of the First Scholars program at UK, a project funded by and affiliated with the Suder Foundation, which currently funds five First Scholars programs at universities around the country. This practitioner’s brief first provides an overview of relevant literature related to serving FGCS and then discusses programmatic efforts undertaken at UK designed to improve the retention and graduation rates of …

Evidence-Based Or Just Good For The Soul? Examining The Efficacy Of Peer Tutoring In College, James D. Breslin

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

As peer tutoring programs have become pervasive on college campuses, it has become common to hear their benefits extolled. The goal of this paper is to examine the literature to determine in what ways accessing peer tutoring may impact college students. Specifically, the dual lenses of cognitive development and the generation and conversion of academic and social capital are employed to limit the scope of the research and focus the analysis. Conclusions include that while “peer tutoring” lacks a commonly accepted definition, students may receive intellectual benefits and their social networks may be broadened when accessing services that are intentionally …

Middle School Students’ Perceptions Of Coeducational And Same-Sex Physical Education, Scott Ronspies

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

The prevalence of obesity and sedentary behaviors among children and adolescents is increasing at an alarming rate. The obesity epidemic is reaching proportions never seen across our nation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ perceptions of coeducational and same-sex physical education classes. The study consisted of 3 girls and 3 boys 12-13 years old. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant to gain an understanding of their perceptions of physical education (P.E.) classes that were coeducational and same-sex in nature. The results indicated that middle school students shared a variety of perceptions concerning …

Middle School Students’ Perceptions Of Coeducational And Same-Sex Physical Education, Scott M. Ronspies

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

The prevalence of obesity and sedentary behaviors among children and adolescents is increasing at an alarming rate. The obesity epidemic is reaching proportions never seen across our nation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ perceptions of coeducational and same-sex physical education classes. The study consisted of 3 girls and 3 boys 12-13 years old. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant to gain an understanding of their perceptions of physical education (P.E.) classes that were coeducational and same-sex in nature. The results indicated that middle school students shared a variety of perceptions concerning …