Educational Leadership Commons^™

Location Matters: A Geospatial Analysis Of Principal Turnover In The Denver Metropolitan Area, Lorna O. Beckett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates that principals leave their school on average every three years. Additional research is needed to understand factors that are related to principal turnover. In this study I used geographic information systems to examine the geospatial variance between school characteristics, student achievement, and principal turnover in the Denver metropolitan area. I found that principal turnover is an issue in both urban and suburban areas, with suburban areas in the Denver metropolitan area experiencing similar trends in principal turnover. In this study I also highlight the importance of understanding local context when examining principal turnover patterns.

Scholastic Liberation: Schools' Impact On African American Academic Achievement, Aaron M. Johnson

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article addresses some of the factors that contribute to low achievement observed in African American students. It is common that either schools or school districts are unable to fix the problem or they are unaware about how the beliefs and attitudes about African American students can contribute to their low performance in school. Furthermore, this article encourages school institutions to examine themselves and change school environments to align to the identities of African American students. African American students must be liberated from negative assumptions about them and to do that, individuals and the institution of school as a whole, …

Children's Physical Fitness And Academic Performance: A Challenge For Leaders In Title I Schools In The Rio Grande Valley, Maricela Valdez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between physical fitness, body mass index and academic performance in Hispanic children enrolled in grade 5 from a district in the Rio Grande Valley. A total of 547 participants were selected from 11 elementary schools from a school district in the Rio Grande Valley. The dependent variable, academic performance, was measured by children’s gain score on the STAAR Progress Measure for Reading and Math assessments. The independent variables of physical fitness were measured by scores on cardiovascular fitness and body mass index from the FITNESSGRAM assessment.

The literature review …

Effects Of A Faculty Training Program On Knowledge And Awareness Of Student Concussion And Academic Performance, Christina M. Finn

All Theses And Dissertations

Concussion and the cumulative effects of repetitive head injury are a growing health concern (Ahmed & Hall, 2017). Although a major emphasis throughout the literature related to concussion is on ‘return to play’, there is a growing body of literature focused on safe return to school following concussion. However, many educators and school personnel are unaware of the potential impact of concussion on academic performance or how to implement return to learn procedures following concussion (Dreer, Crowley, Cash, O’Neill, & Cox, 2016; Wing, Amanullah, Jacobs, Clark, & Merritt, 2015). Although college students may face unique challenges when returning to school …

An Exploration Of The Impact Of Instructional Coaching, Cindy Ramdial-Budhai

All Theses And Dissertations

Florida public school teachers, in compliance with No Child Left Behind Act (2001), seek to teach through mastery of Florida State Standards. Literacy coaches support teachers to ensure students master these standards. Research about the impact of instructional coaches at the elementary and middle school levels exists, but research is limited about the impact of coaching at the high school level. This mixed-methods study was influenced by the idea of scaffolding connected to the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky,1978), tracking progress during mastery learning (Slavin, 1987), and the teaching map of instructional strategies (Marzano, 2017). Participants in this study included …

Social And Emotional Learning And Support For Students Living In Rural Communities, Kristen Schebell

All Theses And Dissertations

Some schools have started implementing programs to assist with social and emotional development in students. Social and emotional skills include the ability to get along well with others, manage one’s emotions, and self-motivate; all of which impact the academic performance and behaviors of students (Zins, Weissberg, Wang, & Walberg, 2004). Unfortunately, many schools are lacking the additional supports needed, such as school counselors and social workers, to implement social and emotional learning programs or to provide social and emotional support to students (Education Week Research Center, 2015).

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social and …

Mathematics Instruction In Pre-Service Undergraduate Programs In The State Of Maine, Jessica Cefalo Osich

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary pre-service teacher preparation in mathematics offered in undergraduate education programs in the state of Maine. The research questions were: How many mathematics courses are undergraduate programs requiring pre-service teachers to take for their baccalaureate education? Within the courses that are required, how many are mathematical content courses, and how many are mathematical pedagogical courses? How does a knowledgeable informant characterize the quality of elementary pre-service teacher preparation in mathematics at their institutions? And, how do faculty evaluate student-teacher competence in math preparation? The conceptual framework was based on three core ideas: …

An Analysis Of 8th Grade Student Achievement Of Private And Public Schools In The Dominican Republic In Rural And Urban Settings, Daniel Boyd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in student academic achievement in private and public schools in the Dominican Republic in rural and urban settings. The 2016 8th Grade National Exams school mean scale scores were analyzed to determine if statistically significant differences existed among the different school types and school settings. There was a lack of literature on student academic achievement in the Dominican Republic, in particular on private and public school and rural and urban school students. The extant literature indicated that in the Dominican Republic, private school students historically had higher academic achievement on …

School Library Access As Related To Student Reading Comprehension In An Urban East Tennessee School District, Lori Church

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of school library access on student reading comprehension as measured by the Easy CBM universal screener test. The population consisted of 5^th and 6^th grade students enrolled in one intermediate school in an urban school system in East Tennessee. Data were analyzed for the population of the 2016-2017 academic school year. Specifically, this study considered the impact of school library access on students who qualify for free or reduced meals.

A quantitative study was used to find correlations and differences in the reading comprehension data and library checkout …

The Private School Advantage: Evidence From School Vouchers And Educational Leadership, Mohammad Danish Shakeel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School choice is becoming increasingly popular around the globe. Broadly the term ‘school choice’ is used to describe the options available for families to send children to school(s) other than the one they are residentially assigned to. Private school choice interventions known as ‘school vouchers,’ offer public or private funding to enable families to send their children to private school.

Research in 1970s and 80s by James Coleman and his colleagues showed a private school advantage in student achievement and graduation rates, in comparison to traditional public schools. Competing evidence was presented by Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Lubienski in 2013, …

School Climate: A Comparison Of Teachers, Students, And Parents, James A. Jacobs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the benefits of positive school climate and to measure the perceptions of school climate for intermediate grades in a Northeast Tennessee School district. An online school climate survey was used to collect responses from participants in intermediate grades and focused on the 3 major components of school climate: school engagement, school environment, and school safety. Data were collected for 2 consecutive years in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. Response totals included 1,955 student responses, 116 teacher responses, and 210 parent responses that were analyzed and used for this study. Of the student totals, some students that …

Promoting And Establishing An Effective Campus-Wide Academic Advising System, Katie Kerr

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

This study explored the role of directors of campus-wide academic advising programs and their contributions to promoting and establishing effective campus-wide academic advising systems. Specifically, directors of campus-wide academic advising addressed how they engaged academic units within a unified campus-wide advising system. This included an exploration of how academic advising organizational structures in higher education institutions and leadership styles of directors of campus-wide advising contributed to the effectiveness of their work. Three themes materialized from this study: (a) emergence of the position of director of campus-wide advising, (b) advising organizational structure and culture, and (c) leadership strategies of directors of …

How Intra-District School Choice And Competition Among Schools Impacts School Leadership: A Case Study Of Secondary School Principals, Chris Kohan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, explanatory case study was to describe how traditional, magnet, and charter school principals in one Delaware school district responded to an environment of total school choice and how they made sense of their roles as a principal in the era of school choice. Hess’s (2010) organizational theory was the theoretical foundation for this study as selective enrollment schools, such as magnet and charter schools, would have direct and indirect effects on traditional schools The research questions for this study were: (a) How do traditional, magnet, and charter school principals make sense of the competition generated …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The Current State Of Observation And Feedback In The Seminaries And Institutes Of Religion Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Christopher B. Garner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While the Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (S&I) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expect supervisors of teachers to observe teachers regularly and provide feedback, they have not provided those supervisors with adequate training materials, or explained how these supervisors are expected to accomplish this.

For this study, three administrators and three teachers were interviewed about their experiences with observation and feedback in S&I. Their responses provided clarification on the purposes of observation and feedback, revealed that a lack of supervisor training has resulted in teachers’ experiences with observation and feedback being different from administrator’s expectations in …

Historical Analysis Of Leadership Theory In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints And Its Educational System, Kevin D. Whitehead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An organization’s leadership theory acts as a collection of primary guiding characteristics which influence its identity and direction. Developing leaders has always been important for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historically, the Church has promoted leadership ideals for all its members through various aspects of its doctrine and organization. This study provides an analysis of multiple leadership texts produced by the ecclesiastical and educational wings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study helps to reveal how Latter-day Saint leadership theory has developed over time. This study considers the unfolding of Latter-day Saint leadership …

Understanding Disinterest: How Online Undergraduate Students Perceive And Respond To Disengaged Faculty Members, Blake Clifford

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this interpretative, qualitative study was to discover reasons students participating in asynchronous online undergraduate courses perceive faculty as disinterested, the significance of this perception, and how students respond to disinterested faculty. Online education continues to evolve and change how students learn and how online undergraduate students perceive and respond to faculty members. With these changes, understanding which elements influence and impact the success of online undergraduate students becomes more complex. The distinctive social context of virtual learning environments often contributes to online students characterizing faculty as disengaged. Online students often have limited opportunities to interact directly with …

The Persistence Of Community College Students: A Single Site Case Study, Michael K. Blanchard

All Theses And Dissertations

Only 22% of all students who enroll in community colleges complete an associate degree within three years, and only 16% of students at urban community colleges earn a degree in the same time frame. Community college administrators recognize that a majority of their student population desires to earn a degree, but many lack the knowledge, skills, and support to complete college. The purpose of this single site qualitative case study was to understand how community college students perceive wraparound services and how these services impact students’ persistence. Deil-Amen (2011) was used as the theoretical underpinning for this study. The setting …

The Knowledge And Perceptions Of Generational Cohorts Of K-5 Elementary Educators Who Use Technology For Teaching And Learning, Zachary A. Fodor

All Theses And Dissertations

This study examined the perceptions and knowledge of generational cohorts (Baby Boomer, Generation X, and/or Millennials) of elementary (K-5) educators regarding the use of technology for teaching and learning. The remarkable pace of the transition to digital-age learning environments has made it challenging for schools to build sustainable, program-wide systems for the purposeful use of educational technology during instruction (Stevens & South, 2016). This underscores the need for schools to prepare staff from every generational cohort to be confident, experienced, and ready to lead with technology in their classrooms (Stevens & South, 2016). The first research question was how do …

An Examination Of Concussion Understanding Among Parents Of High School Female Student Athletes, Kelly Hartley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Few online concussion education programs have been developed specifically for parents, and those that have been tend to neglect the fact that concussion rates are higher in female rather than male student athletes (Donaldson et al., 2016; Macdonald & Hauber, 2016; Williamson et al., 2014). This quantitative study is important because it addressed gaps in the concussion education literature. The purpose of this study was to examine whether concussion symptoms knowledge and general youth sports-related concussion knowledge was significantly higher among parents of female student athletes who watched the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Heads Up concussion videos (intervention …

A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Of Novice Teachers Administrative Support Experiences In High-Poverty High-Minority Rural South Carolina Schools, Celestine Lavan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to develop a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of novice teachers who remain teaching in high-poverty, high-minority rural schools in South Carolina in relation to the administrative support they received. The research questions guiding this study are: (1) How do novice teachers describe their administrative support experiences in high-poverty, high-minority schools? (2) How do novice teachers in high-poverty, high-minority rural schools describe administrative emotional and social support experiences? (3) How do novice teachers in high-poverty, high-minority rural schools describe administrative instructional support experiences in high-poverty, high-minority rural schools? This study intended …