Educational Leadership Commons^™

The Impact Of Shared Leadership On A Career And Technical Education Campus, Samantha Lee Ward

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Programs of career and technical education (CTE) have grown in popularity across the U.S; over 7.5 million students enrolled in one or more CTE courses during the 2013-14 school year (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2017). With millions of students enrolled in these courses, it is imperative that school curriculum remains up-to-date and aligned with industry practices. School districts must adapt to changes occurring in business organizations so that CTE programs remain relevant for graduates looking to enter the workforce (Scott, Annexstein, Ordover, Esters, Bowen, & Reeve, 2003). Businesses increasingly are utilizing teams (Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009; Pearce …

Capturing The Impact Of Career And Technical Education Participation On Graduation Likelihood, Jeffrey Shawn Seeton

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Graduation rate is a common measure of public school system productivity. Previous literature indicates some of the characteristics known to be associated with disparities in graduation rates include associations of race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and English language learner/proficiency status. In Texas, the graduation gap facing historically marginalized populations of students continues to present a problem for educators, citizens, policy makers, and society as a whole. Industry input, future earning potential, and potential future employment can play a significant role in most learners’ decisions. The integration of work-based learning with a streamlined curriculum can lead to higher wages after high …

Baccalaureate Attainment In Stemcommunity College Transfer Students’ Success In Stem Fields Of Study: The Impact Of Engagement On Baccalaureate Degree Attainment, Trang Van Dinh

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

This study focused on community college transfer students and sought to determine the extent to which their baccalaureate degree attainment in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields of study can be predicted by their demographic characteristics, precollege academic preparation, and their engagement in a wide range of domains while in college. The study used data drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002) to examine the demographic background and college experiences of 1,761 community college transfer students. Astin’s (1993) theory of involvement, or the Input-Environment-Output (I-E-O) model, was adopted as the guiding theoretical framework. In this study, the input variables …

What Motivates Secondary Social Studies Teachers To Be Politically Active: A Phenomenological Study, Tracey E. Louth

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Members of countries with democratic governments rely on the political involvement of its citizens to elect individuals to positions of power as well as to approve legislative initiatives that are presented for voter approval on ballots (Hahm, 2000; Mayer, 2011). However, voting is just one of many examples of political activity (Wiltfang & McAdams, 1991). This qualitative study was designed to address a gap in the research by analyzing factors that motivated secondary, social studies teachers to become politically active. Teachers are overwhelmingly absent from political activities other than voting (National Teacher Association, 2010). Even though they teach a subject …

The Attitudes And Social Identity Of Faculty After Participating In Interprofessional Education, Andrea Kessler

All Theses And Dissertations

Interprofessional education (IPE) is a global initiative to prepare pre-licensure health professional students for health care team collaboration (WHO, 2010). However, many barriers limit IPE development in academia, including academic structure and faculty participation. The purpose of this study is to better understand how participation in IPE programs affects faculty social identity and their attitudes toward IPE curriculum inclusion. The use of social identity theory and transformational learning theory conceptually guide the research process. This multiple-case study collected data from the interviews of eight faculty representing various entry-level health professions from three universities. Each participant had experience in at least …

The Nurse’S Story: A Qualitative Study Of How Nurses Experience Caring For Patients Who Die Unexpectedly, Shantel Sullivan

All Theses And Dissertations

The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of compassion fatigue among nurse professionals in order to examine natural grieving reactions and how they potentially change nurses’ lives. The focus of this study included nurse professionals working in rural community hospitals in Upstate New York. The nurse professionals in the study were exclusively those who identify and practice as registered nurses (RN). The nurses were asked to share their experiences of repetitive exposure to critical incidents (unexpected outcomes, mass casualties, and/or death of infant/child/young adult). Purposive sampling was utilized as a means to select participants. The …

Professional Growth: Informal Peer Observation, Carolyn A. Clark

All Theses And Dissertations

The practice of peer observation has recently gained attention as educational and political leaders examine teacher effectiveness. Prior research studies about peer observation were mostly conducted in secondary universities or in schools where this practice was voluntary. Since this practice has recently become mandated, this qualitative case study examined how teachers perceived the experience of informal peer observation in relation to their professional growth. The study was conducted in a Pre-K-8 public school for three months while teachers participated in informal peer observation rounds. When teachers completed their informal peer observation, they filled out the peer observation documentation forms and …

Exploring Self-Authorship In Post-Traditional Students: A Narrative Study In Students’ Meaning-Making, Lisa Wardlaw Myers

All Theses And Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the narratives of ten post-traditional students enrolled in a degree completion program in a small, regional public university. The narratives provide insight of post-traditional students and their experiences with self-authorship: a way of knowing that empowers people to skillfully navigate life from consciously constructed epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal paradigms. The findings in this study revealed that 6 of 10 of the participants demonstrated decision-making at lower levels of self-authorship, with half those indicating movement toward self-authorship and the other half exhibiting no indication of self-authorship. The participants also demonstrated the same patterns of self-authorship development as …

Professional School Counselors And High School Graduation : Does Assigned School Counselor Correlate With Students' Rate Of Graduation?, Dawn Marie Horton

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

High school counselors are coming under increased pressure to demonstrate both their effectiveness in supporting individual students’ success in school and their ability to provide effective comprehensive school counseling programs. The evidence based research on effective school counseling practices is limited, and additional research is needed to assist practitioners in their work. An important area of concern is the work school counselors do to assist students in achieving graduation. Limited research has been focused on whether school counselors actually impact their students’ graduation rates. In this current research, the graduation rates of students assigned to school counselors were examined to …

Understanding The Counselor Experience When Working With End Of Life Clients, Connie S. Ducaine

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This was a qualitative study exploring the experiences of counselors working with clients who are coping with an advanced illness and approaching end of life. The study focused on the risks and benefits of fostering relationships with end of life clients, with an emphasis on how these practitioners process their experiences. While supporting clients at end of life, these professionals often were impacted by the deaths of people who they had worked with for varying lengths of time.

The findings suggest that these counselors experienced many of the same issues that have been documented by other helping professions, and that …

Teaching Mindful Awareness Skills To Middle School Students And Its Relationship To Student Engagement With School And Student Test Anxiety, Kathy Shoemaker

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study examined the relationship between teaching mindful awareness skills to middle school students and both student engagement and test anxiety. The moderating effects of certain cultural characteristics (gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status [SES], English as a second language [ESL], and disability status) on the relationship between teaching mindful awareness skills and both student engagement and test anxiety was also examined. A quasi-experimental pre-/post-test research design with a control group was employed. The Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM), the Healthy Self-Regulation Scale (HSR), the Student School Engagement Measure (SSEM), and the brief version of the FRIEDBEN Test Anxiety …

The Impact Of Teacher-Student Relationships And Classroom Engagement On Student Growth Percentiles Of 7th And 8th Grade Students In One Rural School In Southwest Georgia, Dave Dennie

Theses and Dissertations

A number of states throughout the United States, including Georgia, are implementing a relatively new metric, student growth percentiles, as part of teacher and leader evaluations. Student growth plays a tremendous role in evaluations, accounting for up to 50% of a teacher or leader evaluations, yet there is little to no peer reviewed research on classroom factors that influence student growth percentiles. This quantitative study examined the extent that teacher-student relationships influenced basic psychological needs, engagement, and student growth using the Self-systems Process Model as a framework using structural equation modeling. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that context …

Perceptions Of Value Of Faculty Toward Doctoral Programs In Outdoor Adventure Education, Koby Garick

Theses and Dissertations

The researcher’s purpose for this dissertation was to determine how and why doctoral programs in outdoor adventure education (OAE) related fields (which included, leisure studies, park, recreation, tourism, and therapeutic recreation) operated, how the programs were financed, what the value of the programs were, and what makes the programs unique. The researcher conducted a detailed review of the literature. Then the researcher surveyed and interviewed doctoral program chairs in OAE related programs.

Fourteen schools were identified by the researcher as having OAE related doctoral programs. The researcher solicited survey responses from the doctoral program chairs of the schools’ and received …

To What Extent Do General Education Elementary Teachers Perceive They Are Prepared To Teach Students With Disabilities?, Susan Fuller Elder

Theses and Dissertations

The passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2010 brought many changes to classes but it did not bring changes to the way teachers were trained. Many teacher preparation programs only required one exceptional child course for general education teachers. This dissertation analyzed the data gathered from 12 elementary, general education teachers on their perception of their preparedness to teach students with disabilities in their general education classrooms. The participants’ perceptions of preparedness were evaluated in regards to their pre-service training and their post-service, in-service, and professional development. The interviewees responses to this study demonstrated the need for …

Effects Of Developing Edtpa As A Teaching Portfolio On Pre-Service Teachers' Self-Efficacy In A Teacher Preparation Program, Pam Wetherington

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of developing edTPA as a teaching portfolio on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy, specifically their perceptions of confidence related to the edTPA’s constructs of planning, instruction, and assessment within a tied-to-licensure state. The researcher employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to study the effects and experiences for developing edTPA as a teaching portfolio. Three repeated measures ANCOVAs were conducted to determine the change in pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy after developing the edTPA teaching portfolio while controlling for the cooperating teachers’ support of pre-service teachers’ planning, instruction, and assessment decisions and practices. The …

Novice Teachers: Using Professional Development To Discover Whether They Continue To Use The Behavior Management Strategies Taught In The Undergraduate Program, Katherine O. Barnetson

Theses and Dissertations

The need for supporting novice teachers is not a theoretical concept, it is a real concept. Teacher education programs are preparing and graduating new teachers at a fast rate, however; these new teachers are also leaving the profession at staggering rates (Clark, 2012). According to Ingersoll (2012), between 40% and 50% of all new teachers in the United States leave the profession in the first five years. This research was designed to study teacher professional development with novice special education teachers as they move from a teacher preparation program to a full-time teaching position. The participants for this study included …

Role Model Stories That Unite Children Of Oaxacan Immigrants, Erica Juarez Lopez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through my internship at Castroville Library Homework Center I endure power by telling stories to unite with children of Oaxacan immigrants while helping them with homework. Dacher Keltner power principles helped me have a trusting communication to learn the success and struggles in the children of Oaxacan immigrant’s education.

Implementation Of A Standards-Based Grading Model: A Study Of Parent And Teacher Perceptions Of Success, Amber Dee Wheeler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of parents and teachers regarding the success of a standards-based grading initiative in meeting its goals. Furthermore, findings from this study will be used to inform decisions made in future grade level implementations. Standards-based grading meets all criteria for a problem of practice. The literature situates standards-based grading as a high impact strategy that can affect the entire system. This mixed-methods study will be used to determine practical changes for a school implementing standards-based grading. This study found parents positively responded to the change, and parents understood their child’s current …

Factors Contributing To The Problem Of Student Absenteeism In A Rural School, Angela Denean Durborow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student attendance would seem to be a vital link in measuring student success in school. If students are not in school, they miss instruction from the teacher. Without instruction it seems incredibly difficult to complete the work needed to pass classes and be successful in school. The research explored the problem of practice of student absenteeism in a rural school. The study was conducted using mixed methods research methodology, specifically a sequential mixed methods research design. The research questions were as follows: (1) What explicit or implicit messages are parents and the school sending about school attendance? (2) What is …

On The Right Track: Exploring Influences Contributing To Successful Track-Switching Of Indians Working For A U.S. Company, Rose-Marie Speck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how Indian managers assessed the influences leading to their transition from technician to manager when working for a company in the U.S. This study was based on interviews with fifteen Indian managers who had track-switched from a technical job to a management position in the U.S. in a U.S. company. The interviewees were asked five questions about what they believed made them successful in track-switching, and the consensus among interviewees was that for a technician to track-switch effectively, the technician had to have excellent technical skills. In addition to technical skills, the …