Secondary Education Commons^™

Investigation Into The Reasons For Secondary School Dropouts In Iceland, Austin S. Seepersad

Student Works

The purpose of this investigation is to examine different facets of Iceland’s culture to determine the reasons for its high secondary schools' dropout rates. This study deconstructs what factors in a Nordic society affect academic performance. Reviewing literature on the subject yielded potential factors such as childhood health and parental behaviors, Iceland’s abundance of accessible jobs, and the low accessibility for higher education in rural parts of Iceland. A limited number of personal interviews and firsthand observations indicated that most secondary school dropouts were due to a lack of family support and incentive – especially for male students, due to …

Purposeful Explorers: Adolescents Finding Their Purposes In A Catholic High School, Brandy P. Quinn

Journal of Catholic Education

Contemporary research about purpose suggests that adolescents benefit in multiple ways when they develop purpose, and at the same time, that many adolescents are not purposeful. Adolescents in Catholic high schools may receive a unique set of contextual supports that help them develop a sense of purpose and understand what that purpose is. This study was designed to understand the content and organization of purpose for young adolescents during their first year in a Catholic high school. The sample included 153 ninth grade students from a Catholic high school in the United States (M age at T1 = 14.02 …

High School Options And Post-Secondary Student Success: The Catholic School Advantage, David J. Fleming, Stéphane Lavertu, William Crawford

Journal of Catholic Education

Recognizing that post-secondary student attainment and achievement is of increasing import for economic success, this study compares the post-secondary performance of students who attended public and private high schools. The results generally indicate that students who attended Catholic high schools had higher college GPAs, were more likely to graduate, and were more likely to graduate with a STEM degree. This Catholic school advantage was wide-ranging, benefiting many subgroups of students, including non-white, low income, urban, and low-achieving students. We controlled for a rich set of factors and conducted sensitivity analyses to establish the strength of these results.

Infographic: Indicators Of Student Engagement, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

The Western Australian Government recently surveyed 1812 students across Years 3 to 12 on student engagement. Here, we look at some of the results of this survey for students in Years 7 to 12.

Conceptualizing Latina/O College-Going Behavior In High School, Victor B. Saenz Ph.D., Anna P. Drake Ph.D., Claudia Garcia-Louis Ph.D., Wonsun J. Ryu, Luis Ponjuan Ph.D.

Journal of College Access

This study examined the influence of participation in school and extracurricular activities on Latino males’ intention to pursue a bachelor’s degree in relation to their Latina peers. Using nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study data from 2012, researchers developed two factors and three dichotomous variables focused on academic, non-academic, or pre-college activities and ran multivariate regression models to determine the effect on intention to pursue a bachelor’s degree. After accounting for background characteristics, being female retained a strong positive effect on intention to pursue a bachelor’s degree. Two factors were positively associated with Latino males’ bachelor’s degree intention: Hours on …

Sharing Identity: Indexing Cultural Perspectives Through Writing Responses To Graphic Novels, Alex Romagnoli

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Indexing identity through writing responses among ELL students in response to a graphic novel helps provide insight into how writing responses represent people and how graphic novels can aid in that process of self-discovery through their inherent multimodalities. This study takes looks at four students in an ELL class at an urban high school in southern Pennsylvania as they responded in writing to a portion of Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City (2006). All of the participants took events from the portion of the graphic novel provided to them and indexed their urban, cultural perspectives through their …

Secondary Teacher Education Program Redesign As A Community Of Practice, Patrick D. Hales, Jennifer Kampmann, Andrew Stremmel

School of Education, Counseling and Human Development

A recurring problem in university teacher education programs is the lack of connection between what teacher candidates do in coursework and what they practice in classroom field placements. This article describes the efforts of the secondary teacher education program (STEP) faculty in the College of Education and Human Sciences at South Dakota State University to redesign their coursework and field experiences into a residency program to better address the development of teacher candidates and needs of school districts. The authors reflect upon their efforts using a Communities of Practice framework. There are implications in the redesign process for teacher education …

The Effects Of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning On Sense Of Connectedness, Sense Of Learning, And Overall Sense Of Community Among High School Students Enrolled In A Marketing Course, Rebecca R. Streetman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative static group study was to determine the effects of computer-supported collaborative learning on sense of community, sense of connectedness, and sense of learning for students in a high school Marketing Principles course. Sense of community pertains to feelings of belonging and is important to the learning process because it can foster shared positive experiences in the classroom setting. Both collaborative learning and computer-based instruction have been researched extensively and their benefits noted; however, this study is important because it focuses on combining the two into what is known as computer-supported collaborative learning. The independent variable …

Returning To Class: A Phenomenology Of Former High School Dropouts' Pursuit Of Higher Learning, Sean Englert

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of former high school dropouts who have completed their high school credential through an adult education program and are enrolled in a postsecondary program of study at a technical college, community college, or four-year university in a state located in the southern United States. The two guiding theories of this study were the theory of multiple intelligences as it related to learning and student engagement, and transformative learning theory as it related to the participants’ changed perspective regarding their own learning. The research questions of the study were: …

The Impact Of Mental Health Issues On Academic Achievement In High School Students, Patricia Lea Sutherland

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

An adolescent’s time in school is not merely academic; they are developing socially, physically, and emotionally. Prior research has demonstrated a correlation between a student’s poor academic performance and his/her need for emotional and mental health support. This research project sought to answer the following research questions: 1) Do mental health services in a high school setting help facilitate students’ academic achievement? and 2) Does a focus on mental health issues improve overall health and well-being in high school students? Participants for this study are 10 staff members (including teachers, administrators, counselors, and others) of a high school in San …

Digital Natives' Perceptions On Feeling Understood By Teachers: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Informing 21st Century Education, Dennis D. Perez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the academic and social experiences of digital natives at Patrick Harrison High School (pseudonym) located in southern California. The research questions addressing the study were: (a) What are digital natives’ academic and social experiences; (b) How does feeling understood by teachers shape digital natives’ learning experiences; and (c) How does the use of social media, the Internet and digital devices contribute to 21st-century education as perceived by digital natives? Prensky’s (2001) theory on digital nativity, Gordon’s (1988) theory on feeling understood, and Vygotsky’s (1978) constructivist learning views informed the study. …

The Use Of Student Feedback In Teacher Development, Lawrence Jarocki

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of master teachers, administrators, and teacher trainers about the content of Student Evaluations of Teachers (SET) in California high schools. This study also sought to reach a consensus among experts concerning how SETs can be used both in teacher evaluations and in professional development practices and content at the secondary level.

Methodology: A classical Delphi method was utilized to collect perceptual data from a panel of California master teachers, administrators, and teacher trainers that met specific criteria regarding their education, involvement in their professional communities, and their role training …

My Cct Journey To Become A History Teacher And Creativity And Art In A Facing History Classroom - The Holocaust And Human Behavior Curriculum, Amy Mclaughlin-Hatch

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

: I did not always know I wanted to be a history teacher. I arrived at this place by taking a circuitous route and coming full circle three times in my journey of self-discovery. Obtaining my master’s degree after choosing to be a stay at home mother and discovering my professional identity was challenging. My family had been one of the pioneers in the charter school movement in the mid-1990’s and my children enrolled in the Ben Franklin Classical Charter Public School (BFCCPS). The experience sparked my desire to have a career in education. I became a parent leader and …

Reflection And Growth In Teaching: Designing And Implementing A High School Biology And Society Course Using Action Research, Bradley J. Kozel

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The world that we live in is constantly changing and educational systems need to reflect these changes. High stakes testing, stress and anxiety in students, and smartphones in the classroom are all aspects of current schools that move us away from authentic learning. Student choice in education, pursuing answers to real world questions and developing critical and creative thinking skills upends this existing paradigm. To achieve this, teachers must turn to the most important work, which is to know each student and give them agency in their education. Teachers no longer need to occupy the center stage of the classroom …

Meaning And Purpose In Adolescent Education: How Educators Can Help Adolescents Develop Purpose And Use It To Maximize Meaningfulness In Their Lives, Andrew L. Smith

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This capstone project serves as the culmination of my inquiry throughout the Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) program, a graduate program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. It focuses in the area of adolescent education, relying primarily on relevant research and personal narrative reflection. The more pedagogical lines of inquiry draw from my experience as a school administrator in addition to my work in the CCT program. The central thesis is that an ideal aim of adolescent education is to help students develop and articulate a clear statement of purpose. That by doing so, students may leverage the powerful intrinsic …

Teacher Decision-Making: Using Hypothetical Vignettes To Examine The Course Recommendation Process, Philip E. Bernhardt

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Academic tracking is common in American schools. While the impact of this practice on students is well documented, few studies closely examine the influence of teacher decision-making on students’ academic trajectories. This article discusses a study examining how teachers recommend students for high- and low-track academic classes. Specific attention is paid to data collected through participant analysis of hypothetical vignettes. This unique methodology was specifically designed to illuminate the dynamics shaping participants’ decision-making process. The key finding of this study is that participants experienced high levels of autonomy when making recommendations. This autonomy, however, did not emanate from recognition of …

A Descriptive Study Of School Climate And School Culture In Selected Public Secondary Schools In New Jersey And New York, James A. Horton Jr.

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this study was to describe the school climate and school culture in selected public secondary Priority Schools, Focus Schools, and Reward Schools in New Jersey and New York. This study used the United States Department of Education’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver definition to identify Priority Schools, Focus Schools, and Reward Schools. The grades ranged from ninth to twelfth grade. The lists of schools were identified from the 2016 New Jersey Department of Education and the New York State Education Department lists of Priority Schools, Focus Schools, and Reward Schools (NJDOE, 2016; NYSED, 2016). …

Catholic Identity In Edmund Rice Christian Brother Schools In The United States, Thomas R. Leto

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Over the past 25 years, if not longer, the number of vowed religious priests, brothers, and sisters actively teaching and administering in Catholic elementary and secondary schools has decreased dramatically. One might say that they are a vanishing breed, and the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers are no exception. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how the Church’s Catholic identity is strengthened, communicated, and remains vibrant in schools and ministries currently under the care and sponsorship of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. It is important to assess the Catholic identity of the schools under the Brothers’ care while determining …

Exploring Parental Involvement In Public Secondary Schools In Imo State, Nigeria: The Role Of Socioeconomic Status, Longinus Nwakire Ugwuegbulem

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Recent academic achievement gaps of public secondary students in Imo State, in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB examinations posed a threat to students’ aspiration to college education. The poor academic achievement level was denting previously achieved high academic record in Imo State. This trend was disturbing to parents and educators. However, this trend could be remedied if appropriate educational policy was enacted and implemented in secondary schools. One educational policy initiative that seemed to have worked in some countries is parents’ participation in their children’s education, otherwise, called “parental involvement.” Studies have shown that parental involvement in the education of their …

Why Parents In San Bernardino Choose Public Charter Schools Over Traditional Public Schools, Robert Moss

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the attributes of public charter schools considered important for the selection of a charter school as perceived by the parents of charter school students. A second purpose of this study was to identify the sources parents used to inform their decision to enroll their child in a charter school.

Methodology. This qualitative study was accomplished by interviewing parents of public charter school students in three districts within San Bernardino County. The interview consisted of nine open-ended questions and each interview was recorded to ensure accuracy of …