Digital Commons Network^™

Strategies For Creating A Unique Culture In Preparation For Campus Relocation: A Process Evaluation, Dana Ague

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The relationship between a college and its founding church changed as the college developed its liberal arts programs and leaders sought to create an independent new culture from the church. Using Clark's organizational saga framework, the purpose of this study was to assess the effects of culture change on this institution. The research questions examined strategies that leaders used to transition the campus to its new reality. A formative, qualitative, process-oriented evaluation was used to collect interview data from 22 institutional leaders and other key stakeholders; data were also collected from institutional documents. The data were then coded and analyzed …

Individualized Consideration: Poverty Countermeasure, Lawrence Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite more than $1 trillion spent annually on poverty remediation, impoverishment in the United States persists unabated. With a U.S. poverty rate greater than 10% for more than 4 decades, economics are neither poverty's cause nor cure. As such, non-economic poverty remedies require exploration and expansion. Linking greater leadership and poverty theories, this non-experimental, cross sectional, quantitative, survey-based research effort correlated individualized consideration's (IC) practice with collegiate athlete graduation rates in order to identify and isolate possible leadership based social poverty remediation measures. Leveraging a two-stage random sample, this research effort correlated student athlete Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (form 5X) responses …

How Do District Level And Building Level Leaders Collaborate To Implement Mandated Change?, Gwendolyn Zimmermann

Dissertations

This research study examined how school leaders, in particular the associate superintendent of curriculum and a junior high school principal, in the same district collaborated to plan for and implement mandated change. In this research study, the mandated change was that of the State's adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

This study utilized a case study methodology. The case study included one case of an associate superintendent of curriculum for the district and a junior high school principal located in suburban Cook County bounded within the timeframe of August 2012 to October 2013. The district identified had …

A Correlation Study Of Leadership Indicators And Literacy Outcomes: Examining A State Adopted Leadership Assessment Model, Abigail Deann Woods

Theses and Dissertations

In an attempt to shed light on the possible impact certain leadership practices might have on student outcomes in literacy, this research considers the relationship of selected effective leadership traits and their impact on the implementation of a literacy intervention program. If it is true that all schools' have as their primary goal to prepare students for the rigorous learning, reading and analyzing required that is expected to be successful in the future, then examining the role that leadership might have on that goal remains important. Further, it is the hope that this analysis might further educators' understanding on the …

Students' Perceptions And Experiences Of A Diversity And Inclusion Training Program At A Community College, Norma I. Corral-Chandler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A community college developed a diversity and inclusion training program, Maximizing Our Strengths as an Inclusive Community (MOSAIC), to address the lack of diversity training for students and staff. However, the program had not been evaluated. The purpose of this study was to learn about students' perceptions and experiences of the MOSAIC program. Guided by theories of constructivism and components of critical race theory related to critical studies in Whiteness, social identity theory, and best practices for diversity and inclusion training, this study explored how students described the effectiveness of the program. Interview data for this responsive program evaluation using …

Combining Appreciative Inquiry And Emotional Intelligence To Understand And Improve The Professional Development Of K-12 Teachers, Jamie Elizabeth Dewitt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Creating meaningful and effective professional development (PD) programs for K-12 teachers is an ongoing challenge. The problem is exacerbated when PD models are implemented without fully aligning PD resources and plans with the training needs of teachers and the organization. The guiding question sought to understand the experiences of teachers at an online charter school about the implementation of PD as a means for improving student outcomes. The purpose of the study was to find ways to enhance PD in order to improve student outcomes at the school. The conceptual framework for this study is interwoven through the constructs of …

Teaching Experience And Perceived Challenges For School Administrators Regarding Job Stress, Respect, Student Achievement, Assessment & Evaluation, And Professional Development, Erika H. Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate whether an administrators’ professional teaching background and years of administrative experience influence their perceptions of the opportunities and challenges they face guiding the improvement of teaching and learning. Specifically this research analyzed administrators’ perceptions of level of stress, respect among colleagues and school community, professional development, student achievement, and assessment and evaluation. Participants in this study consisted of Tennessee and North Carolina principals, assistant principals, and associate principals within a 60 mile radius of the East Tennessee State University campus. Data were collected through an online survey system, Survey Monkey. The …

Educational Leadership Program Emergent Design As Experienced By The Greene-King Cohort At East Tennessee State University, Brian S. Cinnamon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine perceptions of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) cohort members on the experience of redesigning the leadership preparation program requirements. Particularly, cohort participants in the Greene-King cohort were chosen by an admission process to participate in a grant program as governed by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in partnership with ETSU and local school agencies in Greeneville and Kingsport. The ETSU Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) in the Claudius G. Clemmer College of Education collaborated with Kingsport City and Greeneville City school districts to redesign educational leadership …

The Making Of Nova Southeastern University: A Tradition Of Innovation, 1964-2014, Julian M. Pleasants

NSU Books and Book Chapters

Nova Southeastern University is a flourishing university with a fascinating past. Arising from the shared dream of local community businessmen in Broward County, Florida, the university was chartered in 1964. At the time, it had no buildings to its name--just an empty plot of land and a dedicated group of visionary advocates.

On the fiftieth anniversary of NSU’s founding, this book tells the amazing story of what is now one of the largest not-for-profit universities in the United States. Today, Nova Southeastern University serves more than 27,000 students and has produced more than 150,000 alumni. Its main campus in Fort …

A Framework For Linking Organizational Climate And The Adaptation Of Elearning Methodologies At Colleges And Universities, Christopher Washington

Scholarship Forum 2013

Recent educational transformation efforts employ advances in information technology to augment face-to-face teaching methods and pedagogies. Nearly 70% of U.S. higher educational institutions reported online learning as critical to their longterm strategy, and the proportion of students in the U.S. taking at least one online course is at an all-time high. These eLearning initiatives stem from a variety of motivations including increasing access to education, accelerating learning in difficult subjects, and reducing instructional cost to individuals and society. Most chief academic officers at universities rate the learning outcomes for online education “as good as or better” than those for face-to-face …

Addressing Uncertainty During Workplace Change: Communication And Sense-Making, Richard Parsells

Administrative Issues Journal

Change is a commonplace occurrence in today’s organizations. In order to survive in an extremely competitive marketplace, organizations and their employees undergo change frequently. The ability to manage change and to learn from this experience is now viewed as a key competency for sustainable competitiveness in most business markets. However, while change management processes are employed and followed, a high percentage of change efforts are judged to be unsuccessful by upper management. Moreover, a number of scholars suggest that communication strategies during organizational change are an important element to the success of a change initiative, yet such strategies are not …

Action Items, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Overview of action items handled by the Graduate Council.

Leading The Charge: A Multiple Case Study Of Presidential Perceptions Of Essential Leadership Characteristics For The 21st Century Community College, B Jeanne Bonner

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

Leadership of 21^st century community colleges is more demanding today than at any other time. Community colleges are faced with an array of challenges previously unimagined, generally resulting from the impact of concurrent socio-economic changes, competing demands from various college constituencies, growing complexity of the leadership role of the community college president, and increasing competition for scarce resources in the face of the continuing decline of funding support. Thus, the leadership role of the community college president has never been more difficult, nor more critical.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the leadership skills and …

Designing Innovative Alternatives To Traditional High Schools: What Leaders Need To Know, Chester Roy Edwards

Dissertations and Theses

The need for new and innovative alternatives to traditional high schools has never been greater. Never designed to graduate all students on time, traditional high schools and their high dropout rates have remained unchanged for the last 30 years. Improving secondary schooling for all young people is a worthwhile social and educational objective. Many school leaders want to create alternative high schools but may lack the knowledge of what to do, nor may they have a comprehensive design process to follow.

The research question explored in this dissertation is: What do leaders in education need to know to design innovative …

A Data-Based Evaluation Process For Superintendents, Matthew Shane Baker

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Matthew Shane Balker on April 16, 2013.

The Role Of The Community College President In Fundraising: Perceptions Of Selected Michigan Community College Presidents, Matthew W. Miller

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

This multiple case study examines the role of the community college president in fundraising as perceived by selected Michigan community college presidents. Over the past few decades, fundraising from private sources has become increasingly important in the fiscal landscape of community colleges. Pfeffer and Salancik’s (1978) work in resource dependence theory provides a theoretical framework for this study. In a resource dependent environment, community colleges are changing their activities in an effort to pursue alternative revenue sources. Using a qualitative approach, data from interviews were analyzed to examine the perspectives of four presidents regarding their overall leadership role in fundraising …

Structuring A Teacher Education Program For Faculty Collaboration And Second-Order Change, Tammy V. Abernathy, Shanon S. Taylor

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure and functions of an integrated elementary special education undergraduate teacher program (Integrated Elementary/Special Education Teacher Education Program, ITEP). By abandoning our old “enhancement model” of teacher education, we redesigned our program into a “merged model.” We examine this restructuring from the perspective of first- and second- order change, and we discuss the obstacles we found that prohibit meaningful second-order change. Finally, we briefly discuss how our experiences in designing ITEP and our state’s devastating fiscal crisis have affected our teacher-education programs and nudged us into more authentic second-order changes.

Leadership For Change: Insights Gleaned From One District’S Implementation Of An Educational Innovation, Crystal V. Shelby-Caffey Ph.D., Ronald A. Caffey Ph.D.

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

The research reported here is extracted from a larger study aimed at describing the challenges and barriers to implementing the two way immersion (TWI) program at Stark Elementary School (a pseudonym). While Stark’s TWI program is used as the backdrop for the current discussion the perspective taken here is to examine the actions (and lack of action in some instances) of Stark’s administrators and describe how those actions impacted other stakeholders and led to challenges during the implementation process. The findings illuminate the need for leaders to gain support for proposed changes while maintaining dialogue with stakeholders and developing other …

It's Not To Be Discussed: Safety, Acceptance, And Professional Development For Lgbtq Faculty At A Large Southeastern University, Jessie Barnett, Jessica Legge Muilenburg, Corey W. Johnson, Jennifer Miracle

Journal of Higher Education & Student Affairs

Studies show that a discriminatory, unsafe university environment negatively impacts educators identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of safety, acceptance, and professional development from LGBTQ faculty at a Southeastern university. LGBTQfaculty (n=21) completed an online survey with open-ended questions. Analysis of detailed responses using the constant comparative method resulted in six themes, including: Identity management in the work place, repercussions of identity disclosure on career trajectory, and lack of support from university administration. These themes are illustrated using participant data and then used to provide recommendations for change.

Alternative Education: A Comparative Case Study Of The Behavior Modification Programs Of Two Upstate South Carolina Alternative Schools For Youth Who Exhibit Behavior That Is Disruptive, Timothy Lamont Scipio

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined behavior modification programs in schools designed to focus on discipline and that aim to reform disruptive behavior in students, usually over a limited period of time. This was a comparative case study of two type II alternative schools in the Upstate of South Carolina. The findings contributed to the research base regarding the practical implementation of the essential components for an effective behavior modification program in type II alternative schools. The primary research question was used to guide the study to discover the most effective components within the behavior modification program used by two leaders of Type …

Program Planning, Prioritizing, And Improvement: A Simple Heuristic, Peter Felten, Deandra Little, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, Michael Reder

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

As educational developers working with multiple constituencies and demands on our time, how can we efficiently and creatively improve our programming and prioritize our efforts? In this chapter, we offer a simple heuristic to prompt quick yet generative examination of our goals or programs in relationship to three key characteristics of effective educa tional development on three different institutional levels. We then describe uses and applications of the tool and reflective process, which allow developers to efficiently gain insight into their work and effectively frame priorities for planning and improvement.

Perceptions Of Innovations: An Examination Of South Carolina Superintendents, Alfred Lamont Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of South Carolina public school superintendents regarding individual and organizational attitudes toward innovation. Specific characteristics of South Carolina public school superintendents and public school districts, including enrollment, poverty level, school report card grades, age, gender, and years of experience, were analyzed to determine individual superintendents' and their school districts' orientations toward innovation. The findings have the potential to provide much-needed guidance to superintendents in training so that they may be better equipped to meet the challenge of school reform and innovation in relation to student achievement. In addition, the study …

The Social Intelligence Of Principals: Links To Teachers' Continuous Improvement, Joan Mcquade

Educational Studies Dissertations

Despite multiple efforts to reform 21st education to better meet the needs of all students, school improvement successes have been sporadic and debatable. Research suggests that significant improvement lies within the purview of teachers and principals, and this current research provided the underpinnings for the study. Based on neuroscience research and the continuous improvement concept, I examined linkages between principals' social intelligence and teachers' continuous improvement. Using a mixed method sequential explanatory research approach, the study consisted of four phases that employed both quantitative and qualitative measures. Massachusetts' principals (127) and teachers (331) were contacted by email to participate in …

Acdc Program Review Self Study 2013, Uno Academic & Career Development Center

Student Learning

The Academic & Career Development Center (ACDC) would like to thank the members of the Program Review Committee for examining and evaluating the services provided by ACDC. Your time and thoughtful consideration is appreciated. Your insights, suggestions and recommendations will be used to improve the career services offered to University of Nebraska at Omaha students and alumni. Also, a special thank you to Dr. Daniel Shipp for his guidance and support in writing this report. The recommendations listed below are listed in priority order.

Developing A National Perspective Of Interrelated Preparation: Educational Administration Leading Teacher Leadership Programs, Caryn M. Wells, Marc Shelton, Ralph L. Marshall

Faculty Publications - College of Education

This NCPEA Position Paper articulates a national perspective for the development of teacher leadership programs with leadership from educational administration professors. The National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA), as the professional organization that provides direction and leadership for its members, presents a vision for dialogue and action to collaboratively develop teacher leadership programs among professors of educational administration and teacher education faculty. We believe that leadership matters and thus we submit there is a sense of urgency for professors to collaboratively develop teacher leadership programs embedded within educational administration programs. It is crucial that these programs articulate knowledge …

A Qualitative Inquiry Into Teachers' Perceptions Of Change, Theresa Gardner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to identify teachers' perceptions of how leadership styles and practices of administration can improve the process of broad-based change in an educational organization. The study focused on the lived experiences of 12 teachers and school administrators (coresearchers) during a major change in their school district. Guided interviews were utilized in order to understand the essence of their experiences. Results indicated the importance of communication during the process of change as it relates to perceptions of involvement, buy-in, self-worth, job satisfaction, and support and impact on instruction.

Organizational Sense-Making And Enactment: Public Policy And Change-Making Of Private Professional College Administrations In Kerala, India, Biju A. Chittuparamban

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Examining School Capacity For Inclusion Using A Multi-Dimensional Framework: A Case Study, Amy Lenee-Monnier Toson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), the inclusion of students with disabilities (SWDs) in general education classrooms has become more prevalent within our public schools (DuFour & Eaker, 1998; Mcleskey et al., 2010). Current research on inclusion focuses on student outcomes and procedural changes and not the contexts and capabilities of education leaders who are implementing it. Empirical research that examines how schools have built the capacity for sustaining these models, especially through the perspectives of those who implement it, is limited …

Examining An Adult Education Partnership Through A Positive Organizational Lens, Lewis H. Burke Jr

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This companion dissertation reports the findings of applied case study research on four community college organizational units that consistently meet or exceed standard performance measures. In addition, prior ample evidence confirms that performance extended significantly beyond what might be explained by available tangible resources alone. The case study contexts are common in higher education in general: a) an external partnership, (b) an ad hoc team, (c) a traditional, cross-divisional service unit, and (d) a grant-funded student service unit.

Emerging positive organizational theory and research show promise for revealing performance-influencing phenomena and behaviors that are not adequately represented in standard measures. …

A Positive Approach Toward Unit Functioning In Higher Education, Susan T. Berry

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This companion dissertation reports the findings of applied case study research on four community college organizational units that consistently meet or exceed standard performance measures. In addition, prior ample evidence confirms that performance extended significantly beyond what might be explained by available tangible resources alone. The case study contexts are common in higher education in general: a) an external partnership, (b) an ad hoc team, (c) a traditional, cross-divisional service unit, and (d) a grant-funded student service unit.

Emerging positive organizational theory and research show promise for revealing performance-influencing phenomena and behaviors that are not adequately represented in standard measures. …