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District-Wide Instructional Initiative Framework, Jessica Charles, Tracy Fray Oliver, Doug Knecht, Emily Sharrock

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Describes the Bank Street Education Center's District-wide Instructional Initiative Framework, a tool that guides the Center's partnership work with school districts who are engaged in a process of instructional improvement. The Framework was developed out of research on district improvement, organizational development, school leadership, and professional learning, as well as the Center's own experience implementing large-scale district reform in the largest school district in the nation: New York City.

Applying Critical Thinking Skills For Successful Pilot Projects, Shawna Flaherty

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Piloting is an approach that can be used when introducing a desired change. It allows for smaller scale trial and leaves room for modification prior to full implementation. When applicable, this approach can be a proactive way to avoiding any potential issues or conflicts relating to the change. As a graduate student in the Critical and Creative Thinking program at UMass Boston, I have explored the concept of pilot projects for three years, planning and implementing, and revising 3 pilot projects. These pilot projects include: Meeting of the Mind’s, a space in which members of the community are invited to …

The Human Dynamics Needed In The Change Process For Transformational Implementation Of Educational Reform: Common Core State Standards, Daisy Morales

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the changes made in mindset, behaviors, culture, and systems as perceived by K-12 school district directors and principals in California in the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Methods: This study was descriptive and qualitative, conducted by interviewing 8 principals and 8 directors who have been in their positions for 3 or more years, had first-hand experience with the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and were familiar with the shifts needed in CCSS. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed for …

Organizational Leadership Preparation: An Exploration Of Recently Ordained Roman Catholic Priests, Michael Drumm

Theses & Dissertations

Research Focus. This qualitative study explored the expectations and the experiences of recently ordained Roman Catholic priests as leaders in their parish communities. Leadership preparation of Roman Catholic priests is an important issue. Roman Catholic priests, by following the example of Jesus Christ, and as described in Apostolic Letters, Decrees and Apostolic Exhortations from the Vatican, would appear to be expected to be the personification of a good leader. Thus, the question is posed as to what newly ordained priests thought the leadership expectations would be, and what their experience has been.

Research Methods. This basic interpretive qualitative study explored …

Teacher And Administrator Perspectives From Experiences In The Teacher Leadership Initiative, Leslie Lynne Sharp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teacher leadership, has been defined by many researchers as the answer to school improvement through the use of teacher leaders leading the effort in schools and districts. This qualitative dissertation takes a deep look into the experiences of teachers and administrators that participated in a nation-wide teacher leadership pilot, the Teacher Leadership Initiative (TLI), and the effects that this year-long event had on leadership, school improvement and teacher and administrator professional practices. Unifying outcomes from the participants as a result of their involvement in this initiative included changes in thinking about leadership that directly improved professional efficacy, collaborative and leadership …

Principal Leadership Of Tier 3 School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports, Cynthia M. Kennedy

All Theses And Dissertations

School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a systems-approach to teaching and reinforcing behavioral expectations within schools. Based on a three-tier public health model, SWPBIS encompasses universal, strategic, and tertiary tiers. This study focuses on early phases of SWPBIS Tier 3 implementations in five elementary schools, and seeks to examine how school principals use SWPBIS Tier 3 to effect transformative change for all students, including at-risk students. Using an ethnographic collective case study methodology, perceptions and attitudes of the participants are utilized to understand how principals use leadership to enact change in their schools with respect to SWPBIS. The …

A Phenomenological Study Of Female Stem Majors Who Have Decided To Become Educators, Porcia Richardson-Spears

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to investigate, identify, and describe the lived experiences that influence female STEM majors to become secondary educators rather than enter a STEM-related corporate profession. This study was guided by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (TLT) and Lent, Brown and Hackett’s social cognitive career theory (SCCT) as they related to self-awareness, which guides and motivates the behaviors involved in choosing a career path. The research questions for this study were designed to investigate the experiences that prompted females to major in STEM majors and to enter the field of teaching rather than enter corporate …

Segregation Of Student Financial Aid In Higher Education: The Effects On Low-Income Students When Ebt Is Not Accepted At University Campuses In San Diego, Ca., Tanisha-Jean Martin

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

The student bodies of universities are made up of a diverse financial class of students which utilize various methods to cover financial obligations on campus, even with the use of welfare governmental assistance. Low-income students that are involved in government welfare programs are given an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card to support them while they are pursuing an education; however, every university in San Diego, CA (and nearly the entire United States), segregate EBT into an unacceptable category and refuse to accept the card at any venues on campus. The EBT card is a plastic card that can be used …

Case Study Of A Collaborative Approach To Evaluation Within A School District Central Office, Oriana Eversole

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) provides an in-depth examination of a collaborative approach to evaluation within a school district’s central office. This study analyzes the implementation of collaborative approaches to evaluation (CAE) within a school district’s central office with an emphasis on evaluation use from the evaluators’ perspectives. It also explores the role and evolution of the evaluators throughout the evaluation process. Furthermore, this study adds to educational research on how to support the implementation and use of improvement processes in school district central offices. The analysis focuses on the evaluation activities that my colleagues and I led as …

Fostering Organizational Change Through A Solutions-Driven Culture Of Collaboration: A Case Study Of A Teachers’ Union In The Mid-Atlantic Region, Terence Che Ngwa

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

This case study explored how the teachers’ union in a mid-Atlantic urban school district used collaboration with the school district to foster a change in its organizational culture that was previously characterized by adversarial relationships. The change in the union culture presented a unique opportunity that led both sides to believe that there was value to short-term and long-term collaborative partnerships. The study was framed on an open systems theory of organizations and an evolutionary change theory. Evidence for the study was collected from published and unpublished data, field observations, a focus group discussion, and participant interviews. Overall, the researcher …

University Leaders’ Experiences In Advancing The Development And Transformation Of Emerging Saudi Public Universities, Abdulrahman Hamed Alsulami

Dissertations

For several decades, Saudi higher education comprised seven to eight public universities concentrated in the main cities of the country. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has heavily invested in the higher education sector. Thus, it witnessed a remarkable rate of expansion from 8 to 28 higher education institutions during a relatively short period between 2003 and 2013. This renaissance in the sector involved several different processes, including transforming, merging, restructuring, and establishing new colleges and/or programs, administrative posts, and key components for inclusive and modern campuses.

From a contextual perspective, there is a …

Organizational Change Plan For Closing The Black And White Achievement Gap, Markisha Mitchell

Dissertations

Abstract

Across the United States in almost every city, every suburb and every rural area there is a gap between the achievements of Black and White students. The term “achievement gap” has become an accepted label in situations where Black students severely underperform relative to their White counterparts. Many school Districts have discretely avoided discussing and or addressing this gap for decades. School District Z, located in an urban suburb just outside of a large midwestern city, is the focus of this research as they attempt to address the gap. Approximately two-thirds of District Z is composed of students of …

Educational Policy Development For Closing The Black And White Achievement Gap, Markisha Mitchell

Dissertations

Abstract

Across the United States in almost every city, every suburb, and every rural area, there is a gap between the achievements of Black and White students. The term “achievement gap” has become an accepted label in situations where Black students severely underperform relative to their White counterparts. Many school districts have discretely avoided discussing and/or addressing this gap for decades. School District Z, located in an urban suburb of a large Midwestern city, is the focus of this research as they attempt to address the gap. Approximately two-thirds of District Z is composed of students of color, yet the …

Program Evaluation For Assessing The Effectiveness Of Tracking The Academic Growth And Attendance Of Black Students In Closing The Black And White Achievement Gap, Markisha Mitchell

Dissertations

Across the United States in almost every city, every suburb, and every rural area there is a gap between the achievements of Black and White students. The term “achievement gap” has become an accepted label in situations where Black students severely underperform relative to their White counterparts. Many school districts have discretely avoided discussing and or addressing the gap for decades. School District Z, located in an urban suburb just outside of a large midwestern city, is the focus of this research as they attempt to address the gap. District Z is composed of approximately two-thirds students of color, yet …

The Impact Of Expanded Access And Increased Engagement And The Effect On Closing The Achievement Gap, Amy Lynn St. John

Dissertations

Considering instructional time is one of the most valuable and expensive resources in public education, there is nominal research examining the effectiveness of its use (Farbman, 2015). The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between the amount of extended learning time provided to eligible students at least one grade level below in reading or mathematics and their scale score growth determined by middle-ofyear results on the i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment. i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment results were examined of students who attended an extended learning time after-school program focused on remediation of standards specific to mathematics and reading in grades …

Developing And Implementing A Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program At The Community College, Mia Ocean, Kelli Tigertail, James Keller, Kathleen Woods

The Qualitative Report

Despite serving almost half of the U.S. undergraduate students, community colleges and their constituents are consistently marginalized in the research favoring external university experts to conduct research about them and on them. To counteract these top down, disempowering research practices, we piloted a Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program (PARAP). A PARAP is a modified version of a research assistantship program that is grounded in an anti-oppressive, participatory action research practice, creating change on many levels. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of practical and methodological steps to implement a PARAP at a community college including forming …

Descriptive Inquiry At Bank Street: Building Intellectual Community While Responding To Accreditation, Jessica Charles

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Over the 2016-17 academic year, Bank Street Graduate School faculty and staff participated in a school-wide Descriptive Inquiry process to examine their programs and pedagogy. As part of the process, faculty met regularly to share their practices and to strengthen their well-established programs in teacher and leader preparation, museum education, and child life. Dean Cecelia Traugh initiated this process, drawing on her extensive experience implementing Descriptive Inquiry in higher education settings, in order to help faculty reflect on their practice, improve program quality, and build organizational coherence.

What Professors Would Like Their New Presidents To Know, Jim Maddox, Jay Johnson

Journal of Research on the College President

New college presidents are faced with many challenges; some known and some unknown. With the frequency of new presidents entering from outside the institution, a challenge exists to understand the culture and current state of the institution. Existing faculty are uniquely positioned to provide assistance in this regard. What is presented here are perspectives on what college professors would like their new presidents to know. The information is provided in the form of common challenges to be aware of and suggestions to consider. Future directions are offered to delve deeper into the potential insights to be offered from the faculty …

To Study Abroad Or Not To Study Abroad: That Is The Stem Question, Matthew A. Witenstein, Janel Henriksen Hastings

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students consider studying abroad, it is critical for researchers and student affairs educators to know more about how students engage with the study abroad process and make decisions about whether to participate or not. This qualitative study examined the decision-making process in which STEM students engaged regarding study abroad at a STEM liberal arts college. An organizational culture lens was utilized to make meaning of the formal study abroad decision-making process within a deeply entrenched institutional bubble that permeates all college facets and stakeholders. Focus groups engaged both participants who studied abroad …

District Strategic Teaming: Leadership For Systemic And Sustainable Reform, Thomas L. Alsbury, Margaret R. Blanchard, Kristie S. Gutierrez, Chris M. Allred, A. Dell Tolin

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Reform efforts in schools have become increasingly focused on the nature and direction of teamwork in efforts to achieve sustained and systemic districtwide capacity for innovation and needed change. The six-year study reported in this article involved development, implementation, and assessment of a unique collaborative process for districtwide reform in some of the most challenging and fluid educational settings in the United States of America. This reform process, called District Strategic Teaming, involved a representative vertical cross-section of members from the district office to school-based support staff. Participating schools are located in isolated, rural communities in the south-eastern region of …

Proposed: Technical Communicators Collaborating With Educators To Develop A Better Efl Curriculum For Ecuadorian Universities, Daniel Jack Williamson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This policy and action research in the form of a case study of language policy in Ecuador posits, with a pragmatic view, that students’ backgrounds, prior knowledge, and learning objectives should significantly impact curriculum development. Applying principles of information development, such as conducting usability studies and generating appropriate user profiles, technical communicators produce user-friendly documentation. Pairing technical communicators with educators to collaborate in the parallel processes of information development and curriculum development may yield instructional materials more useful to students than currently available materials are. An etic perspective is appropriate for this study for it does not presuppose what the …

Small Schools: What's Small?, Matt Gladden

Occasional Paper Series

Essay examining the question of what constitutes a small school through the Chicago Small Schools Study. It explores why educators are founding new small schools and documents the diverse range of small schools that flourish throughout Chicago. Building from these observations, it then seeks to identify characteristics that delineate small schools and provide them the opportunity to improve students' educational experiences.

Grounded Practical Theory To Improve Persistence-Retention Strategic Enrollment Management, Kenneth W. Borland Jr.

Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education

The author introduces grounded practical theory (GPT) as a useful research approach in the field of strategic enrollment management (SEM) and its focus on persistence-retention. The GPT approach is then illustrated by engaging sample voices of persistence-retention and SEM; scientific theory (the philosophical level) and normative theory (the technical level) as observed in the literature. The scientific theory voices and normative theory voices are then positioned in relation to voices of students and practitioners (observed respondents) who have identified real world persistence-retention and SEM problems. These problems suggest implications for reconstructing the relationship between persistence-retention and SEM philosophical, theoretical, and …

Ensuring Student Success In Full-Day Kindergarten: Purposeful Professional Development And Professional Learning Communities, Amy Houlihan

Dissertations

The change leadership model, developed by Wagner et al. (2008), was utilized to assess the context, culture, conditions and competencies of a large suburban school district during the early stages of districtwide implementation of full-day kindergarten. With overwhelming support from families, teachers and administrators, the change plan revolves around ongoing and purposeful professional development for staff building upon systematic work of Professional Learning Communities in order to provide a high quality full-day kindergarten program across twenty-three kindergarten program sites. When districts and schools focus on purposeful professional development and enhanced practice of Professional Learning Communities programs can work to provide …

An Examination Of Factors Influencing Persistence At Columbus State University, Varonika Brown Hardman

Theses and Dissertations

The researcher designed the mixed method study to contribute to the field of study on persistence and provide information to CSU leadership, faculty and staff that may benefit efforts to reach and retain students. A better understanding of the factors influencing persistence may become vital for funding. Some form of performance-based funding is in place in 32 states. Georgia policymakers are considering factors such as student progression and degree completion.

For the study, the researcher asked:

1. What are the reasons graduating CSU students give for persisting at CSU? 2. What are the reasons incoming CSU students give for choosing …

Policy Advocacy For Letting Schools Be Schools, Jason Major

Dissertations

Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools have been in an era of high stakes accountability around test scores, attendance, and climate and culture. This has also ushered in a wave of accountability down to teachers in the form of paperwork, mandates, and a heavy emphasis on reading and math. In Chicago Public Schools, all schools in the district are rated on the School Quality Rating Policy, which utilizes the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress assessment to determine student growth from the spring of one year to the spring of the next. This heavy …

An Evaluation Of One District's Think Through Math Program And Curriculum Implementation, Dywayne Hinds

Dissertations

Think Through Math is a research based math program. One school district implemented the program to improve student performance on the state standardized assessment. After two years of implementation, 44% of middle school students in the district did not make adequate progress in math as measured by the state assessment. The purpose of my study was to determine the effectiveness of the Think Through Math program used within middle school Intensive Math classes throughout the district. Guided by research on the critical aspects of implementation, my study examined teachers’ perceptions of (a) resources used within the program, (b) the impact …

Kindergarten For Equity: A Policy Advocacy Statement, Amy Houlihan

Dissertations

The urgency to close the achievement gap means it is our moral imperative to provide all children with the opportunities necessary to succeed as early as possible. Knowing the critical timing of a child’s brain development from birth to age five, we cannot afford to wait until a child is six or seven years old to begin developing their academic and social emotional capacity. This policy advocacy document supports a statewide mandate for children to attend kindergarten at age five throughout the state of Illinois. With little need for increased resources to accommodate the mandate, the social, moral and ethical …

An Evaluation Of Full-Day Kindergarten Programming, Amy Houlihan

Dissertations

The purpose of this program evaluation document is to provide a rationale and structure for implementing full-day kindergarten. The persistence of the achievement gap in the United States requires considerable and deliberate action to narrow and eliminate the gap over time. With the evolving educational landscape and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, early education, including systematically designed and implemented full-day kindergarten are one way to afford children the opportunity to begin their education on pace to succeed. This program evaluation examines the differences between half-day kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs including data analysis from the first year …

Redesigned Adult Learning To Create An Environment Of Deep Understanding Of The Danielson Framework For Teaching And The Shifts Required To Lead Students To Excellence, Caletha White

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Using Wagner’s (2006) change leadership model to assess culture, context, condition and competencies of a small suburban school district to create a change plan for value-added teacher evaluation is the central idea to this study. The four arenas of change together allow for a systematic analysis of teaching and learning. This research study represents the current state of the school district with gaps in the connectedness of opportunities for building competency toward enhancing teacher quality as measured by the Danielson Framework for Teaching and value added NWEA MAP achievement outcomes. Ninety-six percent of the teachers are rated effective while …