Education Commons^™

Has Teacher Tenure’S Time Passed?, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A recent trial court order (Vergara v. State of California 2014), which Governor Jerry Brown has already appealed (Nagourney 2014), has sent shock waves through the ranks of teachers and their unions because it threatens what is perhaps educators’ most cherished prize: tenure.

In Vergara, the court invalidated five statutes addressing tenure, procedural safeguards relating to teacher dismissal, and seniority as violating the equal protection clause in the California constitution. The court ruled that the challenged laws “impose a real and appreciable impact on students’ fundamental right to equality of education and that they impose a disproportionate burden on poor …

Institutional Merit-Based Aid And Student Departure: A Longitudinal Analysis, Jacob P. K. Gross, Don Hossler, Mary B. Ziskin, Matthew S. Berry

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The use of merit criteria in awarding institutional aid has grown considerably and, some argue, is supplanting need as the central factor in awarding aid. Concurrently, the accountability movement in higher education has placed greater emphasis on retention and graduation as indicators of institutional success and quality. In this context, this study explores the relationship between institutional merit aid and student departure from a statewide system of higher education. We found that, once we account for self-selection to the extent possible, there was no significant relationship. By contrast, need-based aid was consistently related to decreased odds of departure.

Principal Dispositions Regarding The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System, Theodore J. Kowalski, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) was first implemented during the 2013-14 school term. This study examined principals’ dispositions at the end of this school term. Findings revealed several major concerns. The most prominent were (a) not having sufficient time to implement the program properly, (b) basing a teacher’s performance heavily on student value-added data, and (c) being required to assist teachers in developing their annual improvement plans. Three independent variables, teaching experience, administrative experience, and level of school assignment, were found to have only a low level of association with principal dispositions. With respect to teacher evaluation generally, findings …

The Law Of Public Education, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This textbook-casebook incorporates recent developments in education law into its conceptual framework by offering updated analysis of major topics in education law. With new material in all of its sixteen chapters, the book includes significant updates on church-state relations, employee rights, and student rights. There are now two chapters on student rights. The author also includes Supreme Court opinions on strip searches of students, teacher bargaining and free speech rights.

International Perspectives On Student Behavior: What We Can Learn, Charles J. Russo, Izak Oosthuizen, Charl C. Wolhuter

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The second volume of companion books on comparative student discipline identifies the best practices in dealing with student misconduct, on six continents, in a legally sound manner. It is essential for educators to examine national as well as international practices addressing student misconduct in schools because learner misbehavior often has a detrimental effect on the quality of teaching and learning in elementary and secondary schools. The countries covered are Brazil, China, Malaysia, Turkey and South Africa.

Exploring Principal Leadership In Improving Elementary Schools, Brian A. Porter Phd

All Student Scholarship

As schools in Maine, and across the nation, are increasingly held to greater standards of accountability in terms of insuring higher levels of student academic growth and achievement, some schools are improving and some are not. Even beyond the constraints of tightening financial impositions and increasing accountability mandates, some are "defying the odds" and producing positive results. This research study sought to explore and understand the characteristics of principal leadership in improving elementary schools in Maine.

Jack Mezirow: Theorist, Researcher, Practitioner, Learner, Elizabeth Kasl

Adult Education Research Conference

Jack Mezirow’s theory of adult learning is related to his beliefs about research and actualized in his vision for practice.

Closing Session: Putting Jack Mezirow’S Ideas Into Context, Michael Newman

Adult Education Research Conference

The author argues that all adult education theory is either humanist or socialist.

He reviews some of Jack Mezirow’s ideas with this idea in mind.

It’S Been The Best Of Times: My Twenty-Year Retrospective On Adult Education, Juanita Johnson-Bailey

Adult Education Research Conference

This essay presents a personal assessment of the ways in which the field of Adult and Continuing Education has succeeded and faltered during the last two decades and discusses how the field can address future challenges.

Opening Panel: Adult Education Then And Now, Michael Newman

Adult Education Research Conference

This is not so much a paper as four quotations from the author’s previous writings, along with some annotations. The author describes his first encounter with adult education. He looks at one of the reasons why adult education was robust. He describes the onset of professionalism. He describes the effects of specialisation. And he identifies the paradoxical situation adult education finds itself in today

The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Employee Commitment Among Perfusionists, Gilbert F. Garcia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Certified clinical perfusionists (CCPs) operate a variety of complex, invasive devices to provide heart-lung support. Job-related stress has been identified as having unfavorable influences on self-efficacy and commitment of employees in many domains, but this relationship has not been examined among CCPs. Guided by self-efficacy theory and organizational commitment model, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between self-efficacy and commitment among CCPs and the extent to which age, gender, workload, experience, or education impacted CCPs' commitment. Data were collected from 264 respondents via 2 established survey instruments: the organizational commitment questionnaire and the work …

The Language Of Leadership A Feminist Poststructural Discourse Analysis Of Inaugural Addresses By Presidents Of High Profile Research Universities, Tehmina Khwaja

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Knowing And Teaching: The Impact Of Teachers’ Knowledge On Students’ Early Literacy Achievement, Janet Hunter

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Children in rural and remote schools typically underperform in measures of literacy achievement (e.g., NAPLAN) from as early as year three. Data collected over time indicate that as children get older, the gap increases between those students who meet the national benchmarks and those who do not. Additionally, Indigenous children are overrepresented in this group of students who are underperforming in measures of literacy achievement. This study seeks to explore the conditions surrounding this phenomenon and to tease out the complexities present in rural and remote contexts that might contribute to this underachievement.

One remote and six remote‐rural schools in …

A Test Score Comparison Between Block And Traditional Scheduling, Yancy J. Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how schools utilizing block scheduling and traditional scheduling models differ in achievement levels on the five Georgia End-of-Course Exams (EOCT) and the Georgia High School Graduation Writing test (GHSWT) at two high schools in ruralSouth Georgia. The researcher will investigated if there is a differential benefit in terms of higher EOCT/GHSWT scores during block or traditional scheduling when considering demographic variables student gender, race, or SES. No experimentation occurred as the study relied on historical data. Both high schools were examined individually; comparing the five EOCT’s and the GHSWT under the block …

The Landwarnet School, The Army Learning Model, And Appreciative Inquiry: How Is A Centralized Training Organization Improved By Introducing Decentralization?, Lisa Jayne Stamper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory, qualitative case study describes how a centralized training organization (LandWarNet School) was improved by introducing decentralization (Army Learning Model) toward “the best competitive position” or "sweet spot," defined by Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) as “enough decentralization for creativity, but sufficient structure and controls to ensure consistency” (pp. 189, 191). Any presence of the six chaordic elements of a decentralized organization, as described by Hock (1999), was also considered.

LandWarNet School (LWNS) trains approximately 6000 US Army Soldiers annually and is centrally organized. The new Army Learning Model (ALM) is a vision for a more decentralized training approach where …

An Evaluation Of A Secondary Student Advisement Program, Barbara A. Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods program evaluation examines the effectiveness of a high school advisory program in meeting its stated goals from the perspective of its various stakeholders. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods and applying a concurrent embedded strategy, the researcher uses Stufflebeam’s CIPP Model (Stufflebeam, McKee & McKee, 2003) as a framework to conduct a study of the Teachers-As-Advisors (TAA) Program in a rural high school in Georgia. Surveys were administered to 205 students, 40 parents, and 17 advisors. Two district administrators, three school administrators, and two counselors were interviewed. In addition, focus group discussions were held with a purposeful …

The Road Less Traveled: Alumni Perceptions Of The Georgia Early College High School Experience, Tequila Tranise Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the efforts of traditional high schools to educate all students, at-risk populations tend to lag behind their White and more affluent counterparts in educational achievement, high school graduation rates, and college attendance rates. Early College High Schools (ECHSs) were designed to attract and retain at-risk students through rigorous academic practices, strong support systems, and by providing free access to college credits while students are still in high school.

With the case study approach as a guide, this research used an open-ended interview protocol to collect data from a sample of 16 students who attended one ECHS in Georgia between …

Fighting On The Frontline: An Examination Of Teacher Retention Practices In Urban Elementary Schools, Kelley J. Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many teachers employed in schools in metro Atlanta, meeting the demands of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top is complicated by social realities characterized by the urban environment. Teachers’ beliefs about learning, operationalized at either the individual or the collective level, are influenced by the context of the schools in which they teach, and when teaching in the urban context, it is critical that teachers believe students can learn despite their circumstances (Halvorsen, Lee, & Andrade, 2009). The purpose of schools is to ensure academic achievement for children despite age, creed, color, race, or religion; however, …

Faculty Development Committee, 2015-2016

Faculty Senate Membership Lists

No abstract provided.

25th Anniversary Edition: Scholarship Reconsidered, Drew Moser, Todd Ream, John Braxton

Drew Moser PhD

No abstract provided.

A Decade Of Change In Australia’S Dba Landscape, Cathy Byrne

Dr Cathy Byrne

University Admissions In Australia: Multiple Pathways To The Same Destination, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

The undergraduate population in Australian universities is a diverse group. A mixture of age cohorts, and relatively large numbers of international students, as well as an increasing variety of entry pathways mean that examining policy and practice in admissions to university in Australia is very interesting while at the same time substantially complex. This chapter offers a background on the Australian university student population in order to highlight this diversity, and then explores different approaches to admissions within the university sector. Exploration of admissions policies and outcomes in Australia is timely. In recent years an emphasis on growth in the …

Scholarship Reconsidered: Past, Present, Future, Drew Moser

Drew Moser PhD

This article (forthcoming) will explore the historical impact of scholarship reconsidered on student learning.

Teaching Statement, H Theixos

H Theixos

No abstract provided.

Coasp: College Outreach & Academic Support Program Study 2014, Terrell L. Strayhorn , Joseph A. Kitchen, Royel M. Johnson, Derrick L. Tillman-Kelly

Dr. Royel M. Johnson

Performanc Pay For Teachers, A Policy Analysis.Docx, Joseph Hoelzle

Joseph Hoelzle

Review Of The Book Black Males In Postsecondary Education: Examining Their Experiences In Diverse Institutional Contexts, By A. A. Hilton, J. L. Wood, & C. W. Lewis (Eds.), Donald Mitchell Jr.

Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D.

Roles Of International Student Advisors: Literature And Practice In American Higher Education, Krishna Bista

Krishna Bista

Creating The Outstanding School, David Lynch, Jake Madden, Tina Doe

Jake Madden

Lynch, Madden and Doe provide an easy to read text that is all about ensuring every student gets a quality education. Each chapter explains, in easy to read terms, a set of ideas and research-based strategies that schools and their teachers can employ to reform their school. The book identifies for the reader and then explains the key research-based elements that lie at the heart of creating the outstanding school. The book features the Collaborative Teacher Learning Model and the elements of ‘teaching,’ ‘leadership’, ‘coaching’, ‘mentoring’, ‘feedback’, ‘data driven decision-making’, ‘high impact instruction’ and the idea of ‘teachers as researchers’ …

Engaging Students With Disabilities, Kirsten R. Brown, Ellen Broido

Kirsten R. Brown, Ph.D.

Students with disabilities are a rapidly growing, yet historically underrepresented population in postsecondary education. Historically underrepresented groups share a common experience: all faced unwelcoming environments when initially entering higher education (Hall & Belch, 2000). Ableism (the oppression of people with disabilities) plays a powerful role in shaping the way student with and without disabilities experience the educational environments, because “[b]y assuming one normative way to do things (move, speak, learn, and so forth), society privileges those who carry out these functions as prescribed and oppresses those who use other methods” (Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton & Renn, 2010, p. 242). To …