Education Commons^™

School Leaders' Ethical Decision-Making Related To Student Cyberbullying: A Multi-Case Study Of Two Tennessee School Districts, Jeana M. Partin

Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-case study was designed to explore cyberbullying issues and how school leaders handle student issues related to cyberbullying. I explored how ethical decisions related to student cyberbullying are processed within two school districts in Tennessee. Furthermore, understanding how districts implement and interpret Tennessee Bullying and Harassment Policies helps in exploring school leaders' ethical decision-making process regarding student cyberbullying. Shapiro and Stefkovich's (2021) multiple ethical paradigms, care, critique, justice, and the profession, provided a comprehensive framework for analyzing how school leaders process complex 21^st-century ethical decisions related to student-centered cyberbullying issues. A multi-case study supports the research questions …

T-Pess And Special Education Teacher Attrition And Retention: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Of Teacher Perceptions Of Administrator Effectiveness, Janna R. Crow

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenology study was to explore special education teacher retention in a large school district in Texas and the perception of campus principal’s support as defined through the domains from the Texas Principal Evaluation and Support System (T-PESS). Participants in the study came from 550 special education teachers in Desert ISD, a school district in North Texas. I completed semi-structured interviews with a minimum of three special education teachers from elementary, middle school, and high school levels.

Support Provided By Administrators For Mathematics Teachers: A Case Study Of One North Louisiana High School, Jessica M. Hunter

Doctoral Dissertations

National and International assessment results as well as general student unpreparedness for college and beyond in terms of mathematical abilities indicate a need for increased student achievement in mathematics (Hart, 2005; National Center for Education Statistics, 2017; Peterson, Woessmann, Hanushek, & Lastra-Anadon, 2011). The purpose of the study was to explore effective leadership traits of secondary school administrators that foster and support teachers of mathematics. Research specifically made connections to instructional and transformational leadership practices, actions, and traits. This exploration was investigated through a case study using interviews completed by high school educators, administrators, and district leaders.

A sample of …

The Role Of Fit In The Decision Making Process For Head Principal Recruitment, Hiring, And Placement, Keith William Cottrell

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role that fit may play in recruiting, hiring, and placing head principals, both from the perspective of the principals and from the perspective of the hiring bodies. District personnel, particularly superintendents and human resource directors, have been surveyed in previous research to ascertain general traits they look for in a head principal candidate (Kwan, 2012; Kwan & Walker, 2009; Pijanowski, Hewitt, & Brady, 2009). Little research exists, however, gathering in-depth qualitative data on the role of fit in the principal placement process.

Data were collected from ten principals in the first …

The Principal’S Role In The Implementation Of A One-To-One Initiative: A Case Study Of Two Schools, Casey Michael Cutter

Doctoral Dissertations

While the popularity of one-to-one initiatives and the body of research concerning their effectiveness continues to grow, there have been few research studies conducted on how a principal leads a one-to-one initiative (Cowie, Jones & Harlow, 2011; Dexter; 2007; Hayes and Greaves, 2013). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how a principal can lead, support and influence the implementation of a one-to-one initiative. Stryker and Burke’s (2000) role identity theory provided the theoretical framework for this multi-site case study of two intermediate schools in the same district that were in their first year of implementing a one-toone …

You Have To Find That Music That Both Parties Can Dance To: One School District's Experience With Collaborative Conferencing, Janel Marie Seeley

Doctoral Dissertations

In 2011, Tennessee passed the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act (PECCA), replacing the former mode of collective bargaining between professional educators and school board administrators with a process called collaborative conferencing (CC). The purpose of this study, the first research on the new process, was to investigate the experiences of participants who engaged in CC in one school district. The study also examined participants’ perceived relationship between training and its application to CC. The school district used the newly developed Interest-Based Collaborative Problem Solving and Reflective Practice (IBCPS/RP) model to guide its CC process. This approach is similar to interest …

The Relationship Between Demands And Resources And Teacher Burnout: A Fifteen-Year Meta-Analysis, Tammy Marie Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis explored the phenomenon of teacher burnout— the biggest contributor to teacher attrition (Owens, 2013; Unterbrink, 2014; Yu, 2015). The focus of this study was to use meta-analytical procedures to explore the relationship between burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of personal accomplishment) and specific demand and resource correlates. Demand correlates included work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and student misbehavior. Resource correlates included peer support, supervisory support, and decision-making. This meta-analytical research method encompassed fifteen years of published and unpublished studies from January 2000 through January 2015. A total of 116 studies met the following inclusion …

The Georgia School Improvement Specialists: A Qualitative Study Exploring Their Roles With Principals Of Middle Schools Identified As Focus Schools, Jessie Adelaide Beaumont

Doctoral Dissertations

While educational initiatives have used external consultants to effect change since the 1950s (Sulla, 1998), understanding their roles and their work has become increasingly important in helping low-performing schools facilitate change and guide the school improvement process (Brady, 2003; Mass Insight Education, 2012; Toppings, 2013). The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to identify and explore the roles Georgia’s school improvement specialists serve when working with principals of middle schools in Focus School status. The benefits and challenges of the school improvement specialists supporting principals with school improvement efforts are identified as well. This study will be framed in …

An Investigation Of First-Year Teacher Induction Programs In Jesuit Secondary Schools Within The California Province, Justin James Dixon Christensen

Doctoral Dissertations

This mixed methods study invited principals (n=5) and first-year teachers (n=25) in five Jesuit secondary schools in the California Province to participate. Online surveys and follow-up online interviews were designed to assess the degree to which the schools met 11 standards that constituted the conceptual framework for the study: (a)Program vision, goals, and institutional commitment, (b)Formation of the Ignatian educator, (c)Program administration and communication, (d)Principal engagement, (e)Program assessment, evaluation, and accountability, (f)Assessing first-year teacher practice, (g)First-year teacher professional development and learning communities, (h)Mentor role and responsibilities, selection, assignment, and assessment, (i)Mentor professional development and learning communities, (j)Focus on instructional practice, …

Ownership, Control, Sponsorship, And Trusteeship: Governance Relationships Within Private Catholic Religious-Sponsored Secondary Schools In The United States, David Louis Caretti

Doctoral Dissertations

The governance of private Catholic religious-sponsored secondary institutions in the United States is wholly unique, for many different influences distinguish these institutions from not only their public counterparts but also other Catholic schools operated by a diocese or parish. In the face of the changes of the post-Vatican II era, including the diminishing numbers of religious brothers, sisters, and priests available to minister within their respective apostolates, religious congregations have employed one particular governance construct, the board of limited-jurisdiction, originally created within the Catholic university and healthcare realms. Thus, while such boards hold the chief role in directing the progress …

Tennessee Public High School Principals’ Leadership Behaviors And Teachers’ Job Satisfaction, Amie Broughton Rumph

Doctoral Dissertations

The attrition rate of teachers is alarming (Darling-Hammond, 2002; Keigher, 2010; Marvel, Lyter, Peltola, Strizek, & Morton, 2006). Factor of the attrition include teachers leaving the profession due to lack of job satisfaction or lack of administrative support (Angelle, 2002; Littrell, 1994; Schlichte, Yssel, & Merbler, 2005). Frameworked by Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959), this web-based, quantitative, descriptive study explored the connections between job satisfaction and perceived leadership behaviors. Participants included 302 teachers from public secondary schools in Central and East Tennessee. Instruments used were the Job Satisfaction Survey ([JSS], Spector, 1994), the Study of School Leadership …

The Relationship Between Teacher Absenteeism And Fourth-Grade Student Mathematical Achievement, Charles Michael Brouillette

Doctoral Dissertations

Within public schools throughout the United States, an emphasis has been placed on improving education for all students. In turn, this has resulted in legislators and policymakers placing an emphasis on assessing student learning and holding the education community accountable. In this study, the researcher examined one variable in the accountability effort: teacher absenteeism. The major purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher absenteeism and fourth-grade student mathematical achievement.

Data for this study were generated from nine school districts located in northern Louisiana. Data consisted of attendance records of fourth-grade teachers and student performance on the …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Job Satisfaction And School Climate In An Era Of Accountability: A Mixed Methods Study Of Two High Schools On Tennessee’S High Priority List, Jeffrey Anton Knox

Doctoral Dissertations

This mixed methods study examines how teachers and administrators react when the school is under the stress of an accountability system. In this study, teacher job satisfaction and school climate are measured as these often overlooked variables have a great impact on student academic achievement (Goddard, Sweetland, & Hoy, 2000). Accountability systems such as No Child Left Behind need to be explored for negative unintended consequences such as the lowering of teacher job satisfaction and school climate. Questionnaires, interviews, and observations are used to measure teachers’ job satisfaction and school climate of two high schools that have been on Tennessee’s …

Perceived Principal Support And Middle School Teacher Burnout, Cherie Barnett Gaines

Doctoral Dissertations

Burnout is a tripartite syndrome consisting of the constructs of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and reduced feelings of personal accomplishment (PA) (Azeem & Nazir, 2008; Law, 2010; Yong & Yue, 2007). Teachers in the midst of burnout are in a “state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding” (Harrison, 1996, p. 25). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between middle school teacher burnout and perceived principal support. The combination of the constructs of burnout and principal behaviors (i.e., supportive, directive, and restrictive) provided the theoretical framework …

Decolonial Multiculturalism And Local-Global Contexts: A Postcritical Feminist Bricolage For Developing New Praxes In Education, Katharine Matthaei Sprecher

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a conceptual bricolage that explores complex, reflexive, and interrelated dimensions of educational praxes. My work is grounded in the assertion that the ever-changing, local-global nature of contemporary societies requires new approaches to curricula, pedagogies, policies, and practices in U.S. schools to meet the challenges and opportunities of a global era. Presenting my research and findings as four articles, I begin with a dialectical analysis of theoretical and pedagogical literatures to develop an adaptable framework for decolonial multicultural education. In Article 1, I demonstrate how this framework synergizes aspects of social reconstructionist and critical multicultural, global, and …

A Case Study Of The Full Service Community School Model: School Level Benefits In An Urban, Southern Elementary School, Elisa Cooper Luna

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative single case study was to explore the Full Service Community Schools model in one, urban elementary school. More specifically, the study sought to understand the impact this model had on students and teachers at one particular research site. This study was also intended to examine the impact the Full Service Community School model had on the role of school administrators. The research questions that guided this study were:

(1) How does the Full Service Community School model impact students?

(2) How does the Full Service Community School model impact teachers?

(3) What impact …

Cultural Competence And Its Impact On Student Academic Achievement In Urban Elementary Schools, Amy Louise Brace

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the relationship between the cultural competence level of urban elementary school teachers and the academic achievement of their students as measured by standardized testing. The specific research questions addressed throughout the course of this study were:
(1) What is the relationship between the (level of) cultural competence of the teacher and his/her students’ academic achievement as measured by standardized testing?
(2) How do urban elementary school teachers understand cultural competence?
(a) How do they define/describe cultural competence?
(b) What groups do they include in their definition of cultural competence?
(c) …

Examining A School’S Reform Efforts Through Capacity Building: A Case Study Of An Elementary School, Daphne Helen Odom

Doctoral Dissertations

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Due to accountability measures put in place by No Child Left Behind (NCLB), many schools identified as failing by the legislation are implementing reform efforts. This qualitative case study examined the initiatives one school put in place in order to remove themselves from the NCLB list of failing schools. Additionally, this case study sought to discover evidence of the components of capacity building in one elementary school, Cottonwood Elementary in East Tennessee. The theoretical framework of the study is based on …

School Administrator And Parent Perceptions Of School, Family, And Community Partnerships In Middle School: A Mixed Methods Study, Jackie Leblanc

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify, analyze, and compare the perceptions of parents and school administrators in regard to school-family partnerships in three middle schools in the State of Louisiana. The study investigated the similarities and dissimilarities between parent and school administrator perceptions, probed to determine underlying factors that may lead to apparent discrepancies, and solicited recommendations for improvements from parents and administrators. The study was based on Epstein's Six Types of Involvement framework which cites six specific areas of parental-school-community partnerships and explains how each component affects the educational process of students (Epstein, 1995; Epstein, et al., …

Grading And Reporting Purposes And Practices In Catholic Secondary Schools And Grades' Efficacy In Accurately Communicating Student Learning, Peter Imperial

Doctoral Dissertations

Few aspects of school are as controversial as the practice of grading, for grades affect students' educational opportunities. The purpose of this study was to identify the practices Catholic high-school teachers employed in determining students' grades. The study investigated the extent to which academic achievement comprised the grades teachers reported, and the extent to which teachers' practices are consistent with their expressed purposes for grading. The study also explored the extent to which Catholic teachers' grading practices are consistent with their schools' purpose for grading. Using random sampling, 486 Catholic secondary school teachers and 50 administrators from 33 high schools …

Narratives Of The Development Of Urban Teacher Leaders, Susan K. Newsom

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the development of urban elementary teacher leaders as captured in narrative data and analyzed through the theoretical lenses of role identity, distributed leadership, teacher leadership and urban teacher leadership. The narratives of five teacher leaders provided rich descriptions that made it possible to: (a) examine possible mechanisms for encouraging leadership assertion choices; (b) identify support practices for encouraging leadership within future teachers in the urban context; and (c) provide insight for building leadership roles in the school environment for those who coordinate professional development activities.

Data were collected via semi-structured …

The Relationship Between School Performance Scores And Job Satisfaction Of Principals In Louisiana, Vickie Lynn Wheelis

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between School Performance Scores (SPS) and job satisfaction of principals in Louisiana. The sample consisted of 1328 elementary, middle, high, and PK–12 public school principals in the State of Louisiana. Participants were asked to complete the Short-Form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) via the Internet, with responses being submitted to a secure server. In addition to the MSQ, three demographic questions and three open-ended response questions were asked. The data were analyzed using a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in intrinsic, extrinsic, and general satisfaction levels with regard to the …

The Effects Of Participation In The Louisiana Principal Internship /Induction Program On School Performance Scores And On Teacher And Principal Perceptions Of Principals' Knowledge, Skills, And Dispositions, Don Coker

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purposes of this study were to determine if the Louisiana Principal Internship/Induction (LPI) program had an effect on school performance scores; if principal gender, years of experience, or LPI status predicted principal self-assessment of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of administrators; and if principal gender, years of experience, or LPI status predicted teachers' assessment of their principal's administrative knowledge, skills, and dispositions. A causal-comparative research design was utilized in this study. Study participants included 120 principals and 1,060 teachers from 15 school districts in north Louisiana who responded to the NASSP 21st Century School Administrator Skills self-assessment and …

The Effects Of Instruction Utilizing The Arts On The Academic Achievement Of Fourth-Grade Students, Elizabeth Fallin Manning

Doctoral Dissertations

In this day of accountability, members of state government agencies are looking for ways to increase student achievement, especially in the area of high stakes testing. Louisiana's accountability program has yielded state curriculum standards which identify the content that should be taught by specific grade levels. Teachers are now charged with the responsibility of finding methods to teach these standards. With all of the attention to these academic standards, what is the role of the arts? The Louisiana Institute for Education in the Arts (LAIEA) suggests that the arts are the tools with which to teach these academic standards. This …

Comparison Of The Transformational Leadership Practices Of Principals Of Charter Schools And Principals Of Traditional Public Schools In Louisiana, Charles W. Patterson

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the transformational leadership practices of principals of charter schools and traditional public schools in Louisiana. A causal-comparative research design was utilized. All charter schools were asked to participate in the study, and a matched sample of public schools was selected for the comparison group.

Key findings suggest that charter school and traditional public school principals possess transformational leadership skills. However, there was no difference between the groups in the extent to which they practiced these behaviors. Teachers' perceptions did not differ from principals' self-reported practices. Personal and professional characteristics did not …

Perceptions Of Administrators, Counselors, Teachers, And Students Concerning School Safety And Violence In Selected Secondary Schools In North Louisiana, Sharilynn Duckworth-Loche

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purposes of this study were to determine the perceptions of administrators, counselors, teachers, and students, regarding levels of school safety and violence in selected secondary schools in north Louisiana; the types of violence that had the greatest impact on safety; and strategies that were currently being used to address violence in the schools. The secondary purpose was to determine the differences in perceptions of school safety and violence of administrators, counselors, and teachers by ethnic background, gender and years of experience. A tertiary purpose was to determine the perceptions of students by ethnic background, gender, age, and grade …

The Effects Of Consideration And Initiating Structure Exhibited By Principals On Teacher Morale In Selected Louisiana Secondary Schools, Robert Wayne Webber

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine whether a statistically significant relationship exists between the leadership styles of principals and teacher morale in the public secondary schools of north Louisiana, as perceived by teachers. The Ohio State studies and Getzels and Guba's Social Systems Model for educational organizations provided the theoretical framework for this study. Selected demographic variables of gender of the teacher, years of teaching experience, and race of the teacher were considered in this study. Information on teacher morale was collected from teachers in 14 randomly selected schools of north Louisiana. Data were obtained concerning teacher morale using the …

Analyses Of Acceptable Use Policies Regarding The Internet In Selected K-12 Schools In The United States, Beverly Flowers

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence, origins, contents and purposes of Internet Acceptable Use Policies being used to address issues and concerns surrounding the Internet in 100 selected K-12 schools in the United States. The implementation practices of educators utilizing AUPs and the attitudes of educators toward the Internet were also examined. The study also investigated the number and location of Internet connections in the selected K-12 schools. A researcher-developed online survey was used to collect descriptive data in conjunction with qualitative data collected from a content analysis of 24 selected AUPs to address the purpose …