Education Commons^™

Caminatas Comunitarias Para Enseñar Matemáticas En La Costa Caribe Colombiana: Un Enfoque Rural, Ricela Feliciano-Semidei, Kevin A. Palencia Infante, Jonathan A. Cervantes Barraza

Faculty Books & Book Chapters

Este libro recopila la experiencia vivida por docentes de matemáticas e investigadores que participaron del proyecto Pedagogías basadas en la comunidad rural para la enseñanza de las matemáticas en áreas rurales de la costa caribe colombiana. Los autores contextualizan estas experiencias para que puedan ser replicadas por otros docentes. Para lograrlo, se guía al lector con teorías educativas, políticas educativas, reflexiones y ejemplos alineados al currículo colombiano actual. Los ejemplos sirven de modelo y motivación para crear otras lecciones utilizando estas teorías. Este libro invita a los lectores a transformar las experiencias de los estudiantes de áreas rurales en recursos …

Examining The Rockford Public Schools' Master Scheduling Process As An Open System To Achieve Sustainability, Renee E K Schott

Dissertations of Practice

Master scheduling is a high-stakes process that plays a critical role in a school’s ability to effectively deliver instruction to students. Proper care is required to ensure students have equitable access to courses and staff assignments are maximizing the functionality of the schedule. Despite its significance, however, there is little extant literature or research on the topic of master scheduling itself or its agents, Master Schedulers. The scope of this research strives to fill that gap by analyzing the master scheduling processes of a Midwest, urban, public school district through the lens of Systems Theory. Through this study, strengths and …

Covid-19 Online Learning: Characteristics And Perceptions Of Newly Struggling High School Students, Kristine Webster

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic caused worldwide closures of schools resulting in a sudden shift to online instruction for a large population of students. For many students, this shift caused a decrease in academic performance. This four-paper dissertation explores the impact of this shift on newly struggling high school students. These students earned a D or F as their final course grade in two or more classes during the first semester of 2020 online learning but earned zero or one D or F final course grade during the first semester of 2019 with in person instruction.Using a correlational research design, the first …

Forest County’S Historically Underrepresented Rural Students And Barriers To College, Tracy Ash

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study used newly collected survey data from the Perceptions of Educational Barrier Scale – Revised (PEB-R; Gibbons, 2005) to examine the reported educational barriers of students who are currently enrolled at the University of Midwest and who graduated from one of the five designated rural high schools in Forest County, Illinois. The research sample consisted of 29 students. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the PEB-R mean scores of reported educational barriers to post-secondary opportunities of historically underrepresented students who graduated from any of the five rural high schools in Forest County and …

Interventions Utilized To Improve Attendance Amongst Secondary Students Experiencing School Refusal Behaviors, Kristen E. Bronke

Dissertations of Practice

INTERVENTIONS UTILIZED TO IMPROVE ATTENDANCE AMONGST SECONDARY STUDENTS EXPERIENCING SCHOOL REFUSAL BEHAVIORS

This study examined the interventions utilized to improve attendance amongst secondary students at a Midwest suburban high school as well as their relationship to the research-based interventions presented in the literature review. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 student services faculty members to identify what interventions are being utilized to help students with school refusal, which interventions they felt worked best for returning students experiencing school refusal behaviors to consistent attendance, and in what ways the school district can best support school student services personnel when working with …

Middle School Grow Your Own Teaching Program, Andrew J. Vondran

Dissertations of Practice

Middle School Grow YOur Own Teaching Program

This dissertation addresses the teacher shortage in the United States of America. The profession of education has struggled to find teachers to fill vacancies and it is being felt throughout the country. This is not just in the rural areas or areas of low socioeconomic status. Even high paying districts are feeling the squeeze. Many school districts are trying to combat this problem in different ways, especially Grow Your Own teaching programs. Many of these programs run by school districts are focused on high school students, although there has been a lack of …

Perceptions On Detracking Secondary Mathematics Classes And Individual And Collective Teacher Efficacy Beliefs For Teaching In Heterogeneous, Inclusive Classes, Melissa A. Dudic

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore secondary mathematics teachers’ perceptions of detracking including benefits, challenges, and needed support as well as their individual and collective efficacy beliefs for teaching in a detracked class. Shifting to heterogeneous and inclusive secondary mathematics classes is a significant shift from past practice, and thus, teachers’ beliefs about their individual efficacy for such a change can impact the success of detracking reform. By understanding the areas of strength and areas for growth through the lens of individual and collective teaching efficacy, leaders can better understand the professional learning and support needed to sustain …

Postsecondary Course-Taking And Academic Performance Of Transitional Math Completers: A Quantitative Study Of Students In Illinois, Gina Caronna

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This quantitative study investigated the academic outcomes of high school students from one community college district in Illinois who took a high school transitional math course designed to give them direct placement into a college-level math course. The goal of successful completion of a transitional math course is to allow students direct placement into college-level math courses. This study provides a correlational analysis of specific academic success metrics between students who took transitional math and those who did not at one Illinois community college. The sample for this study included 100 students who completed a transitional math course and 525 …

Exploring Hip Hop Pedagogy In The Lives Of Four African American Adolescents, Roland Steele

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to examine how participation in an after-school hip hop pedagogy program influenced the social and academic lives of four African American male adolescents. The researcher viewed this study through the conceptual framework of culturally relevant teaching that incorporated hip hop pedagogy. Hip-hop is currently one of the most popular forms of music and represents the dominant culture of today’s inner-city youth. This study centered on how hip hop pedagogy is being used to educate African American male students.

The study participants consisted of four African American male adolescents who attended an after-school hip …

Personal Epistemological Beliefs And Teaching Practices: A Case Study Of Three High School History Teachers, Monica Boehle

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the personal epistemological beliefs of three veteran secondary-level history teachers concerning the teaching of history, how students learn history, how those beliefs are enacted, and the congruence of those beliefs with teaching practices. Using a qualitative approach, data were gathered through the Beliefs about History Questionnaire, observational data, and in-depth teacher interviews including a think-aloud and video-based interview. Personal epistemological beliefs and historical reasoning provided frameworks to examine the description of beliefs and congruence of those beliefs in instructional practices.

The findings show that the teachers’ personal epistemological beliefs were shaped by their own experiences as learners …

Effects Of Differential Instructional Time In Algebra On Standardized Assessment And Semester Grade Outcomes, Michael S. Wojtowicz

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Building off of other studies that examined the effectiveness of double-dose algebra programs such as Nomi and Allensworth (2009), this dissertation compared the performance outcomes of students enrolled in one of two alternatives to traditional high school algebra, a double-dose and a single-dose algebra program. This work utilized multiple linear regression to assess the degree of association between student race/ethnicity and selected demographic characteristics, including gender, free and reduced lunch status, and IEP status, on standardized assessment and end of semester mathematics course grade outcomes, while controlling for initial mathematics placement test results. This project assessed these outcomes for students …

Caring High School Teachers: Promoting Students’ Social And Emotional Development, Roberta Jean Geosling

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

High school students are experiencing increasing numbers of social and emotional stressors in their lives. While Illinois and other states have adopted state standards to address social and emotional development in the classroom, care theorists posit that the answer may lie in positive relationships between caring teachers and their students. This study explores the perspectives of six teachers from a Midwest high school who were nominated by their students as being caring teachers. After a series of three 45-minute interviews and two to three 45-minute observations, data were analyzed within the framework of Noddings’ Theory of Care (1984) and the …

Holistic Analysis Of The Social, Emotional, And Academic Development Of At-Risk Students In A Self-Regulated Learning Instructional Environment, Jennifer K. Macek

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The testing an accountability system that plagues the current educational atmosphere has done little to improve outcomes for the general population, rather, it has increased harm to our nation’s most vulnerable populations. As districts grapple with accountability mandates and pressures to improve test scores the number of students excluded from traditional schools and sent to alternative programs continues to grow. Research shows that the majority of programs for at-risk youth are little more than graduation factories that do not adequately prepare students for active participation in democratic society.

This study used a mixed methods design to explore an alternative program …

In And Out Of School Literacies: Adolescents Negotiating And Navigating Identities Through Social Media, Brooke Elizabeth Simon

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Through the theoretical lens of connected learning and a pedagogy of multiliteracies, this

embedded case study provides an intimate portrait of two adolescents (ages 14-15), Rehema and

Luis. The focus of the study is their uses of social media both in and out of the classroom, their

purposes, practices, and perspectives surrounding this use, and the tensions that exist between

building and maintaining their identities within social networking sites (SNS) and the crossover

of their teachers and school utilizing these same SNS for learning purposes. The findings reveal

that for these particular focal participants, the use of SNS, both in …

How Two High School Teachers Conceive Of Student Voice, Value It, And Foster It, Katherine Mary Mccleary

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory study was to examine two high school English teachers’ experience as they worked together to purposefully implement increased student voice in their classrooms. The study focused on how a convenience sample of teachers designed, implemented, and reflected upon classroom assignments and lessons with the intention to increase student voice and ownership in the classroom. Teachers each participated in four individual interviews, four partnership observations and three classroom observations as they related to student voice implementation.

Data from the interviews, partnership observations and classroom observations were analyzed using qualitative methods and through the lenses of …

Exploring Factors Related To Acceptance Of 1:1 Devices Among High School Students, Victoria Therriault

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Studies show that students in lower socioeconomic status (SES) districts tend to have fewer resources, and in turn have greater achievement gaps than their affluent peers from neighboring districts. In an effort to bridge these gaps, schools have turned to 1:1 computing to bring electronic resources to their students that they might not have otherwise. However, to date there are minimal studies indicating whether or not high school students are willing to accept technology for classroom instructional purposes. This study examined the extent to which student demographic characteristics (e.g., sex, race/ethnicity, SES) are related to their acceptance of Chromebook use …

Exploring High School Teachers’ Perceptions Of Facilitating Conditions Prior To The Implementation Of A 1:1 Learning Environment, Ellen Kathleen Lawrence

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Technology is embedded in teaching and learning. Many public high schools are implementing 1:1 learning environments. Questions remain regarding conditions which facilitate such an endeavor. This explanatory correlational study utilizes Ely’s Conditions of Change framework to explore suburban high school teachers’ perceptions of eight facilitating conditions prior to a 1:1 implementation. The conditions; (a) Dissatisfaction of the Status Quo, (b) Sufficient Knowledge and Skills, (c) Availability of Resources, (d) Availability of Time, (e) Rewards or Incentives, (f) Participation, (g) Commitment, and (h) Leadership, have been studied in K-12, higher education, and business industries but not specifically at the high school …