Education Commons^™

The Relationship Between Special Education Teachers' Perceptions Of Principal Leadership Behaviors And The Achievement Of Students With Disabilities, Margaret Elizabeth Constantino

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine special education teacher perceptions of principals’ instructional leadership behaviors and students’ academic achievement on the Georgia Comprehensive Criterion-Referenced Tests. The researcher sought to determine if a relationship between specific instructional leadership practices in the areas of setting direction, influencing others, and redesigning the organization as performed by the principal and as perceived by their teachers is related to the achievement of special education subgroups in English/Language Arts and Mathematics. Special educators from elementary schools, identified by the principals, were surveyed to measure the extent to which they perceived their principal exhibited specific …

The Effects Of Changing From A Traditional Mathematics Curriculum To An Integrated Mathematics Curriculum On Student Mathematics Learning In Georgia, Catherine Lynn Mallanda

Dissertations

In 2005, the state of Georgia adopted a new integrated mathematics curriculum, the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), which included a task-based approach for instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if the new Georgia Performance Standards for mathematics increased students’ mean mathematics Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores or induced changes in the distribution of students’ scores on the PSAT/NMSQT. In addition, it was determined whether the level of course the student took, the type of implementation of the GPS curriculum or the preparation for implementation affected the PSAT/NMSQT scores. The results of the study indicated …

A Critical Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Administrative Rules For Gang-Related Activities In Middle And High Schools, David Thomas Chiprany

Dissertations

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported that 35 percent of middle school students and 45 percent of high school students say that there are students who are affiliated with gangs or who consider themselves to be affiliated with gangs in their schools (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Jones, 2010). Gangs are increasingly violent and criminally involved and their impact on the school environment negatively influences student performance (National Gang Center, 2010a). As juveniles engage in criminal activity, the justice system has developed a set of laws and consequences in an effort to suppress the behavior. Schools followed the lead …

Effective Science Teachers’ Professional Development: A Multiple-Case Study Of District-Level Science Supervisors’ Perspectives, Chris J. Schaben

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

At its heart, science teachers’ professional development is about continual growth and improvement (Yager, 2005). Conducting research to understand what constitutes effective professional development is inherently complex (Hewson, 2007). The imperative to link research on professional development to student achievement (Fishman, Marx, Best, & Tal, 2003) increases complexity of research on the topic. These complexities require multiple research approaches and indicate that all stakeholders could provide insights to identify what constitutes effective professional development. District-level science supervisors’ voices are missing from the data on effective science teachers’ professional development and this provides a potential gap in the literature (Banilower, Heck, …

Attitudes, Knowledge, And Experience With Dropout Prevention Strategies Of Mississippi Teachers And Administrators, Harold Kirk Lucky

Dissertations

Mississippi has been overly burdened with a high dropout rate for generations but in 2007 began a program to correct this problem based on the requirements of No Child Left Behind that requires all school to reduce their dropout rate. The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes, knowledge, and experiences of Mississippi teachers and administrators with the State of Mississippi’s dropout prevention efforts and ultimately determine if they are supportive of the dropout prevention efforts. The study used a questionnaire designed by the researcher. A total of 386 questionnaires were returned from school districts across the six …

Leadership Practices That Promote Increased Student Achievement In Secondary Schools, Billy Ray Jones

Dissertations

The purpose of the following study was to determine the degree to which the perceptions of teachers and school level administrators may differ, and the effects of these perceptions on student achievement as measured at the school level by the school’s accountability score reported in the form of the Quality Distribution Index (QDI). This index ranges from 0 to 300 and is used in the state of Mississippi to assign schools to one of seven accountability labels. Schools may be classified as one of the following depending on their QDI score: star, high performing, successful, academic watch, at risk of …

A Quantitative Study Of Learning In The School Cafeteria Using Educational Placemats, Keshia Lasha Gaines

Dissertations

This study investigated if there was a difference in student achievement after participants were exposed to educational placemats in a school cafeteria for four days each (four different placemats). Also, the student’s gender and ability grouping was considered in relation to achievement. This study included 49 ability grouped third grade students in an elementary school in south Mississippi. Students were pre-tested with researcher-made math instruments before the educational placemats were introduced and post-tested afterwards. For research purposes, some placemats served as a control and did not relate to the pre-test and post-test content. Statistical measurements of the differences were derived …

The Unforgettable Experience Of A Workshop On Pythagoras Theorem, Salima Shahzad Arwani

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Teachers With Passion: Teaching In A Distressed Educational Environment, Professor Ben C Osisioma

Prof Ben Chuka Osisioma

Passion is great enthusiasm, very strong emotion, a willingness to sacrifice. Men and women with passion outpace themselves as they go beyond mere talent, to leave their impact on society. Nigerian education needs teachers with passion – men and women with fire in their bones, impatient for lasting and enduring results. Such extra-ordinary pedagogues are people who will give themselves as ministers and missionaries in the temple of education.

Do Teachers Learn In School Contexts? Some Perspectives From Pakistan, Ayesha Bashiruddin

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

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 …

Is There A Relationship Between Positive Behavior Supports And Student Achievement?, Todd Edward Boucher

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between a school’s behavior program and student achievement. This study explored the many facets of school behavior plans from across the state of Mississippi and compared the responses of high school principals to the schools’ U.S. history standardized test scores.

School discipline has become an issue that schools find themselves dealing with on a daily basis. While school discipline issues are not new to the educational arena, the way in which some schools are handling them is changing. Some of the changes are as a result of changes …

Exploring Students’ Learning Difficulties In Secondary Mathematics Classroom In Gilgit-Baltistan And Teachers’ Effort To Help Students Overcome These Difficulties, Takbir Ali

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This article sets out to describe and explain how four high school teachers, identified as improvement-oriented teachers (IOTs), in their day-to-day teaching, try to use pedagogical remedies to help their students overcome the difficulties that hinder in-depth learning in secondary mathematics classrooms. Providing reflective accounts from the IOTs’ experiences and presenting illustrative examples from their classrooms, the study provides a broad picture of the context in which students learn mathematics. The study recognizes the factors that constrain students from gaining in-depth understanding into subject matter knowledge; it highlights the possibilities of fostering in-depth learning by establishing the primacy of the …

No Child Left Behind: A Critical Look At The Historic Educational Reform And A Proposal Of The Necessary Remedies, Meghan L. Hartnett

Honors Theses

On January 8, 2002, President George Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 into law. NCLB dramatically altered and expanded the federal role in both elementary and secondary education policy. The law was a result of a long standing history of educational reform for equality within the classroom coupled with a movement that began in the aftermath of the 1983 A Nation at Risk Report to make sure American youth stayed on par with other industrialized nations. No Child Left Behind was the most sweeping piece of transformational education reform since the Elementary and Secondary Education …

Fostering Positive Classroom Environments: The Relationship Between Teacher Qualifications, Facility Management, And Perceptions Of Leadership On Student Outcomes, Bryan Allan Marshall

Dissertations

This study attempted to determine the effectiveness of schools that have highly qualified teachers, along with a well managed facility, and the administration’s perception of the leadership role as an instructional specialist on the outcomes that students displayed. Also, the relationship between two instruments used to determine the quality of school facilities was measured. The findings of this study indicated that all three factors used to determine teacher quality had significant relationship at the .05 alpha level to QDI or Quality Distribution Index. The three categories were teacher advanced degree, teacher national board certification, and teacher highly qualified status. For …

An Investigation Of Support, Goals, And Incentives Among Minority And Nonminority National Board Certified Teachers, Melissa Salana Collins

Dissertations

National Board Professional for Teaching Standards play a pivotal role in the classroom of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT). NBCTs have been recognized for increasing student achievement. There are more than 90,000 NBCTs in schools across the United States, but the ratio of nonminority to minority NBCTs, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards report of 2004, was 89% to 11%. The intent of this study was to examine the levels of support among minority and nonminority NBCTs to determine which combination of support factors and incentives would best predict the successful completion of the NBCT process by …

Teacher Professional Development And Its Effects On Reading Instruction, Kristen Lea Suarez

Dissertations

The world of education is an ever-evolving profession. We, as a society, have learned so much about education and how we can better benefit our students. Students depend on education to equip them with the tools needed to become successful. This dissertation addresses the need for and adequacy of today’s teacher professional development in Reading instruction and how that training can translate into more meaningful classroom education.

The writer surveyed elementary Reading teachers in grades 3-6 from two school districts in southern Mississippi to determine their perceptions concerning various elements of the professional development training they received during the 2009-2010 …

Teacher Preparedness For Teaching And Assessing Depth Of Knowledge, Shelly Rankin Holmes

Dissertations

In the state of Mississippi, students in grades 3 through 8 are required to take an annual assessment, called MCT II, in Language Arts, Mathematics, and, more recently, Science. The results of this assessment may cause punitive consequences for each school and school district. State leaders have become increasingly concerned with student performance and accountability. Therefore, they have redesigned this assessment to accommodate a more challenging curriculum and to ensure alignment with national standards. The unanswered question is whether or not we have adequately prepared teachers for the increase in rigor and depth of knowledge for this assessment. A questionnaire …

The Relationship Between Situational Leadership And Student Achievement, Hope Owens Beaver

Dissertations

The study of leadership has been one of great interest for many years and many leadership theories have since surfaced. Bolman and Deal’s (1991) situational leadership theory places leadership styles into four unique frames and suggests that the most effective leaders are able to utilize the most appropriate leadership frame that a situation might require. This study investigates these situational leadership frames which are structural, political, human resource, and symbolic and the relationship they may have with student achievement based on school performance labels given by the Mississippi State Department of Education.

The study was conducted in two months and …

The Merit Of Intensive Leadership Development Programs On Building-Level Administrators' Sustainability, Sonja Jean Robertson

Dissertations

With recent research identifying the propensity and ability of principals to lead as a key culprit of school and district failure, it would seem that one of the most reasonable steps should be to better determine how effective specially designed leadership development programs in the area of educational leadership are at not only equipping principals and school-based leaders, but at creating a foundation and a prevailing culture for longevity or sustainability in those positions. If the development of principals and other school-based leaders is vital to the improvement of schools, the effectiveness of the measures implemented to bring about that …

A Relational Study Of Elementary Principals' Leadership Traits, Teacher Morale, And School Performance, Carla Jean Raines Evers

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine if a significant relationship existed between elementary principals' leadership traits and teacher morale. The study sought to identify the impact of the principal-teacher relationship on school achievement as it relates to student performance on state standards as outlined in the Mississippi state academic frameworks and as measured using the Quality of the Distribution Index (QDI) on the Mississippi state end-of-grade test, Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2). The end-of-year assessments, collectively known as MCT2: Reading-Language Arts and Mathematics, administered to students in grades 3 through 8 in the spring of each school …

How Do Teacher Qualifications Impact Student Achievement In Relation To The Achievement Model Established By The Mississippi Department Of Education?, Timothy Darren Holland

Dissertations

The following study was conducted in a six-county geographical region and involved teachers from various high schools that taught classes which were involved in the subject area testing program. Each participant taught one of the four state-mandated subject area classes that are tested to determine achievement levels and accreditation ratings for each high school.

The focus of the study was to collect information from each teacher regarding the qualifications they held during the 2009-2010 school year and to compare those qualifications with the mean scale score for each teacher’s subject area classes. The researcher focused on five separate teacher qualifications …

It's A Matter Of Principal: Examining Relationships Between Leaders' Change Facilitator Style And Students' Academic Progress, Diane Lewis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

At no other time in the history of American education have school principals been faced with as many challenges as today. The era of accountability has increased the daily pressures of leading a school, while responsibility for student achievement is at an all time high.

Some studies have examined a leaders’ impact on teacher behaviors. Fewer studies have examined the possible impacts that principals have on student learning. In this study, leadership research was reviewed; not only in education, but in business, sports, and other fields. The traits and styles of leaders were explored in an attempt to define the …

Effective Professional Development Practices For Adult Educators, Jessica Lureen Mcgee

All Graduate Projects

Professional development has evolved from a one day workshop that is isolated from the school setting, into a process that is on-going based at the school site. In order for professional development to be effective in the school environment, administrators need to take adult learners' needs into account when planning training. Professional development needs to be ongoing in the school setting, meeting the needs of the adult learners and evaluated by its effects on student achievement. The administrator is an instructional leader who provides support for staff to continue their growth. This handbook will provide administrators with resources to assist …

Understanding A Pakistani Science Teacher’S Practice Through A Life History Study, Nelofer Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

The purpose of the single case life history study was to understand a female science teacher’s conceptions of the nature of science as explicit in her practice. While this paper highlights these understandings, an additional purpose is to give a detailed account of the process of creating a life history account through more than 13 in-depth interviews. It includes a discussion of what the author calls composite observations where the observations of the teacher and the researcher are presented as a single unified story. Also discussed are ethical issues specific to life history created due to the intimacy created by …

Length Of School Calendars And Student Achievement In High Schools In California, Illinois And Texas, James M. Pedersen

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.