Education Commons^™

Meeting The Demand For Accountability: Case Study Of A Teacher Education Program In China, Tak Cheung Chan

Faculty and Research Publications

To meet the demand for accountability, a teacher education program in a university located in South China has established processes at the college, the program, and the faculty levels to assure its program quality. Highlights of the processes are: involvement of stakeholders and the examination of program effectiveness. Although much has been done to help program candidates succeed, more effort is needed in the areas of program assessment and continuous improvement to assure program quality. An accountability implementation plan, a beginning teacher mentoring program, and a comparative study of beginning teacher performance were recommended to further enforce its strategies toward …

Teacher Leadership Practices In Large Texas High Schools With Different Accountability Ratings: A Mixed Methods Study, Cynthia Molina Saldivar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

A promising strategy for improving education is to use the energy of teacher leaders as agents of school change. According to Katzenmeyer and Moller (2001), teaching and learning improve where shared leadership exists, and when there is no expectation of “heroic leadership” from one person. Therefore, this mixed methods study was designed to examine teacher leadership and the leadership styles and practices of principals in large Texas high schools with different accountability ratings. Two hundred and fifteen participants consisting of teachers, teacher leaders, and leadership team members from 24 high schools were surveyed; and personal interviews were held with principals …

A Systematic Examination Of Data-Driven Decision-Making Within A School Division: The Relationships Among Principal Beliefs, School Characteristics, And Accreditation Status, Beth Teigen

Theses and Dissertations

This non-experimental, census survey included the elementary, middle, and high school principals at the comprehensive schools within a large, suburban school division in Virginia. The focus of this study was the factors that influence building administrators in using data to make instructional decisions. The purpose was to discover if there is a difference in the perceptions of elementary, middle, and high school principals of data use to make instructional decisions within their buildings. McLeod’s (2006) Statewide Data-Driven Readiness Study: Principal Survey was used to assess the principals’ beliefs about the data-driven readiness of their individual schools. Each principal indicated the …

Innovative Public Engagement Practices And Partnerships: Lifting Stakeholder Voices In Education Accountability Policy, Monica Wills, Curtis Brewer, Robert Knoeppel, James Witte, Roy Pargas, Jane Clark Lindle

Publications

In 2008, due to increasing stakeholder dissatisfaction with assessment results and school report cards, South Carolina revised its 1998 Educational Accountability Act and required public engagement with stakeholders including parents/guardians, educators, business and community leaders, and taxpayers. The legislation created partnerships between SC‟s Education Oversight Committee (EOC) and Clemson University. The project also brought together within the university the fields of Applied Sociology, Computer Science, and Educational Leadership. The project involved mixed methods using phone/web surveys with focus groups eliciting perceptions from key stakeholders and under-represented voices in the surveys.

High Stakes Testing Literature Review And Critique, Youness Elbousty

NERA Conference Proceedings 2009

Standardized testing has been long established in most of the schools in United States. States have attached "high stakes" to tests as a response to the federal law NCLB. Under this law, schools had to develop or alter their assessments which are administered to gauge school progress. While many agree that high‐stakes testing has an impact on students; studies have been conducted to vet whether such impact has propitious or harmful outcomes. In this paper, I review and critique the literature on high stakes testing coupled with a close scrutiny of the research methods utilized in the articles under review.

Validation Of The Principal’S High Stakes Testing Survey, Lantry L. Brockmeier, James L. Pate, Don W. Leech

Georgia Educational Researcher

The purpose of this study was to examine the soundness of the psychometric characteristics of the Principal’s High Stakes Testing Survey. The 48-item instrument is comprised of six hypothesized subscales (i.e., curriculum, teaching, work satisfaction, stress, accountability, and students) measured with a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). An expert panel reviewed the instrument plus an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Expert panel members suggested only a few minor modifications to improve the instrument. The confirmatory factor analyses yielded data to support the fit of …

Strategic Planning Leadership In Illinois Community Colleges: Who Is Leading The Process?, Tasha S. Williams

Dissertations

Planning is believed to bring stability, growth and reassurance to our lives. Since the recent economic downturn in the U.S. economy, individuals, families, small businesses, and major corporations are all looking to planners to assess every aspect of their financial futures. So, when it comes to our community colleges, the fabric of higher education in America, who is leading the planning process?

The 21st century will continue to unveil new challenges for community colleges. Beset with many challenges such as an austere funding environment, growing diverse student populations, community issues and needs, impending leadership and faculty retirements, globalization, and mounting …

Departing From Tradition: Innovation And Accountability In Two Primary Schools In Denmark And The Usa, Pamela Evanshen, Charlotte Ringsmose

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Playfulness, Peter J. Nelsen

Occasional Paper Series

Nelsen argues that the loss of play has unwittingly provoked a loss of critical thinking and civic engagement.

Unraveling The Myths Of Accountability: A Case Study Of The California High School Exit Exam, Kerri Ullucci, Joi Spencer

Education Faculty Publications

Believing that accountability could be a vehicle for change, the California Department of Education (CDE) requires all high school students to pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in order to graduate. In doing so, California joins many others states in mandating a high school exit exam as a current or future requirement for graduation. In this essay, the authors will argue that this testing approach to school change is based on myths about the role of assessment, the information testing can provide and the impact high stakes testing has on urban schools. Although California is the focus of …

Developing Graduate Curriculum Faithful To Professional Training And A Christian Worldview, Claudia Grauf-Grounds, Scott Edwards, Don Macdonald, Karen Mui-Teng Quek, Tina Schermer Sellers

SPU Works

Trends in Christian higher education indicate a growing interest in professional training programs that take Christian faith commitments and values seriously. This article explores one professional graduate program with secondary accreditation that attempts to be faithful to a Christian worldview while at the same time honoring the developments within its particular discipline. In a desire to practice what we preach, several key components of an intentionally developed curriculum will be described including isomorphic accountability, self-in-relation exploration and mentoring. Some philosophical and theological foundations and pedagogical examples are offered. Finally, implications for graduate program development emphasize the need to attend to …

Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Florida School Principals Regarding Federal And State Accountability Measures, John Mccullers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how self-efficacy beliefs, a central construct of social cognitive theory, might be used to inform educational leadership and policy decisions related to school accountability measures. A survey of 112 principals in Florida was used to investigate the degree to which principals believed the goals of federal and state school accountability measures (the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Florida School Grades Plan) were actually attainable, and to what degree they believed their leadership actually helped achieve these goals. A large majority (83.8%) of respondents believed the state goals to be attainable, whereas only a …

Administrative Roles And Experiences Of School Principals In An Era Of High-Stakes Accountability: A Qualitative Study Of The Perspectives Of Alabama Principals, Charles L. Willis Jr

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of the dissertation was to gain an in-depth understanding of what meaning principals in Alabama made of their administrative roles and experiences in an era of high-stakes accountability. With the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) signed into legislation in January of 2002, federal, state, and local accountability mandates have vastly increased. In an era of unprecedented educational reform and accountability, there arose an unrelenting expectation for effective school leaders. The principalship has morphed into one of the most demanding positions in the field of education. The researcher used a qualitative approach to explore and gather rich descriptions …

Passage And Initial Implementation Of The Supplemental Educational Services Element Of The No Child Left Behind Act: An Historical Inquiry Study, Brad D. Christensen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With reports alleging a sharp decline in student achievement in the last several years, there has been a call for higher standards in the United States education system. In response, with bipartisan support, politicians overwhelmingly passed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. NCLB, the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), mandated increasing the educational performance of all children by focusing on accountability for student achievement, flexibility, higher academic standards, research-based reforms, parental choice, annual testing to measure student progress, analysis of the annual testing data, and sanctions for schools where students did …