Education Commons^™

Perceptions And Experiences Of White Teachers Teaching African American Students In K-5 Rural Midwest Schools, Tiffany L. Snyder

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the teaching experiences of White educators working with African American students in rural elementary schools. The findings offered insight into the following questions: (a) How are White teachers prepared to teach African American students? (b) What are the cultural competence abilities of White teachers at rural elementary schools? This study occurred in a predominately White community in the Midwest and involved three schools from the same district. The target group included nine White participants. Research methodology included individual interviews, researcher’s journal, and a self-assessment survey. The interviews were recorded on an …

Providing Equitable Access To Education For African American Students: The Journey Of One Administrative Team, John P. Raimondo

Dissertations

This study explored the journey of one administrative team in a Midwestern suburban high school in their efforts to provide equitable access to education for African American students. It examined the high school administrative processes, and the perceived impacts of these processes in identifying, addressing and removing the institutional barriers to academic success for African American students. I focused on an initiative developed by members of this administrative team that is an intervention designed specifically for African American students and articulated as such. As both an insider to this school’s administrative team and a veteran administrator, and as an outsider …

A Case Study Of A Charter School That Is Beating The Odds Of The Achievement Gap, David Green

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this project was, what one charter school was doing to excel at narrowing the achievement gap. In this study, the author examines the systems in place at a charter school that enrolls predominantly, low-income, African-American students. The surrounding district where this charter school is located shares similar student demographics, however, based on the state’s standardized test scores and proficiency and growth scores, the district is struggling to narrow the achievement gap. This study shows that this charter school is beating the odds, and showing significant gains in narrowing the achievement gap. A thorough review of …

The Impact Of Secondary School Educators’ Implementation Of Response To Intervention (Rti) On African American Female Students, Janelle Muhammad

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Understanding the implementation of the educational policy of the Response to Intervention (RTI) and the extent to which it provides support to students with learning gaps is imperative for student’s success. However, teachers with the broad adoption of the RTI system nationwide may need the additional insight of the intervention delivery challenges, and analysis of direction and intensity. Guided by Dewey’s theory of experiential learning, which holds that educators could utilize a student’s personal experience to engage the learner, this study examined the connection of the student’s experiences facilitated by the teachers’ adoption and construction of edifying experiences to facilitate …

Building Bridges, Benjamin R. Cousino, Nathan P. Gillespie, Shelby Miller, Sue Pete, Elizabeth A. Shepherd, Philip M. Sheridan

Undergraduate Research

Throughout the winter 2017 semester our interdisciplinary team utilized the design thinking process to redefine the purpose of the Grand Valley Holland Meijer Campus. As a process for collaborative and creative problem solving on complex challenges, Design Thinking requires empathizing with community stakeholders, iterative integration of insights, ideation, prototyping and testing. Through this process we have identified creative possibilities designed to support and enhance both Grand Valley State University’s Holland campus as well as the community of Holland. Our final prototype optimizes engagement with the campus. While an incredibly large and challenging undertaking, this experience confirmed that the design thinking …

Exploring The Implications For Educational Leadership: A Case Study Of Cristo Rey St. Martin College Preparatory High School, Julie Lynn Frey

Dissertations

This is a case study of Cristo Rey St. Martin High School, member of the Cristo Rey Network. Cristo Rey St. Martin has been able to make gains in closing the gap with regard to student entrance into college for low-income minority students, making it a unique and appropriate case to study. The purpose of this research was to study the formation of the leadership at Cristo Rey St. Martin College Preparatory High School.

The case study consisted of interviews, observations, shadowing of the principal, and document analysis.

Major finding include mission creation explicit to student achievement, a student centric …

Maintaining And Improving Academic Achievement In The Midst Of Significant Demographic Change: A Case Study Analysis, Aaron Raatjes

Dissertations

The research of Mei Jiun Wu (2013) indicates that demographic change greater than 1% has significant impact on the achievement performance of school districts. This study analyzes a single district that experienced an average of 1.25% demographic change per year consisting of an increase of non-White students from 2002 to 2015. Despite this compounding change, the district was able to maintain and improve academic achievement. This study utilizes Marzano and Waters' (2009) framework for school leadership as well as Lindsey, Nuri-Robins, and Terrell's (2009) Framework for cultural proficiency to better understand how the district was able to maintain and improve …

Closing The Science And Achievement Gap: Overlap Of The Next Generation Science Standards And Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Brenna G. Bloome

Departmental Honors Projects

The United States is experiencing both a science gap and an achievement gap within science education. To shrink the science gap and prepare American students for the innovative and rigorous STEM career fields ahead, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were implemented in science education. Additionally, culturally relevant pedagogy was implemented in general education to alleviate the achievement gap. To ensure that all students are prepared to succeed in the competitive global world they are going to be a part of, science education needs to incorporate both NGSS and culturally relevant pedagogy. To examine the overlap of both pedagogies working …

Therapeutic Breathing Techniques And Disparity Across Student Performance In English And Mathematics, Abha Gupta, Shana Pribesh, Norou Diawara

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This paper explores possible correlation between Therapeutic Breathing Techniques (TBT) and improved academic performance of low achieving students in elementary school. The intervention consisted of daily breathing exercises combining two forms of TBT, namely, deep breathing and alternate nostril breathing. A semester-long quantitative study with 85 second graders was conducted to investigate the impact of above intervention on English and mathematics scores. Following one semester of intervention, the gaps between the low and high achievers had narrowed and small but significant gain-scores were found for the low achievers who had practiced TBT. In contrast, in first and third grades, where …

Improving Literacy For Diverse Low Socio-Economic Status Middle School Students, Vivian Fowler Means

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In an urban district, Surfside School personnel were concerned that student literacy proficiency levels were low during 2011-2014 and teachers had not been able to close the achievement gap despite a focus on literacy practices and literacy professional development (PD) provided by the district. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and administrators in relation to the best instructional practices for increasing self-efficacy when teaching literacy skills and related literacy PD for teachers. Knowles' andragogy theory and Vygotsky's social learning theory formed the theoretical foundation of this study, which hold that PD should provide …

Teachers’ Perspectives: Exploring The Reading Gender Gap Among Elementary School Boys, Teleshia Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Teachers’ Perspectives: Exploring the Reading Gender Gap Among Elementary School Boys. Teleshia Mincey-Jones, 2016: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education. Keywords: academic achievement, achievement gap, elementary education, reading readiness, gender differences.

Reading mastery is essential for academic success. As an emphasis is placed on more rigor in education, some boys are being left behind in the area of reading. School districts are adopting new rigorous standards and transitioning to produce students who are career and college ready upon graduation. Girls are responding positively and thriving academically; yet, boys continue to underperform girls at the district, …

Academic Engagement, Motivation, Self-Regulation, And Achievement Of Georgia Southern University Sophomore Students, John O. Lemay Iv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that engagement, motivation, self-regulation, and their individual effects on student achievement are established factors that influence college students’ success. However, what is less clear are these variables’ relationships and their collective influence on achievement. Since students face unique trials as they persist through college, consideration of these relationships and their effect on the achievement of all students is necessary. There is a widening achievement gap between sexes; females have now passed males in enrollment, persistence, and graduation rates. Previous research in this area has been largely centered on undergraduate female students in their freshman year, but the …