Education Commons^™

Impact Of Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In California High Schools Year Three And Beyond: A Semi-Replicated Mixed-Methods Study, Jolene Mcgarrah

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine what differences

existed between pre- and post-PBIS implementation on suspension rates in California high schools. A further purpose of the study was to determine how experienced high school administrators described the impact of PBIS on their school sites. Methodology: This mixed methods study identified 15 California public schools for data collection and five principals for interviews about their perceptions of the impact of PBIS on their campus. The schools and principals were chosen due to proximity to the researcher. The researcher collected quantitative data from the schools and qualitative data …

Perceptions Of Safety And Support Among High School Football Players Utilizing A Helmet Impact Detection System, Chris Snyder, Kailey Snyder, Alyssa Irby, Danae Dinkel, Adam B. Rosen

Graduate Medical Education Research Journal

Background: Concussions are common in high school football athletes and can have short and long-term health impacts. New football helmets furnished with accelerometers to detect rate and location of impact have recently emerged. The use of these helmets offers the ability to rapidly and objectively assess concussions on the sideline. However, minimal research has explored athlete’s perceptions of the use of these helmets. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine high school football players’ perceptions of safety and support following a season of use of a Helmet Impact Detection System. Methods: 118 high school football players from a …

High School Language Students' And Teachers' Perceptions Of Effective Teaching Practices: A Collective Case Study, Janet Lynn Lainé

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The influence of globalization on today’s society has propagated an increasing need for individuals who are able to communicate in languages other than English. However, while a large percentage of high school students recognize the importance of a second language (L2) for future jobs, only a very small percentage of students pursue advanced language study at universities, an aspect that may be due to disparate notions about effective foreign language teaching practices. The purpose of this collective instrumental case study was to understand the perceptions of effective language teaching practices for high school language students and teachers at two independent …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Perceptions Of Down Syndrome And Student Disabilities In A Suburban Midwest High School, Gregory Wagener

Dissertations

The researcher explored the perceptions of typically-developing students, teachers, and parents of students with Down syndrome and students with disabilities at a suburban Midwestern High School. In exploring these perceptions of students with Down syndrome and students with disabilities, this study intended to explore how to increase effective inclusion of students with Down syndrome and students with disabilities in the general education setting, but more so, to explore the stigmas surrounding students with Down syndrome and students with disabilities in order to better understand the character of typically-developing students, teachers, and parents regarding students with Down syndrome and students with …

Critical Thinking In The Age Of Fake News: Developing Fairmindedness And Metacognition Among Gifted High School Learners, Tiffany Dimatteo

Theses and Dissertations

Critical thinking has proved essential for college, career, and civic readiness, and K-12 educators have accepted its significance while being unsure of how to implement it in the classroom. The purpose of this mixed methods action research study was to identify effective instructional practices for developing fairmindedness and metacognition, two elements of critical thinking identified by Paul and Elder (2012) and purposefully selected by the participating students and the practitioner-researcher as the focus for this study. A hybrid instructional approach that integrated direct instruction and collaborative learning was developed, enacted and studied using a pre-/post-assessment model with four weeks of …

Fostering Friendships Between Chinese International And American High School Students, Kai Tai Chan

Theses and Dissertations

Current research revealed that international students adjust more optimally to the host country when they have host-national friendships (e.g., Hechanova-Alampay, Beehr, Christiansen, & Van Horn, 2002; Hendrickson, Rosen, & Aune, 2011). The researcher aimed to study and examine the process of sociocultural adjustment for Chinese international high school students. Specifically, the present study focused on the perspectives of Chinese international high school students to: a) gain an overall understanding of Chinese international students’ perception of intercultural friendships with American high school students and b) identify factors that afford and constrain intercultural friendships between the two student groups as perceived by …

The Effect Of Joint Training On Knowledge And Attitudes Of Career And Technical Education And Special Education Professionals, Crystal Emery

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Career and technical education (CTE) is a set of career-focused courses and pathways that provide students with technical skills and knowledge which can lead to future employment and postsecondary education. Concentration in a career and technical education pathway while still in high school supports job exploration for school-age youth and is correlated with higher levels of full-time employment after high school. This is especially true for students with disabilities. Special Education (SPED) is the educational support system for students with disabilities. CTE and SPED professionals have struggled to effectively collaborate to serve students with disabilities. Infrequent and inconsistent communication between …

Understanding Father Involvement Regarding The Academic Success Of African American Males In Urban High Schools, Temujin H. Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There is a great deal of evidence that parental involvement is positively related to how children and adolescents perform in school (Flouri & Buchanan, 2004; McLanahan, Tach, & Schneider, 2013). Few studies (Battle & Scott, 2000; Reynolds, Howard, & Jones, 2015) have specifically looked at the influence of fathers and non-biological father figures on the educational outcomes of African American adolescents. Father involvement is crucial to the academic success of African American males. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of involved African American fathers regarding the academic success of their high school age sons? …

Career Pathway Orientation Courses And Their Influences On Student Career Decision Making, Daniel Weidner

Dissertations

High schools must create skill- and decision-making experiences to support student college and career readiness and effective transitions to careers. However, traditional career education models have lacked effectiveness. This study examines a career pathway model that includes career orientation courses focused on developing career awareness and advising, confirming and challenging student’s career decision-making. Surveys and interviews were used to identify impacts these courses had on student career choice and the influence different aspects of the orientation course had on their decision-making. From this, best practices were identified, changes to the model were proposed and modifications to policy were developed to …

High School Science And Social Studies Teachers' Self-Efficacy Regarding Literacy Instruction: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study, Jennifer L. Ryan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore high school teachers’ self-efficacy regarding the incorporation of literacy instruction in high school science and social studies classes in a rural, public school district. In this qualitative research study, self-efficacy was generally defined as the teachers’ belief in how well they succeed at the task of including literacy instruction into their content area lessons. Albert Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory and Shulman's (1986) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) theory guided this study as it explored the teachers’ beliefs in their teaching abilities. Literacy instruction was defined as explicit instruction in word study, …

Addressing The Needs Of High School English Learners Through Inclusion In General Education Classrooms: A Descriptive Case Study Of A Midwestern Metropolitan Public School District, Amanda Levos

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

English Learners (EL) and those students’ redesignated language proficient, or more accurately described as emergent bilingual or multilingual learners; make up a significant subset of the student population of high schools throughout the country. ELs may be vulnerable to academic failure in core academic subject areas due to limited language proficiency and potential gaps in formal education. Every school district creates a continuum of services to educate students at various levels of English language acquisition, which more than likely will include inclusion in the general education classroom. The challenge for districts is ensuring that general education teachers have the knowledge, …

Decreasing Chronic Absenteeism Rate For Students With Disabilities: One Call Or Text At A Time, Richard Dean Branco

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to see if an added layer of communication could reduce the absenteeism rate for Students with Disabilities (SWD). Additionally, the study looked at two areas of interest with regards to communicating with parents and/or guardians (i.e., type of contact and tone of the message being conveyed). The study began by obtaining a list of juniors and sophomores who had missed 10% or more of school for the first 41 days of the 2018-19 school year. The list was then randomly assigned by grade into three groups (i.e., Control, Treatment 1, and Treatment 2). Each …

Common Factors That Benefit And Hinder The Co-Teaching Partnership In The High School Setting, Kaitlyn Nicole Muller

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this narrative study was to explore the lived experiences of both general and special education teachers in co-teaching relationships at Red Bank Regional High School in order to discover common patterns that benefit and hinder co-teaching partnerships across general and special education teaching roles, departments, and grade levels. Four pairs of co-teachers, eight total teachers, agreed to participate in this study. The co-teaching pairs were selected from four different departments, English Language Arts, History, Science, and Mathematics. Descriptive research, such as having the participants complete a survey, produce graphic elicitation tasks, and participate in an interview were …

Graduate Internship Report Aged 539 - Volunteer Mah & Answer Key, Rachel E. Drisdelle

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship and project report includes validation documents required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. This is a volunteer workbook intended for high school students looking to observe at a veterinary hospital. It is written for volunteers at Mission Animal Hospital in San Luis Obispo, CA, but can be adapted for other veterinary hospitals if needed.

How Does The High School Redesigned Learning Space Influence Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, And Critical Thinking, P. Erik Gundersen

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study examined the affect that redesigned learning spaces might have on student engagement levels, specifically the extent to which redesigned learning spaces facilitate the 21^st Century Learning and Innovation Skills known as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Using David Ross’s work with the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, the study observes the efforts of a suburban high school that has redesigned traditional classrooms into progressive and innovative learning spaces. This qualitative study utilized seventeen, face-to-face interviews with teachers who are teaching in redesigned classrooms to collect their impressions of how such learning spaces influenced engagement. The …

How High School English Teachers Make Sense Of And Instruct With Narrative Film In The English Classroom, Joseph Goldberg

Dissertations - ALL

Although English teachers have integrated narrative film into their classroom instruction for over a century, the medium remains highly vulnerable to suspicion of its pedagogic value. While film has become ubiquitous in the English classroom, training for teachers in instructing with the medium remains nearly non-existent. This has led to the regular misuse of film as a time-filler, babysitter, reward, or mere break for student and teacher, alike. Such malpractice has only reinforced skepticism of film’s instructional value in the classroom despite the ample scholarly literature supporting its inherently cognitive nature and literary and linguistic likeness. Though film has been …

Perceptions Of The Conference System At A Technology-Focused High School, Victoria Phipps

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

John Jay High School used a form of the house system called the Conference System. The goal of the study was to understand the student and teacher perceptions of the Conference System. The study also tried to find if there was a difference in perceptions between students who were new to the Conference System and those who had been a part of the system for a few years. For this study, the author conducted student and teacher interviews and collected student responses to a survey. The author used the constant comparative method to find emerging themes from the student surveys …

Predictive Ability Of Act Aspire For Act At Star City High School, Jason Williamson

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Arkansas adopted the ACT ASPIRE as their summative assessment in 2015. ACT ASPIRE claimed their assessment results could accurately predict the composite scores on the ACT. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between students’ scores on the ACT ASPIRE and the ACT for students in the Star City School District, as well as determining if the ACT ASPIRE accurately predicted eleventh grade students’ scores on the ACT. The findings revealed a significant relationship between ACT ASPIRE (ninth/tenth) grade scores and ACT scores. There was a significant difference between ninth grade mean scores and tenth grade mean …

A Quantitative Case Study On School Climate, Student Behavior, Student Achievement, And Classroom Facility Factors In An Urban Midwest High School, Shamonda Owens

Dissertations

This research was a quantitative case study on the possible relationship between school climate, student behavior, student achievement, and classroom facility factors in an urban Midwest high school. Specific variables included lighting, wall color, classroom temperature, school climate, student behavior, and student academic achievement. The researcher collected the following data: student behavior, number of out of school suspensions (OSS) students received in 2014 through 2017, End of Course data, 2014-2017, in the areas of Biology, American Government, English I, and English II. To measure school climate, the researcher used the district’s annual climate survey. School climate survey data measured student …

Arkansas' Coding For All - Is It Really Reaching All Students?, Kaitlin Mckenzie

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Arkansas Computer Science Initiative required every high school to offer at least one computer science course by the 2015-16 academic year. Schools that did not have a qualified teacher were given access to online courses. It is important to point out that students do not need a computer science course to graduate, but credit in a computer science course could replace a 3rd science credit requirement or a 4th math credit requirement (ADE / ARCareerED Computer Science Fact Sheet). Some initial success has already been demonstrated. In 2014- 15 there were sixty computer science classes offered in all of …

Teacher Perceptions Of Intercultural Sensitivity And Their Classroom Management Practices: An Empirical Study Among Middle And High School Teachers In A Georgia School System, Nigel Lavar Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have reported the existence of an achievement and discipline gap between Black and White students and examined factors that potentially influenced the outcomes. The researcher conducted a causal comparative study to determine if there were differences in teacher perceptions of intercultural sensitivity and classroom management practices based on gender, ethnicity, years of experience, and grade level. The present study was also designed to determine if there were differences in classroom practices based on levels of intercultural sensitivity. The data were collected using a survey instrument comprised of the following three parts: four preliminary questions to gather demographic information, the …

Examining Perceptions Of High School Science Teachers Regarding The Participation And Outcomes Of African American Girls In Advanced Science Courses, Shanica Cherie Poole

Theses and Dissertations

African American girls were underrepresented in STEM related education and careers. Social and historical factors caused African American girls to be double marginalized based on gender and sex. African American girls had the potential to fill STEM positions with a strong foundation in advanced science courses. The current study focused on the unknown relationship between science teachers, advanced science courses, and African American girls participating in advanced science courses. Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Black Feminist Thought (BFT) theoretical frameworks were used in an integrated approach to understand the unique experiences of African American girls enrolled in advanced science courses. …

Perceived Workload In High School Students, Emmaly Baker

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

The proposed study extended the findings of Laurie-Rose and her colleagues (2017) examining workload in children. The goal of the study was to effectively use an interactive technology—Mentimeter—to assess workload. The study employed two cognitive tasks, the Symbol-Digit Substitution and the d2 test of attention to determine whether or not students can discriminate the demands of tasks with objectively different workload profiles. The study further examined the role of Executive Function with these cognitive tasks. Workload ratings were consistent with objective demands of the task, suggesting that Mentimeter may be a valuable tool to administer workload assessments in the classroom.

A Mixed-Method Study Evaluating English Second Language Student Classroom Placement At The Secondary Level In A Midwest Public School, Corbin Kreamalmeyer

Dissertations

English second language (ESL) learners have been present in the United States public schools for decades. While the identification and procedures for entering students into an ESL program have improved throughout the years, there still seems to be a lack of understanding of academic backgrounds and program support for these students with unique educational backgrounds and languages. Instructional techniques for ESL students have varied widely, but there has not been a common consensus on which technique to utilize with secondary ESL students. Placement of ESL students has proved to be a difficult task in districts with limited options and often …

Academic Remediation: A Qualitative Case Study Of High School Tier 2 Programs, Tamantha Champion Hurt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this single case study was to examine the implementation of remediation programs in a rural public high school in Virginia. The theories that guided this study were Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive theory and self-efficacy theory as well as Dweck’s mindset theory as both theorists helped in identifying teachers’ beliefs in their ability to successfully implement remediation programs at the high school level. Surveys were used to identify individual participants based on their current implementation of remediation and their willingness to participate in this case study. Classroom observations were conducted in order to examine the current remediation practices …

Social Emotional Learning Through Depression Education In A High School Setting, Antonette Minniti

Theses and Dissertations

Education on depression is an important part of social emotional learning. Lacking emotion regulation skills tend to lead to larger problems, such as academic struggles, disconnect from peers, strife at home and trouble in interpersonal relationships. Research in depression education or educational programs connected to mental health literacy are minimal, especially at the high school level. The purpose of this research will focus on examining the impact of one depression education program, John Hopkins Hospital’s Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP). ADAP is a three-day program that informs students about the facts of depression, how it is treated, and what to …

My Pop-Up Shoppe, Brenna Backemeyer

Honors Theses

My Pop-Up Shoppe is a curriculum to teach students problem-solving and independent learning through running a small business. Everything needed to facilitate a My Pop-Up Shoppe experience where students will take part in a hands-on, real-life entrepreneurial journey is included. During My Pop-Up Shoppe, students will receive a product provided by the facilitator, school or organization and be challenged to turn the product into a running business with real sales and customers. The facilitator will empower students to be startup founders. The suggested timeline of My Pop-Up Shoppe is anywhere from a weekend to two-weeks.

The curriculum package gives instructions …

A Mixed-Methods Investigation Of The Turnaround Model In A Midwestern Public High School, Ronald E. Joyner

Dissertations

School reforms in the 21st century led the educational systems in the United States to raise levels of achievement in order to compete globally with international students. The intention of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative was to reduce the achievement gap among student subgroups, compared to high achieving students. The School Improvement Grant (SIG) served as a funding resource for underperforming schools to quickly improve academically. Schools underperforming for five consecutive years received mandates from the state and federal governments to select a turnaround model to increase student achievement. This mixed methods study investigated the implementation of the …

Journey To Refuge: Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, And Best Practices For Newcomers And Schools, Trina D. Harlow

NPP eBooks

Pre-K through 12th grade schools within the United States have become much more diverse in recent years. Schools are now commonly not only diverse because of diverse students born in the United States, but also have many immigrant students. A growing number of these immigrant students are resettled children who have refugee status. In schools, these recent immigrants are called newcomers. This book is a culmination of research and anecdotal experiences regarding the refugee issue as it pertains to these students in American schools and schools elsewhere in the world. Scholars, policy makers, educators, those who work in the refugee …

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 …