Education Commons^™

Hidden Teachers: Stories Of Adult Basic Math And Numeracy Educators In The United States, Brooke Istas

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

This study is a narrative identity analysis using life history methodology. Thirty-eight Adult Basic mathematics and numeracy teachers shared their mathematical journey and their classroom perceptions, beliefs, knowledge, and practices. Their stories were summarized and analyzed using narrative identity analysis. There were four themes that emerged from their stories that revealed their mathematical self-identity and four themes that described their mathematics instruction. The stories of ABE math instructors’ math journey were linked to theories, studies, and research in the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and education.

How Middle School Students Describe And Explain Their Elementary Science Experiences, Tryna Knox

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to elicit students' voices to examine elementary science experiences to better understand foundational learning. The grounding philosophy and framework of phenomenology guided this work as I sought to capture the lived elementary science experiences of students. I administered a handwritten science autobiography to 52 middle school students at a private middle school in a suburban southwestern community. Utilizing a hermeneutic analytic approach, I learned that middle school students describe and explain elementary science experiences in many interesting ways. For example, students shared a preference for participating in hands-on, active, or engaged learning experiences over …

Exploring The Use Of Mixed-Reality Simulations As A Tool In Teacher Training To Support Language For Academic Purposes, Ann Marie Wernick

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

Applying a three-paper structure, this dissertation explores three ways in which mixed- reality simulations were used as a tool in teacher training to support the development of language for academic purposes. This dissertation explores how teachers reflect, reason, and notice their practice when integrating academic language with content using mixed-reality simulations. This is taken up through analyzing trends that emerge in debrief conversations after instructional activities are enacted in mixed-reality simulations (MRS). Learning through the activity of teaching has potential to help teachers integrate their understandings of rigorous content instruction with equitable English Learner instruction (Von Esch & Kavanagh, 2018). …

“Brute Force Teacher”: Outlasting The Turbulent Cycle Of Teacher Turnover, Anne Marie Light

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to debunk negative stereotypes that surround educators in urban schools and depict how high-performing veteran teachers became the resilient educators they are now. Teachers are the greatest determiner of student success (Marzano et al., 2001). Therefore, understanding our highest-performing teachers in our schools is imperative. Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2011) found that a staggering percentage of the teachers who entered the field left within their first three to five years of teaching. Understanding our highest performing teachers with five plus years of experiences through research is necessary.

This generic qualitative study utilized Polidore’s Theoretical Model …

Potential Benefits Of The Campus Outdoor Built Environment On Student Stress, Leading To Improved Retention, Kevin Dilliard

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

University landscape managers often ask themselves, are they making a difference? Since what they do is not a revenue-generating department, how can they validate their true worth beyond making the campus beautiful, which is excellent, but what added value do they bring? As is common practice, when economic times get tough, the landscape department budget is one of the first to be cut, but is that the wisest thing to do? This research was intended to explore the concept that the services landscape managers provide have a return on investment by providing an environment in which students can thrive and …

Addressing Basic Needs Security At Santa Monica College, Brooke Guelker

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Basic needs insecurity has gained recognition as a significant barrier to completing a postsecondary credential. Research has shown that students enrolled at community colleges experience basic needs insecurity at rates higher than their four-year counterparts. Given the community college’s expansive mission, it is imperative that these institutions attempt to mitigate basic needs insecurity by identifying innovative solutions tailored to their specific student populations. The original aim of this study was to explore the utility of the planned change framework in understanding how a partnership between a postsecondary institution (Santa Monica College) and a nonprofit organization (Swipe Out Hunger) led to …

Examining How Current Higher Education Outdoor Experiential Education Program Structure Impacts Inclusion Of African American Students, Albert Mitugo

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE) in higher education is a common and important method of student learning and engagement in the curricular and co-curricular arenas. Because of its importance, many institutions have an OEE program, usually housed in campus recreation for co-curricular student engagement or in academic units for credit-bearing OEE undertakings. The importance of OEE in higher education is widely documented for its impact on college students’ change in environmental attitudes, interpersonal development, resilience, risk management, self-efficacy, self-esteem, sense of belonging, and transition in college. Little has been studied about African American students’ engagement in higher education OEE programming and …

Utility Of The Causal Inference Approach To Mediation Analysis With Binary Outcomes, Anh Thu Le

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is methodological research to inform educational researchers that the causal inference approach will produce a more accurate estimate of a mediation effect. The effect will help researchers make important and accurate decisions such as changing teaching curricula or implementing interventions.

Reducing Turnover In Higher Education Fundraising Through Interdisciplinary Investments Of Human Capital Management, Clayton Ellis

Graduate Liberal Studies Capstone Projects

In today's modern development profession, the threat of turnover looms over college campuses from creating lasting relationships with donors, leading to repeat gifts. By examining the contributors to turnover, this writing reveals opportunities for fundraising divisions to mitigate this threat by investing in their talent and thus increasing intrinsic value.

Investigating The Effects Of Problem-Posing On High School Students’ Mathematical Learning, Min Wang

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

Problem-posing activities have received more attention in mathematics education in recent decades. Problem-posing activities’ effects on improving students’ mathematical learning have been studied by extant studies. This study implemented an explanatory sequential mixed-method research design to investigate the impact of problem-posing activities in the walkSTEM program on high school students’ mathematical outcomes. The researcher analyzed students’ problem-posing work and compared the content complexity levels of student-generated problems in different activities. The result suggested that students posed the more complex problems in the Final Walk project and they also posed more complex problems in the post-survey compared to the pre-survey. Students’ …

Scholars Programs: An Institutional Enigma, Lindsay Davis

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The race to recruit high-achieving students to attend colleges and universities continues to intensify. Institutions view these high-achieving students as a benefit given the prestige associated with their enrollment, which impacts everything from rankings to reputation to resources. Some institutions use scholars programs as one means by which to attract high- achieving students to their campuses, but little is known about scholars programs, why they are created, how they operate, or the role they may play in helping to meet broader institutional goals.

This exploratory study examines scholars programs through the lens of organizational decision-making literature in the context of …

The Impact Of Principal Preparation On Student Outcomes, Tanya Shelton

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of principal preparation on first-year principals' ability to positively impact student outcomes. The study sought to understand key learning experiences that contributed to first-year principals' success upon completion of their preparation program. Using the case study method for this qualitative research study, I interviewed first-year principals to gather data on their perceptions of the learning experiences that led to their success. The research question that guided my qualitative research study was: How does one district-led principal preparation program in a large urban city increase first-year principals' capacity to effectively lead …

Jr. And Sr. High At-Risk Students Within Poverty: Formation Of The Mentor-Mentee Program In Addressing Their Needs, John J. Noggle

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

In the Spring of 2015, I was driving toward Southwest Arkansas to my new appointment at Stamps First United Methodist Church. As I was driving further south on Highway 71, I began to notice how poverty-stricken South Arkansas was. Towns that were once the commercial service centers to their communities contained empty store buildings and little economic life. It was then that I knew that the majority of children in South Arkansas were At-Risk children in poverty. I felt a call in my Spirit to help those in need by developing a plan of action to help them in meeting …

The Principal’S Leadership Impact Utilizing Distributed Leadership Practices That Drive School Improvement, Dr. Holly Grubbs

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Educational leadership is a major factor in achieving the goals of state and federal policymakers centered on raising student achievement for all students. Before, the focus was on how the principal is managing the school, and now it is about the process, procedures and structures, and systems in place that drive instructional improvement. With the increase of federal legislation, a principal's instructional leadership is measured by student academic achievement (Van Roekel, 2008). The assumption of the federal, state, and local policies is that instructional leadership is evident on the campus to improve schools. Consequently, there is a problem in American …

Strategic Use Of Innovation In High Research Universities: Mission-Driven Or Mission Drift? A Comparative Review Of The Top 100 International Universities Recognized For Innovation, Kate Montgomery

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

This research supports some of the mounting pressures higher education practitioners face in approaching innovation strategically while recognizing the mission-driven needs of the institution. Two research questions were examined. First, how do highly innovative universities communicate traditional missions and innovation in their mission statements? Second, to what extent do innovation strategies align as stated in their strategic plans with their mission statements? This research was grounded in institutional theory given the breadth of literature linking this theory to institutional rhetoric such as mission statements. In addition, the theory provided relevancy to assessing the debate over legitimizing tendencies, such as symbolism …

Preparing Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Teachers Across Contexts: Community-Based Learning And Intercultural Telecollaboration, Sumei Wu

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing a three-paper structure, this dissertation examines complementary approaches to supporting teachers in learning from and with one another as a community of educators developing their expertise to teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The first approach of community-based learning has a longer research trajectory because it examines the context of face-to-face tutor­ing, in which teachers work directly with diverse learners in a physical setting as part of professional learning and move through a feedback cycle, planning – enacting – feedback - reflection. The second approach shifts into a growing area of interest, telecollaboration, for teacher educators, particularly in second …

Conditions For Change: Implementing Principal Talent Management Policies And Practices In Three Districts, Evangeline Chiang

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods case study examines how central office leaders in three school districts implemented policy and practice changes to more effectively recruit, support, and retain school principals. By examining interview, focus group, survey, and artifact data from three districts actively working to implement and improve principal talent management practices and policies, this study sought to identify what conditions best explained variation and progress on implementation. Using Honig’s (2006) implementation framework that examines how policy, people, and places situate implementation effectiveness, I sought to understand how policy reform information flows among people, particularly between the central office staff and school …

Examining The Relationship Between Principal’S Beliefs And Attitudes Towards Discipline And Disproportionate Outcomes For Minorities In Public Schools, Valerie Ludley Nelson

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1980’s, the current narrative for disparate outcomes faced by minorities in America’s public schools has been shaped by the fear of violence thus creating the increasingly punitive and exclusionary methodology for school discipline that still exists today (Noguera, 1995). The zero-tolerance ideology from The War on Drugs became the basis for addressing school discipline and the results have been catastrophic. A growing body of evidence has emerged over the past forty years for what happens when zero-tolerance policies shape and guide school discipline and are used as the sole means for creating a safe and secure learning environment- …

Observing Reading Growth And Instructional Practices For Students With Intellectual Disability And Autism, Jennifer Stewart

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe reading instruction within the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework for students with ID and autism in three areas: a) participation in universal screening, b) reading growth across the school year on the screening measure (NWEA MAP-R, iStation ISIP, or DIBELS), and c) describe and compare business-as-usual reading instruction within general education and special education classrooms. Using an adapted model for literacy for students with severe disabilities, I explored the participation in and reading growth on universal screening measures and compared growth to classroom instructional practices for target students within this population. I …

Exploring Response To Intervention: How Are We Narrowing The Gap For Tier 3 Minority Learners?, Kristi Baker

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to 1) analyze the relationship between RTI tier of intervention, minority status, and reading growth and 2) explore school level factors that might explain differential growth of minority students in Tier 3 relative to their peers. I used the lens of Critical Race Theory in Education to explore the reading growth of minority students in Tier 3 relative to their peers which included non-minority students in Tier 3 as well as minority and non-minority students in Tier 1. I sampled a total of 1,002 minority and non-minority elementary students from three schools in …

Making The Case For The Systematic Observation Of Language And Reading: A Reading Comprehension Measure Inclusive Of Students With Disabilities, Carlin Conner

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this literature synthesis is to examine the empirical literature on comprehension measures used in studies of reading interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and low IQ. Sixteen studies met inclusion criteria for this review. All studies were experimental, included a measure of reading comprehension, and sampled participants with ASD and low IQ (i.e., at least one standard deviation below the mean). The focus of this synthesis is on the comprehension measures used in the interventions, including type of measure and comprehension construct assessed through the measure. Results indicate that most of the studies included measures …

Evaluation Of The Utility Of Informative Priors In Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling With Small Samples, Hao Ma

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The estimation of parameters in structural equation modeling (SEM) has been primarily based on the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and relies on large sample asymptotic theory. Consequently, the results of the SEM analyses with small samples may not be as satisfactory as expected. In contrast, informative priors typically do not require a large sample, and they may be helpful for improving the quality of estimates in the SEM models with small samples. However, the role of informative priors in the Bayesian SEM has not been thoroughly studied to date. Given the limited body of evidence, specifying effective informative priors remains …

Examining Three Approaches To Supporting English Learners By Leveraging Technology, Jillian Conry

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

This three-article dissertation examines three distinct approaches to supporting English learners (ELs) by leveraging technology. Framed by the third generation of cultural-historical activity theory (Engeström, 1987; 2001), this research illuminates ways different stakeholder groups within varying activity systems support ELs, by examining technology as 1) an instructional tool in the classroom, 2) a mechanism for family engagement, and 3) a means for preparing teachers to serve ELs. Types of technologies implemented in these studies include various online multimodal tools (e.g., VoiceThread, Zaption), learning management systems (e.g., EdModo, Canvas), social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), and mixed-reality simulation (MRS; e.g., Mursion). …

Bilingualism: Visualizing The Outcomes For Latinx Students In The United States, Paul Polanco

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I analyzed the outcomes of bilingualism for the growing Latinx community living in the United States. Outcomes were quantitatively analyzed from four different perspectives: educational outcomes, job market participation, income, and social capital engagement. Chapters 1 and 2 cover previous studies about bilingualism, the importance of including outcomes that are not purely related to income, and general characteristics of the Latinx community. To perform the analyses, I used the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002/2012 (ELS:2002) dataset, a nationally representative dataset administered by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) of the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department …

Examining The Consequential Validity Of Using An English Language Proficiency Assessment For Reclassification Decisions, Anthony Sparks

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to develop a better understanding of reclassification decisions for English learners. Previous research has primarily viewed reclassification strictly through a policy lens without providing a framework for understanding these high-stakes decisions. However, I adopt a validity framework for reclassification decisions, specifically as a consequence of testing. The framework specifies that assessment uses, such as reclassification decisions, have consequences that need to be understood. Furthermore, I conduct analyses of both achievement data and data related to graduation and college readiness to fully understand the impact of reclassification decisions. The Duke Center for Child and …

The Impact Of The Discrepancies Between Student And Parent Expectations On Academic Achievement: An Ecological Approach, Thom Suhy

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

Policy-makers, educators, and parents have long viewed effective parent involvement practices as a way to help close the education gap that exists within high minority public schools. The creation of No Child Left Behind (2002) has transformed parent involvement programs, which were once a luxury, into a requirement for those schools receiving Title I funding. The problem, however, is the difficulty in agreeing on what defines high-quality parent involvement practices. Through the examination of parent involvement research, such as Fan and Chen (2001), this paper reveals that parent expectations have the strongest relationship, of all parent involvement practices examined, in …

Core Tensions: An Exploratory Case Study Of Faculty Work At A Striving Institution, Molly Ellis

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from the literature on faculty culture and striving institutions, my exploratory case study sheds light on the work tensions and experiences of faculty at a striving university. As the pursuit of prestige permeates the American higher education landscape, a greater understanding is needed on how institutional striving towards prestige influences faculty work. While variation exists in the work of professors across institutional types and disciplines, one constant holds true: too many responsibilities are competing for faculty members’ time. Current research on faculty work posits that the modern professor encounters disparate demands that make achieving a balance challenging.

Using a …

Tidying And Analysis Of The 2014 Texas English Ii End-Of-Course Exam, David Churchman, Abigail Morton Garland

SMU Data Science Review

The state of Texas requires all public high school students to take End of Course (EOC) exams. The results of these exams are made nominally public, but in a shape and format that precludes ready analysis. To the extent possible, principles of tidy data will be applied to clean and analyze the publicly released data file for the 2014 English II EOC exam, providing insights into the EOC program and a case for better public data from the Texas Education Administration (TEA).

A Multi-Case Study Identifying Potential Factors Related To Two- To Four-Year Transfer Student Retention And Persistence At Private Institutions, Rachael Capua

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

A multi-case study, this research was designed to address a dearth of literature focusing on undergraduate transfer students from two- to four-year private institutions. Through a quantitative and qualitative approach, the researcher completed a descriptive data analysis (n = 2,086) and semi-structured student interviews (n = 10).

The purpose of this study was to better understand the makeup of students who transfer from community colleges to private (highly selective) institutions as well as what potential factors were related to their retention and persistence at the baccalaureate level. Two private universities, both geographically located near a large community college system (also …

Faculty Satisfaction At Striving Vs. Non-Striving Institutions, Na-Li Kim

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I analyze the 2013-14 Faculty Survey data from Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), to observe whether faculty at striving and non-striving institutions have varying levels of faculty satisfaction. In addition, some of the individual-level factors such as demographic characteristics, tenure-status, STEM/non-STEM department, and career related stress are analyzed to see how these variables influence faculty satisfaction. I use a combination of OLS regression and multiple regression to present evidence, which provides support to my argument that faculty at striving and non-striving institutions have different levels of faculty satisfaction. The findings from my study show that faculty at …