Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Historical Trends And Emerging Issues In Teacher Education Programs In The United States, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

US national and state educational polices are advocating for more teacher accountability with respect to student performance, and accrediting agencies are requiring more evidence of teachers’ mastery of subject area knowledge and professional skills. This paper examines some of the significant educational and social issues currently facing basic education and teacher preparation programs in the United States. It addresses numerous topics and focuses on five general issues that confront K-12 education and either directly or indirectly Teacher Preparation Programs.

Las políticas educativas nacionales y estatales de Estados Unidos están abogando por una mayor responsabilidad de los maestros con respecto al …

Oie Peer-Indexed Benchmarks Demonstration Spring 2016, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Student Learning

Internal program reviews are conducted by the Academic Planning Council (APC) and are an integral part of UNO’s assessment and planning processes for the unit, college, and University. The review process is designed to monitor the quality and assist in the ongoing development of UNO's academic programs and units.

Every academic program offered at UNO will be reviewed at least once within a seven-year cycle. The reviews are conducted routinely and are coordinated with the review reports prepared for the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (CCPE).

For programs with external accreditation the UNO review process may be coordinated to minimize …

A Debriefing Technique In High-Fidelity Patient Simulation And Competent Decision-Making Abilities Among Nursing Students, Trena Seago

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Nursing faculty are utilizing high-fidelity patient simulation (HPS) with debriefing to help engage nursing students in making competent clinical decisions. This quasi-experimental study examined the use of HPS with debriefing and students’ ability to make nursing care decisions using standardized exams. The experimental group received debriefing after HPS and the control group did not receive debriefing after HPS. The pre- and post-test assessed participants’ ability to make clinical care decisions. The analysis of the pre-test and post-test HESI scores showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups.

Response To Intervention Teachers' Perspective Of Tier 2 Intervention Fidelity, Doretha Meissner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In an urban Texas school district, teachers and administrators were concerned about students' achievement and the teachers' knowledge and implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) Tier 2 interventions with fidelity. This study addressed teachers' perceptions of the reliability of the application of Tier 2 interventions at the study site, its influence on student achievement, and the appropriateness of current professional development at the targeted campus. The constructivist concept of how people learn and the implementation theory of scaffolding instruction, meaningful experiences, and active learning provided the framework for this study. The educators provided perspectives of how the quality and frequency …

Evaluative Feedback: How K-12 Teachers Respond, Deetta Lorick Andersen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This sequential mixed methods study addressed the need for research that both described and explained how teachers of varying experience respond to administrative evaluative feedback. Formative evaluation theory of Scriven and professional growth models of Steffy and Fessler served as theoretical models for data analysis. An online survey asking teachers how they changed their practices and what accounted for their response was received from 270 teachers in 1 Midwestern state. Of these, 9 teachers of varying experience were interviewed. The quantitative data showed that most teachers do not change practices on the 8 state teaching standards in response to feedback. …

A Program Evaluation Of The Comprehensive School Reform Model Making Middle Grades Work, Wycondia West

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A Program Evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform Model Making Middle Grades Work

by

Wycondia S. West

MA, Spring Hill College, 2002

BS, Spring Hill College, 1998

Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

Walden University

August 2016

There is increasing concern in the United States about the academic challenges that middle grade students face. Middle schools are not meeting accountability standards, and as a result students are not being adequately prepared for high school. In response to these concerns, a state in the southeastern United States adopted a comprehensive school …

An Evaluation Of Champs For Classroom Management, Vernessa Evans

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teacher education programs focus on preparing teachers to instruct students, but they usually do not focus on preparing teachers to manage students’ behavior, which may prevent teachers from providing effective instruction. This project study evaluated a classroom behavior management model, CHAMPS, designed to help teachers manage student behavior so they can focus their time and energy on instruction and student success. Positive Behavior Systems (PBS), used in the field of behavioral management, served as the theoretical foundation for this study. The evaluation design followed Stufflebeam’s (2003) Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) by employing the outcome-based approach, which evaluated the …

The Effects Of Cluster-Based Mentoring Programme On Classroom Teaching Practices: Lessons From Pakistan, Meher Rizvi, Philip Nagy

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper presents and evaluates a teacher training approach called the cluster-based mentoring programme (CBMP) for the professional development of government primary school teachers in Pakistan. The study sought to find differences in the teaching practices between districts where the CBMP was used (intervention) and control districts where it was not used (non-intervention). Data were analysed to examine the effectiveness of the CBMP in terms of enhancing teacher practices and student behaviour. The paper differentiates those aspects of classroom teaching where the CBMP has been the most effective and where it has been marginally effective or not effective at all, …

Assessment Of Persistence For Domestic & International Western Kentucky University Edd Students, Christy L. Spurlock, Jia Pei

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The purpose of our research is to identify the barriers to Western Kentucky University EdD completion. The WKU Educational Leadership doctoral program will use information from the evaluation to develop retention resources, intervention strategies, and perhaps even more sweeping changes to confront the obstacles to EdD persistence.

Outcomes Of Professional Development For Rural Community College Leaders, William Thompson Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

To mitigate the loss of experienced administrators, community college leaders create internal grow-your-own (GYO) leadership development programs. Although the purpose of these programs is to ensure institutional efficacy by developing a pipeline of administrative and faculty leaders, little attention has been given to learning about the participants' post-program career advancement over time. Consequently, the value of GYO leadership training for participants is not well known. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the post-program professional development of a group of participants 2 years after completing a rural community college GYO leadership program. The conceptual framework was guided …

Integration Of Place-Based Education Into Science Classes From Prekindergarten Through Grade 5, Terri Adele Wade-Lyles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a large urban district in Ohio, 29.2% of Grade 5, 28.7% of Grade 8, and 45.7% of Grade 10 students passed the state test in science. School district administrators formed a community partnership with local science institutions in order to provide students with hands-on place-based learning experiences intended to improve science academic achievement in PK-Grade 5. The purpose of this qualitative program evaluation was to determine the level of implementation of that place-based program by examining the efficacy of the teachers' embedded professional development and their experiences with the training components. Bruner's theory of cognitive development was used to …

Best Practices For Leading A Transition To Standards-Based Grading In Secondary Schools, Alexander Bruce Carter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Educational policy researchers have concluded that if U.S. schools transition from the traditional model of grading and reporting to a uniform standards-based grading and reporting model, students would benefit academically. However, very few middle and high schools in the United States have made the transition to standards-based grading. This qualitative research study was designed address the role of leadership in change by identifying a set of best leadership practices to guide school principals in leading such a transition. The conceptual framework was Kotter's change model. A national sample of 7 middle and 5 high school principals from 8 states who …

Fresh Fruits And Vegetables In A Rural Elementary School: A Mixed-Methods Program Evaluation, Patricia Marie Moore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program is a federally funded program intended to increase public school students' fruit and vegetable consumption. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to evaluate the implementation of this program at a rural southwestern Title 1 elementary school to determine teacher perceptions of the program and whether the program met federal goals. Social ecological model and social cognitive theory grounded the investigation. The mixed method design included semi-structured interviews with 11 teachers accompanied by an anonymous web-based open response questionnaire and document reviews. Descriptive statistics were reported for Likert scale survey items and invoice documents …

Variation Within The “New Latino Diaspora”: A Decade Of Changes Across The United States In The Equitable Participation Of Latina/Os In Higher Education, Deryl K. Hatch, Naomi Mardock Uman, Crystal E. Garcia

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This study problematizes the common discourse that rapid and widespread Latina/o demographic growth in the United States is a driving force in realizing higher education equity gains. Using equity indices for students, faculty, and administrative leaders at the state level, we present a portrait of changes in Latina/o participation in higher education over the last decade and propose a classification scheme for understanding variation across states at the intersection of changes in both demographics and equitable participation.

En este estudio se problematiza el discurso común del veloz y extendido crecimiento demográfico latino en los Estados Unidos como promotor de mayor …

The Persistence Of Working Poor Families In A Changing U.S. Job Market: An Integrative Review Of The Literature, Richard J. Torraco

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This article explores the persistence of working poor families in the United States— families that live on the threshold of poverty despite at least one family member working full-time. The persistence of poverty in the United States has been exacerbated by recent changes in the job market that have altered the composition and availability of jobs due to technological unemployment, the polarization of jobs, declining job quality, and stagnation in job growth. The relationships between the persistence of working poor families and these changes in the job market are examined. The article concludes with a review of human resource development …

The Difference In Attitudes Of Regular And Special Education Teachers Toward Inclusion, Janice Lorraine Brown-Oyola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inclusion has been introduced throughout the educational community as a method to increase math and reading scores of underachieving schools on standardized tests. The problem was that teachers were not effectively implementing inclusion. Guided by Bandura's (1994) self-efficacy theory, which hypothesizes that a person's sense of efficacy provides information of their capability and the ability to assess their performance, the purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to determine if there was a significant difference in attitudes on inclusion between regular and special education teachers using the 4 subsections of the Scale of Teachers: Attitudes Toward Inclusive Classrooms through an …

Examination Of An Independent School’S Site-Based Summer Program, Susan W. Keogh

All Theses And Dissertations

This study examined the summer program offered by a pre-kindergarten through grade twelve independent school. Three levels of theory, individual, group, and organizational, were utilized to analyze the experiences of students and instructors. The variety of opportunities and instructional design elements, the intentional alignment to the traditional school year, collegial discussions connecting summer learning and the school year, and evidence of the school’s mission were examined.

Findings revealed a wide-range of educational experiences and the benefits of continuous learning that are evident the following school year. Class designs incorporated instructional elements supported by individual learning theories. Academic standards and expectations …

Case Study: Moral And Ethical Decisions Some Students Make Pursuing Their Doctoral Degrees From Accredited For-Profit Universities, Anne Pinchera

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study is to identify issues some doctoral students face in obtaining their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from accredited for-profit colleges and universities. The three participants attended for-profit universities in the past five years and failed to obtain their doctoral degrees. Data collection is through an initial demographics survey, qualification survey, vignettes, and the interview itself. Data analysis from the Coding Manual for Qualitative Research by Johnny Saldana is used to analyze the data collected from problems doctoral students encounter in pursuit of their doctoral degree (Saldana, 2013). The theoretical foundations for this project come …

An Assessment Of Persistence For Domestic And International Western Kentucky University Edd Students, Christy L. Spurlock, Jia Pei

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The purpose of the study was to identify the barriers and challenges to EdD completion. Respondents helped identify which retention resources or actions would be most effective in keeping them enrolled and on track to degree completion. The EdD program director, EdD faculty, and WKU will be able to use information from the study to develop retention resources, intervention strategies, and perhaps make even more sweeping changes to confront the obstacles to EdD persistence.

This study utilized qualitative design based on a partial case study with holistic, case-orientated design. Weiss (1998) asserted that, "Qualitative evaluation has a special advantage for …

Teachers' Perceptions Of The Impact Of The Jolly Phonics Program On Students' Literacy, Lorane Evadney Moodie-Reid

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At 2 primary schools in Western Jamaica, students at the Grade 1 level lacked basic literacy skills of comprehension, letter recognition, letter sounds, and oral communication. The purpose of this qualitative evaluation study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the Jolly Phonics program implemented to improve students' literacy in Grades 1-3. Guided by Engestrom's activity theory, the effectiveness of the Jolly Phonics approach was examined based on the sociocultural learning theories of Vygotsky, Dewey, and Piaget. The research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of the program's impact on students' literacy improvement and of the strategies used in the Jolly Phonics …

Keeping The Promise: Factors Affecting Timing To Merit Scholarship Loss, Jacob P.K. Gross, Angela D. Bell, Matthew Berry

Journal of College Access

Despite increased attention paid to the advent and development of state merit scholarship policies (such as Georgia’s Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) and some evidence that suggests differences in scholarship retention by socioeconomic status or other student characteristics, little empirical work has explored factors affecting scholarship retention. Moreover, no work has explored what affects the timing of scholarship loss. This study employs event history modeling to ascertain not only what factors impact students’ retention of the West Virginia PROMISE Scholarship but also when these factors are most influential.

A Qualitative Case Study Of Strategies For Choosing And Evaluating Alternative Assessments In Online Higher Education, Robert James Streff

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Studies have shown that not all students are assessed effectively using standard testing formats. However, it is unclear what alternative methodology would be useful to determine whether students have acquired the skills necessary for today's global market. This research study's purpose was to understand the processes instructors use when choosing and designing alternative assessments in higher education online courses to measure student performance. Using Gagné's conditions of learning and Bloom's Taxonomy as a framework to understand these processes, this qualitative case study examined 8 participants teaching online at Midwestern public universities. Interview data and course artifacts, including syllabi, rubrics, assessments, …

An Equity Council And The Struggle To Transform A School District, Grace Tara Rodriguez

Online Theses and Dissertations

Significant efforts at the national, state and local levels have focused on closing achievement gaps between student populations in public schools. Some research suggests that parents and community members can help hold schools accountable for meeting academic and other goals. The Equity Council serves in an advisory role to the Wilson County school board in a district in the southeastern part of the United States. The council monitors equity in the district on several measures, including the hiring of minority educators, student achievement and suspension rates. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand and describe the functioning …

An Evaluation Of The College Readiness Of Graduating English Language Learners In Utah Public Schools., Lizette L. Rogers

Online Theses and Dissertations

The linguistic diversity that began with immigration in the early 20th century continues today. The impact of this growing population is directly affecting the economy and workforce in our nation. This dissertation focused on the college readiness of graduating English language learner (ELL) students in one western mountain state. The variables of gender, language proficiency levels, and free or reduced lunch status were studied, seeking to understand if those variables were independent of ELL students being college ready. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the ACT test scores for 668 English language learner graduates. A Chi-Square test for independence was …

The Implications Of The Turnaround Process On A Rural Kentucky High School: Teacher Perspectives, Sonya Edwina Anglin

Online Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a phenomenological study of the effects of the turnaround process on a high school in rural central Kentucky. Data used for this study include interviews with teachers and archival materials such as school reports cards. Across Kentucky some forty-one schools have been identified as "priority schools" or persistently low-performing. As such, each one of them has been required to undergo changes in their daily instructional practices, procedures, and policies. The change process has affected faculty and administration and led to overall school improvement. This study provides a look at how the turnaround process has influenced school improvement …

Why The American Superpower Has Mediocre Educational Rankings, Madeline R. Hays

UROP Posters

Although education holds implications for economic growth, scientific progress, and political participation, the United States remains on the lower end of educational quality compared to other industrial and first-world nations. Despite substantial efforts by the American government to mend this issue, reforms have yielded minimal improvement in results. Identifying the reasons for the declining nature of US education is essential in understanding how to improve the current academic state. Why has there been a decline in education quality in America compared to other first-world countries since World War II? In order to distinguish the characteristics correlating with low-achievement in the …

A Fiscal Model Program Theory Proposal For Training Reentry Citizen Ex-Convicts To Remodel Abandoned Houses, James A. Hanson

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

The purpose of this study was to develop and examine a fiscal program theory model and proposal for training reentry citizen ex-convicts to remodel abandoned houses. A sustainable program theory model describes ways that training and employing these citizens to remodel abandoned houses may be expected to have benefits to a community. The recently released ex-convicts will learn a construction trade, earn a sustainable wage, and the once-abandoned houses will be returned to the city tax rolls. Vocational education and workforce training are key to this program. The literature indicates that national jobless rates for recently released inmates is well …

Adaptive Change For An All Boys College Preparatory Public Middle School: A Change Leadership Project, Carla L. Sparks Dr.

Dissertations

As a result of district, state, and national attention on academic achievement, as measured by state assessment tests and end of course examinations, teacher and school leaders at the school identified for this Change Leadership Project (CLP) have worked diligently to raise student rigor and achievement. However, they have used largely instructional practices that rely heavily on the work of educators rather than emphasizing the engagement of students. This CLP provides the basis for a paradigm shift in instructional practice that promotes a full understanding of the value of authentic learning, project based learning, exhibitions of mastery, and capstone projects …

Examining Inequities In Teacher Pension Benefits, James V. Shuls

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

From funding to teacher quality, inequities exist between school districts. This paper adds to the literature on inequities by examining the impact of pension plan formulas on pension benefits. Using data from the salary schedules of 464 Missouri school districts, this paper analyzes how various final average salary calculations would impact the benefits of teachers in different districts. All of the schools in this analysis belong to Missouri’s Public Employee Retirement System, which is a defined-benefit pension plan. A teacher’s benefit in this plan is based on her years of experience and her final average salary. The system uses a …

Post Hoc Analysis On The Effect Of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention Provided To Preschool Children On The Autism Spectrum, Catherine R. Maxwell Dumont

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) provides a framework for educators to assist children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to increase independence and positive social skills in the classroom (Reichow, 2012). Preschoolers with ASD who do not have access to programs tend to display negative and socially inappropriate behavior, such as acts of aggression, withdrawal, and inability to attend to lessons. Studies on program effectiveness documented that preschool children who received EIBI scored higher on IQ, language comprehension, imitation, expressive language, nonverbal communication, play, stereotyped behaviors and adaptive functioning compared to preschool children who do not receive EIBI. The literature …