Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Examining The Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Of Teacher Candidates In Hawaii, Kathleen Evans

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As achievement gaps for indigenous, low SES, and ethnically diverse students widen, teacher education programs in Hawaii continue to be charged with preparing teachers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Despite efforts to expand accreditation diversity requirements for teacher education programs, it is unknown whether these programs provide the preparation needed for teachers to develop culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. Guided by self-efficacy theory, this mixed methods study examined teacher candidates' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy (CRTSE) beliefs, their relationships with demographic and other variables, and candidates' perceptions of factors that might affect these beliefs. Teacher candidates (N …

Attracting, Recruiting, And Retaining Qualified Faculty At Community Colleges In Sierra Leone, Gloria Betts

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This case study was designed to explore policies that were in place to attract, recruit, and retain qualified faculty for 4 community colleges in Sierra Leone. The research was necessitated by the apparent inability of Sierra Leone educators to train and retain faculty possessing the required academic credentials. The research questions were designed to address the policies and strategies used to attract and recruit faculty, better prepare faculty, improve the quality of classroom instruction, and retain qualified faculty at community colleges. The literature review yielded results about the benefits of community colleges in developing countries, thus reinforcing the need for …

Policy Decisions And Options-Based Responses To Active Shooters In Public Schools, Vicki M. Abbinante

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Active shooter events in K-12 schools have increased since 1990, and developing response policies to such events is a responsibility of school personnel. A paucity of data regarding options-based response practices existed with no focus on policy processes. The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to describe the decision-making processes used in school districts when approving the inclusion of options-based responses to active shooter events in Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs). The research questions addressed processes that shaped the development of options-based responses to active shooter policies in 3 K-12 school districts within the Midwest. The conceptual framework was informed …

Relationship Between Admission Criteria And Program Completion In A Radiation Therapy Program, Adrienne Mae Dougherty

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poor completion rates in the radiation therapy associate's degree program offered through a community college did not meet the standards set by the college and damaged the program's reputation. The relationship between admission criteria and program completion was not known. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any relationships between the admission criteria (GPA in prerequisite courses, interview scores, writing sample scores, and preadmission testing scores) and students' completion of a radiation therapy associate's degree program. This correlational study used 2 stages of Tinto's retention theory: (a) recruitment and admission to college and (b) pre-entry assessment …

The Effect Of Health Literacy In Low Estimated Glomerular Filtration And Diabetes, Nicklett Johnston Johnston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Health literacy is widespread, but its potential is not recognized. By not recognizing health literacy, patients have the burden of coping with diabetes with renal complications without full knowledge of their responsibility to their health. The focus of the project was to assess participants with diabetes with low health literacy and low mean glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The project goal was achieved by the assessment of the participants' health literacy and eGFR before and after education for their diabetes, then assessed to determine if teaching the participants would improve their health literacy, lab values, and overall health. Participants were recruited …

Program Evaluation Of A Competency-Based Online Model In Higher Education, Karen Digiacomo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In order to serve its nontraditional students, a university piloted a competency-based program as alternative method for its students to earn college credit. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to conduct a summative program evaluation to determine if the program was successful in order to make decisions about program revision and expansion. The conceptual framework for the study was grounded in Knowles's adult learning theory and Bandura's social learning theory as they relate to adult learners being self-directed and self-motivated to complete their educational goals. The pilot program involved 60 students taking 12 different courses over 3 semesters. Quantitative …

Effect Of Contemplative Pedagogy On The Ecoliteracy Of Undergraduate Public State University Students, Michael Vincent Lees

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Undergraduate students lack the opportunity and environment to contemplate and develop ecoliteracy skills that serve to integrate subject matter into their everyday experiences. Ecoliteracy is grounded in Capra's web of life theoretical framework and represents students' capacities to read world systems objectively with their head, heart, hands, and spirit. Contemplative pedagogy provides educators with exercises that give students time to reflect on the integration of learning. Ecoliteracy and contemplative pedagogy research has shown little quantitative data pertaining to how contemplative pedagogy affects undergraduate student ecoliteracy. To address that gap, this causal-comparative study measured the use of contemplative pedagogy exercises relative …

Examining Adolescent Student Photography And Related Processes To Inform Day Treatment School Curricula And Behavioral Interventions, Jason Edward Gorbel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adolescent students with psychiatric disorders who are educated in day treatment school classrooms manifest cognitive limitations, maladaptive behaviors, and social functioning deficits that often lead to academic failure, impeding their productivity when they become adults and causing them to run afoul of the criminal justice system. Informed by their students' interests and perspectives, day treatment schoolteachers can individualize existing curricular and behavioral interventions, or develop alternatives so that unwanted classroom behaviors decrease and academic performance improves. This qualitative case study used Roland Barthes' (1981, 1985) theory of semiotics as a conceptual framework for answering how an analysis of photographs taken …

A Comparison Between Administrative Leadership In Higher Education And Change-Oriented Leadership In Banks, Glenn King Jr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational environments continually change. Organizations that do not meet the demands for change do not survive. The required changes differ for banks versus universities, suggesting that leaders in each type of organization need to use unique styles to adapt to their unique environments. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to test a contingency theory of leadership that leaders of banks are change-oriented, whereas leaders of higher educational institutions are administrative in their style. The research questions dealt with differences in the uncertainty of internal operations and the external environment of banks versus universities, and the leadership style most …

A Freshman Academy's Influence On Student Connectivity, Attendance, And Academic Achievement, Nancy Olivia Lopresti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A Freshman Academy's Influence on Student Connectivity, Attendance, and Academic Achievement

by

Nancy O. LoPresti

MA, Montclair State University 2005

MAT, Marygrove College, 2002

BA, Kean University 1981

Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

Walden University

June 2017

The Effect Of Ged Candidate Race And Motivation Factors On Exam Outcomes, Kathi L. Middleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Earning a General Educational Development (GED) credential can have positive results in a student's life including higher wages and better job opportunities. The 2014 version of the GED exam changed the format from a paper-based test to a computer-based test. This change coincided with a 35% decline in the pass rate indicating not all students are prepared to pass the new computer-based test (CBT). The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate the influence of a candidate's race and reason for taking the exam on the pass or fail outcome of the new computer-based GED exam. The study used …

Transitioning Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder From School To Society, Charla Brenta Spurlin Deleo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High school administrators in a rural school district were providing transition planning to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to meet postschool transition goals. Despite these efforts, few students with ASD were employed or enrolled in postsecondary training, and parents reported that they were dissatisfied with the postschool transition process. The purpose of this collective case study was to explore parental and staff perceptions of the postschool transition processes of students with ASD to increase the understanding of the practice related to postschool transitions. Guided by Tinto and Pusser's institutional framework, research questions were focused on the experiences …

Identifying Professional Development Needs Of High School Teachers Tasked With Online Course Design, Debbie Jean Lugar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

To satisfy demand for online learning opportunities at the high school level, 3 school districts in the northeast United States established a consortium to share resources to develop and deliver online courses. High school teachers who volunteered to develop courses for the consortium attempted the task without previous training in online course design and facilitation. High school students enrolled in the courses often did not successfully complete them, which obstructed the mission of the consortium. The purpose of this qualitative single critical case study was to explore teachers' experiences with and perceptions of designing and developing online courses without accompanying …

Instructional Strategies That Promote Cultural Competence In Nutrition And Dietetics Education, Cecile Adkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Changing demographics in the United States to a minority-majority culture require health care professionals who are culturally competent to provide appropriate care to patients. In a university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, a gap existed between student education and the culturally competent professional practice of entry-level registered dietitians. Using Freire's notion of social justice and Vygotsky's constructivist theory as the conceptual frameworks, the purpose of this study was to explore educators' instructional strategies that promoted cultural competence in nutrition and dietetics education. The research questions examined how educators described the instructional practices they employed to promote cultural …

Educators' Perceptions Of Best Practices For Increasing Literacy Among High-Poverty Students, Giuseppe Di Monte

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The local problem addressed in this study was the low reading achievement of high-poverty fourth-grade students in a small rural school in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine the perceptions of the campus principal and teachers at a sampled high-poverty and high achieving elementary school to determine best practices for meeting literacy needs of high-poverty students. This knowledge is important because student success in reading achievement contributes to overall academic success. The neo-sociocultural conceptual paradigm of Wertsch, del Rio, and Alverez, which links cognitive and cultural learning processes, was …

Systems Of Support For Elementary School Principals: A Case Study, Jennifer Francone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Principals need support throughout their careers in order to lead effectively and promote continuous improvement. However, some elementary school principals of small, rural schools lack access to structured systems of support that could increase their knowledge and skills as instructional leaders. The purpose of this study was to examine a central California school district's existing system of support for elementary school principals to learn the essential features that could be used to provide support for principals of small, rural schools. Informed by the Principal Support Framework provided by the University of Washington's Center for Educational Leadership, the guiding questions for …

The Effects Of Transitional Challenges On Ninth Grade School Dropouts, Merlene Leona Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The high dropout rate of the United States Virgin Islands school district's ninth-grade students is a major educational problem and the catalyst for a myriad of social problems. Ninth grade academies and extended school day intervention programs have benefited only the academically prepared students. This qualitative case study examined educators' perceptions of the challenges that led to the increased dropout rate of the district's ninth-grade students. Bandura's self-efficacy theory and Atkinson's motivational achievement theory formed the foundational pillars for this study. The research questions were focused on challenges that led to the increased dropout rate of ninth-grade students and the …

Pre-College Program Students' Academic Engagement And Persistence In Higher Education Studies, Deborah Ann Bers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Caribbean University's Pre-College Program (PCP) served as the conduit for the nation's academically underprepared high school graduates to matriculate to university and earn a degree. The PCP student enrollment increased annually since 2010; however, less than 70% of the total PCP students matriculated to an associate degree. Without a formal program evaluation, the empirical evidence into the factors that influenced PCP students' progress remained unknown. The purpose of this participatory-summative logic outcomes program evaluation was to measure stakeholders' perspectives of the ways in which the PCP's purpose, structure, and outcomes were manifested in the practices at the Caribbean University. …

The Perceptions Of New Middle School Teachers Regarding Teacher Job Satisfaction, Paula Joan Evans

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teacher attrition has been a problem for school systems for more than 30 years. Large numbers of new teachers leave the profession within their first 5 years of service, creating a significant cost associated with hiring and training of replacement teachers. Attrition is problematic for a middle school in the state of Georgia. New teachers at the school have disclosed that induction did not meet their needs. In addition, the district has experienced budget cutbacks and demographic shifts in the student population, increasing the rate new teachers have left the school. The purpose of this study was to explore and …

A Comparative Study Of Elementary Mathematics Specialists And Mathematics Coaches On Fourth Grade Students' Mathematics Achievement, Tiffany D. Tynes Curry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Federal dollars are utilized to develop instructional programs for students not demonstrating mathematical proficiency on state standardized mathematics assessments, but there is a lack of empirical data on the effectiveness of two different approaches that were used in the local context. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental, casual-comparative study was to determine if state achievement test scores of students in fourth grade who received instruction from a Mathematics Specialist (MS) during the 2007-2009 academic years demonstrated a statistically significant difference from the mathematics state achievement test scores of fourth grade students who received instruction from Grades 1-8 credentialed teachers supported …

Faculty Self-Efficacy Instructing In A Hybrid Learning Environment At A Career College, Donna Gosselin Gosselin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the inception of the hybrid instruction model at a career college in the western United States, there has not been an exploration of faculty members' understanding of hybrid instruction. Therefore, campus administrators do not have a clear understanding of the faculty perception of teaching in a hybrid learning environment. Using Bandura's social cognitive theory, this qualitative narrative inquiry study was conducted to explore faculty self-efficacy instructing in a hybrid learning environment at the career college. A purposeful sampling method was used to select 9 faculty who have taught less than 2 hybrid learning courses and attended the college professional …

Faculty Perceptions Of Instructional Strategies That Foster Student Engagement In Online Courses, Sharon M. Hope

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Developing online instructional strategies for increasing student engagement and success is significant locally and nationally due to growth in the online field, advances in technology, and the need for colleges to maximize student success. This study stemmed from the desire of administrators at an upstate New York private college to discover additional ways to design and deliver effective online instruction. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to discover faculty perceptions of and experiences with instructional strategies that they used to foster student engagement in online learning. Kearsley and Shneiderman's engagement theory formed the study's conceptual framework. Ten …

Principals As Instructional Leaders As Opposed To School Managers, Lolita Annette Rockette

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the Denver metropolitan area, many elementary school principals have been focused more on management than on instructional leadership issues, even though school administrators have been charged with overseeing academic achievement based on state and federal standards. According to research, participating in these 2 disconnected roles hinders principals' ability to achieve the academic and social success of their students. Guided by Bandura's self-efficacy theory and Hallinger's distributed leadership theories, this qualitative study explored factors that influenced 6 principals' adoption of the instructional leadership role to learn how principals might shift from managing the school to becoming its instructional leader. The …

Impact Of Interactive Homework On Reading Achievement, Amanda Leigh Hunnell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many elementary students read below grade level, resulting in an inability to meet expectations on state testing. Epstein and other researchers theorized 3 influential factors that work together to help students achieve higher levels of attainment-home, school, and community. Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Epstein's Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork interactive homework (IH) to promote parent-child communication during learning interactions at home for students in language arts in Grades 6-8; however, there is little information on the effects of IH on reading achievement for elementary students. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the effect IH has …

Coping Strategies Of Alternatively Certified Teachers In An Urban U.S. School District, Paula Stanton Stanton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teacher attrition has continued to be problem across the United States, especially in urban, high-need districts. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify the coping strategies of alternatively certified teachers in urban, high-need schools in order to understand how teachers overcome factors contributing to attrition. Research questions centered on the perceived challenges and stressors of alternatively certified teachers as well as the coping strategies that support their retention. The conceptual framework was based on Bronfenbrenner's theory of ecological development. Criterion sampling was used to identify experienced alternatively prepared teachers who had persisted for at least 4 …

Principals' Perceptions Of Student Performance On The Nigerian Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, Comfort Fubara Oghu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Failure of high school students on the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in Nigeria is severely limiting the number of students qualified to enroll in college. The purpose of this multiple case study of 6 high schools in southern Nigeria was to describe principals' perceptions of student performance on the SSCE and the principals' influence on school climate, teacher expectations and approaches, and student performance. The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior provided the framework for the study. The research questions focused on the extent to which principals developed and sustained a school climate that supported positive outcomes. Qualitative …

Secondary Teachers' Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of A Professional Learning Community, Catina Shontelle Stewart

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools has been shown to serve as a catalyst in transforming school culture and increasing the academic performance of students. Our school district mandated that PLCs were established at the research site, an urban Louisiana school, for the primary purpose of closing the achievement gap. Yet, recent data from the local district indicate that these PLCs have not resulted in capacity building for sustainable improvement. Ineffective implementation of the current PLCs may have contributed to the poor outcomes. One purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teachers' perceptions of the …

Students' Participation In An Alternative To Suspension Program, Yolanda Jordan Stovall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Black and Hispanic students in the United States are suspended at a higher rate and lag behind White students academically. This project study examined student achievement and behavior in an alternative to suspension (ATS) program at a Midwest U.S. high school. The purpose of this mixed methods, concurrent embedded strategy study was to determine if participation in the ATS program decreased disciplinary referrals and improved student performance. This study was guided by social control theory, which suggests that when students are disengaged in the school environment, student/teacher and peer relationships are damaged and students turn toward delinquent behavior. The study …

Inclusion In Jamaican Primary Schools: Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Attitudes, And Concerns, Jillian Samms

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inclusive education has become an international phenomenon; however, many developing countries struggle with its implementation. At last assessment of the Jamaican educational system in 2004, findings revealed exclusionary practices which are in contrast to international standards on education. Many children with special needs may not be receiving adequate support for education. Using Bandura's social learning theory as a foundation, this study examined whether there is a predictive relationship between grade level, type of school, location of school, access to support resources, perceived school climate, pedagogical beliefs, extent of inclusion training, attitudes to inclusion, and teachers' ratings of self-efficacy for inclusive …

Elementary Instructional Best Practices For English As Secondary Language Teachers, Terrance Michael Bigley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A trending national concern is the increasing number of English language learners (ELL) who are being reclassified as long-term English language learners (LTELL) instead of progressing to the general education classroom. This trend is a local problem for the study elementary schools. Guided by sociocultural learning theory that outlined ESL best instructional practices, the purpose of this case study was to examine the instructional practices of elementary ESL teachers. Ten ESL teachers from each grade level from 1st to 5th grades were interviewed and observed. Analysis and organization of the data through its transcription and coding led to the emergence …