Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

The Influence Of Building Configuration On Academic Achievement, Attendance, And Demographic Variables In Selected Midwestern School Districts, Catherine A. Macarthur

Dissertations

This study examined the influence of building configuration on the academic achievement and attendance of students who were considered chronically absent. A longitudinal nonequivalent groups research design was used to test the study’s six hypotheses. Data were collected from over 10,000 students within 38 K-8 schools and 40 6-8 middle schools in 24 urban school districts. These districts belonged to the Middle Cities Education Association (MCEA) in a Midwestern state. Student achievement data were collected from this state’s Department of Education’s Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) database that focused specifically on 6th (2009) and 8th-grade (2011) achievement and …

Improving Teacher Comfort Levels And Self-Efficacy With Technology Integration And Application Of Technology Into The Elementary Education Curriculum Through The Tech Buddy Program, Susan Christine Adams

Dissertations

Professional Development for technology integration into the elementary curriculum has been a costly and frequently ineffective endeavor. The idea for the Tech Buddy model came from this frustration. Teaming a teacher who had high comfort and self-efficacy levels with technology, however who still had much to learn, together with a teacher who was willing to learn, but had low comfort and self-efficacy levels seemed natural. The study consisted of 13 educators and one Administrative Intern from the school of study. The study paired a mentor who had a high level of comfort and self efficacy with ICT integration with a …

An Evaluation Of An Adaptive Learning Tool In An Introductory Business Course, Tim A. Rogers

Dissertations

Adding technology to the classroom has been an instructional strategy used by many higher-education institutions to increase student success, but merely adding computers, multimedia devices, and other technology to the classroom with pedagogical arbitrariness has proven to have little effect. The purpose of this study was to determine if using the adaptive learning technology (ALT) tool, LearnSmart, in seated introductory business courses would result in a statistically significant difference in unit exam scores, to analyze changes in exam performance through different time increments used of the ALT, and to investigate correlations between the student’s metacognition in the ALT module and …

Team Captain: A Quantitative Study Examining The Relationship Between Extracurricular And/Or Co-Curricular Participation And Leadership Styles Of Beginning Superintendents, Shawn Poyser

Dissertations

This mixed-methods study was conducted to determine if there was a significant relationship between extracurricular and/or co-curricular participation and leadership styles of beginning superintendents in the state of Missouri. First-year superintendents from 63 school districts in Missouri were invited to participate in the study, and 28 participated. The first instrumentation used in the research was a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X Short Form, created by Bass and Avolio (2004), consisting of 45 leadership style questions and was administered online through Mind Garden, Ltd. In addition to the MLQ 5X-Short, participants were invited to complete a second survey created by the researcher, …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Flipped Classroom And Traditional Classroom Student Engagement And Teaching Methodologies, Michael T. Holik

Dissertations

Studies exist on the effectiveness of learning in a flipped classroom learning setting; however, there is limited research available regarding the success or failure rates of flipped classroom learning in technical culinary arts programs. This study, using an action-based research approach, was designed to gather evidence from a technical education program to determine if students perform better in the flipped classroom or traditional classroom. Multiple instruments were designed to gather information about the culinary flipped classroom format. Instructor and student perceptions about the learning in each type of classroom were explored, levels of student engagement were recorded, and final course …

Traditional And Hybrid Dental Assisting Program: An Exploration Of Design And Optimal Outcomes For Community College Students, Janet A. Sell

Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate an accredited dental assisting educational program at a Midwest community college. The Bureau of Labor of Statistics (2015) claimed the profession of dental assisting is one of the fastest growing occupation, along with ongoing research that good oral health is linked to overall general health, thereby increasing the need for more dental assistants in the workforce. The aim of this study was to determine if dental assisting students taking courses in a face-to-face traditional format performed differently from students taking courses in a hybrid (a combination of face-to face and online) format. The researcher …

Missouri Public School Administrators’ Perceived Effectiveness Of Senate Bill No. 75, Joby B. Steele

Dissertations

In this quantitative study, the perceptions of safety and preparedness of Missouri’s high school administrators after participating in active shooter training as mandated by Missouri’s Senate Bill No. 75 were analyzed. As school shootings continue, states have passed legislation to prepare schools to provide safety for students and faculty members (Shah, 2013b). There are currently limited data about the perceived effectiveness of Missouri’s Senate Bill No. 75 and its ability to help administrators feel safe and prepared in the event of an active shooter. This study involved examination of what schools can do to prepare for a school shooting before …

The Impact Of Secondary Career And Technical Education On Postsecondary Career And Educational Placement, Roy Allen Moss

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to provide evidence of the impact career and technical education courses have on students after graduation. Numbers of Career and Technical Education (CTE) completers have continually dropped at the participating schools for the past five years. Five categories of placement after graduation were studied including the following: college, employment, postsecondary vocational training, military, and no placement. Archival data were gathered from postgraduate surveys conducted by high schools as required by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Data were collected for graduates in 2011, 2012, and 2013 from four area high schools that …

Transformative Models In K-12 Education: The Impact Of A Blended Universal Design For Learning Intervention, Kai Monet Mathews

Dissertations

Accountability measures, by way of standardized curriculum and assessments, have played a large part in the attempt to ensure that students from all backgrounds receive equal access to quality education. However, the inherent disadvantage of a standardized system is the implied assumption that all students come in with the same knowledge, learn at the same pace, and learn the same way. In the wake of an increasingly diverse K-12 population, educational researchers, learning theorists, and practitioners agree that the concept of the average student is, in fact, a myth. Students come to school with different needs, norms, interests, cultural behavior, …

Faculty And Staff Perceptions Of Stress, Efficacy, Personality, And Health Practices During Implementation Of Comprehensive Educational Change At One Secondary School, Virginia Mae Lonser

Dissertations

Problem

Private faith-based schools have experienced a severe drop in enrollment over the past few years contributing to perceptions of job insecurity. Especially in the realm of residential secondary education has this observation been true. This descriptive case study investigated perceptions of stress of secondary-school faculty and staff involved with a school-based systemic change implementation in an attempt to turn around the attenuation in enrollment.

Method

This research study followed a bounded mixed-methods case design using data collected as participant observations of the 24 residential secondary-school faculty and staff and tests were performed to show relationships between variables. Tools were …

Mentoring Pre- And In-Service School Leaders Through A Combined Principal Mentoring Model: A Case Study Of The University Of Illinois At Chicago, Alicia Haller

Dissertations

Scholars have demonstrated that school leadership is second only to instruction in terms of school-level impact on student learning. Additionally, researchers and policy makers have argued that in order to ensure aspiring and novice principals develop the leadership and instructional competencies necessary to improve schools, they need to be provided with authentic learning experiences and supported by knowledgeable mentors. This case study explored a unique combined principal mentoring model, developed by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) that spans from the pre-service phase into the early in-service phase. In order to provide a rich description of the model, the …

How Did The Students Cross The Stage? The Relationship Of Demographic Factors On Early Selection Of College Major, Christy Riddle

Dissertations

Student retention is a highly researched topic studied for many decades, but low retention of college students still exists today. As more states move to success-based funding formulas, it is more important than ever for higher education institutions to increase retention efforts (Swecker, 2011). Colleges and universities launch programs trying to combat and improve retention deficits. Research reveals that student engagement, academic advising, demographics, socioeconomic factors, and early selection of major within the first academic year play a role in retention.

The purpose of this study is to determine if early selection of major relates to the demographic factors of …

Impact Of Single Gender Programs On Achievement, Attendance, Discipline, And Character: A Program Evaluation Project, Carla L. Sparks Dr.

Dissertations

The instance of single gender education in American public schools has risen since the 2006 amendments to Title IX permitting public schools to separate boys and girls for academic purposes. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of single gender education to promote gains in student academic achievement, increase attendance levels, support character development, and decrease student discipline problems. The context of this inquiry is a large public school district that incorporates single gender education applications across the district. My study is focused on an all-girls middle school and an all-boys middle school, and it demonstrates outcomes …

Mississippi Teachers’ Perception Of Merit Pay, Diana M. Stephens

Dissertations

Teachers are the center of increasing student achievement and student motivation, therefore a way to motivate teachers must be implemented. Although most teachers are motivated intrinsically for their love of teaching, external motivation could add another component to teacher success. Merit pay is one way to provide an external motivator to change teaching strategies in order to increase student achievement. This study measured teachers’ perceptions in Mississippi who are involved in the merit pay pilot program. There are four school districts participating in the pilot program and two of those school districts were surveyed for this study, a central Mississippi …

Exploring Personal Attitudes Towards Parent Involvement As It Relates To Relational Aggression Acted Out Through Social Media, Karla M. Holland

Dissertations

Relational aggression acted out through social media or cyber bullying is an evergrowing limitedly researched issue that is impacting students and parents alike. A mixedmethod study was conducted using existing older and aspiring younger social workers and counselors to investigate attitudes (focus groups and text box comments) and relationships (surveys) between variables. The research questions asked how attitudes toward cyber bullying based on gender, type of social media, parent versus nonparent status, and involved parent versus not involved parent status. Hypotheses tested correlations between the same elements. Participants were 75 existing social workers and counselors working at a Midwestern school …

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 …

The Perceptions Of Elementary Stem Schools In Missouri, Kelli Michelle Alumbaugh

Dissertations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, or STEM, is an area that is currently growing in popularity with educators (Becker & Park, 2011). A qualitative study consisting of interviews was conducted and data were gathered from three leaders in professional STEM organizations, four principals from elementary STEM schools, and six teachers from elementary STEM schools to gain their perceptions of elementary STEM schools in Missouri. The perceptions of leaders in professional STEM organizations regarding STEM education were consistently all positive, and each leader was a proponent of STEM education at the elementary level. The perceptions of principals and teachers were …

Grit And Student Performance: A Mixed-Method Analysis Of A Non-Traditional Technical High School And A Traditional High School, Ronda L. Wallace

Dissertations

Grit, defined as the tendency to pursue long-term goals with sustained zeal and hard work, was shown to predict achievement in academic, vocational, and avocational domains. In 2009, Duckworth and Quinn found that grit predicted student effectiveness in school and the concept of grit was largely unrelated to talent. Grit provided incremental predictive validity for achievement outcomes, particularly in settings of high challenge. From the combination of persistence, self-control, and more broadly, conscientiousness, emerges the concept of grit. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative grittiness of students from two different high school settings. The first of …

Failing Ninth-Grade Students In A Missouri School District, And The Comparison To Inadequate Learning Resources, Eric Wayne Ramsey

Dissertations

This study involved a mixed design to generate the perceptions of students and teachers about failing ninth-grade students and the impact of learning resources. The participants in this study were a purposive selection of ninth-grade students and ninth-grade teachers in one Missouri school district. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the premise that ninth-grade students who failed multiple classes also lacked learning resources. The learning resources were categorized into cultural and physical resources. To determine if learning resources had an impact on the ninth-grade students’ academic performance, the perceptions of the failing ninth-grade students were analyzed through …

Academic Practices To Gain And Maintain Student-Teacher Connectedness And Classroom Behavioral Management, Related To Educator Demographics, Leslie Threadgill

Dissertations

Connectedness and classroom management has been defined as the ability to relate to students and keep order and maintain successful relationships with individuals. This qualitative study utilized surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and observations to examine the best practices implemented by educators to develop and maintain connections with students based upon the age, gender, ethnicity, and experience of a studied educator. The research investigated how classroom management positively and/or negatively affected the educator, students, and classroom environment, with respect to connectedness, as evidenced by behaviors such as off-task, aggressive, and non-academically productive behaviors. The research also examined how a teacher’s intonation and …

Early Literacy Acquisition With The Inclusion Of The Five Components Of Research Based Reading Instruction, Jill Wright

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the existing research on early literacy and the types of approaches used in schools at the time of this writing. Although researchers could not agree on which types of reading programs are the most effective, there was a large amount of research supporting the work done in 2000 from the National Reading Panel, emphasizing the importance of the five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The study site historically used a traditional Balanced Literacy program, and reported proficiency scores in the 30th percentile overall. This research study investigated …

A Study Of The Perceptions Of First-Year Teachers As Prepared Classroom Teachers, Vida Jane Ward

Dissertations

The quality of teacher education allows first-year teachers to meet mandates at federal and state levels (Darling-Hammond, 2010a). The teaching profession is complex and requires new and innovative quality preparation programs (Wei, Andree, & Darling- Hammond, 2009). This study involved examination of the perceptions of 17 building principals and 16 first-year teachers to determine the effectiveness of teacher preparation. First-year teachers identified essential elements of teacher preparation and weaknesses of programs. The study addressed building principals’ perceptions of differences, if any, in the effectiveness of first-year teachers graduating from traditional teacher preparation programs and first-year teachers who choose alternative routes …

Academic Interventions And Academic Achievement In The Middle School Grades, Toby G. Kite

Dissertations

After the passing of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004, many schools began to use a Response to Intervention (RtI) model instead of the discrepancy model when identifying students with specific learning disabilities (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). When elementary schools adopted the RtI model, it was shown to be successful with any students who need academic interventions (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). The success at the elementary level has led to middle schools adopting the model with varying success (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). In this study, middle schools that have developed …

The Study Of Effective Tier Ii Reading Interventions For Primary Grade Students, Sheila Cox-Hines

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine effective reading interventions for primary grade students, utilizing the Response to Intervention (RtI) model. The purpose of RtI is to enhance the quality of education for children, if appropriate levels of academic instruction are present (Hanover Research, 2015). The research questions were posed to garner perspectives of the Intervention Team (IT) leaders as to Tier II interventions that aided students who indicated difficulty with reading, and the duration of the intervention, prior to achieving progress toward the specified goal. Additionally, research questions were stated to determine which Tier II reading intervention yielded …

A Comparison Of Single Gender And Coeducational Classrooms, Student Engagement, And Achievement Scores, Myra Pendleton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the academic achievement in reading among students enrolled in single-gender and coeducational classes, as well as the impact of teachers’ perceptions on the outcome of academic achievement. The study used a mixed-method approach to address this purpose. This study reported quantitative findings from reading scores on the Acuity test for 396 students in grades two through eight, from four elementary and two middle schools within an urban district in Missouri. Acuity scores were examined in several ways: comparison of the means for coeducational and single-gendered classrooms …

A Mixed-Methods (Quantitative-Qualitative) Study To Identify The Perceived Level Of, Zeky Zardo

Dissertations

Different approaches to developing leaders have been established through various forms of self-assessment, action learning, and education and training activities (Smither et al., 2005). The existing body of research on the impact and success of college and university leadership development programs focuses heavily on undergraduate leadership programs and not graduate-level programs such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) or the doctorate. The purpose of this mixed-methods (quantitative–qualitative) study was to identify the perceived level of transformational leadership skill development by students enrolled in a doctoral program in organizational leadership. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to …

Overcoming Barriers To Admission In A Community College, Nicole Cobb

Dissertations

Higher education institutions currently face a climate that can best be described as tumultuous. Funding cuts and increased external pressure and accountability are forcing institutions to evaluate the way in which they do business. Process improvement methodologies such as lean and Six Sigma have been successfully implemented in industry; colleges and universities are evaluating how these methodologies will fit into higher education. The central research question was: “What are the internal institutional barriers to persistence?” Lean principles served as the theoretical framework for this study. Lean principles rely on subject matter experts to evaluate the processes in which they are …

Educational Stakeholders’ Perceptions During Grading Reform In One Middle School, Christy M. Patrick

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing middle school grading reform. The study involved all stakeholders in one middle school community. Participants were surveyed to determine which standards-based grading practices were most welcomed among middle school students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Additionally, students’ perceived motivation levels when evaluated using standards based grading practices were quantified and the necessary support needs of middle school teachers were identified as they attempted school-wide grading reform. Many are calling for school leaders to evaluate unreliable traditional grading methods and reform grading to a standards-based approach (Guskey, Swan, & Jung, 2011; …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Of Teachers’ Attitudes Towards A Computer-Based Assessment System And Student Achievement, Felicia M. Griffin

Dissertations

Since the introduction of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), districts across the country implemented computerized benchmark, or interim assessments, into their curriculum as a means to monitor and improve student achievement. Often, a change in curriculum entails a demand of educators’ time, whether through professional development or lesson planning, and therefore affects teachers’ attitudes. The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, relationship there was among middle school teachers’ attitudes, monthly computerized benchmark assessments, and student scores on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP). Educators of the communication arts and mathematics content areas from one middle school were …

Achievement Despite Poverty: Testing The Effectiveness Of Timeless Principles, Nicole Leigh Wallace Keller

Dissertations

School districts composed of a large number of high-poverty students are generally not found to be high-achieving (Chenoweth & Theokas, 2013). In Missouri, districts are assessed in accordance with the fifth edition of the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) which results in an Annual Performance Report (APR) score (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education [MODESE], 2014d). School administrators of districts having two consecutive years of APR scores over 95% while having a student population composed of a large number of students receiving free or reduced price meals were recruited for a qualitative study. Interview questions were developed based on …