Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Missouri Public School Teachers’ Perception Of Tenure, Roberta Savone Roache

Dissertations

In the state of Missouri, 550 public school superintendents were selected to have their district teachers participate in a study to provide information regarding the perception of teacher tenure. Approximately 64,000 PreK-12 public school teachers in Missouri were sent an 18 question online survey designed by the researcher to assess Missouri public school teachers’ perception of teacher tenure. A sample of 497 Missouri teachers participated in this study. Sub-questions of the purpose of the research study were adapted from Kersten (2006): (1) When teachers achieve tenure, are they more effective and highly qualified? (2) If teacher tenure was eliminated, would …

An Investigation Of Teacher Understanding And Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of The Use Of Learning Targets In The Classroom, Melissa L. Wyers

Dissertations

Conflicting opinions and stances concerning standardization of curriculum in the United States education system are evidenced throughout the nation in the format of debates about the purpose of education and the curriculum. In 1892, nationally recognized American educators met as a Committee of Ten (National Education Association [NEA], 1893) to determine what subject matter should be contained in a formalized system of education, thus establishing the roots of the modern American school system. The results from the meeting were not accepted by all educational entities within the United States and curriculum content continued to be a matter of social and …

Schools In The U.S. 2015: Politics, Performance, Policy, And Research Evidence, Alex Molnar Ed., Luis Huerta, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, Michael K. Barbour, Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino

Education Faculty Publications

This report is the third of a series of annual reports by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) on virtual education in the U.S. The NEPC reports contribute to the existing evidence and discourse on virtual education by providing an objective analysis of the evolution and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools. Specifically, the NEPC reports: analyze the universe of proposed state bills related to virtual education; assess the research evidence that bears on K-12 virtual teaching and learning; describe the policy issues raised by available evidence; analyze the growth and performance of full-time virtual schools; and, offer …

Common Data Set 2014, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Common Data Sets

Common Data Set (2014 - 2015) for the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Tenure: A Communal Privilege For Service, Not An Individual Privilege For Research, Steven Kessler

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Tenure is commonly understood as a privilege earned by individuals in higher education guaranteeing a lifetime appointment barring gross negligence. To individuals outside of higher education, the tenure process is less clear. Contemporary tenure is earned today largely for research and teaching with the heaviest emphasis on research. The third leg of tenure, service, is often neglected or discouraged in the rewards structure. While this information is widely known in higher education, the irony of this system is not. This paper aims to explore higher education’s historical roots as a medieval corporation in explaining the origins of tenure. Tenure originally …

Teacher Candidates Learn To Create Teacher Websites To Support Student Success Through Student, Parent And Community Engagement, Jennifer Laffier, Meaghan Clarke, Alanna Houston

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

‘Theory to practice’ based learning activities are important for teachers in training. Therefore, as part of a course in a Bachelor of Education program in Ontario, Canada teacher candidates learned how to create effective teacher websites to promote the healthy development of students as well as engage students, parents, and the community in the learning environment. Student, parent, and community engagement are considered key elements of student success. This learning activity and how teacher candidates developed effective websites based on theories of healthy development and student success were explored in this paper. First, the research related to teacher websites is …

Developing And Implementing Principal And Teacher Evaluation Systems In Mississippi, Kristen Dechert, Lois Kappler, Alexis Nordin

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

In 2013-2014, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) implemented statewide the Mississippi Principal Evaluation System (MPES) and select components of the Mississippi Teacher Evaluation System (MTES). Now overseen by the Office of Educator Quality, these instruments and the professional development that accompanied them were originally developed collaboratively by the MDE’s Office of Federal Programs, Teacher Center, and Office of Career and Technical Education in order to help identify best practices for their principals and teachers, as well as to illuminate areas for improvement. Elements of both the MPES and MTES were piloted in 2012-2013.

While offering an opportunity to reinvigorate …

Measuring The Impact Of A Ninth Grade Academy On Tenth Grade Performance In Academics, Attendance, And Behavior, Dan Snipes

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects

Ninth Grade Academies were designed to smooth the transition of rising ninth graders academically and behaviorally. Current research has addressed the long-term effects of Ninth Grade Academies on academics, behavior, and graduation rates. This literature has shown the Ninth Grade Academy to be moderately effective in improving graduation rates but have only limited success in retention, disciplinary action rates, and academic performance. To measure the impact a Ninth Grade Academy has on tenth grade performance in academics, behavior, and attendance data was compared from two schools: School A (which has a Ninth Grade Academy) and School B (which has a …

Engaging The Learning Community With An Integrated E-Learning, Gaming And Social Networking Platform, Tim Thomasma

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Our view is that an e-learning platform based on user-created content, gamification, and with an integrated social network, will create a content-dense environment in which all of the stakeholders can maximize their outcomes and in which the best teachers, students, lessons, and organizations will rise to the top. The elements of such an integrated e-learning platform would include: Wizards to enable instructors to quickly create engaging multi-media lessons; Capability to automatically transform lesson content into additional activities, games, and quizzes; The ability for students to take lessons in the form they prefer, including lessons presented as games; Reports and monitoring …

Factors That Contribute To High School Drop-Outs Earning Their High School Diploma, Anne M. Gottlieb

Dissertations

What happens to young people that leave or are put out of their high school before they earn their diploma? Some of them attempt to re-enter school and earn their diploma. This study identifies factors that help students re-engage in their educational journeys. Two research questions guide this work:

• What factors prohibit high school drop outs from earning their diploma and working towards a post-high school goal?
• What can schools do to promote the factors that help students graduate and work towards a post-high school goal?

Relevant literature offers information about the dropout epidemic in the United States, what other …

Learning Assessments : Designing The Future, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Professor Geoff Masters discusses recent developments in assessing student learning and how they will shape the future of assessment.

A Blended Professional Development Program To Help A Teacher Learn To Provide One-To-One Scaffolding, Brian Robert Belland, Ryan Burdo, Jiangyue Gu

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Argumentation is central to instruction centered on socio-scientific issues (Sadler & Donnelly in International Journal of Science Education, 28(12), 1463–1488, 2006. doi:10.1080/09500690600708717). Teachers can play a big role in helping students engage in argumentation and solve authentic scientific problems. To do so, they need to learn one-to-one scaffolding—dynamic support to help students accomplish tasks that they could not complete unaided. This study explores a middle school science teacher’s provision of one-to-one scaffolding during a problem-based learning unit, in which students argued about how to optimize the water quality of their local river. The blended professional development program incorporated three 1.5-h …

Differentiating Writing Instruction: Meeting The Diverse Needs Of Authors In A Classroom, Mary Shea

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Abstract

The proposed article, Differentiating writing instruction: Meeting the diverse needs of authors in a classroom, begins with an explanation of the concept of differentiated instruction as a basis and another term for responsive teaching. This involves writing instruction that is sensitive to the diversity of students’ individual strengths and needs and reacts to these factors in a timely manner with targeted instruction. The practice of responsive teaching — teaching differentially — is also the foundation of RTI (response to intervention) structures, currently developing in schools across the U.S. as a result of the national mandate. However, responsive teaching …

Illinois Teacher Evaluation Student Growth Component: A Predecision-Making Policy Analysis, Joshua Robert Olsen

Theses and Dissertations

ILLINOIS TEACHER EVALUATION STUDENT GROWTH COMPONENT:

A PREDECISION-MAKING POLICY ANALYSIS

Joshua R. Olsen

122 Pages May 2015

Public school districts in Illinois are going to face massive changes to their evaluation systems in the coming years. Thanks to the adoption of the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010 and Senate Bill 7 of 2011, teacher evaluation must contain student growth as a significant factor, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year. Not only must student performance on tests become part of the evaluation of teachers, but, moreover, teacher evaluation will play a greater role in the hiring, retention, and release of …

Isalt: A Campus-Wide Support System To Evaluate Technology-Based Instructional Innovations, Qijie (Vicky) Cai, Jude Higdon

iSALT Outcomes: Publications, Presentations, and Other Scholarly Works

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce a campus-wide support system called iSALT that we've created to promote evaluation research around technology and teaching innovations at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The system was successfully piloted in spring 2014 with eight participants who completed evaluations for their instructional innovations and disseminated their findings through at least five journal publications and/or conference presentations. We will discuss the steps we've gone through to develop iSALT and the strategies we've used to engage faculty participants. Additionally, we will present the evaluation projects completed by the iSALT participants and discuss their findings.

Education Leadership (Teacher Leader) Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 11 page report reviews Wright State University's Education Leadership programs with a concentration in Teacher Leader: Curriculum & Instruction, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Leadership Development Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 8 page report reviews Wright State University's Leadership Development programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Organizational Leadership Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 7 page report reviews Wright State University's Organizational Leadership programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Education Technology Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 9 page report reviews Wright State University's Education Technology programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Principalship Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 11 page report reviews Wright State University's Principalship programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Education Technology, M.Ed Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 9 page report reviews Wright State University's Education Technology, M.ED program, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Career, Tech, & Adult Education Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Education And Human Services, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 17 page report reviews Wright State University's Career, Tech, & Adult Education programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Acer 2013-2014 Annual Report, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

ACER Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Special-Education Law In Mexico And The United States, Charles J. Russo, Ricardo Lozano

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The challenges of meeting the requirements of students with special needs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other laws are a particularly timely topic, as large numbers of native Spanish-speaking students move into the United States.

Against that backdrop, this article reviews the laws for special education in Mexico and the United States. The focus on the laws in Mexico stems from the fact that many students cross the border daily to attend public schools in the United States, and because Mexico has many laws in place dealing with special education. We offer school district leaders a comparative …

Center For Global Health - Mater Of Public Health Academic Program Review, 2014, Boonshoft School Of Medicine

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 47 page report reviews Wright State University's Center for Global Health - Master of Public Health programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Pharmacology & Toxicology Academic Program Review, 2014, Boonshoft School Of Medicine

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 10 page report reviews Wright State University's Pharmacology & Toxicology programs, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014.

Modern Languages Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Liberal Arts, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 35 page report reviews several programs from Wright State University's Department of Modern Languages, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014. Programs Reviewed: French (BA and minor) Geman (BA and minor) Spanish (BA and minor) Chinese Studies (minor) Russian Studies (minor)

The Relationship Between Reading Enjoyment, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, And Reading Outcomes In Pisa 2009, Luke Neff

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Over the past few decades, the United States has seen a shift in classroom reading instruction away from time spent reading for pleasure and practices like Sustained Silent Reading. While researchers have found a few positive relationships between time spent reading for enjoyment and educational outcomes, these limited findings have been unsatisfactory in convincing organizations like the National Reading Panel of the efficacy of Reading Enjoyment Time. This study uses the The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 reading assessment and accompanying student questionnaires to determine the importance of Reading Enjoyment Time as a predictor of reading outcomes, especially …

Using Game-Based Learning To Foster Critical Thinking In Student Discourse, Marc I. Cicchino

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Previous research indicates the importance of student discourse in the construction of knowledge and the fostering of critical thinking skills, especially in the field of problem-based learning (PBL). Further, a growing body of research on game-based learning (GBL) draws parallels between playing certain types of games and the solving of ill-structured problems, citing similar conditions for learning (student centered, small student groups, teachers as facilitators, problems as vehicles for development), and similar learning outcomes (communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration) as PBL. However, there is a gap in understanding how GBL affects critical thinking as embodied by student discourse when implemented …

It's Like They're Building The Airplane While It's In The Air, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

One of the things I was most concerned about when I left the classroom to become a teacher educator was losing my credibility. Everybody knows the rap on teacher educators: they're out of touch, too theoretical, disconnected from the everyday life of the classroom teacher. Of course, sometimes criticism is like a good joke. It's only funny because it's true—sometimes. [excerpt]