Educational Leadership Commons^™

2020-08-13 Quality Enhancement Plan Framework, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Proposed Quality Enhancement Plan framework presented to the Faculty Senate on August 13, 2020.

2020-08-13 Responsibilities Of Faculty Senate Executive Council, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Responsibilities of Faculty Senate Executive Council as read before the senate on August 13, 2020.

2020-08-13 Resolution Honoring Timothy Hare, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Faculty Senate resolution honoring Timothy Hare delivered on August 13, 2020.

2020-08-13 Level Up: Experience Your Future Presentation, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

A PowerPoint presentation on the Quality Enhancement Plan delivered on August 13, 2020.

An Innovative Approach To Teacher Retention, Marc Dixon, Ruthe Francis

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Among the many challenges educational leaders are facing, teacher attrition is most paramount. Not only are teachers with less than five years of experience leaving the field at alarming rates, but the number of teachers with twenty or more years of experience has also decreased by 10% since 2000. Teachers who leave the field often site a lack of support as their primary source of frustration. While school districts across the nation have made efforts to address teacher attrition, induction programs are often managed at the district level and completed solely out of compliance.

After reviewing the literature on teacher …

Deverne Calloway: “I Am A Teacher---I Will Teach”, Holly Hick

Dissertations

In 1962, DeVerne Calloway was the first Black woman elected to the Missouri General Assembly and the first Black woman elected to any public office in the state of Missouri. A political activist and educator by nature, a legislator by trade, DeVerne has decades of historically documented critical work within the intersections of race, gender, and class. Her work, though well documented, remains undertheorized. This study seeks to explore DeVerne’s life and work through Black feminist theory and Critical Race Theory’s tenets of intersectionality and interest convergence, ultimately tracing her actions as a public intellectual. Written as an educational biography, …

First-Gen Mental Health: The Experiences Of First-Generation Graduate Students At The University Of San Diego, Edith Mendez

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

Higher education professionals can better support struggling students by having more of an awareness of their experiences and how their mental health is related to the identities they hold. As a first-generation Latina college student, I am reminded of my own experiences and struggles, which impacted my sense of belonging and academic success. My action research responds to the question: "What are the mental health concerns that first-generation students studying at the University of San Diego (USD) encounter?" After making changes to my research because of unforeseen circumstances, I designed a study focusing on graduate students with cycles consisting of …

Immersive Leadership: Creating An Experiential Curriculum To Build Our Students' Leadership, Kimberly Guzman

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

As a higher education professional, I seek to use creative programming to encourage the exploration of alternative learning opportunities and to enhance student success. My action research project explores the process of creating and implementing an immersive leadership experience for students from start to finish. Through a curriculum based on experiential learning and critical reflection, students explored, learned, and developed a social justice lens and leadership skills. Students also reflected on their engagement with leadership in various spaces such as on the University of San Diego’s campus, their home environments, and the Duncan community in Jamaica, where this immersive leadership …

The Experiences Of Teachers Successfully Teaching Reading To Black Students, Kevin Michael Walker

Dissertations and Theses

Racist laws and subsequent educational policies and practices have resulted in schools in the United States failing to teach Black students reading. Historically, a racial achievement gap in elementary reading has existed throughout the history of the United States and has persisted to current times. As the population of students of color increases in the United States, we must investigate how teachers create equitable educational outcomes for students who have been historically underserved and oppressed by our education system. Teachers who are successful in ensuring our Black students have the opportunity to experience success in reading are actively disrupting the …

The Perverse Dynamics Of University Career: A Narrative Analysis Based On The Personal And Professional Implications, Gustavo González-Calvo, Alejandra Hernando-Garijo, David Hortigüela Alcalá, Ángel Pérez-Pueyo

The Qualitative Report

We seek to describe some of the features and symptoms that define novice university teachers in their attempts to pursue a professional career at university. Presently, university culture revolves around the evaluation of professionals based on the quantity of work published in high-impact journals (“weight evaluations”).This situation not only has its effects at a personal level, but also on the quality of the education that teachers might wish to impart. Nine university teachers -five women and four men- with experience of between three and five years in different knowledge areas were interviewed to ascertain these symptoms. The results reflected the …

Effects Of Hands-On Experiences On Student Achievement, Interest, And Attitude In Chemistry, Donna Gretchenn Adkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of hands-on experiences on student achievement, interest, and attitude in chemistry. The researcher gathered data from 82 students enrolled in an East Texas high school chemistry course for the 2019-2020 school year. Historical data from five-unit tests were used to assess differences in mean achievement scores between test items aligned with hands-on laboratory experiences and test items aligned with computer-simulated experiences. An independent t-test and a paired t-test were used to statistically evaluate the data. The independent t-test showed no statistically significant difference. However, the paired t-test did indicate a statistically significant difference. To assess …

Information Behaviors And Pedagogies Of Teaching Faculty, L. Katherine Glaeser

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Rapid development in the information landscape (IL) has placed increased pressure on educational institutions to ensure that students are equipped with the skills needed to succeed. In order to overcome these challenges and transfer the necessary IL skills to students, faculty instructors must model the required skills in their own information dissemination practices, and adopt instructional methods that reinforce those skills and increase students’ opportunities to practice them. To achieve this goal, we must first understand the perspectives of the faculty, and the contexts in which information seeking and teaching occurs.

This study aims to learn what approaches teaching faculty …

An Exploratory Study Of Parent Involvement In Church Schools In Tonga, Matthew B. Pope

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of research about parent involvement and family engagement indicates a positive relationship between parent involvement and student achievement. However, parent involvement as a useful strategy in education in developing countries is not well known, let alone researched. Until the current study no research has been published specifically about the types and frequency of family engagement in Tonga. This means there is no frame of reference for teachers, administrators and parents in Tonga to evaluate the applicability of existing family engagement research which has been predominantly conducted in developed countries, to schools in Tonga. This research is a descriptive, …

A Case Study In Revolutionary Change: From High School To Missionary Training Center, Shawn R. Cates

Theses and Dissertations

This article focuses on a case study in revolutionary change. A private school in Mexico City that had functioned for 49 years under the educational arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints underwent a change in mission, purpose, structure, function, and administration in eight months. Research about organizational change contains many conceptual models and principles intended to guide an organization through large-scale change. However, this change occurred without any strict reliance on a specific change model. This qualitative study is directed at empirically discovering what main factors led to success rather than relying on anecdotal assumptions. The …

Cognitive Science For The Classroom, Kyle Heys

TFSC Publications and Presentations

Kyle Heys shares principles of cognitive science and how they can be used in the college classroom to enhance student learning.

Holistic Approaches To State School Grading Systems, Darryl Bond Denhalter

Theses and Dissertations

The United States education system has experienced an evolution of school accountability systems that has led to changes and variation in state school grading systems. This study shows that the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, a recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, provides greater autonomy to individual states in evaluating and reporting school accountability than in preceding years and provides opportunities for states to implement a more holistic or well-rounded approach to school grading. ESSA policy and this study encourages states to choose to evaluate schools more holistically by implementing a wider …

School-Based Mindfulness Program And Anxiety Prevention In Eighth Graders: A Randomized Pilot Study, Sarah Sass, Staci Zolkoski

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

Adolescence is a period marked by challenges, and an adolescent’s sensitivity to stress and anxiety can interfere with resilient coping. Educational leaders should consider mindfulness programs because they appear promising in preventing mental health issues in adolescents and are acceptable to youth from diverse backgrounds. The present randomized school-based pilot study addressed whether mindfulness was associated with preventing stress, anxiety, or depression, and whether resilience would increase in healthy eighth graders randomized to 8-sessions of a mindfulness program or a wait-list control group. Self-report measures of psychological functioning (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression, resilience) were completed before and after a mindfulness …

Eradicating Anti-Black Racism In U.S. Schools: A Call-To-Action For School Leaders, Altheria L. Caldera

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

This manuscript is a theoretical treatise that examines anti-Blackness in the nation’s schools and contributes to the ongoing discussion about how schools can better serve Black students. It is a three-pronged call-to-action for social justice-oriented school leaders. I urge school leaders to 1) examine anti-Black racism as a distinct form of racial discrimination, 2) imagine ways educators can fully humanize Black children in U.S. schools through a disposition characterized by Black cultural reverence, and 3) connect with existing efforts to counter anti-Black racism in schools. To accomplish these goals, I investigated the historical socio-political context that has shaped the educational …

Teaching For Student Success: Practical Ideas For The Classroom, Kyle Heys

TFSC Publications and Presentations

Kyle Heys shares practical suggestions for teachers about how to engage and encourage students for success in the college classroom.

Student Success Coaching: Intentional Training For Professional And Program Development, Andrea Aduna

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my research was to improve the effectiveness of the Student Success Coaching Program’s retention and outreach of students on academic probation and midterm deficiencies. The research question is: How can I professionally develop the student success coaches, or peer coaches, to better engage with their nontraditional students? Research suggests that coaching programs must first define the unique support they provide students to be fully proactive. How can diversity and inclusion training add to the effectiveness of the program and the coach’s impact on students throughout the academic semester? The significance of my research was the value of …

Exploring The Narratives Of Underrepresented Southeast Asian Students In Higher Education, Donna Soukantouy

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

In my study, I examined how underrepresented Southeast Asian (SEA) students, specifically Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotian students, navigate college by exploring their personal narratives. The research question I used to inform my study was how could I represent and better support underrepresented SEA students in the surrounding San Diego, California colleges and universities? I found that the focus groups I facilitated contributed to meaningful engagement. Oftentimes SEA students are never in the same room with other students like themselves. Through interviews, interactive activities, and dialogue, I found that we need to provide spaces, platforms, and workshops for SEA students to …

2020-08-03 Message From The Provost, Morehead State University. Office Of The Provost.

Faculty Senate Records

A message issued to the faculty from the Office of the Provost on August 3, 2020.

Combating Chronic Absenteeism In Rural Maine Elementary Schools, Joanne Dupuy

M.S.Ed. in Educational Leadership Research Projects

This quantitative study was designed to determine if there is a correlation between chronic absenteeism and student achievement and if increased teacher communication with positive messages around attendance would affect the rate of chronic absenteeism in rural elementary schools. Four schools were analyzed looking at attendance and achievement data while implementing a new attendance protocol that increased teacher communication and the spread of positive messaging in regards to attendance. Findings indicate there is evidence that those students who were chronically absent struggled academically to meet local and state benchmarks. Preliminary findings also indicate that the implementation of the new attendance …

Integrating The Mission And Identity Of Catholic Universities: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Academic Lay Leaders, Thomas Varkey Thennadiyil

Theses & Dissertations

This interpretative phenomenological study explored the mission and identity integration experiences of nine academic lay leaders of diverse religious affiliations across the three Catholic universities of San Antonio, Texas, United States: Our Lady of the Lake University, St. Mary’s University, and the University of the Incarnate Word. I employed a purposive sampling strategy to select the participants and collected data through two semi-structured in-depth interviews with each participant. In analyzing the findings, I applied an integrated theoretical framework consisting of theories on virtue ethics (Aristotle, trans. 1980; MacIntyre, 1981), organizational assimilation (Jablin, 1982; 2001), reflective practice (Dewey, 1933; Kolb, 1984; …

Using Video Modeling To Teach Staff How To Implement Preference Assessments, Megan Weaver

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Identification of reinforcers through preference assessments for individuals with disabilities is an important task because it increases the probability of skill development, including academic tasks, self-help skills, social skills, and behavior modification. Teachers of students with disabilities often experience problems with training paraprofessionals to implement preference assessments using written instructions alone. In this study, researchers will investigate whether video modeling will be more effective than written instruction to staff to implement preference assessments. Participants will include three to five paraprofessionals in a classroom setting with no previous behavior analysis training on preference assessments and three to five students in a …

Addressing Exclusion In Organizations: Social Desire Paths And Undocumented Students Attending College, Laura Nichols

Sociology

With data from a national study of a network of 28 private, non-profit colleges in the United States, I show how the individual actions of high school and college staff became collective “social desire paths” to introduce new organizational practices to enroll students who were undocumented. In interviews with staff, four factors emerged as important in enrolling students: (1) the way social desire paths started as ad hoc processes and then were entrenched through the collective and similar responses of staff; (2) identification of financial, administrative, structural, and cultural barriers to inclusion that formed the basis for the development of …

The Female Leadership Experience In Pre-Professional And Professional Ballet, Jill Grundstrom

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

THE FEMALE LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE IN PRE-PROFESSIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL BALLET

By

Jill Grundstrom

The purpose of this qualitative, narrative research study was to explore the experiences of current female leaders in pre-professional and professional ballet. These stories often remain untold, as leadership in ballet has been largely male-dominated. The study examined the stories of four female leaders in ballet, including their journey to leadership, leadership philosophy and protocol, and thoughts regarding the future of female leadership in ballet. This study collected data using in-person, phone, and email interviews. The collected data was analyzed and coded for themes and conclusions using …

Enhancing Student Mathematics Success Through Service-Learning: An Examination Of Student Motivation Using The Self-Determination Theory, Shanna E. Banda

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The increase in collegiate enrollment, yet bleak graduation rates, poses a significant problem for students and educators alike. Contributing to the high attrition rates, a lack of academic motivation often leads to poor performance in gateway mathematics courses. Factors influencing academic motivation include self-efficacy, anxiety, perceptions about the importance and utility value of math, and soft skills. To heighten student motivation and improve academic success, educators have implemented active-learning strategies, such as service-learning, which have shown positive effects on academic performance. The self-determination theory guided this study as a theoretical framework for student motivation. During the spring 2019 semester, 615 …

Reporting Realities: Are The Clery Act And Other Federal Policies Failing Women At Institutions Of Higher Education?, Christine Alainebloczynski Hall

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Violence against women attending institutions of higher education has been called a significant problem by both researchers and federal policymakers. The primary goal of this study was to determine if trends in the institutional reporting of forcible sex offenses and VAWA offenses reflect any changes resulting from the implementation of federal guidelines, policies, and legislation. The study also examined profiles of institutions that (1) fail to complete Clery Act reporting as federally mandated and (2) report data in a systematic way, therefore, results can be compared with the actual rates of violence against women discovered from national campus climate surveys …

Causal Comparative Study: The Effect Of School Scheduling And Academic Outcomes Of Economically Disadvantaged Students, Marcus D. Brannon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate if a statistical variance exists between traditional and A/B block school scheduling, and the effect on economically disadvantaged student achievement on the English I and Algebra I End-of-Course STAAR state-mandated exam, from 2015-2018. In response to studies illuminating the achievement gap, educational leaders in Texas implemented block scheduling in order to improve student outcomes among high school students. However, to date, published research studies yield mixed results of the effectiveness block scheduling has made on student achievement. The findings are expected to help to fill the gap in published literature, which focuses on the …