High School Biology Preparation: Do Students Feel They Have Been Adequately Prepared For Introductory College Biology?, Mara Neitzel

Empowering Research for Educators

The purpose of this study was to determine how well students are being prepared in high school for introductory college biology courses. Specifically, the objectives of the study are as follows: To gain a better understanding about how well students feel they have been prepared for college science classes based on their high school education, to gain insight on how college preparation in high school impacts students’ self-confidence, and to determine if the accessibility of advanced education courses is influenced by the size of a high school. A mixed methods survey was distributed to freshman in the fall semester of …

In Support Of The Tinker V. Des Moines Decision, Matthew Olson

Empowering Research for Educators

The following position outlines a case for the Tinker v. Des Moines decision, including a historical and modern perspective. With freedom of speech and protest being a regular part of the discussion about U.S. society and schools, now is a good time to look back.

Sr. Luke: Religious Missionary, Martha Tomesen

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

In this paper, I will reflect upon my interview with Sr. Luke. In our interview, she spoke of her life as a religious missionary, the meaning of humility and what she learned from serving in some of the world’s most poor countries.

Sr. Joey: Power Structure Within The Education System, Emily Tokarz

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

I interviewed Sr. Joey on January 17th regarding her experience within the Catholic Church. This paper includes her experiences with the power structure and how it affected her life’s work.

An Investigation Of How Iep Teams Function In Select Michigan High Schools When Developing A Course Of Study Decision For Students With Disabilities, Patrick Mies

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the ways that Individual Education Program (IEP) teams function when developing a course of study decision for students with disabilities in high schools in 19 school districts from four intermediate school districts in Michigan. Topics included teacher professional development for reaching consensus in IEP meetings and personal curriculum (PC) plans for diploma acquisition by students with disabilities. Special education teachers who work with students with disabilities at the secondary level shared survey information, perceptions, and opinions about their experiences in IEP meetings. Special education directors, with oversight for special education programs, …

Building Resilience Through Strengths-Based Learning During Graduate Study Abroad: An Exploratory Study, Chelsea K. Dresen, Matthew L. Wilmes, Karen R. Sullivan, Theresa A. Waterbury

Leadership Education Capstones

Resilience has been identified as an essential skill for leaders (Basso, Gruendel, Key, MacBlaine, & Reynolds, 2015) and as crucial for navigating both school and life challenges (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). Research indicates that there are a variety of ways to build resilience, including in educational settings (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). Higher education institutions utilize pedagogical practices to maximize student learning and growth opportunities (Rennick, 2015). One pedagogical frame often employed is experiential education. College and university faculty have embedded experiential learning pedagogy in the curriculum to facilitate learning outside the classroom (Liang, Caton, & Hill, 2015; Jordan, Gagnon, Anderson, …

Active Learning Strategies For Higher Education: The Practical Handbook, Centre For Higher Education Research, Policy And Practice, Shaun Ferns, Nicola Duffy

Books

The manual itself is based on a sound method that the Educator can easily deploy. This is made up of easy stages for each activity which they and their students can embrace. This student-centred pedagogical approach allows learners to build their understanding while also taking responsibility for their own learning where the educator acts in a facilitator or enabler role. This active, enquiry-based approach is at the heart of what Durham College, UOIT and TU Dublin endeavour to provide to students as it can be applied to diverse problems and contexts within their educational journey and across disciplines. It also …

Prevention And Education: A Case Study Of An Anti-Human Trafficking Nongovernmental Organization In Mumbai, India, Danielle Kraaijvanger

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the role of community-based NGOs in developing and delivering prevention interventions and nonformal education programs that work to end human trafficking of at-risk women and children. Specifically, the study explored the intersection between human trafficking and education, and the critical role NGOs play in human trafficking prevention. Essential to understanding this phenomenon was giving voice to the experiences of children who are the recipients of such prevention and education interventions.

An international community-based, anti-human trafficking NGO—Prerana—served as the case study setting. Direct observations and participant interviews …

African-American Male Teachers: Examining The Insight, Encounters, And Best Teaching Practices, Brandon Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

The experiences students have in schools has a large effect not only on their career choices but also on the way they interact with other members of society in the future. Specifically, the K-12 education system has an objective of ensuring that all students are adequately prepared to become responsible and productive members of society. Unfortunately, research shows that African-American male students and teachers face comparatively high levels of societal challenges compared to their Caucasian counterparts. General demographic trends reveal a serious concern.

While the number of black students entering the education system is increasing, there is a reduction in …

The Chief Executive Officer Of Charter Management Organizations And Their Perspective On Instructional Leadership To Improve Student Achievement, Bryce Alan Geigle

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between academic emphasis and executive leadership from the perspective of a California charter management organization (CMO) chief executive officer (CEO). Executive leaders in California CMOs have a unique perspective that needs investigated. They experience educational leadership differently depending upon their individual backgrounds, educational experiences, and the families they serve. This study seeks to understand the experiences of a specific group of executive leaders and how they define academic emphasis in their CMO. The theoretical framework used to interpret the research findings was instructional leadership. The framework effectively built a lens …

Feminism And School Leadership: A Qualitative Study Utilizing Effective Women Principals' Self-Perceptions To Determine What Makes Them Successful, Christina Maria Sylvester

Dissertations

Women are underrepresented in a variety of fields, including educational leadership. Upon assuming leadership roles, women often struggle to effectively lead due to a pervasive context of sexism and genderism in the workplace. Schools are not immune to this phenomenon. Since women comprise approximately 50% of the population, it seems logical that they should assume a comparable percentage of leadership roles in education, but this is not the case. Beyond parity, it is important that there are not only more women leaders in educational administration but also that those women in leadership roles are supported within a context that enables …

In Defense Of Public Schools: A Toolkit From The Midwest, Ferial Pearson, Ann Hunter-Pirtle

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

One of the defining features of public schools is that they operate at the will of the people, with public oversight from elected school boards. In addition to being free and open to all, free from religious affiliation, and promoting civic understanding and participation, much of what makes public schools public happens through the democratic process. We have noticed that many teachers are so overworked and overwhelmed - rightly focused on their own classrooms and their own students’ day to day struggles - that it’s not easy for them to engage and advocate for themselves and their students in the …

Higher Education Social Responsibility: An Empirical Analysis And Assessment Of A Hispanic-Serving Institution's Commitment To Community-Engaged Scholarship, Student Integration And Sense Of Belonging, Juan Salinas Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Current efforts in higher education institutions to increase persistence and success among Hispanic students continue to be ineffective and thus new conceptual frameworks need to be explored. Data from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities asserts that increasing the number of Hispanics that graduate is vital for our country’s future. In turn, Hispanic-Serving Institutions need to nourish and nurture their students to ensure that they graduate and institutional frameworks would benefit from cultural and epistemological congruence with Hispanic students, their families, and their communities.

Educational leaders have urged educators to take on the responsibility and commitment to students’ success …

A Case Study Of A Technical College's Faculty Perceptions Regarding The Value Of Professional Development Activities, Kermelle D. Hensley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate technical college faculty members' perceptions of the professional development. Most of the literature was focused on four-year higher educational institutions. For the purposes of this qualitative case study, the researcher addressed the limited amount in the literature about professional development in two-year technical colleges. The researcher investigated faculty perceptions concerning the usefulness of professional development in a two-year higher education institution through survey research design with 8 participants. The main themes were 1) technical college faculty desired professional development; 2) technical college faculty needed for follow up from the professional …

Graduation As A Function Of Mobility, Attendance, Discipline, Math, English Language Arts/Reading, And Parental Educational Attainment Of The Cohort Group 2015 In One South Texas Urban School District In The Rio Grande Valley, Nancy Lopez Castillo

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the trends and patterns across time over the cohort 2015 on dependent variable, graduation. Aggregated longitudinal data for independent variables, mobility, attendance, discipline, math achievement, reading achievement, and parental educational attainment was collected for 98 students from 2010 to 2018. The independent variables of mobility, attendance, discipline, math achievement, reading achievement, and parental educational attainment were examined to determine whether or not high school completion is dependent on these measures.

The freshmen cohort 2015 in one south Texas urban school district in the Rio Grande Valley was the focus of the study. Exploratory and confirmatory analysis statistical/data …

Employee Engagement Through The Instructional Leadership Team, Stephen Juracka

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) is an organizational structure designed to improve employee engagement, which for this project is defined as employee collaboration, autonomy, ownership and shared purpose, in the curriculum development process (Farris-Berg, 2013). This program evaluation, grounded in organizational theory, self-determination theory, and social exchange theory; it is aimed at validating the importance of creating an organizational structure designed to shape a cultural environment that supports employee ownership and autonomy while creating a social exchange economy that supports employee motivation. The Instructional Leadership Team created and initiated the ILT Engagement Survey to K-5 grade level teachers in …

Modern-Day Slavery: Equipping The Next Generation For Social Change, Margaret Tienhaara

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Margaret Tienhaara is a freshman at Purdue University in the College of Liberal Arts majoring in global studies and political science. Her dream is to promote education for impoverished children in underdeveloped nations. In this article, she describes her process of organizing a presentation about modern-day slavery for 100 eighth grade students from Tecumseh Junior High School. The goal was to challenge the students to consider a major such as Purdue’s Global Studies and learn about creating social change.

I Am Complicated, And So Is My Blackness: A Trifecta Exploration Of Educational Spaces And Identity Development, Kala Burrell-Craft

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Myriads of research studies have been written over the past 20 years highlighting the racial gap and disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes between Black and White students, but as revealed in a review of the literature, more studies need to be conducted that examine the intersection of race, space/place, and racial identity development. Using critical race theory as a framework, this study comprised of three separate, but related essays that explore the function of educational spaces in which Black Americans navigate, grow, and develop as it intersects with race, space/place, and identity development. Essay one is a critical narrative …

The Impact Of Male Gender Dissonance On Women’S Potential Eligibility For Advancement To The Position Of High School Principal, Kristen Lee Harris

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative, replication study was to discover what behaviors female administrators exhibit that may prompt male administrators with whom they work in California public education to demonstrate behaviors associated with gender dissonance and also to determine what impact these dissonant behaviors may have on women’s potential eligibility for advancement to the position of high school principal.

Methodology: This qualitative phenomenological study examined the experience of six male and six female high school principals in Riverside County, California. Purposive criterion sampling method was applied to identify participants based on delimiting criteria. The researcher collected and coded data …

Law School News Tim Baxter '83 Elected Chair Of Rwu Board Of Trustees 10/29/2018, Edward Fitzpartick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Leadership In School Innovation: A Case Study, Savannah Adkins Denning

Dissertations

Expansive research on leadership, particularly school leadership, has suggested leaders have an indirect impact on student outcomes, as leaders build a school’s academic capacity, which elevates teaching and learning (Hallinger, 2010). Though there is significant empirical research regarding school leadership, there is a lack of research investigating the intersection of leadership and innovation. In terms of innovation, “personalized learning,” has become an emerging topic among education researchers, as scholars seek to understand the potential impact personalized learning strategies have on student outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to explore how leadership interacts with innovation. This study specifically explored the …

Catalogs, 2018-2019, Anderson University - South Carolina

Catalogs

The 2018-2019 graduate & undergraduate academic catalog and introduction to the university.

09. Group Dynamics, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

CORE

The Group Dynamics module focuses on informing students about inter/intra group interactions, while also demonstrating the role of an individual within a group. As individuals become a part of a group, they lose a certain distinction between their personal identity and their group personality, or prototype. Individuals become part of a social categorization and comparison, and require the skills of empathy and relations to successfully communicate with not only their ingroup, but also their outgroup. An absence of awareness of the feelings around them can develop the negative effects of groupthink, as individual ideas are unheard. As fitting into the …

At The Intersection Of Critical Thinking And Economics Education: Exploring Whether Learning Economics Aids In The Development Of Critical Thinking In Undergraduate Students, Jack Reynolds

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Teaching students to think critically is the fundamental aim and overriding ideal of education. It has become increasingly clear that today’s high-tech, knowledge-based economy demands excellent critical thinking skills. The challenge as educators is to determine whether there are disciplines, subdisciplines, or courses within disciplines or subdisciplines that are better at aiding student development of critical thinking skills. Using human capital theory as the theoretical framework, this study seeks to address whether students will have statistically significantly higher critical thinking test scores after taking a Principles of Macroeconomics or Principles of Microeconomics course. Results show after analysis of the test …

Children's Physical Fitness And Academic Performance: A Challenge For Leaders In Title I Schools In The Rio Grande Valley, Maricela Valdez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between physical fitness, body mass index and academic performance in Hispanic children enrolled in grade 5 from a district in the Rio Grande Valley. A total of 547 participants were selected from 11 elementary schools from a school district in the Rio Grande Valley. The dependent variable, academic performance, was measured by children’s gain score on the STAAR Progress Measure for Reading and Math assessments. The independent variables of physical fitness were measured by scores on cardiovascular fitness and body mass index from the FITNESSGRAM assessment.

The literature review …

Revealing Luz: Illuminating Our Identities Through Duoethnography, Carrie Diaz Eaton, Luz Marizza Bailey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Hispanic Americans make up 15% of the current US workforce, but they only account for 7% of the STEM Education workforce [8]. One effective way to reach this population, particularly Latinas, is by providing stories and ethnographic biographies of successful Latinas they can relate to. It is important to note that Latinas have been earning PhDs in STEM disciplines outside of the US much longer than US-born Latinas have been earning them inside. Thus we offer the story of a mathematics educator, from Peru, Dr. Luz Antonia Mendizábal Gálvez de Rodriguez, a girl who was given a chance to be …

Teacher Retention: Advice From Missouri's Top Districts, Joshua Flores

Educational Specialist Scholarly Papers

Teacher attrition, particularly within the first five years of teaching, is a persistent problem that negatively impacts schools, school districts, and communities across the globe. Missouri, in particular, is one state that reports higher rates of teacher attrition than the national average. This beginning exploratory analysis of a few of Missouri’s top teacher retaining districts looks to offer suggestions, recommendations, and strategies aside from raising salaries or increasing benefits packages that schools, their leaders, and districts can implement to bolster teacher retention.

The Pedagogical Impacts Of The Common Core State Standards On Elementary Mathematics Teachers Of The Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing, Nathan E. Harrison

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This study explored the intersection of the Common Core State Standards and the field of Deaf Education, specifically the impact of the Common Core on the pedagogy of elementary mathematics teachers of the deaf. Pedagogy was defined as the union of the philosophy and methodology of teaching a teacher uses.

This study made use of an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design, which included a phase of quantitative data collection through a survey of elementary mathematics teachers in Deaf Schools in Common Core states and a phase of qualitative data collection through interviews with a sub-sample of participants from the …

Teacher Perceptions Of Mandated Collaboration Through Professional Learning Communities, Carmen Cranford Horton

Theses and Dissertations

Georgia Rule 505-2-.36, implemented in July of 2017, revised teacher recertification policy to include administrative evaluations of professional growth resulting from teachers’ engagement in professional learning communities (PLCs). The rule represented the convergence of two possibly conflicting ideals: mandated change and PLCs. Districts were permitted autonomy over how to implement and develop rubrics for the evaluation of professional growth resulting from PLCs. The purpose of this bounded case study was to capture the perceptions of teachers concerning the structure, purpose and dynamics of required PLC meetings during the initial year of implementation. The goal was to give voice to the …

Universal Design For Learning: Is Training Making A Difference In Teacher Pedagogy, Michelle D. Sizemore

Theses and Dissertations

David H. Rose and his colleagues at the Center for Applied Specialized Technology (CAST), a non-profit organization specializing in educational research and development, worked for over one quarter of a century to improve learning opportunities for all individuals (Rose, 2012). In the late 1990s this work led to a set of principles known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a research-based instructional framework grounded in neuroscience and educational research that allowed teachers to proactively identify barriers that might exist between students and learning and account for those barriers during lesson development and implementation (CAST, 2015). One school district in southwest …