Educational Leadership Commons^™

Practicum Handbook, Edl 5891, Edl 5892, Edl 589, Department Of Educational Leadership

College of Education Handbooks

Revised 2021.

Supporting Ambitious Mathematics Practices In The Face Of School Reform: A Case Study Of High School Leadership, Jacklyn Van Ooyik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School leaders—both administrators and mathematics leaders—play a critical role in the instructional improvement of teachers in schools. However, current research in mathematics education has not provided a complete picture of the network of administrators, mathematics leaders, and teachers and their roles in supporting ambitious mathematics practices. The purpose of this case study is to examine how ambitious mathematics practices are developed, supported, and sustained within a high school facing pressures for test score improvement and graduation competencies and the roles and responsibilities of school leaders that contribute to that support. In order to address this issue, my primary research question …

Regrounding School Accountability In Shared Responsibility: A Case Study Of Culturally Responsive District Leadership, Ericka Burns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School accountability has been a part of public education conversations since the development of No Child Left Beyond (NCLB) in 2001. These accountability policies were developed with a core mission of holding schools, districts, and states accountable to the academic growth and achievement of all students and all student groups, and for the last twenty years, schools and districts have adjusted their priorities to align to the mandates of the state and federal accountability policies. These policies have stirred a great deal of criticism in their limited scales of defining student and school success as well as the authoritative leadership …

Scaffolding Middle And High School Students’ Engineering Design Experiences: Quality Problem-Scopeing Promoting Successful Solutions, Andrew Hughes, Cameron Denson

Educational Leadership & Technology Faculty Publications

Highly proficient expert engineers begin the iterative process of design by thoroughly investigating the design problem. Engineering students are often distracted by surface details, leading to a faulty conception of the problem and inappropriate solution strategies. Adequate problem-scoping is arguably the most important step in the design process. To address this issue, the researchers developed an instructional framework to help teachers scaffold students’ cognitive and metacognitive processes during the problem-scoping phase of a design challenge. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact that scaffolded instruction related to the SCOPE process had on students’ solution success during …

Teacher Leadership During Covid-19, Ashok Kumar Pandey

Teacher India

Teachers have led from the front to help students cope with the pandemic. Ashok Pandey discusses the findings from a recent study undertaken with support from his school.

Excerpts From Silence – Radical Critical Feminism And Adolescent Girls’ Social Emotional Development: A Case Study Of Red River Middle School, Jessamyn Lockhart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of healthy social emotional skills is critical for adolescents to stay engaged in school, develop positive self-esteem, and engage in healthy relationships over the course of their life. Adolescent girls seem to be particularly vulnerable during the period of adolescence and attention must be paid to their specific needs. There is a call for social emotional learning in schools to be more robust (especially during a crisis like the pandemic) and more thoughtfully differentiated to meet the needs of all students. The purpose of this case study was to understand if and how school leadership in one rural …

Math Achievement Of Low-Socioeconomic Status Students: A Comparative Study Of Public-School Settings, Alexander Ohene Ansah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, falling standards in the American public-school system have elicited public concern and criticism, leading to several public-school reforms. One such reform is the charter-school movement. Charter schools provide a public option for parents in search of an alternative to traditional public schools. At the same time, the achievement gap continues to widen, with students of low socioeconomic status on the losing end. Since the beginning of the charter school movement, research has focused on comparisons in achievement between students in charters and traditional public schools. Results have been mixed.

Focusing on low-SES student populations in Colorado, this …

Coming Home: An Exploratory Quantitative Study Of The Relationship Between Reentry Shock And Mindset, Julia L. Fagen

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With a growing number of international secondary schools world-wide (International School Council, 2019) and a rise in the number of individuals repatriating to their home country after studying abroad (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2018), there is a need for more information about how to support repatriates. This exploratory quantitative study investigated the correlation between reentry shock and mindset in individuals who attended an international primary and/or secondary international school in Taiwan, moved away from Taiwan, and then returned to Taiwan to work in the field of education. This study revealed a negative relationship between these …

Disproportionality Of Women In Stem Careers, Rachel J. Lanquist

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite inclusion efforts for women to be equally represented across all disciplines and at all career levels in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), there remains a significant gap between males and females within the job market. The purpose of this cross-sectional, quantitative study was to examine how gender differences in mathematics and science are related to identity and self-efficacy and students’ comparison of STEM subject competency. The secondary focus was to investigate the influence that STEM self-efficacy and STEM identity have on enrolling in advanced STEM-related classes. This research used secondary data from the follow-up High School Longitudinal Study …

Exploring The Lived Experience Of Kumeyaay College Graduates, Ricardo Rafael Ramos

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience during participation in higher education of Kumeyaay Indian Nation college graduates. Specifically, the study investigated the factors graduates perceived to contribute to their persistence and attainment of a baccalaureate degree within six years of enrollment at a four-year institution of higher education. Participants included twelve participants who self-identified as members of the Kumeyaay Indian Nation who had earned at least a baccalaureate degree from a four-year institution of higher education within six years of enrollment. MaxQDA was used to organize, code, and synthesize interview transcripts to develop themes pertaining …

Instructional Coaching: A Way To Improve Teacher Pedagogy And Students’ Achievements, Allison Coalwell

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As students' assessment scores in the United States continue on a downward trend, school districts across the nation seek ways to improve the quality of instruction. A proven strategy to enhance teacher quality, and subsequently student achievement, is to provide educators with professional development opportunities. A teacher training approach gaining momentum in schools involves instructional coaching as a practice with promise to increase students' achievement. This study examined the Instructional Coaching Program of a secondary school where students made significant academic gains to explicitly define the instructional coaching model that improved teacher pedagogy and increased students' achievement. In addition, this …

Examining The Use Of Linear Outlines To Support Student Writing, Dina Zoleo

Theses and Dissertations

Writing places heavy demands on students’ cognitive capacity. Existing research suggests that planning before writing can help to alleviate this cognitive burden; thus improving the quality of student writing. In this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, the researcher examined the efficacy of specific pre-planning tools on students’ paragraph writing by assessing the pre-and post-writing assessment scores of students who were assigned to three different conditions- a group who planned their paragraph by using a Single-Paragraph Outline (SPO), which is a linear outline, a group that planned their paragraph by using a concept map, and a group that did not plan their …

"Whiteness Is In The Way Of Seeing:" Narrativizing Middle School Students' Intersectional Perceptions Of Whiteness In Literacy Instruction, Scott L. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Structured by the theoretical framework of intersectionality, this comparative case study traced perceptions of Whiteness in literacy instruction by three queer, transgender or gender expansive (TGE), or cisgender female, Black and/or Latinx middle school students. The study addresses significant gaps in research, which has rarely explored the valence of all aspects of the intersectional identities of this population of middle school literacy learners and tends to perpetuate erasure by adopting single- or multiple-axis lenses to students’ identities. The study was structured by a transferable curriculum crafted around questions, arts-based expressions, and narrative inquiry to support participants’ narrativizing about their intersectional …

Staff Development For Direct Support Professionals: Perspectives On The Usefulness Of A Literacy-Based Social Skill Strategy, Pattiann Laveglia

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to discover Direct Support Professionals’ (DSPs) perceptions of a staff development session for creating a literacy-based social skills strategy known as social stories or story-based instruction. The participants in this study were six DSPs employed by a non-profit agency in the Mid-Hudson Region of New York State which provides community-based residential services to children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities. Three data collection methods were used in this study: a questionnaire, written reflections, and two in-depth interviews. This study was guided by four research questions exploring the perceived self-efficacy of …

Exploring How Faculty Motivations And Professional Development Strategies Influence Digital Literacy Practices In A Study Abroad Program In Italy: A Case Study, Paolo Bartolini

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore the multifaceted motivations, perceptions and attitudes that influence digital literacy practices in a small group of study abroad faculty and how professional development can help inspire them to act to innovate their digital literacy practices within a study abroad context. The role of study abroad programs in the U.S. has grown significantly in recent decades. As the number of students participating in these programs continues to increase, so have questions about the role of digital literacy practices in foreign education. Digital literacy embodies a way of learning that focuses …

Examination Of Shamans As Cultural Leaders In The Hmong American Communities, Phoua Y. Vang

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Leadership in the world today is under crisis because many individuals serving as positional leaders lack effective leadership capacities. Many organizations choose leaders based on individuals’ academic performance and personality traits; however, those same organizations often experience failures due to the ineffective leadership skills of key personnel charged with managing the organizations (Helsel et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to investigate Hmong Shamans’ leadership using a qualitative phenomenological research methodology. A semi-structured interview format was used to collect data from eight Hmong Shamans in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Participants were asked to discuss the qualities and behaviors that …

An Exploratory Comparative Case Study Of Successful Fundraising Operations At Three Small, Private, Christian Universities, James Edgar Bender

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Literature suggests that the challenges currently facing higher education will continue, increasing the pressure on institutions to discover and cultivate new funding sources outside of the traditional avenues of tuition, room, board, and fees. Through an exploratory comparative case study research design, the characteristics of the fundraising operations of three small, private, faith-based institutions that have proven successful, as measured by their current U.S. News & World Report and Forbes financial ratings, were examined through individual interviews with six employees at each of these three institutions, including the president, vice president of development, senior development staff members and university trustees. …

Analyzing Advanced Placement (Ap): Making The Nation's Most Prominent College Preparatory Program More Equitable, David Naff, Mitchell Parry, Tomika Ferguson, Virginia Palencia, Jenna Lenhardt, Elisa Tedona, Antionette Stroter, Theodore Stripling, Zoey Lu, Elizabeth Baber

MERC Publications

This report from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) explores research related to Advanced Placement (AP) courses through an equity lens. It answers five questions: 1) What are AP classes? 2) Who enrolls and succeeds in AP classes? 3) Why do disparities in AP matter? 4) What factors contribute to disparities in AP participation and performance? 5) What policies and practices help to address disparities in AP access, enrollment, and performance? The report comes from the MERC Equitable Access and Support for Advanced Coursework study.

The Essential Components Of The Afterschool Programming With K-8th Grade Targeted Service Students, Nate Ryan Hanson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the effectiveness regarding the essential components of the afterschool programming with K-8th grade targeted service students. This study also examined the effectiveness of afterschool programming interventions. Participants included 53 targeted services directors throughout the state of Minnesota. Results suggest rejecting all null hypotheses when examining the effectiveness of essential components of the afterschool programming with K-8th grade targeted service students. The study determined the areas of fostering positive relationships and understanding the needs and skills of youth were the most important components. Afterschool directors ranked professional development and parent involvement …

Marginalized Voices: Stories Of Resilience Among At-Risk Youth In Southern China, Lynne Ruth Picker

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stories of at-risk minority youth living in rural southern China, are stories waiting to be told. These are the stories of trauma and courage as they discover their pathway from risk to resilience. This study points to the need for continued study on the cultural dimensions of risk and resilience in the lives of rural minority youth in developing countries. A phenomenological approach was deployed in the qualitative study to explore the lived experiences of rural minority youth who grew up in the Family Village Care Center. The participants were Yao and Zhuang nationality who all experienced trauma in …

Purpose And Autonomous Functioning In Emerging Adults, Michelle A. Steffenhagen

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to understand the relationship between a sense of purpose and autonomous functioning in young adults. The relationships between the dimensions of purpose (goal orientation, sense of meaning, and beyond-the-self focus) and the dimensions of autonomous functioning (authorship/ self-congruence, interest-taking, and a low susceptibility of control) were also investigated. Further, the results were compared with the independent variables of gender, volunteerism, study aboard interest, and faith community participation. Participants (n = 356) were undergraduate college students at a small private liberal arts Christian institution located in the Midwest of the United States of America. Measures included the Claremont …

Opting Out In Minnesota: Examining The Variables Associated With Opting Out Of The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment, Peggy M. Rosell

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Opting out of state mandated testing may have significant implications for schools and states. In Minnesota, each student opted out of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) receives a score of not proficient in school accountability data. The practice of categorizing opt outs as not proficient at the school level could skew accountability data and result in the Minnesota Department of Education incorrectly identifying schools needing support and negatively impact funding. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if specific school variables (i.e., grade level, academic subject, school type, school enrollment size, proportion of special education students, and socioeconomics) …

“It Is What It Is”: A Phenomenological Study Of Undergraduate Students Enrolled In A Private Institution Who Were Required To Enroll In Zero-Credit Developmental Coursework, Comfort O. Olugbuyi

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Developmental coursework is the requirement most higher education institutions in the United States implement to address the academic unpreparedness that challenges many of their students. Previous research identified factors that may contribute to students exiting high school while showing signs of academic gaps. Research indicated that the college requirement of developmental coursework may aid some students; however, it can also harm other students (McCann, 2017; St. Amour, 2019). Results from previous research included adjusting how developmental coursework was offered in regard to sequencing, credit-weight, and modalities of curriculum delivery. However, missing from the equation were the students who attended these …

Synchronous Online Instruction, Institutional Connectedness, And Retention In College Students, Kara L. Wicklund

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized items in a campus life survey, administered during COVID-19, to explore relationships among synchronous instruction, institutional connectedness, and retention. Various statistical tests were applied to the data set to analyze relationships between variables. The study showed no relationship between synchronous instruction and retention, and also no relationship between synchronous instruction and institutional connectedness. However, this study did align with earlier research, demonstrating a significant relationship between institutional connectedness and retention. The study also revealed a significant relationship between retention and two key demographics, male gender and advanced standing. Additionally, the study demonstrated a significant relationship between institutional …

Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Multicultural Curriculum, Constance Marie Robinson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine teachers’ attitudes toward multiculturalism and perceptions of multicultural curriculum. Teachers’ perception of whether their schools’ curriculum reflects multicultural perspectives was measured using the Multicultural Education Evaluation Checklist (Banks, 1994). Teachers’ attitudes toward multiculturalism was measured in three domains collected by the Munroe Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE): know, care, and act (Munroe & Pearson, 2006). Survey responses were collected from 172 liberal arts teachers with 1-5 years of experience in a metropolitan area. The results suggested that teachers “act” scores on the MASQUE were positively associated with teachers’ perceptions of …

The Congruence Of Teachers’ And Principals’ Perspectives Of Learning-Centered Leadership Behaviors Of Principals Within International Christian Schools And The Impact On Organizational Commitment Of Teachers, Andrea Dawn Rens Dugan

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the degree of congruence between principals’ self-perception of learning-centered leadership behaviors and teachers’ perceptions of learning-centered leadership behaviors of their principals in international Christian schools accredited with the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) located in countries outside of North America. If a difference does exist between teachers’ and principals’ perceptions, will teachers’ organizational commitment be impacted? The perspectives of leadership behaviors were determined using the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) (Goldring, Porter, Murphy, Elliot, & Cravens, 2009). Both principals and their teachers completed the survey online. Teachers also …

The Racial Attitudes Of White Students At A Cccu Institution, Jarad T. Russell

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study used semi-structured interviews to understand the lived experiences and racial attitudes of White students at a CCCU (Council for Christian Colleges & Universities) institution as they related to Black people. The participants were asked about their past experiences with Black people, their discussions with family about race, their present understanding of terminology related to race and racism, and their desire to support racial justice in the future. Through this study, three groups of students were identified: those that were educated on matters related to race and racism, those that were just beginning to understand these issues, and …

The Impact Of The Write-Converse-Write Strategy On Eighth Grade Science Students’ Science Understanding And Claim-Evidence-Reasoning As Evidenced By Their Writing, Jessica Lynn Keller

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods case study explored whether the write-converse-write (WCW) strategy impacted students’ science conceptual understanding, as evidenced by their writing, along with the teacher and student perceptions regarding the strategy. The study was conducted in a small school district in northern California with three eighth-grade teachers and their students (n=138). Students were given several articles to read followed by a writing prompt. After reading the articles students responded to the prompt; the following day they discussed their writing sample with a partner. After receiving feedback from their partner, the students completed a second writing sample followed by taking the student …

The Impact Of Teacher Roles Outside The Realm Of Education, Mary Bywater Miller

Teaching and Learning (MA) Theses

Teachers perform multiple roles and duties in their career as educators, which can lead to teacher burnout. However, there is a lack of research regarding the specific roles and duties outside of curriculum and instruction that are asked of teachers to perform that would result in feelings of emotional labor. This qualitative study aspires to identify the additional roles and duties teachers perform outside of curriculum and instruction and analyze how these additional roles and duties contribute to emotional labor and teacher retention.

Through poetic inquiry, this study aims to capture the essence of teacher voices and their additional emotional …

School Psychologists As Leaders In Professional Practice: An Examination Of Leadership Roles And Perceived Support, Jodi Lachance

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The professional role of a school psychologist leader is a topic of interest for those in the field. Since 1940, state or national associations have outlined recommendations and guidelines for school psychology leadership roles. School psychology leadership aligns with the NASP training and practice model and is critical in promoting best practice. However, we know very little about school psychology leadership in professional practice, and the school psychology leadership literature is relatively void of research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of school psychology leadership in professional practice, identify fundamental components (NASP competencies) perceived to …