Secondary Education Commons^™

Rethinking Constitutionality In Education Rights Cases, Joshua E. Weishart

Arkansas Law Review

Education rights cases often devolve into a farce of constitutional brinkmanship played by a miserable cast of reluctant courts and recalcitrant legislatures. Between successive rounds of litigation and tepid legislative fixes, come threats of impeaching judges, closing schools, stripping courts of jurisdiction, and holding legislators in contempt. Despite all the bluster, judges and legislators both anxiously await the curtain call, when they can bow out and terminate the matter. In the end, what passes for constitutionality in the successful cases is a school funding scheme judged “reasonably likely” or “reasonably calculated” to achieve an adequate or equitable education—as opposed to …

In The Room Where It Happens: Including The “Public’S Will” In Judicial Review Of Agency Action, Twinette L. Johnson

Arkansas Law Review

In the context of higher education reform, the people need to be in the important rooms where the decisions are being made. One such room is the courtroom. This essay elaborates on this premise, previously written about in an article I wrote entitled, 50,000 Voices Can’t Be Wrong, But Courts Might Be: How Chevron’s Existence Contributes to Retrenching the Higher Education Act. That article was the second in a series of three articles on the retrenchment of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (“HEA”) using the William Eskridge and John Ferejohn statutory entrenchment model.

Enforcing The Right To Public Education, Areto A. Imoukhuede

Arkansas Law Review

This paper suggests that although each state within the United States currently recognizes a right to public education, the states do not provide meaningful and consistent judicial enforcement of the right. Recognizing a federal fundamental right to public education would be a step towards ensuring meaningful and consistent judicial enforcement of the right.

Charter Schools, Academy Schools, And Related-Party Transactions: Same Scams, Different Countries, Preston C. Green Iii, Chelsea E. Connery

Arkansas Law Review

In the course of the last quarter century, governmental entities in both the United States and England have sought to encourage educational innovation by creating publicly funded schools that are independent from many of the rules that apply to locally controlled schools. These schools are called charter schools in the United States and academy schools (academies) in England. Private companies run a high percentage of these charter schools and academies. In the United States, these companies are commonly referred to as educational management organizations (EMOs). In England, these organizations are called academy trusts (ATs).

Unchartered Territory For The "Bluegrass State": Lessons To Be Learned From Over A Quarter-Century Of State Charter School Legislation, Kevin P. Brady, Wayne D. Lewis Jr.

Arkansas Law Review

Charter school success or failure is not simply a matter of chance. Both the existence and aggregate quality of charter schools in a state depend on the provisions of state charter school laws. These laws address a wide range of issues and vary from state to state. But the experiences of states with significant charter sectors, as well as those with innovative charter policies, provide important lessons for the charter school movement as a whole.

Perversity As Rationality In Teacher Evaluation, Scott R. Bauries

Arkansas Law Review

Rational basis review is broken. Consider a vignette: Imagine a student, Lisa, who is about to graduate high school. Lisa has already completed all of the graduation course requirements early and is spending her time during her senior year taking interesting electives and dual-enrollment college courses. The state has a statute that requires school districts to deny a diploma to any student “who, during the final year of school attendance, fails to achieve a passing score on the state-approved, end-of-course exams in the courses of Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies in which that student is then-currently enrolled.”

Breaking The Norm Of School Reform, Derek W. Black

Arkansas Law Review

Major school improvement efforts have failed in recent decades for two reasons. First, the endless pursuit of reform for reform’s sake over the last few years undermines school improvement.1 Second, we have abandoned or, at least, lost our focus on the fundamental educational goals that animated education policy decades—and sometimes centuries—ago. Those goals, while never fully attained, have always sought to move us to a more just system of public education. By losing that focus, our education systems remain wedded to practical norms that consistently undermine equal and adequate educational opportunities.

The State Of Education Reform, Danielle Weatherby

Arkansas Law Review

From the earliest days of the common school to the present struggle to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, the country has expected that education will equip citizens for economic survival and growth; prepare them for an increasingly global marketplace; strengthen the bonds among people from different racial, ethnic, cultural, and social class groups; and sustain the nation’s democratic institutions. If schools are to do their part in contributing to fulfilling these goals, they need to be extraordinarily resilient and resourceful, and they need to be open to change.

The Van Hiele Analysis Of Curricular Materials: A Comparative Study, Vinay Kumar Kalyankar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to investigate K-8 geometry curriculum standards and textbooks for their effectiveness in preparing students for high school geometry. The basis for the study is van Hiele theory pioneered by the Dutch educators and researchers of geometric understanding in adolescents, Dina van Hiele Geldof and Pierre van Hiele. Another driving force for this dissertation is research into mathematics textbooks and curriculum standards of school mathematics as seen in CCSSM and state specific standards documents, both of which influence the mathematics students have the opportunity to learn.

The K-8 geometry curriculum standards and textbook instructional segments …

The State Of State History: Teacher Perceptions Regarding The Place And Purpose Of State History In K–12 Social Studies, Shay Hopper

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social studies, history, and state history courses, in general, have long been broadly considered the least significant of the four core content courses in K – 12 education. State history is required and/or taught inconsistently throughout the 50 states, and in some cases, not at all. Teacher preparation and on-going support to teach state history in K – 12 education are also inconsistent and often disregarded. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative survey and interview study was to investigate teacher perceptions regarding place and purpose of state history in K – 12 social studies, and to identify teacher dispositions toward …

Beating The Odds: High-Growth Schools Based On The Act Aspire Examinations, Serving Low-Income Communities, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

We choose to focus on student growth for these OEP awards because we think it is a better reflection than proficiency rates of how the school is impacting students. Growth is calculated at the student level, and essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement …

High-Growth High Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

The mission of the Office for Education Policy is to examine educational issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas. Annually, we highlight excellent schools around the state in our Outstanding Educational Performance Awards, or the OEP awards.

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

2018 Pulaski County Education Report Card, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Education Report Card

Our goal is to help parents, school personnel, community members, and policy makers understand how effectively the students in their community are being served.

Pulaski students are demonstrating similar growth in achievement on the ACT Aspire as students in the state overall, but in achievement, graduation rates, and School Quality and Student Success, Pulaski County schools are performing below the state average.

2018 Northwest Arkansas Education Report Card, Sarah Mckenzie

Education Report Card

The Northwest Arkansas Report Card highlights how students in area schools are performing. Our goal is to help parents, school personnel, community members, and policy makers understand how effectively the students in their community are being served.

Northwest Arkansas students are demonstrating greater growth in achievement and earning higher scores on the ACT Aspire than are the students in the state overall. Schools in NWA also have higher School Quality and Student Success scores, higher graduation rates, and are more likely to receive an “A” or “B” rating than are other schools across the state.

Positioning Of English Language Learners And Its Power On Classroom Learning Opportunities And Interactions, Hawraa Nafea Hameed Alzouwain

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this qualitative study, the researcher investigated four aspects of positioning used by teacher and ESL students in a mid-south state of the United States. This study was based on the Positioning Theory of Davies and Harré (1990). The study aimed to explore various types of positioning used by the participants and how they impacted social interactions among the students and between them and their teacher. The researcher used four questions to outline the scope of the research, focused on: 1) how ELLs’ different positioning in the ESL classroom promoted or limited their learning opportunities; 2) how the ELL teacher …

Dominant Leadership Dynamics Of School Administrators Leading Non-Instructional Personnel, Michael Ewton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the literature and many schools and school districts advocating for enhanced communication and engagement with parents, families, and the community at large, it is advisable that school-level administrators consider the manner in which they engage the non-instructional employees who serve their schools. This dissertation explores the dominant leadership dynamics experienced by high school principals responsible for supervising non-instructional support services and leading non-instructional operations personnel in their schools. Trained and expected to be instructional leaders, principals must still ensure their students receive the basic services necessary to maintain a safe and effective learning environment. Ensuring students receive the benefit …

A Longitudinal Analysis Of Volunteerism Activities For Individuals Educated In Public And Private Schools, Albert Cheng, David Sikkink

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Previous studies offer evidence that U.S. public and private high schools differentially influence volunteerism in adolescence. However, these studies are typically cross-sectional and only consider whether the individual volunteered or not. We address patterns of volunteering from adolescence into adulthood and the kind of volunteering activity in which individuals engage. We also theorize that distinctive civic values within public and private schools together with their respective organizational ties to other civic organizations channel students into particular volunteering activities. Relying on a longitudinal, nationally-representative sample of U.S. adolescents, we track volunteering from adolescence into young adulthood and identify the types of …

Working-Class Graduates’ Perceptions Of The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens Training And Its Impact On Their Life Choices And Future Success, Andrew Kenneth Ashley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine working-class graduates’ perceptions of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens training. This purpose was accomplished through a qualitative analysis of data. The data was collected from interviews of graduates and teachers. Following the coding process, graduate data was then reduced to the following categories: social awareness, relationship development, teamwork, communication skills, empathy, self-awareness, and self-confidence which created the themes of interpersonal skills and intrapersonal skills. Four additional graduate themes were created from decision-making data: weighing pros and cons, prioritizing outcomes, thinking long-term, and real-life applications. Additional graduate data was provided …

Teacher Perception And Their Understanding Of Progress Monitoring Throughout A Longitudinal Assessment System, Rena A. Duewel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the phenomenon of teacher perception and their understanding of progress monitoring throughout a longitudinal assessment system. This monitoring of student progress is to enhance their academic skills in mathematics and provide necessary interventions for growth as measured on a longitudinal assessment system through fidelity of implementation of interventions processed through progress monitoring. Data was collected from participant responses through interviews, a demographic survey, and focus groups. Interview respondents participated in a closed-door, face-to-face interview. The survey was used to collect specific demographic data to provide a concise snapshot of each individual …

High-Growth High Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high schools across the state whose students demonstrated high growth on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2018 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading.

Further Validation Of Survey Effort Measures Of Relevant Character Skills: Results From A Sample Of High School Students, Gema Zamarro, Malachi Nichols, Angela Duckworth, Sidney D'Mello

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Character skills, including conscientiousness, grit or self-control are important determinants of relevant life outcomes. However, researchers struggle to find valid measures of these skills and many existing datasets lack any measures of them at all. This limits research on how these important skills could be better supported and developed. Recent research has shown the potential of parametrizations of survey effort measures as proxy measures of character skills related to conscientiousness, to either complement other collected measures or to add to datasets that lack such measures. This study provides further validation of these survey effort measures in a sample of high …

Secondary Biology Instruction In The General Senior Secondary Schools Of Aceh Province Indonesia: An Analysis Of Teachers’ Opinions And Teaching Practices Related To The Indonesia Biology Curriculum 2013, Wiwit Artika

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My study was to discover the perceptions of general secondary senior high school biology teachers about the application of curriculum 2013. Their further opinions of biology topics and the instructional practices in the class have supported the findings of this study. In addressing this study, general senior secondary school (GSSS) biology teachers (n=286) from 22 districts in Aceh province randomly participated in my study. Thus, six (n=6) teachers were selected as convenience sampling to have a one-on-one phone interview. The data collected were analyzed descriptively (frequency and percentage) and thematically to answer the research questions.

The documents comparison between the …

The El Dorado Promise: Impacts On Postsecondary Enrollment And Completion, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The El Dorado Promise has offered scholarships to almost 3,000 students since its creation in 2007. In this brief, we examine the impact of the placebased scholarship on postsecondary enrollment and completion for all students and for certain subgroups. Our results indicate that the Promise has significantly increased overall postsecondary enrollment and BA completion.

Tapping The Voices Of Learners For Authentic Student Engagement, Bryan Bronn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the problem of practice of the decline in student engagement from the perceptions of secondary school learners as they proceed throughout their educational experience. According to researchers, learners who are engaged—meaning those who are committed and connected in active relationships with teachers, other learners, the learning environment, learning interests and ideas, the curriculum, and learning goals, are more likely to enjoy and be in control of their own learning [student agency]. This study is significant because of its potential to provide new understandings of the problem of a decline in student engagement …

An Empirical Study On Teachers' And Students' Perception Of Project Based Learning, Della Rae Adams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the perceptions of Project Based Learning in an English as a Foreign Language context in one private Guatemalan school. The research examined the perceptions of teachers and students on Project Based Learning by implementing a four-week project in one classroom. This research also examined the difference between the girls’ and boys’ perceptions of Project Based Learning. The participants included one teacher and 18 students aged between 15 and 16. Mixed method was used to derive quantitative and qualitative data from surveys, an interview, and observational data. The results concluded that the teacher had a positive experience …

Preservice Agricultural Education Teachers And Secondary Education Teachers’ Self-Efficacy And Professional Identity, Hailey Gates

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the nineteenth century, a decision was made to separate the preparation of agricultural education teachers from their elementary and secondary counterparts (Hearings, 1908; Heren & Hillison, 1996; Hillison, 1986). The majority of land-grant universities and colleges have continued to prepare agricultural education preservice teachers within the college of agriculture, separate from other secondary education preservice teachers in the college of education (Myers & Dyer, 2004). Despite the differences among content disciplines, teachers who possess a strong sense of self-efficacy and professional identity have higher success rates in the classroom when it comes to collaboration, involvement, and student achievement (Ashton …

The Perception Of The Freshman Transition: Taking A Closer Look At The Freshman Academy, Frankie Jo Lizar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher, student, and parent perceptions of the high school transition program within a Freshman Academy at one Midwest high school using a mixed-methods approach with a convergent design. Interviews were done with teachers that teach primarily freshman students, and perception surveys were used with teachers, students, and parents to answer the following research questions:

a) How do freshman teachers believe the Freshman Academy interventions influence students’ successful transition into high school?

b) What are staff’s perceptions of the Freshman Academy in preparing students for success in high school?

c) What are students’ …

Motivating Teachers To Lead In Low-Performing Schools: A Qualitative Study Of School Leaders In Three Arkansas High Schools, Joseph D. Fisher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study addressed the problem of motivating teachers to take on leadership roles in “low-performing” schools. Coupled with the high demands of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) being placed on public school principals to ensure that all students achieve and successfully graduate high school, better ways to distribute leadership and share responsibilities among teachers were identified. The research question and purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify the perceived leadership behaviors of high school principals in once labeled “low-performing” schools that support the motivation of teachers to take on leadership roles. Nine identified teacher leaders and …

From Foster Care To College: Student Stories Of Success, Tory Nicole England

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the different factors that empower young adults that were in foster care to be successful in a college environment. It has been documented that foster youth have significant challenges during secondary education (Conger & Rebeck, 2001; Geenen & Powers, 2006). Due to these challenges, foster youth attend and graduate higher education at a lower rate than their peers. The perspectives of foster youth currently enrolled in higher education is critical to determining which factors and programs have helped with their educational success. Five participants completed semi-structured interviews about their secondary education, …

Successful Secondary Agricultural Programs Outside The Classroom: A View Of Champions, Andrew Bolton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to study select secondary agricultural education programs and determine common traits among these programs which lead them to be successful in a number of different areas including: Career Development Events (CDE) winners, Leadership Development Events (LDE) winners, agricultural science fair winners, chapters of elected state FFA officers, proficiency award winners, national chapter awards, and state fair market show results. This study utilized a modified Delphi approach consisting of three rounds to reach consensus on the importance of traits related to successful SAE and FFA programs. Many traits were identified but the most important traits …