Education Policy Commons^™

Gaps In Teacher Professional Development For Technology-Supported Learning: Implications For School Leaders And Policymakers, Steven Bingham

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to develop an understanding of mobile technology integration in K-12 classrooms from the teacher’s perspective. This research was intended to help understand how mobile devices are being integrated into the classroom, including recommendations for teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and future researchers

System Support For Early Grade Teacher Mentors In Cambodia, Jana Scislowicz

Capstone Collection

The early primary education system in Cambodia is working to expand its teacher mentoring network. This quantitative and qualitative study examines the motivational factors of school-based early grade literacy mentors and master mentors who have played these roles in a pilot program implemented by a United States Agency for International Development-funded project during the 2021-2022 academic year in Cambodia. The study finds that mentors are motivated to perform the mentoring roles for intrinsic reasons such as improving student education and peer learning. It also finds that there are areas of improvement for mentor selection, workload assignment, financial remuneration, and recognition …

“Implacement”: The Importance Of Place And Community In Schooling, Emily Coady

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring my overarching research question: How does sense of place shape a teacher’s orientation to their profession? My first chapter empirically answers the question: Is there a relationship between place attachment and measured aspects of teacher quality? In an attempt to qualify the strength of bond between a teacher and his or her community, I adapted a place attachment instrument developed by Raymond, Brown, and Weber (2010). Each teacher is given a place attachment score informed by their responses on the 21-item survey. Next, I correlated these scores to other aspects of teacher quality …

Missing Pieces And Voices: Steps For Teachers To Engage In Science Of Reading Policy And Practice, Kathleen S. Howe, Teddy D. Roop

Michigan Reading Journal

The current wave of dyslexia legislation backed by the science of reading is the latest literacy policy added to a decades-long list. Teachers, whose voices were largely excluded, are key stakeholders in any literacy policy initiative and are well-suited to inform policymakers about the complexities of teaching readers who struggle, including those diagnosed with dyslexia. This article previews the implications of legislation that narrowly focuses on “science” and disregards unique individual reader profiles. This article encourages teachers to get involved with policy that impacts their practices and provides suggestions to ensure their voices are included in this and future initiatives.

Pandemic Schooling: Lessons In Equity, Advocacy, And Racial Justice, Donna Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It was my fourth year of teaching at a Brooklyn elementary school when the COVID-19 pandemic forced school buildings, and the entire city, to enter a world of lockdown and quarantine. New York City was an early epicenter of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and the virus quickly revealed severe racial and socioeconomic disparities across the city. A disproportionate number of cases, serious illnesses, and death has been experienced by low-income Black and Latinx communities. At the same time, 2020 also ushered in a national racial reckoning following the May murder of George Floyd.

In this thesis, I will provide a …

Agents Of Change: The Problematic Landscape Of Pakistan's K-12 Education And The People Leading The Change, Amjad Noorani, Nadeem Hussain

Faculty Research - Books

This book aims to energize open discourse on the education landscape and initiate civil society action for sustainable change. From the historical to the present state, the book vividly describes the feudal and dysfunctional environments which have impeded reforms. It addresses sensitive areas such as the politics of language, the curriculum content, quality improvement measures and inclusive education; the misunderstood and maligned madrasas (Islamic seminary schools); the struggles of transition from poverty to a middle-class position; and the need for organized political advocacy. It interlaces bold ideas and proposes civil society ownership for implementation of reforms. It proposes that the …

Improving K-12 Education For Hispanic Students In Las Vegas And Beyond, Richard Reeves, Ember Smith

Policy Briefs and Reports

Public K-12 education serves as a launching pad for economic mobility and opportunity, preparing students for college or a good-paying job. Despite K-12 education’s influence on later-in-life outcomes, schools often underserve students of color. Hispanic students in particular constitute a significant and growing portion of the U.S. student population yet are often overlooked in education literature because they are not the lowest performing demographic. In this brief, we examine how well public K-12 education serves Hispanic students in Clark County, where nearly half of students are Hispanic. We then consider factors that may influence student performance, including both in-school factors …

Teacher Turnover And Teacher Retirement, Dillon Fuchsman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers have an important impact on students in the short- and long-term, but only teachers’ experience consistently predicts high teacher quality. This dissertation, divided into three chapters, investigates two topics that are related to teachers’ experience levels: turnover and retirement.

The first chapter studies the relationship between voluntary beginning teacher turnover and teachers’ levels of conscientiousness. It uses the data from the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study and the effort that teachers put on a survey taken during their first year in the profession as a proxy for teachers’ levels of conscientiousness. The results of this chapter indicate that teachers putting …

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 …

Family–School Partnerships And The Missing Voice Of Parents, Laura R. Stein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Educators, researchers, advocates, and others agree that effective family-school partnership is an important component in best supporting the academic outcomes and future success of students. However, schools and educators struggle in forming constructive partnerships with racially and economically marginalized and oppressed parents and families, particularly low-income Black parents and families. This compromises support for low-income Black students that are already served in underfunded and under-resourced schools compared to their White middleclass counterparts. Further, this phenomenon exacerbates a widely understood academic achievement gap between low-income Black students and White middleclass students. In seeking to unearth and better understand effective strategies and …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Relationship Between Eighth Grade Social Science Students, Teacher Diversity And Academic Success, Rachel Elaine Murphy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Dynamics between student teacher ethnicity and the practices of culturally plural curricula seeks to improve student performance and strives to minimize the achievement gap. This quantitative study explored whether there was a significant difference in the North Carolina Final Exam history-social science test performance between (a) African American and Hispanic students taught by a teacher from a different ethnic makeup and (b) African American and Hispanic students taught by a teacher from a similar ethnic makeup in 8th grade of social science classes. Student's performance is a key factor in evaluating the credibility of a school which is crucial to …

The Nature Of Teacher Learning In Collaborative Data Teams, Robert Michaud

The Qualitative Report

As data teams have grown in popularity in recent years, they have been increasingly looked to by educational researchers because of the tantalizing prospect of combining teachers’ on the job professional development with increased and effective data use to drive instruction. Data teams have been increasingly implemented within schools by educational leaders attempting to take advantage of what teachers learn from each other in the context of a data team. Many conceptual models of data team function have been proposed, but few empirical studies have examined how teachers learn from collaborating with each other in a data team. This paper …

Student, Teacher, School, And District Determinants Of Elementary School Accountability Classification In The Detroit Metropolitan Region, Embekka Nakia Thompson

Wayne State University Dissertations

Legislators have implemented an accountability system in an effort to increase school quality for all students. Policymakers assume that rewards and sanctions, based on results from high-stakes testing, can improve student achievement. The accountability system does not consider environmental factors that impact student outcomes. This study examines student, teacher, school and district determinants and their impact on student achievement, school designation, and school ranking. Data was collected from 333 elementary (K-5) schools in 56 public school districts and 18 charter schools in three counties: Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne. Two research questions were developed for this study.The first research question examined …

Children Are The Messengers: A Case Study Of Academic Success Through The Voices Of High-Achieving Low-Income Elementary Students, Stephen Howard Mccray

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

For low-income minority and marginalized communities, American democracy’s educational mission remains unfulfilled. Student voices have provided insight into ways that schools disserve and serve students and how schools can improve in promoting academic achievement; however, academically successful low-income students’ voices—particularly those at the elementary school level—are largely excluded from the literature. Providing a platform for student voices, this qualitative, intrinsic critical case study explored six high achieving low-income students’ views of their academic success and how that success was achieved. Participants were six fifthgrade students, their parents, and teacher, in a school-wide Title I urban public school. Data were collected …

Training Together: State Policy And Collective Participation In Early Educator Professional Development, Anne Douglass, Alice Carter, Frank Smith, Sherri Killins

New England Journal of Public Policy

This study used one state’s early care and education work-force registry and professional development attendance data to examine early educator patterns of professional development participation and the extent of collective participation. The article presents the concept of collective participation in professional development, discusses its potential benefits, and highlights the utility of statewide digital tracking of early educators’ patterns of professional development for informing policy. Results show that collective participation is uncommon in early education and care but can be increased through professional development policy decisions. The article concludes with implications for research and policy.

Elementary Teachers' Perceptions Of Response To Intervention And Classroom Instruction, Lora Coonce

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Response to intervention (RTI) is a federal program created to improve student learning and reduce the number of students misidentified as needing special education services. Differing interpretations of how best to implement RTI between campuses and districts have resulted in teachers' confusion and misperceptions of the program. The purpose of this study was to understand how elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of RTI affect classroom instruction. Based on Gagne's instructional theory and Bruner's theory of constructivism, the study examined the perceptions of 10 classroom teachers in 2 low socio-economic elementary schools. The study examined how RTI forms and protocols, administrative leadership, …

Website Blocked: Filtering Technology In Schools And School Libraries, Jennifer M. Overaa

School of Information Student Research Journal

This paper investigates the impact of filtering software in K-12 schools and school libraries. The Children's Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, requires that public schools and school libraries use filtering technology in order to receive discounted rates on technology. As a result, nearly all public elementary and secondary schools today use filtering technology. While the provisions of CIPA narrowly define the content to be blocked, filters are often set to block much more than is required. Filtering technology is often ineffective, and many unobjectionable sites end up being blocked, including Web 2.0 sites and tools needed to educate students in …

The Effects Of Kindergarten Redshirting From A Parental Perspective, Kelli Dougan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kindergarten redshirting is the term used to describe the phenomenon where a parent chooses to keep their child from attending kindergarten so that the child may gain a year's worth of maturity. This qualitative dissertation examines the decision making process undergone by parents who have redshirted their children. While some parents began the decision making process soon after their child's birth, every parent in the study considered the decision carefully. The study also provides an analysis of the outcomes the redshirting has provided for children as perceived by their parents. Parents rated the academic, Social and emotional effects of kindergarten …

The Effects Of Summer Reading Programs On The Academic Achievement Of Elementary Students, Renee Deshommes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with weakened academic skills face the possibility of having less access to higher education, or advanced career opportunities later in life. Such disadvantages, if not addressed, may result in a series of diminished opportunities that may affect a child's overall quality of life. Several educational experts suggest that the negative effects of the academic achievement gap are cumulative, and many educational experts also believe that the achievement gap between high and low socioeconomic students continues to be a persistent problem for which few solutions have materialized. The potential for summer reading programs to be implemented as a mechanism to …

The Status Of Students With Special Needs In The Instrumental Musical Ensemble And The Effect Of Selected Educator And Institutional Variables On Rates Of Inclusion, Edward C. Hoffman Iii

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

The purpose of this study was to describe the current status of students with special needs in the instrumental musical ensemble and to examine the effect of selected educator and institutional variables on rates of inclusion. An online survey was designed by the researcher and distributed electronically to 600 practicing K-12 instrumental music educators in the states of Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. While 13.6% of the total school-aged population nationwide received special education services, demographic data provided by respondents revealed that students with special needs accounted for 6.8% of all students participating in bands, orchestras, …

Rethinking Reiche, Tracie J. Reed

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Part I of the study examines the differences between two environmental assessment methods for the K‐12 education sector: the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Schools Version 3.0 and the British Research Establishment’s (BRE) BREEAM Education issue 2.0. Credit requirements are compared side‐by‐side and against recommendations from researchers in areas such as acoustics, lighting and indoor environment quality. Strengths in the two schemes and areas for improvement are highlighted, with acknowledgement that each scheme offers components and techniques from which the other could benefit. Part II of the study introduces the Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland, Maine. …

Exploring A Supplemental Educational Service Math Program: The Math Achievement Of Economically Disadvantaged Students And Teacher Professional Development, Vilma Caban-Vazquez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The No Child Left Behind education act mandates that school districts develop supplemental educational service programs for students not demonstrating mathematical proficiency on state standardized math assessments. Yet there is limited understanding of issues related to supplemental educational service math programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate a local after school math program to offer insight on the low math achievement for economically disadvantaged students involved in the program. Constructivist theories of math reform and education for economically disadvantaged students and English language learners guided this study of 10 teachers and 15 of their students in a …

Teaching Students And Teaching Each Other: The Importance Of Peer Learning For Teachers, Clement (Kirabo) Jackson, Elias Bruegmann

C. Kirabo Jackson

Using student examination data linked to longitudinal teacher personnel data, we document that a teacher’s students have larger test score gains when she experiences an improvement in the observable characteristics of her colleagues. Using within-school and within-teacher variation, we further show that a teacher’s students have larger test score gains when she has more effective colleagues (based on their own students’ achievement gains from an out-of-sample pre-period). A one standard deviation increase in average teacher peer quality is associated with an increase of 0.02 and 0.04 standard deviations in student test score growth in reading and math respectively (about one …

Excellence In Geography In The Schools, Chester Smolski, Anne K. Petry

Smolski Texts

"Most people know of the National Geographic Society through its well-know magazine, nine million of which are mailed out each month and most of which now reside in attics throughout the world.

"But what many do not realize is the $80 million effort over the past 12 years that the Geographic has made in the schools of the country to make our teachers an children better understand the world around them. This it has done throuh its support of the Geography Alliances established in every state, Canada, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia."

Geographically, R.I. Teachers Are Among The Best, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Isn't it time that we recognize the good teachers and good work being done in the schools of this state rather than constantly harping on problems with education and how our students don't measure up to those in other countries?"