Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'School of Education'

This study examined the relationship between school leaders’ self-reported levels of emotional intelligence and teacher perceptions of school climate in K–12 Catholic schools in Indiana. This study built upon the findings of a mixed-method study by Juma (2013) that was limited in scope and generalizability, and examined the relationship between a principal’s perceived emotional intelligence and teacher perceptions of school climate. The current study used a quantitative methodological approach and a larger sample size to enhance understanding of the relationship between school leaders’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and teacher perceptions of school climate. The Emotional Intelligence Quotient 2.0 (EQ-i 2.0) and the Organizational Climate Questionnaire (OCQ) were completed by 200 teachers and 30 school leaders in 30 K–12 Catholic schools in Indiana. This study did not find a significant relationship between a school leader’s perceived level of emotional intelligence and teacher’s perceived school climate. Prior research on these variables has been inconclusive. This study adds to the body of research examining the possible connection between a school leader’s emotional intelligence and school climate.

Science education has undergone multiple reforms over the years, yet each reform continues to produce little change in student success. The latest reform of the standards—Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)—look to change that trend by focusing on what students can do, rather than just what they know. Modeling Instruction (MI) is one research-based pedagogy that is in alignment with the NGSS concepts of student-led classroom instruction. This proven strategy has been used across the U.S., but often in isolation, rather than as the routine classroom instruction throughout a school’s science department.

Changes in new teaching methods, such as those needed to implement MI or NGSS, are not easy for schools to make. They require entire organizations to shift their beliefs in how education appears, with students actively working and presenting content, while the teacher walks to the students, facilitating and asking questions. Leadership within the school can help this transition take place, by providing structures and processes that support others attempting to make changes in their practice. Effective leaders not only provide a plan, but they also create a supportive climate in which goals can be achieved.

This qualitative case study looked at the leadership of schools that have implemented MI across the science curriculum, which includes Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Characteristics of the leaders, such as leadership style and structures, provided information on how to make a successful change in instruction. Data was collected via interviews with school leaders and school faculty, and observations taken at the school. This data was then coded to identify common themes and trends.

Results of this research showed that leadership played an important role in the implementation of MI in secondary science classrooms. Key attributes were provided by school leadership to help with the implementation. Professional development provided the staff with the tools needed to learn the techniques of the new methods. Time for collaboration was also given, which allowed the staff to help each other with any problems that had arisen along the way. Finally, support was given by the leadership when teaching staff had problems with their implementation. These characteristics allowed for the change from traditional instruction to MI at two high schools, while minimizing problems and creating an atmosphere, which inspired creativity.

Research indicated the transition from eighth grade into ninth grade can be a difficult time for students. His Grace High School (HGHS) ninth grade students illustrated this difficulty. The purpose of this study was to examine African American student and parent perceptions regarding the transition process into high school. Currently, all students and parents at HGHS participate in a two-part orientation session to prepare and acclimate to the new school community and learning environments. Orientation sessions are facilitated by predominately African American staff members; however, the premise of the session was developed and implemented by Caucasian staff and faculty. Furthermore, the manner in which the information is developed and shared with the African American students and parents does not consider or address the cultural needs of African American parents and students. Critical Race Theory, CRT, was used to measure inequality in education. According to Hiraldo (1994) scholars have used CRT as a framework to analyze and critique educational research and practices. Critical Race Theory attempts to address the cultural needs and disparities of minority students when compared to students of the dominant race.

The research questions provided additional information about the transition process and how the administration, faculty, staff, and school community can develop and implement a transition program that will assist both students and parents transitioning into HGHS. A qualitative analysis of the current transition process was conducted. Current freshmen students and parents completed surveys and participated in interviews about their experience with the transition process at HGHS.

The academic achievement gap between African American and Caucasian students continues to be a major concern for policymakers and educators. This gap started to shrink in the 1970s and 1980s with integration, but the 1990s showed the achievement gap was on the rise again. The characteristics of the neighborhoods where children live and attend school have a great impact on their academic performances. This research study examined the relationship between poverty, community violence and the academic performance of elementary school age children, especially African American students. Seventy-eight public elementary schools were randomly chosen in Los Angeles County that had at least 10% African American students who completed the reading achievement test in each primary grade level (2-5 grade levels) in April 2012. The results showed that poverty and community violence had a significant negative impact on reading achievement test scores for African American students. Furthermore, the impact of community violence was twice that of poverty on academic performance. On the other hand, Caucasian students’ test scores were significantly impacted by poverty and not community violence. One explanation for this difference was that African American students experienced twice as much community violence in their neighborhoods as compared to Caucasian students. Since educators cannot change neighborhood characteristics, they need to focus on developing educational models that mitigate the impact of community violence and trauma on African American students.

The purpose of this study is to explore and identify flow characteristics in experienced middle school and high school band directors in the context of their teaching. The research was conducted using a qualitative multi-case study through the use of non-participant observations, field notes, and interviews with observational video with stimulated recall to identify the characteristics of flow in a total of five experienced middle school or high school band directors. It was apparent from the findings that every experienced middle school and high school band director experienced flow characteristics at different times while instructing their bands; conditions that facilitated and inhibited characteristics of flow as well as qualities that sustained characteristics of flow also were observed. This research may contribute to improved professional development and preparation of band directors; it may help them to recognize and achieve flow and develop good teaching practices, thereby enabling their students to reach their learning potential.

Inclusive STEM-focused high schools (ISHSs) are a relatively new phenomenon in the landscape of public education. This study of four exemplar ISHSs (identified by experts in STEM education as highly successfully in preparing students underrepresented in STEM for STEM majors in college and future STEM careers) provides a rich description of the approach to ISHS school leadership by identifying various internal and external leadership factors influencing school leadership. This study examined an existing data set that included site visits to four ISHSs along with pre- and post-visit data, and a cross-case analysis focused on the leadership contributions of ISHS leaders and their larger community.

This study found that the ISHSs expanded the concept of school leadership to include leadership both within and outside the school. In addition, school leaders needed autonomy to innovate and respond to their schools’ needs. This included autonomy in hiring new teachers, autonomy from school district influence, and autonomy from restrictive teachers’ union regulation and policies. Finally, ISHSs needed to continually invest in increasing their schools’ capacities. This included investing in teacher professionalization, providing pathways for school leadership, collaborating with business and industry, and identifying the best student supports. A product of this study was a proposition for characterizing school leadership in an ISHS. This proposition may offer valuable insight, implications, and information for states and schools districts that may be planning or improving STEM education programs.

This case study examines the effect of a yearlong place-based educational project on a single class of middle school students aged 11-14 at a public charter school in Santa Rosa, California. Of particular interest in this case study was the development of the concepts of belonging and place through the perceptual lens of the middle school student and through the vehicle of place-based education. This study utilizes qualitative methods including participant observation, interviews and pre and post surveys. The findings of this study suggest that the outdoor environment was very engaging for learning. Students reported that the development of a sense of place spurred from repeated visits to the nature preserve over long periods of time. These students indicated that a sense of belonging emerged to the preserve because of the stewardship aspect of the place-based educational project. Students felt a sense of stewardship toward the land after the project, and that sense of stewardship characterized a feeling of belonging. Cosmology was also a factor in understanding how these young adults came to define what it means to feel a sense of belonging to their local natural place.

Keywords: place-based education, sense of belonging, sense of place, stewardship, cosmology or new cosmology, community action, alienation or isolation, ecopsychology, biophilia hypothesis, placelessness, and constructivist curriculum-culture model.

This descriptive study attempts to increase understanding of relationships between school contextual factors and the fostering of student prosocial development and reduced at risk behaviors among adolescent populations. Using an ethnographic design, the researcher gathered data from six rural public middle schools in Pennsylvania. Three schools with the greatest number of infractions and three with the fewest infractions per 100 eighth grade students represented both ends of the misconduct range and served as the study’s sample. Data were gathered through school site visits, primary documents, interviews of school personnel, and an on-line survey completed by each school faculty. All instruments were informed by subscale dimensions represented by the Alliance for the Study of School Climate (ASSC) School Climate Assessment Instrument (SCAI).

Cross-case analysis revealed shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language of middle school administrators, guidance counselors, and teachers concerning factors contributing to their respective school climates. Contextual similarities and differences among school groupings were investigated through subscale dimensions of (a) faculty relations, (b) leadership and decision making, (c) discipline and management environment, and (d) attitude and culture. A paired-samples t-test of survey data revealed statistically significant mean differences for (a) leadership and decision making and (b) attitude and culture, with these variances being particularly evident after removing one school that emerged as an outlier. Data gathered from the study’s other instruments aligned with this school’s incongruous nature to all other schools of the sample.

School accountability policies were created in response to concerns that the United States was under-performing and losing its position as an international leader in education. These policies are currently an integral part of the American educational system. The effectiveness of school accountability policies, however, remains unclear and research on how performance-based accountability is related to principal behavior is largely undeveloped. This dissertation examined the relationships between performance-based school accountability and the behaviors of school principals. Using a nationally-representative database of public elementary schools (the Schools and Staffing Survey 2003-04), this dissertation explored the associations between different aspects of performance-based educational policy on principal work engagement, supportive leadership, and shared instructional leadership. Findings suggest that most associations between performance-based rewards and interventions and principal behaviors are negligible or negative. State policy for rewards had a negative association with supportive leadership, and state policy for intervention had a negative association with principal engagement. Among schools meeting all performance goals in the previous academic year, nearly all of the associations were statistically negligible; the only significant association was that between exposure to school-wide monetary rewards and principal engagement. Specifically, exposure to school-wide monetary reward had a significant negative association with principal engagement. Among schools failing to meet all performance goals in the previous academic year, exposure to intervention was negatively related to all three principal behaviors and three associations were statistically significant. Specifically, exposure to evaluation cycle was associated with significantly less supportive leadership, exposure to reduced resources was associated with significantly less shared instructional leadership, as was exposure to school choice. The interactions with school size and school poverty varied by type of incentive and by principal behavior, and generally suggest that the relationships between policy and principal behavior are stable across different contexts. Findings from this dissertation resound previous concerns with present performance-driven school accountability policy and introduce a new point of concern into the argument against the practice. While negative associations between accountability policy and principal behaviors may not be deemed directly pertinent to the bottom line (i.e. student achievement), that the only significant relationships are negative is an important consideration and refutes the theory of action in accountability. Reconsideration of performance-based accountability is recommended, as neither reward nor intervention consistently related positively to principal behavior; state policy for reward and intervention, exposure to monetary rewards, and exposure to nearly all interventions were negatively related to at least one principal behavior.

Urban attrition is a paramount problem facing K–12 education. With a noted 50% of beginning teachers exiting education or transferring to suburban school environments, attrition negatively impacts a school’s ability to maintain an effective and stable teaching staff. This qualitative study set to examine how leadership and the community affected veteran teachers’ decisions to remain working in urban elementary schools. Utilizing the professional capital as accountability framework developed by Michael Fullan, Santiago Rincon-Callardo, and Andy Hargreaves, this study examined the extent to which perceived leadership and community members affected 13 veteran teachers’ decisions to remain working in urban elementary schools. Utilizing interviews of teachers and principals along with artifact collections, some emerging themes included making a difference, reciprocal trust, mutual respect, and love. Policy and practice recommendations were for beginning teachers to continue support programs that foster community–teacher relations and involvement in parent-based organizations such as the Parent– Teacher Association.

Modern suburban school districts have experienced a significant shift in demographics over the last decade making them more diverse in race, ethnicity, income and ability level. The income diversity in suburban districts can hide pockets of significant need in the community. Due to the formulas associated with federal programs, suburban districts are less likely to receive supplemental funds to support vulnerable students. This study utilizes a case study approach and offers a unique view into the phenomenon by examining the work of a suburban school which has narrowed the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers without the assistance of federal funds. Data includes interviews with 18 previous and current administrators, teachers and other staff, meeting observations, and a review of school documents and artifacts. Findings note the school maximizes its limited resources, empowers teachers to be instructional leaders through trusting relationships, has a robust support system for students and builds a welcoming school culture. Shield’s (2001) transformative leadership framework was used as a theoretical lens to explore the school’s practices.

The results of this study enhance the understanding of suburban schools with diverse populations by (a) identifying the multi-tiered support system that increases achievement of all students; (b) recognizes the school climate and culture among staff and students that create an environment that reinforces learning; and (c) illustrates how relationships between administrators and teachers can reinforce the instructional practices of the school.

Despite rapid expansion of charter schools since the first enabling legislation was passed in 1991 there remains little understanding of the relationship between charter school law components and their relation to the percent charter school enrollment. This study focuses on the twenty charter school law components identified by the National Alliance of Public Carter Schools as being necessary for a strong charter school law and their correlation to charter school enrollment. Results suggest that, of the twenty components, Multiple Authorizers and Equitable Access to Capital Funding are most strongly correlated with an increase in the percentage of charter school enrollment. An additional five components, Equitable Operational Funding, Access to Retirement Systems, Adequate Authorizer Funding, Automatic Exemptions from State and District Rules and Regulations and Multi-school Charter Contracts Allowed, had a moderate correlation to the percentage of charter school enrollment. Additionally, one component, Authorizer and Program Accountability, shows a negative correlation to the percent of charter school enrollment. These findings suggest that if policymakers desire to increase the percentage of charter school enrollment they should carefully consider inclusion of these components in state law.

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to investigate principals’ and assistant principals’ knowledge of special education law and procedures in Federal Military Connected Pacific Schools as it relates to Knowles theory of andragogy and how adults learn. This study investigated grade level and school size, individual knowledge base of special education law and procedures, initial in-service provided to principals and assistant principals, and principals and assistant principals ability to provide educational services to students with disabilities within their schools across the Pacific region. The following characteristics of gender, age, years of experience as a teacher, years of experience as a principal and assistant principal, degree level, area of concentration in graduate work, and number of courses taken in special education were also considered. A total of 21 surveys were completed out of 70 emailed to participants. Six of the surveys were rendered invalid as a result of being incomplete. The completed samples of the 21 received were evenly distributed into thirds for grade level of school. About 62% of the samples worked in schools with 500 to 999 students and two-thirds of the samples were female. About 76% of the samples were between the ages of 36 and 59. Almost 50% of the samples had 16 years or more of teaching experience and 38% of the samples had served as an administrator for 5 or less years, but nearly 30% had served as an administrator for 11 to 15 years. The conclusion obtained from this study support the findings in the literature regarding principals’ and assistant principals’ knowledge of special education law and procedures. Implications and recommendations were made from this study in Chapter 5. Research studies conducted in Federal Military-Connected Pacific Schools were not found and this research study will provide a foundation for future studies worldwide.

Educational reform is at the forefront of legislatures and school districts across the United States (Hattie, 2011). To find and employ high school improvement initiatives that lead to improved educational experiences for students, educational leaders must examine in great detail what systems have been successful and then modify the initiatives to fit the characteristics of their particular school districts (Berliner & Glass, 2015). The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of initiatives one Midwestern high school implemented beginning in 2012. The initiatives implemented included the Tardy Sweep policy, Response to Intervention (RtI) program, and a Late Work policy. The data collected were archival and reflected the school years from 2010-2011 through 2015-2016. Using descriptive statistics, the findings demonstrated an improved attendance rate, a decline in discipline referrals, and decreased failure rate with the implementation of these initiatives at one Midwestern high school. The findings of this study provide a compelling argument for the implementation of the three initiatives at other high schools.

Currently, three out of 10 parents fear for their students? safety while attending classes within the public school setting (McCarthy, 2015). This study focused on two elements that directly affect safety within schools: visitor management and intruder prevention. To analyze each of these two elements, qualitative methodology was utilized through four focus groups to determine the perceptions of Elementary school administrators, parents, and school resource officers on school safety. After conducting multiple interviews, four common themes emerged. The first theme was monitoring access to school buildings. Participants asserted taking an active approach in this area would increase the overall safety of students. The second theme discussed by multiple participants was to take additional measures to make the entrances of school buildings secure. The third theme that emerged was the importance of the role of the school resource officer. The fourth and final theme that developed was the importance of training and communication for administrators, school resource officers, staff, students, parents, and community members. After facilitating focus groups and analyzing the data obtained, it became evident the measure of a safe school depends on two variables. These variables are (1) to create a safe building for students managed by procedures designed with student safety at the forefront and (2) to employ trained individuals with the purpose of generating a positive and secure atmosphere. The data collected in this study could prove useful to district administrators wishing to design a safe and secure learning environment for students.

One of the challenges in the field of computer science is teaching the subject at the high school level. Thirteen computer science teachers, one technology teacher and one department chair for technology were interviewed to determine how they thought computer science education could be improved at the high school level. The qualitative research addressed curriculum, professional development, educational computer science standards and frameworks, technology, and pedagogy. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for the research. Nvivo was used to analyze the interviews. When the results were compiled, many teachers were concerned that there were low numbers of students interested in computer science. Having low numbers or students enrolled in computer science classes contribute to low numbers of computer science teachers. Different way to address these problems are proposed.

Although districts and schools have implemented several types of parental engagement programs, numerous programs fail to meet the needs of African American parents, especially during the high school years. One reason may be the lack of awareness and sensitivity toward the needs of African American parents. Using a two-part conceptual framework informed by Hoover-Dempsey Sandler’s (1995, 1997) model of parental engagement and critical race theory, this qualitative case study examined how African American parents defined parental engagement during the high school years. This study also explored parents’ role construction and self-efficacy, and if and how parents understood district parental engagement policies. Data were collected from documents and semi-structured interviews from 15 African American parents of high school children. Data were analyzed using thematic network analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001) and a variation of constant comparative analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Study findings revealed that parents described high school parental engagement as a fluid process that changed over time to best fit the academic and nonacademic needs of their children. This impacted parents’ parental engagement behaviors and practices. Whereas parents were unfamiliar with the district’s parental engagement policies, they were familiar with other school practices and policies that impacted their engagement behaviors. Parents defined their role in broad terms, such as being their children’s protector, teacher, and advocate. Parents’ self-efficacy was mainly based on their children’s academic performance in school and a village of supporters. Parents reported creating informal information networks to access information and services to assist them in supporting their child academically during high school. Although parents reported engaging in school-based activities, the primary method of engagement was home-based engagement practices.

Small City School Districts across New York State are becoming increasingly fearful of losing newly hired, highly talented teachers. In the United States, 8% of teachers leave the profession annually and greater than 50% quit teaching before reaching retirement age (Sutcher, 2016). A study done on teacher retention decisions in New York City revealed lack of administrative support as one of the top five reasons for teacher attrition (Boyd, Grossman, Ing, Lankford, Loeb & Wyckoff, 2011). The importance of a teacher’s effect on student achievement cannot be overstated. Teachers have more influence on student achievement than any other factor (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017).

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the effect that high school principals have on the retention of high school teachers in Small City School Districts in New York State. This research examined the responsibilities of high school principals who are important to teachers’ decision to remain in their current role; determine which responsibilities exist in their schools; and analyze the correlation between the two. The leadership practices and principles that are defined in The 21 Responsibilities of the School Leader, as outlined by Marzano, Waters and McNulty’s book (Marzano, McNulty, & Waters, 2005) School Leadership that Works, are the conceptual frame for this study.

This study utilized anonymous survey results from 295 respondents currently employed in 13 Small City School Districts located within the Northeastern Regional Information Center of New York State. The findings from the research indicate that while all of the 21 Responsibilities used in this research are existent, respondents were neutral in their perception of whether any of them were important to supporting teacher retention.

However, when separating the results by demographics, there were significant differences by gender and years of teaching experience. Responses by females and teachers with less than 10 years’ experience demonstrated statistically significant differences, whereas they perceive a vast majority of the 21 Responsibilities used in this study to be more important than their male and veteran teacher counterparts.

Also, the Responsibility of Involvement with Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment ranked last amongst survey results as important to supporting teacher retention and perceived existence by the building principal.

Finally, all leadership behaviors used in this study demonstrated a moderately positive correlation between what was perceived as important to supporting teacher retention and perceived existence of the behavior by the principal.

In 1983, the A Nation at Risk report stated that our educational institutions in the United States and especially in urban areas were not meeting the educational needs of our students. Since A Nation at Risk, elected school boards in urban areas were under fire from the media, parents, other civic and community leaders, and voters due to fiscal irresponsibility and poor student achievement. In selected urban cities across the nation, elected school boards were replaced in favor of mayoral control (e.g., Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC) and appointed school boards (Wong et al., 2007). In 1999, the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) was taken over by the state of Michigan in an effort to reform the district. In 1998 prior to the state takeover, DPS had 261 schools, 167,000 students enrolled in the district, and a $93 million budget surplus. In 2014 after several years of state control, DPS had 97 schools (−62%), 47,000 students enrolled (−71%) in the district, and a $232 million budget deficit (−349%). During this same time period, DPS had eight different district leaders under three different school governance models. This qualitative historical case study developed an understanding of the overall impact of school governance reform on the institutional progress in DPS from 1999–2014. Institutional Progress examines the overall functioning of a school district in the areas of: leadership, educational programs, finances, personnel, community support and political support. This study also described the external and internal barriers preventing DPS from making institutional progress. This qualitative study utilized four data sources: interviews of current and former Detroit Public School personnel (i.e., school board members, central and building administrators, teachers, parents and community activists), Detroit Board of Education meeting minutes reports, daily newspaper coverage of DPS from the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, and city of Detroit archives on the annual State of the City Address given by Detroit mayors to determine whether or not institutional progress was achieved in DPS from 1999–2014. The findings of this study were the following: 1.) there was a lack of institutional progress in Detroit Public Schools; 2.) school governance reforms in DPS did not have a positive impact; and 3.) internal and external barriers prevented DPS from making institutional progress.