Thesis (Ed. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-96).

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, Graduate School, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-215).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-139).

National Board-certified (NBC) teachers are recognized as accomplished teachers who have met the National Board's stringent standards. These teachers are encouraged to serve as mentors to novice teachers and veteran teachers in candidacy for National Board Certification. This study identified and compared the career and psychosocial mentoring functions that NBC teacher mentors and non-NBC teacher mentors perceived they provided to their protégés' at the elementary grade levels. National Board-certified protégés' perceptions of having the functions provided were compared with those of their teacher mentors and with the protégés' of non-NBC teacher mentors. The research was conducted in a large urban school district in Florida and included 190 participants: 95 mentors and their protégés'. The teacher mentors' perceptions of having provided the mentoring functions were assessed using the Mentoring Functions Scale for the Mentor, and the protégés' perceptions were measured with the Mentoring Functions Scale for the Protégé. Both instruments were adapted for this study from a previous mentoring scale for the protégé developed by Noe (1988). Results for the study indicated no statistically significant differences between the NBC teacher mentors and the non-NBC teacher mentors in their perceptions of having provided the functions. Significant differences were found between NBC teacher mentors and their protégés on the exposure-and-visibility function, between non-NBC teacher mentors and their protégés on the challenging assignments function, and between all mentors and all protégés on the challenging assignments function. Implications for teacher mentors, administrators, and scholars are provided. These include developing or updating existing mentoring programs to include the career and psychosocial functions studied in this research, providing mentors and protégés with information about the functions in order to assess the existence of specific functions, expanding professional development time to address functions that may have been inadequate, and possibly limiting the number of protégés with whom teacher mentors interact and guide.

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship between technology integration indicators and school level achievement. Four years of school level secondary data from publicly available databases maintained by the Florida Department of Education were combined for all public elementary, middle, and high schools in the state. This study examined approximately 2300 schools that participated each year in the Florida Innovates Survey about technology integration between 2003-04 and 2006-07. Complexity theory supported the use of multi-level modeling to examine the relationships between technology integration and outcomes. Three achievement outcomes (reading, mathematics, and writing) and two mediating behavioral outcomes (attendance and misconduct) were investigated. Moderating variables controlled in the model included school level, demographics, and learning environment. After data preparation, all composite variables were developed using factor analysis. Models were progressively built with significant variables at each level retained in subsequent levels of the study. A total of 94 models were estimated with maximum likelihood estimation using SAS 9.1.3 statistical software. The integration of technology is only one of the many factors that impact student learning within the classroom environment. Results supported previous research about the relationship between the moderating variables and school level achievement and confirmed the need to include moderating variables in the model. After controlling for all the other moderating variables, technology integration had a significant relationship with mean school achievement. Although the percent of teachers who regularly use technology for administrative purposes was consistently significant in the models for four out of five outcomes studied, the interactions with time, time2, and time3, resulted in curvilinear trends with inconsistent results. These inconsistent significant findings make drawing conclusions about the integration of technology within Florida's public schools difficult. Furthermore, the small changes observed in mean school achievement over the span of this study support the concept that time is a critical factor for school level learning and change. Therefore, continued analyses of the longitudinal trends for Florida schools in the relationship between technology integration variables and school achievement, while controlling for moderating variables, are recommended.

The purpose of this dissertation is to elucidate the democratic nature of American public schools in terms of democratic principles of freedom, equality, and equity through historical, sociological, conceptual, and educational examinations. Chapter 2 explores, through a salient and recurring phenomenon of segregation, how the democratic-capitalistic matrix of American public schools has been constructed in terms of both meritocratic and egalitarian policies. To scrutinize the substantive nature of democratic-capitalistic society, in Chapter 3, social theories proposed by Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, and Freud are examined in terms of the nature of human existence in the democratic-capitalistic society and then, its mode of existence is analyzed in light of the metaphors, the Möbius strip and the Klein bottle. The object of Chapter 4 is to clarify the conceptual and substantive relationship between freedom and equality based on equity as balance point. In Chapter 5, educational issues concerning the nature of democratic existence are dealt with in terms of educational quality, while clarifying the paradoxical nature of democratic-educational conceptions of excellence and knowledge in the public school system. Further, a reconsideration of the Brown decision in Chapter 6 helps penetrate how democratic existence can be substantialized in American public schools under the capitalistic-democratic society, confirming a new version of educational paradigm. / text

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