<p> A Case Study Market Analysis of Acceleration Mechanisms in Florida: Dual Enrollment Positioning. Laura Melissa Perry, 2013: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler School of Education. ERIC Descriptors: Acceleration (Education), Competition, Dual Enrollment, Marketing, Recruitment </p><p> This applied dissertation explored dual enrollment viability when compared to other acceleration mechanisms: (a) advanced placement, (b) advanced international certificate of education, (c) international baccalaureate, and (d) college-level examination program. This multicase, qualitative study explored the competitiveness of dual enrollment versus other acceleration mechanism using Porter's model and the strengths-weaknessesopportunities-threats analysis as the theoretical frameworks. The study used one-on-one interviews to gather primary comparative information. Five groups were interviewed: (a) the vendors of the acceleration mechanisms, (b) state education officials, (c) district personnel, (d) high school representatives, and (e) higher education representatives. The acceleration mechanisms' educational objectives, their positioning, and any acceleration mechanisms' benefits to the various stakeholders were examined. Dual enrollment was compared to the other acceleration mechanisms to develop recommendations for improving the competitive positioning and viability of dual enrollment in Florida. </p><p> The study found that acceleration-mechanism options were complex and dynamic programs that were highly influenced by government policies and funding. Educational entities viewed the value of acceleration mechanisms differently, especially dual enrollment. All groups agreed that acceleration mechanisms provided rigorous curriculum for high school students to prepare for college. However, educational entities first wanted to protect their own interests and funding. In terms of dual enrollment, financial considerations remained a substantial motivation for the program. The study showed that all acceleration mechanisms offered benefits to participating students. However, the multifaceted and ever-changing nature of acceleration mechanisms provided no clear advantages or benefits for dual enrollment versus other acceleration mechanisms. Several recommendations are made that addressed concerns about the long-term value of dual enrollment for Florida institutions and students.</p>

The purpose of this study was to provide pertinent data to enable public school administrators and counselors, through counseling services assessment, to make rational and logical decisions regarding perceptions that can be used in targeting areas within the counseling department which need to be improved to address the success of high school at-risk students. The main emphasis of the study was to assess the perceptions of at-risk students, randomly selected parents of at-risk students, secondary teachers, counselors, and administrators regarding the evaluation of high school counseling services to the success of at-risk students. Perceptual trends, similarities and differences among participating groups were also examined. This study's focus was to better understand the effectiveness of delivering counseling services from a collective perspective, viewing evaluation of counseling services as a tool in which it can be used to ensure consistency in conceptualizing and measuring success of at-risk students. The test group had 506 valid cases with three missing cases, examining the perceptions of at-risk students, teachers, counselors, randomly selected parents of at-risk students and students at Project COPE in the School District of Osceola County, Florida and analyzed the data using four one-way factorial ANOVAs of mean item satisfactory rating broken down by site (Gateway, Osceola, St. Cloud High Schools and Project COPE) in turn with: (1) Group (Students-208; parents-32; teachers-237; counselors-4; and administrators-25). (2) Gender (male and female). (3) Ethnicity (Anglo, Hispanic American, African American, Native American, others). Major findings revealed that organization and administration of counseling services and programs to the success of secondary at-risk students in the School District of Osceola County, Florida are at least "adequate" in that: at-risk students were adequately informed of counseling services; were adequately informed of career information and work education programs. Subjects were generally satisfied with programs designed to meet the needs of at-risk students. Overall, the counseling staff showed positive strengths in such areas as encouraging at-risk students to stay in school; keeping at-risk students informed of academic and social programs in school; responding to at-risk students' needs and exhibiting concern and providing student-parent-teacher-counselor conferences regularly. Conclusion. The subjects differed on many of the 40 items of this study, but only a few showed any significant differences in their perceptions of counseling services and programs to the success of at-risk students. However, all groups saw their differences as being important components at the high school in which they are involved.

<p> Increasing the independence of individuals with severe disabilities is of increasing concern to schools and federal agencies. Improving quality of life for high needs individuals with disabilities is an objective of transition programs, which allow consumers to adapt from one aspect of life to the next. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between variables (a) vocational assessment and exploration; (b) workplace readiness training; (c) independent living skills; and (d) self-advocacy and self-care and the independence level of individuals with severe disabilities residing and receiving their education within an institutionalized setting. Finally, this study will examine the efficacy of the Functional Independent Skills Handbook curriculum and assessment in addressing the independent living skills needs of individuals with severe disabilities in-residence in a state institution. Participants include adolescents with severe disabilities receiving services from the Special Purpose School at the Parsons State Hospital. </p><p> The results obtained by this study may be of extreme use to educators, service providers, and policy makers in Kansas, as well as other states utilizing a similar institutionalization model for severely disabled individuals. The study yielded statistically significant results that a focused, leveled curriculum emphasizing (a) vocational assessment and exploration; (b) workplace readiness training; (c) independent living skills; and (d) self-advocacy and self-care can increase the independence level of individuals with severe disabilities.</p>

<p> This dissertation addresses 12 questions related to an overall investigation designed to determine if there is a relationship between teacher perceptions of professional development and student achievement in rural Maryland. During an era of federal, state, and local education reform, lessons learned could help dramatically redesign professional development for the future. &ldquo;Pedagogical Content Knowledge&rdquo; (PCK) coined in 1986 by Lee Shulman, a past president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the 1995 book written by Stephen Brookfield <i>Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher </i> helped to form the conceptual framework of this study. </p><p> Twelve elements relating to professional development were part of the questions on the Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning (TELL) Maryland Survey of 2011 and 2013. The change in these TELL Maryland Survey teacher perceptions was correlated with the change in student High School Assessment (HSA) senior exit exam results for the same time period. Data were included from 79% (11,365 of 14,368) of teachers in 80% (63 of 79) of all rural high schools in Maryland that reported HSA senior exit exam data and responded at a 50% or higher rate on both studied years of the TELL Maryland Survey. </p><p> After analyzing statewide data, disaggregated by five regions, it was determined that three professional development elements had positive correlations and nine had negative correlations, although none of these were statistically significant. Those elements that correlated most positively with student achievement (with shortened titles used in the study) were collaboration, reflect(ion), and time. The literature review provided insight into some possible reasons for these results.</p>

<p> Parental engagement with schools is often considered one of the major contributing factors to a child&rsquo;s success in school. There is not, however, a definition of parental engagement that takes into account the social, historical, and cultural factors that shape a parent&rsquo;s view of their own engagement. This qualitative case study examines how African American parents in a high poverty, urban, charter middle school, come to understand practices and beliefs at their child&rsquo;s school, while building relationships with other parents and school staff. Through the lenses of critical race theory and cultural-historical activity theory, the researcher analyzes how the convergence of race, power, history, and culture frame perspectives of policy makers, those who work in schools, and parents. Through the voices of African American parents, in a socioeconomically disadvantaged school community, they define their own engagement.</p>

<p> This study investigated high school students&rsquo; definitions and interpretations of what an animal is, with a focus on marine animals. Past studies have shown that students&rsquo; definitions of animals often center on themes of movement or appendages. In this study, student responses were analyzed against a predetermined definition of an animal--a multicellular eukaryotic organism that is heterotrophic. Marine animals consistently misidentified by the students were also identified. </p><p> The data for this study was collected through surveys and interviews, using ninth grade high school students. Students were asked to identify marine organisms as animals or not, and to provide a definition or reasoning for classifying organisms as animals.</p><p> The purpose of this study is to better inform educators of the preconceptions about animals, specifically marine animals, that students bring into the classroom. This will allow educators to address those preconceptions to encourage a fuller understanding of animals in their students.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine English teachers who were considered successful at encouraging the social exploration of literature. The rationale for this study was to gain a greater understanding of the beliefs and ideologies of English teachers who were able to create a classroom climate that support students open exploration and discussion of literature in order to better understand the teachers? beliefs and ideologies as well as the ways in which they constructed their classroom climate and selected pedagogical tools to facilitate students? participation in open-forum discussion. The following research questions informed my dissertation study: What are the underlying beliefs of teachers of who have been identified as successful at engaging students in the social exploration of literature for the purpose of making meaning? What features of classroom climate do teachers actively facilitate in order to encourage the social exploration of literature through inquiry and reflection? What are the pedagogical acts that the teachers engage in to create conditions for inquiry and reflection? This multi-case study examined two English teachers identified as successful at creating a classroom climates that supported the social construction of knowledge around literature for students of historically marginalized backgrounds. Classroom observations were conducted of each teacher in the study as well as two in-depth interviews of both teachers. Documents and artifacts that were available from the lessons were collected. The findings revealed that while both teachers held a reputation for successfully implementing the social exploration of literature with their students, one teacher was more successfully able to engage students in open forum discussions. The data also showed the significance of holding an asset mindset, authentic care, relations of reciprocity, assisted performance, and scaffolding in being able to successfully create a the conditions that supported the social exploration of literature.

No description available.

Global research suggests that successful school principals are those who apply a judicious mix of instructional, distributed and transformational models of leadership. These approaches are explicitly advocated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), the government’s main education reform document that was launched in 2013. The MEB sets out an ambitious plan for all schools to have high performing principals, and high performance is associated with these three models rather than the administrative leadership which is more common in Malaysian schools. The MEB suggests that the aspiration of placing high performing leaders in all schools can be achieved by improving and refining the selection process for new principals, and by requiring them to acquire the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders (NPQEL). The MEB also places a strong emphasis on instructional leadership as one of the more effective leadership approaches, which current and future principals should adopt. This thesis presents the findings from a mixed methods study designed to examine the leadership features and practices of principals deemed to be high performing, serving in selected schools in Malaysia. These principals are deemed high performing because they are recipients of two government awards, the Excellent Principals award and the New Deals award. The study examines the extent to which instructional, transformational and distributed leadership are practiced by the principals, drawing on the following data sources: interviews with three senior policymakers; documentary analysis of relevant policies and circulars and questionnaires filled in by 20 ‘high performing’ principals and their teachers. The data is further supplemented with interviews with six out the 20 high performing principals and their respective senior leadership team member and teachers. The findings suggest that principals who are deemed high performing in the selected Malaysian schools enact instructional leadership modestly compared to distributed leadership and transformational leadership. A tentative framework of core leadership practices enacted by principals who are deemed high performing, derived from the findings of this study, is presented at the end of this study.

<p> Previous research focused on characteristics of effective teachers, teacher recruitment or new pathways to teaching (Ball &amp; Forzani, 2009; Ronfeldt et. al., 2014). However, there is a gap in the research regarding the best path to prepare secondary math teachers. Universities create a customized path of preparation based on their beliefs within the scope of a set of standards given by organizations such as the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics or National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Further research supports the necessity for both content and pedagogical knowledge (Ball, 2000; Graham &amp; Fennell, 2001; NCATE, 2010; Thames &amp; Ball, 2010). Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative case study pursues to increase the research by uncovering perceptions of secondary math teacher preparation with the standards, content knowledge, and content pedagogical knowledge. The study included two universities&rsquo; programs to gain awareness as to the interpretations of novice teachers, cooperating teachers, and University professors of the pre-service training program used to prepare future secondary mathematics educators. The findings suggest: while only the Mathematics Education Professor at both Universities were the only study participants to have a vast knowledge of the standards it did not seem to impede on the overall preparation of the novice teacher. Novice and Cooperating teachers lacked the vision for the purpose and value of upper level math classes required for the degree. Both Novice and Cooperating Teachers wanted an increase in opportunities for real-world content pedagogical situations along with differentiation, coteaching, and Special Education. Novice teachers acknowledged the need for relationships with University professors and peers in their path toward preparation. Lastly, Mathematics Education Professors stated value in making connections between courses and research to high school math. Furthermore, the finding suggest for teacher preparation program: to prepare secondary math teachers for the current culture of mathematics education, content and pedagogical courses should not be separated and a push to increase program enrollment should be a priority.</p><p>