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The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher sense of efficacy and its relationship to pupil control ideology in urban middle schools. The following questions were investigated: (1) Among urban middle school teachers, what is the relationship between their level of self-efficacy for teaching and their pupil control ideology? (2) Are female middle school teachers more or less efficacious than male middle school teachers? (3) Are female middle school teachers more or less humanistic than male middle school teachers?;The study included middle school teachers from 4 urban school divisions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Teachers from 13 middle schools from the 4 school divisions participated in this study which yielded a total of 161 teachers.;A Pearson r correlation was run to investigate the relationship between teacher sense of efficacy and pupil control ideology. T-tests were run to determine if statistically significant difference existed between the pupil control ideology and teacher sense of efficacy scores of urban male and female middle school teachers. The results of the Pearson r correlation indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between teachers' sense of efficacy and their pupil control ideology. The t-test results indicated that urban female middle school teachers were more efficacious than urban male middle school teachers. There was no statistically significant difference between the pupil control ideology mean scores of urban middle school teachers.;This study has implications for schools to provide staff development for urban male teachers to increase their sense of efficacy. A replication of this study using a larger sample and a different measure of pupil control ideology may yield different results.

The focus of the ninth grade year as a crucial year for high school students is a current issue that raises national concern. Currently, rural and suburban school districts have been successful in implementing and in sustaining successful ninth grade transition programs. However, in urban settings, educators have been perplexed by the varying degrees of success with these same strategies. This study focused on four urban high schools' efforts to increase ninth grade promotion rates and ultimately high school completion rates. Each school's efforts have been described in order to gain insight into how each program was developed to meet the needs of its school population. The planning, implementation, program design, inhibiting factors, facilitative factors, and criteria used to determine success/failure were explored in each school, and findings for each school were compared to practices found in other ninth grade transition programs in urban settings across the United States. Findings from this study suggest that while ninth grade transition programs can positively impact ninth grade promotion rates, urban schools continue to fall short in yielding immediate and continued increases in promotion rates. Before the strategies can be systematically labeled effective, each school's efforts have to result in increases in ninth grade promotion rates that are replicated on a yearly basis.

Many research-based reading interventions exist, but little literature examines teaching secondary reading using entire novels as an intervention. This quasi-experimental study examined the relationship between whether entire novels were included in secondary intensive reading and students' English language arts skills. Data were collected through an online survey of eight reading teachers from one Florida school district. Data collected by the survey were teacher qualifications, inclusion of entire novels in reading curriculum, and implementation of research-based teaching strategies. Survey data, Florida Standards Assessment of English Language Arts (FSA ELA) student scores, student demographics and reading placement data were analyzed to answer six research questions regarding the use of entire novels in secondary reading classes. Students were enrolled in one of three leveled abilities reading classes (identified as a Reading Treatment). Data were analyzed using a series of Analysis of Variances (ANOVAs) with Kruskal-Wallis post hoc tests. Results indicated there were no statistically significant interactions between Reading Treatment, novels use, and student race or ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. No interaction effect was found between Reading Treatment and teacher self-reported implementation of research-based teaching strategies for students taught with entire novels. A statistically significant difference in language arts skills was found for students in Reading Treatments 1 and 3. Among those students, those taught without entire novels had higher levels of language arts skills than students taught using entire novels. Another statistically significant difference was in Reading Treatments 3 students who had teachers without reading endorsements had higher language arts levels. This research was conducted to better inform educational leaders in best practices when determining secondary intensive reading curriculum.

The purpose of this qualitative critical discourse analysis study was to determine if there was a benefit to using a young adult adaptation of a canonical piece to increase student comprehension in the 9th grade English-Language Arts classroom. The use of young adult literature in the secondary classroom is a prevalent topic that continues to circulate amongst educators and researchers. This research study addresses how canonical literature is far removed from the current set of twenty-first century students and its disconnect in the classroom. This study sought to discover student thoughts and perceptions on a specific set of text pairings to answer the research question: How, if at all, does young adult literature better inform canonical literature in the 9th grade English-Language Arts classroom. This qualitative study uses critical discourse analysis methods to examine four students' written and verbal transactions through the use of a pre-survey, Google Forms "Quiz", a Zoom interview, and a post survey as a means for critical interpretation. Using critical discourse analysis the researcher identified themes that reflected the following results: students identified with the young adult text because they can relate to the character's struggles and current events, colloquial and neologisms were used to convey understanding, and participant's silences expressed confidence, even when their words did not. Student's through their own narratives have indicated that there is a benefit and need to use, a more culturally relevant young adult literature adaptation alongside a canonical piece to increase student understanding in the high school setting.

Teachers are confronted with many obstacles when learning to be the best teacher they can for their students. Teachers face challenges such as working with introverted students, developing activities that are fruitful and sustainable for varying students, and keeping students all focused on the goal of learning (Tasgin & Tunc, 2018). However, the authenticity of an instructor, while being researched in college and counseling settings, has not been sufficiently examined in high school settings. The authenticity of the instructor is a motivating factor for students at the college level (Kreber & Klampfleitner, 2013; Kreber & Klampfleitner, 2012; Kreber et al., 2010; Ramezanzadeh et al., 2016a, 2016b). Therefore, this mixed-methods study aims to explore secondary teacher authenticity, specifically inside high school classrooms (Bayir-Toper et al., 2020; Kreber & Klampfleitner, 2013; Kreber & Klampfleitner, 2012; Kreber et al., 2010; Ramezanzadeh et al., 2016a, 2016b). Surveys will be administered to teachers, select teachers will be interviewed, and thematic analysis will be conducted.

This exploratory case study was conducted in order to determine what themes, if at all, emerged from the analysis of multimodal, graphic novel panels adapted from primary texts. While research has been conducted in understanding the academic validity of graphic novels, as well as how visual analysis abilities can lend themselves to the further understanding of grammar, space, and hierarchy of elements of graphic novels, there exists a gap in how situating the meaning-making readers generate in an analysis of adapted graphic novels. This research study addresses how adolescent learners utilize language after exposure to visual grammar terminology and concepts, and what roles are adopted by the adolescent learner in their understanding of the multimodal images. This case study relies on pattern matching to examine what roles under the Expanded Four Resource Model were utilized, both prior and after applying visual framework on graphic novel panels. This study utilized an educational unit, along with an interview, in order to collect data. This research is significant because it provides an exploration of comparison to processes similar to purely textual reading, the concepts readers understood has presence within multimodal images, and how dominance-based thinking presented itself within many explanations of visuals.

Public school districts in Florida are required by law to cooperate with local law enforcement agencies to establish and assign one or more safe-school officers at each public school. Public school principals assume a significant role in the implementation of state policy measures and are responsible for providing safe school climates for students and staff (Coburn, 2005; Gawlik, 2015). However, principals' perceptions inform their individual interpretation of state policy measures, influencing the implementation process (Reid, 2017). This study utilized a cross-sectional survey to measure principals' perceptions of safe-school officers and their effect on facilitating safe school climates for students in public schools. The results of the study indicate there are statistically significant differences between principals' perceptions of safe school officers, in regards to principals who utilize formalized school-based policies or written documents outlining the role, responsibilities, and expectations of safe-school officers. The results also revealed statistically significant median differences between principals' opinions regarding the influence school resource officers and school safety officers have on engendering a safe school climate and the role and function of these officers. This study could generate insight into the perceived impact and limitations of new school safety provisions implemented to enhance school safety for students in Florida public schools.

Learning calculus concepts plays a huge role in understanding phenomena in STEM-related disciplines. Those concepts tend to be dynamic in nature, and the visual exploration and representation of calculus concepts using paper and pencil is limited compared to pedagogically and intentionally using dynamic geometry software. As such, a primary component of this dissertation study involves the integration of dynamic technology. Additionally, previous studies have shown that students have difficulties constructing proofs related to calculus concepts. Despite the existing body of research on students' comprehension of proof and justification, there has not been much focus on teachers' knowledge and perception of proof and justification in connection to the ways that prospective secondary teachers can teach and learn calculus concepts. This study uses a qualitative methodology to investigate the ways in which integrating technology could help both in-service and pre-service secondary teachers gain a deeper understanding of the process of proof. Through a multiple case study approach, research participants were engaged with different mathematical tasks to explore geometric series and subsequently construct and prove conjectures through the integration of dynamic technology. This study showed that dynamic geometry software could help teachers to appreciate the value of visual representation in teaching and learning mathematics. Those technological pieces helped them with exploring different ideas, which is crucial in the process of proving. However, a lack of experience both with visual representations and constructing conjectures held participants back from using their full potential. When it comes to mathematical proofs in school mathematics, it should be considered as a process of exploring ideas, making conjectures, and checking the validity of those conjectures and not a single notion and visual representations - specifically dynamic ones that are created by technology – play a huge role in deepening teachers understanding of the process through their connection with key ideas.

This dissertation study used multinomial logistic and ordinary least squares regression models to investigate to what extent students' mathematical sense of belonging predicted their participation and persistence in their mathematical college and career coursework. Mathematical participation and persistence were operationally defined as courses completed in high school and postsecondary, undergraduate mathematics college and careers credits. Framed on extant research regarding equitable mathematics of education and various learning theories, this study offers mathematics domain-specific statistical analyses of belongingness based on Mahar and colleagues' (2012) five transdisciplinary themes of belongingness. Data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS:09) were used for analyses. First, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to create a mathematical belongingness construct. Then resulting mathematical belongingness subscales, a criterion-referenced mathematics assessment, and demographic variables were analyzed to find statistically significant predictors of students' participation and persistence in the high school mathematics pipeline and in postsecondary undergraduate, mathematics credit hours. Predictors varied in statistical significance within and between the generated models. However, one theme of the transdisciplinary belongingness subscale in the EFA, subjectivity/mathematics identity, was the only affective variable which was statistically significant in each model generated. Interpretations of these results suggest this study be used as support for the field to begin empirically defining and refining conceptions of mathematics-specific belongingness. Implications for research and practice with respect to mathematics identity are shared.