This study examined exceptional student educators’ (ESE) personal practical theories (PPTs) and how they impact complex decision-making when it comes to students with disabilities and their families. A case study methodology was selected to explore how four ESE teachers and leaders developed their PPTs as well as how they planned, interacted, and reflected upon decisions made during one workweek. The guiding questions of this study were: what are the PPTs of ESE leaders and teachers, what factors influence the development of PPTs, and how do PPTs impact special educators’ work with students with disabilities? To address these questions, four participants were selected based on their role within the district, their experiences working with students with disabilities, and their reputation for being high quality educators. Data were collected using a PPT workbook as well as in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The results of this study included five PPTs for each participant and eight common themes. These themes included: care for students and families, safety of students, administration and teacher professional development, ensuring high expectations for students, personal and professional advocacy, mentoring and collaboration, reflection and problem solving, and problems with inclusion. These results are presented in this dissertation in support of an argument for the need for increased pre-service and in-service for ESE educators, increased professional development for administrators, and increased training for inclusion teachers working with students with disabilities. Engaging in a practice of exploring and refining teacher and leader beliefs and assumptions using the PPT process may increase the reflective practice of teachers and perhaps result in a more appropriate form of evaluation for educators.

This thesis examined the impact of teacher quality and the socioeconomic status of students on school performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Test. The data were obtained from the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) 2005-2006 Report. Disparities in education were used to examine the use of teacher quality in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A multiple regression model was used and included other factors such as socioeconomic status of students, teacher salary, school funding, and student-teacher ratio. Using an ordinary least squares regression, I found that socioeconomic status of students had the most significant impact school performance. Two other variables, teacher salary and student-teacher ratio, had a significant effect on school performance suggesting alternative means of eliminating inequality in education.

This thesis identifies what disability resources are currently accessible and needed by the educator in order to service the disabled student in the classroom. It is a compilation of medical, academic, financial and equipment resources currently available to the educator.

The purpose of this study was to present and analyze the political implications and the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act and its effects on English language learners.

In this thesis I explore the rhetoric behind the assessment push nation-wide and, particularly, in California. I take a close look at what politicians, educators, and citizens say about public education and their views of the current educational reform: whether they are speaking in support of or opposition to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. I look specifically at the finances of public education in California, the impact and current outcome of NCLB, and propose new reforms as suggested by those intimately involved in education.

Due to the increasing number of rural-to-urban migration of middle-aged labors, some of the migrants’ children were left behind in the rural areas with one parent, grandparents, siblings or other relatives, however, some others migrated to the urban areas with one or both parents. To the left-behind children and migrant children in school age, there are different barriers and facilitators in rural and urban areas for their academic performance. This study is a systematic review with the aim of describing the academic performance in China for left-behind children in rural areas and migrant children in urban areas between the ages of six to eighteen. This systematic review was conducted by using four databases with an inclusion and exclusion criteria designed in advance. Articles on left-behind and migrant children were searched separately. 97 articles on left-behind children and 184 on migrant children were identified at first. 6 articles on left-behind children and 19 on migrant children were identified after abstract and title screening. Eventually, 8 articles in total were included into this study after the full text screening process. The results showed that, there are a number of barriers for academic performance of left-behind children, for example, the poor quality of school and the absence of mother. And for migrant children, there are more facilitators for academic performance comparing to left-behind children, for instance, they are more likely to have adequate support from parents. The limitations, further researches and practical implementations were also discussed in this study.

This qualitative multiple-case study sought to provide an in-depth understanding of how children living in broken families-due to the wrongful conviction of parent(s)-developed psychosocial issues. The theoretical frameworks applied to this study were the social learning theory, the social control theory, the role-modeling theory, and the general theory of crime. A purposeful sample of 13 adults who were children at the time of their parents’ wrongful incarceration were drawn for phone and in-person interviews. The data were transcribed and analyzed to code, sort, and organize; to analyze connections in the information, and to compare and contrast cases. The multiple-case study data were analyzed using 1st and 2nd cycle coding. Among the 10 themes identified in this study were these 5: family structure and activities, behavioral issues associated with the wrongful conviction of their parents, wrongful conviction effects on education, mental health impacts of a parental wrongful conviction on left-behind children and bullying in school and at home. This implications for positive social change are that the findings raise awareness of the psychosocial issues experienced by children whose parent(s) were wrongfully imprisoned for government officials, community leaders, policymakers, and justice reform advocates who can use them to implement programs to provide psychosocial assistance to all children of incarcerated parents.

The enactment of the NCLB Act of 2001 and its legislative mandates for accountability testing throughout the nation brought to the forefront the issue of data-driven decision making. This emphasis on improving education has been spurred due to the alleged failure of the public school system. As a result, the role of administrators has evolved to incorporate data-driven decision-making practices to help make educational choices. While the underlying assumption of implementing data-driven decision making is that it will lead to improvements in education, this has yet to be empirically proven. The purpose of the study was to analyze the relationships among school characteristics, principals' level of experience, principals' data-driven decision making practices, and student achievement. This census study addressed principals of k-5 public elementary schools. In this quantitative study, a web-based survey was used to measure principals' data-driven ion-making practices. The student achievement data examined were the California Standards Test results for English language arts and mathematics for the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 school years. Through a series of multiple regression analyses, the study examined the relationships among school characteristics, principals' level of experience, principals' data-driven decision making practices, and student achievement. Specifically. this study explored the amount of variance in student achievement scores in language arts and mathematics that could be explained by school characteristics, principals' level of experience, and data-driven decision-making practices. The results showed principals are incorporating data-driven decision-making practices in k-5 public elementary schools in California. In addition, the results showed that principals believe the quality of their decision making has improved due to implementing data-driven decision making. Principals indicated they were incorporating practices identified in the four constructs used in the present study: (a) establishing a data-driven culture, (b) data-driven decision making by teachers to improve student achievement, (c) supporting systems for DDDM, and (d) collaboration among teachers using data-driven decision making. A strong negative correlation was found between the number of students on free and reduced lunch and student achievement.

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