This work expanded on previous research on school effectiveness by developing and testing hypotheses about the specific relationships between school characteristics---including aggregated student and classroom characteristics---and student academic performance. The work used data from the "Early Childhood Transitions Project," a study of intensive social and educational services in a suburban school system, to identify and test the effect of a limited set of school-level characteristics on test score gains made by individual students on the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) between the second and third grade. The analyses found that there are differences in the size of schools, the percent of low performing students, and the percent of students who are non-English speaking across the schools in the sample. Test score gains are affected by concentrations of these types of students at the schools. Students at schools in this sample with high concentrations of non-English speaking students or high concentrations of Hispanic students achieve lower test score gains than students in other schools. Another "concentration effect" emerged from the analysis of high-performing students in the sample. In particular, female students with high scores on the second grade MAT who are in schools with large concentrations of students who perform poorly on the second grade exam have smaller third grade test score gains than similar students who are in schools without a concentration of low performing students. These results suggest that more attention be paid to the influence that the characteristics of the student population have on the school's ability to implement the curriculum. As a first step, researchers may want to simply document the differences in the educational characteristics of students entering schools. This would provide evidence of the segregation that occurs across schools. Researchers may then want to conceptualize students within schools in terms of their homogeneity on demographic measures and their homogeneity on educational characteristics. This "educational minority or majority" concept may bring researchers closer to understanding the school environment, as it is organized by schools and experienced by children. / Ph. D.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has implemented the Standards of Learning which are designed to ensure that students meet certain benchmarks at various points in their elementary and secondary educational careers. President George W. Busch signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which is intended to ensure that all children succeed academically. Each of these mandates incorporates levels of accountability to which school administrators, especially the superintendent, must adhere. Recent studies indicate that the expectations for today's superintendent demand greater accountability and that the current systems, known as the standards movement, undermine the authority of the superintendency (Guthrie, 2003). These factors, according to Guthrie (2003), lead to a shortage in the profession (Guthrie, 2003). Research indicates that the average superintendent's tenure is six to seven years (Natkin, et al., 2002), that there is a national shortage of superintendent applicants (Cooper, et al., 2000), and that the quality of the applicant pool is diminishing (Glass, 2001). This study examines two independent variables, the Standards of Learning (SOL) and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), to determine the effect these variables have on the tenure of school superintendents in Virginia. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between the increased accountability with state and federal mandates, in particular Standards of Learning (SOLs), No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and other influences on superintendent tenure in the Commonwealth of Virginia. A survey instrument was utilized to answer the following questions: (1) What is the relationship, if any, between the Standards of Learning and the superintendent tenure? (2) What is the relationship, if any, between the No Child Left Behind Act and the tenure of the superintendent? (3) What is the relationship, if any, of other influences on the superintendent tenure? The data received from superintendents in Virginia was entered into SPSS and disaggregated by age, gender, race, years of experience as superintendent, number of years as superintendent in current district, enrollment, Adequate Yearly Progress status, and number of schools in respondent's district. The findings of this study revealed that of the superintendents who responded, 95% believe that the SOLs have had a positive impact on education in Virginia. Superintendents indicated that the SOLs are not a factor in their tenure as evidenced by 94% of the superintendents who revealed that they have not considered leaving the profession as a result of the SOLs. This study also revealed that superintendents in Virginia, 71% responding to the survey, believe that NCLB has not had a positive impact on education in Virginia. However, NCLB does not factor into superintendents' decisions to leave the profession or retire. In addition, other influences regarding superintendent tenure were revealed. This study revealed that local politics, evening responsibilities, pressure by the community to meet accreditation standards are not factors that affect superintendent tenure. However, superintendents indicated that interactions with the School Board could have an adverse affect on their tenure in the district as evidenced by 96% of the respondents. / Ed. D.

A sample of aberrant self-promoters (ASPs) was identified through their pattern of answers on a 179-item questionnaire. A group of comparison participants who did not exhibit the ASP pattern was also identified. The participants viewed a videotape of a lecture and rated the lecturer's performance. Half of the participants were told that they were required to provide face-to-face feedback to the lecturer (the accountability condition); the other half were not given these instructions (non-accountability condition). Also, half of the participants were told that there may be an opportunity for them to appear on a training video for graduate student instructors (opportunity for personal recognition condition); the other half were not told of this opportunity (no opportunity condition). This study attempted to identify the roles of aberrant self-promotion, accountability, and opportunity for personal recognition in rater accuracy and rater leniency. / Master of Science

No description available.

Numerous school effectiveness studies have utilized least squares regression techniques to produce school effectiveness indices despite the fact that they are subject to serious sampling fluctuations when sample sizes are small. If the sample size is smaller than normally thought adequate for accurate prediction a larger sample can be analyzed by pooling students from similar programs from different schools. Even though the regression weights for similar programs should be similar across schools, direct pooling of students may be less than satisfactory. A technique such as Bayesian m-group regression can be used that will incorporate both the similarity of the regressions across schools as well as the uniqueness of the individual programs. This study empirically examines the predictive efficiency of four regression techniques that utilize individual student data as input. Cross-validation analyses were performed and mean squared errors, mean absolute errors, and correlations between observed and predicted scores were compared for four methods: (1) within-school least squares regression, (2) pooled least squares regression, (3) pooled least squares regression with adjusted alphas, and (4) Bayesian m-group regression with identical regression coefficients. In addition, school effectiveness indices were obtained for the four regression techniques as well as least squares regression using school means and mean difference scores. These effectiveness indices were compared, and the stability of these indices across random samples of students, and across consecutive classes examined. The within-school least squares regression method was found to be somewhat inferior to the other three models in terms of predictive efficiency. The Bayesian m-group equal slope model showed no appreciable advantage over the pooled least squares regression model or the pooled least squares regression model with adjusted alphas. The indices produced by all six methods appear to be capable of representing the relative effectiveness of the schools involved in the study. In addition, those indices that moderate the importance of extreme values remained relatively stable from one subsample to another with correlations ranging from .75 to .85. Stability from class to class were of a much lower magnitude than those values reflecting stability from sample to sample. Correlations between school effectiveness indices of consecutive classes ranged from .28 to .47. / Ph. D.

Yes / Team-based Learning (TBL) is a new teaching strategy that may take small group learning to a new level of effectiveness. TBL shifts the focus from content delivery by teachers to the application of course content by student teams. Teams work on authentic problems, make collaborative decisions, and develop problem-solving skills required in their future workplace. Prior to redesigning the MPharm programme according to TBL principles, several pilots were set up to research how students responded to this new way of teaching. One pilot focussed on the introduction of TBL as a phenomena and aimed to find out if and how TBL engaged students, how students were held accountable by their teams, and more importantly how that affected their lifeworld. Ashworth’s lifeworld contingencies provided the theoretical framework as it ranges from students’ selfhood, embodiment and social interactions to their ability to carry out tasks they are committed to and regard as essential (Ashworth, 2003).

Value-added models (VAMs) have become widely used in evaluating teacher accountability. The use of these models for high-stakes decisions making has been very controversial due to lack of consistency in classifying teachers as high performing or low performing. There is an abundance of research on the impact of various student level covariates on teacher value-added scores; however, less is known about the impact of teacher-level and school-level covariates. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine the impact of including teacher characteristics, school characteristics, and student demographics aggregated at the school level on elementary mathematics and reading teacher value-added scores. Data for this study was collected from a large school district in north Texas. This study found that across all VAMs fitted, 32% of mathematics teachers and 37% of reading teachers changed quintile ranking for their value-added score at least once across all VAMs, while 55% and 65% of schools changed their quintile ranking of value-added scores based on mathematics and reading achievement, respectively. The results show that failing to control for aggregated student demographics has a large impact on both teacher level and school level value-added scores. Policymakers and administrators using VAM estimates in high-stakes decision-making should include teacher- and school-level covariates in their VAMs.

Accreditation is a federally recognized review process of quality assurance in higher education and is intended to engage institutions in continuous efforts to improve quality. If a college does not receive a positive evaluation as a result of an accreditation review, its regional accrediting agency may impose a sanction until that time when the college can fix deficiencies identified during the evaluation process. In California, the number of public community colleges having a sanction imposed by the western region’s Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) has increased since the turn of the century, rising from one college on sanction in 2003 to as many as 27 colleges on sanction in 2012. From 2008 through 2013, 70 of California’s 112 community colleges had experienced a sanction. Of those, 49 made recommended improvements and had their accreditation reaffirmed within two years. However, some colleges take longer to make improvements and to have the sanction lifted. Focusing on colleges that successfully removed a sanction, this study employed a qualitative research approach using multiple methods: a survey questionnaire and a multiple case study of two colleges. Accreditation Liaison Officers from eight colleges responded to the survey. Two colleges participated in the multiple case study in which administrators, managers, faculty, and classified staff were interviewed. Survey and interview participants were asked what they believed were the organizational behaviors and characteristics that contributed to their successful removal of the sanction. Findings indicate that successful colleges did not delay responding to the sanction; they organized human resources into work groups to accomplish tasks; they mapped out plans and created timelines for completion; they increased communication efforts across campus; they involved many persons from their multiple constituent groups; and they documented all work and accomplishments. Findings also indicate that leaders at successful colleges are effective communicators and organizers; value the accreditation process; exhibit trust, respect, and openness, and work collaboratively and collegially. The findings in this study may provide helpful information to sanctioned colleges in the future. / text

Essa dissertação tem dois objetivos. O primeiro é fazer uma genealogia da mais popular concepção de representação na ciência política: a do accountability eleitoral. A teoria do accountability eleitoral é um produto da reflexão teórica e normativa da ciência política de meados do século XX em diante, especialmente de duas literaturas. Uma é a de congruência ou responsividade, que adota a congruência entre as preferências por políticas ou a ideologia do representante e aquelas do representado como ideal normativo. A outra é a do voto retrospectivo, que encontra sua versão mais sofisticada nos modelos de agência política. Para essa literatura, normativamente atraente é a seleção de representantes competentes, que entreguem bons resultados. Ambas especificam a relação entre eleições e representação: por meio das eleições, o representado consegue fazer o representante lhe entregar o que ele quer. A primeira parte do trabalho reconstrói a trajetória dessas duas literaturas, ressaltando seus impasses. O principal desses impasses envolve a bem documentada desinformação do eleitor: como eleitores desinformados podem controlar seus representantes? O segundo objetivo é avaliar a teoria do accountability eleitoral à luz das evidências empíricas pertinentes. Para tanto, o trabalho investiga as evidências sobre o problema da desinformação do eleitor, e de sua competência em geral. O saldo das evidências recomenda ceticismo a respeito do accountability eleitoral. Diante disso, o que podemos então esperar da representação política? O trabalho sugere que um caminho é inverter a perspectiva do accountability eleitoral e enxergar a representação política como uma relação em que o representante é quem mobiliza, de cima para baixo, o representado. O apoio político do representado é um recurso que o representante tenta angariar para perseguir seus próprios objetivos políticos. Esse pode ser um caminho para reconciliar a teoria da representação com o fenômeno da liderança política. / This thesis has two goals. The first one is to put together a genealogy of the most popular conception of representation in political science: that of electoral accountability. The theory of electoral accountability is a product of theoretical and normative reflection of political science from mid-20th century on, and especially of two different literatures. One is the literature on policy congruence or policy responsiveness, which takes congruence between the representatives and the constituents policy preferences or ideology as a normative ideal. The other one is the retrospective voting literature, which finds its most sophisticated version in political agency models. For this literature, what is normatively appealing is the selection of competent representatives, who are able to deliver good results. Both literatures specify the connection between elections and representation: through elections, constituents can get representatives to deliver what they want. The first part of this work retells these literatures trajectories, point out their impasses. The main one regards voters well documented lack of information: how can uninformed voters control their representatives? This works second aim is to assess the theory of electoral accountability in light of the pertinent empirical evidence. In order to do so, the work investigates the evidence on the problem of voters lack of information and voter competence in general. The balance of the evidence suggests skepticism towards electoral accountability. Given this, what can we expect from political representation? The thesis suggests that a possible path is to reverse the point of view of electoral accountability and see political representation as a top-down relationship in which representatives mobilize constituents. Constituents political support is a resource that representatives try to gather in order to pursue their own political objectives. This can be a way to reconcile the theory of representation with the phenomenon of political leadership.

O objetivo central desta tese é desenvolver a análise de três bancos centrais e seu desenho institucional para o exercício do poder monetário. O estudo visa a analisar mecanismos de hard law (estabelecido por tratados, constituições ou leis) destinados à accountability política e social de três bancos centrais: Banco Central do Brasil (Bacen), Banco Central Europeu (BCE) e Federal Reserve dos Estados Unidos (Fed). Este trabalho também pretende explorar mecanismos de soft law criados por iniciativa de bancos centrais, os quais desempenham papel importante para a sua legitimidade e para sua accountability. Este estudo adota uma abordagem jurídica específica: o direito e a análise jurídica como mecanismos de imaginação institucional em uma democracia política. O direito é concebido como instrumento para a estruturação da accountability política e social da gestão monetária por bancos centrais. Esta tese sustenta que os mecanismos de prestação de contas e responsabilização de autoridades monetárias podem sustentar a legitimidade de suas ações no tempo. As principais hipóteses deste estudo são: (i) os mecanismos de hard law parecem não revelar todos os instrumentos de accountability para os bancos centrais estudados; (ii) apesar de esses mecanismos representarem importante componente de sua moldura jurídica, destinada a assegurar sua prestação de contas e sua responsabilização política e social, instrumentos de soft law têm provocado mudanças institucionais significativas (e de forma mais rápida) na legitimidade e na accountability desses bancos centrais; (iii) o contexto institucional nos quais bancos centrais operam é variável relevante para se pensar sobre o desenho de mecanismos jurídicos de accountability; e (iv) com base nas hipóteses (i) a (iii), este estudo entende que a concepção e o papel do direito nesse domínio precisariam ser repensados e reconstruídos e esta tese apresenta algumas propostas nesse intuito. / The central goal of this dissertation is to develop an analysis of three central banks and their institutional design for the exercise of monetary power. The study aims at analyzing hard law mechanisms (established by treaties, constitutions or statutes) for the political and social accountability of three central banks: Brazilian Central Bank (Bacen), European Central Bank (ECB) and Federal Reserve (Fed). The dissertation also intends to explore the soft law mechanisms created by the central banks themselves, which in some institutions play an important role for their legitimacy and accountability. This study provides a specific legal approach: law as an instrument of institutional design in a political democracy. It conceives law as an instrument for the construction of the monetary policys political and social accountability. This dissertation claims that the mechanisms of accountability can sustain the legitimacy of central banks actions. The hypotheses of this study are: (i) the current hard law framework does not reveal all the mechanisms for political and social accountability for the central banks under study; (ii) while hard law mechanisms still represent an important component of the framework designed to build and ensure political and social accountability, soft law mechanisms are causing more and faster institutional changes in central banks accountability and legitimacy; (iii) the institutional context in which central banks operate is a relevant variable in order to conceive the design of accountability mechanisms; and (iv) building on the findings of (i), (ii) and (iii), the conception and the role of law in this domain have to be rethought and rebuilt and the dissertation presents some proposals in that purpose.