This study examines the relationship of student achievement in mathematics and factors purported to influence such achievement. The factors utilized in the study were selected from those contained in accountability reports issued by the state of Tennessee in 1995-96. The student achievement measures were based on four high school end-of-course mathematics tests. Student performance on these tests is examined both in terms of actual scores and value-added measures. This study organizes the available accountability measures in an Opportunity-to-Learn (OTL) framework for the purpose of determining relationships that can inform practice and give policy guidance. The study examined 65 (of 139) school systems in Tennessee in a research design of correlation and multiple regression analyses. Twenty-three independent variables were organized into three OTL categories (fiscal, educational process, and teacher quality) and an "external factors" category. Eight dependent variables represented actual and value-added results on the four tests. Results revealed a number of significant relationships; there were relatively fewer and weaker relationships involving value-added measures than actual measures of achievement. Conclusions emphasize the need for continued refinement of the accountability and research goals for the state. Specific recommendations are that the number of variables measured be increased and that the focus and specificity of the variables be increased.

This study was designed to investigate teachers' perceptions of the role middle school principals played as instructional leaders in 2 rural schools in southwest Virginia. The 2 middle school participants in the study included only teachers in schools classified Fully Accredited by the accountability standards of the No Child Left Behind for changing the academic status of their schools from Needs Improvement in 2005 to Fully Accredited for 2006 to 2009 inclusive. This study examined teachers' perceptions of the principal's role as an instructional leader for school improvement in changing the status of the schools from Needs Improvement to Fully Accredited. This study examined middle school teachers' perceptions of 3 leadership characteristics middle school principals should possess as an effective instructional leader for school improvement. This qualitative research project examined middle school teachers' perceptions of the impact of school vision, teacher collaboration, and student academic needs for improving student achievement during a school improvement process. This qualitative study gathered information through the use of online surveys, interviews, and summative student achievement scores to determine teacher's perceptions of the effectiveness of their principals as instructional leaders. Results of this study suggested principals should rely on researched-based practices for maintaining and sustaining high student achievement and high teacher expectations for instructional accountability. This study provides useful information for future instructional research on 3 leadership characteristics and their impact on instruction and student achievement.

Contemporary sociological research on second-generation immigrants living in the United States is lined with questions of ethnic inclusion and transnational participation. Many scholars are interested in how the children of immigrants relate to their parents' ethnic identity while being raised in a new land. Noting that the majority of scholars in this field approach ethnic identity within a social constructionist perspective, in this study I explore the ways that identity ambivalence and ethnic belonging are framed. Specifically, I critically question the ways that an ethnic identity is assumed to be valued and asserted in a constructionist model. After presenting a traditional view of the social construction of ethnic identity, primarily from the work of Stephen Cornell and Douglas Hartmann (2007), I draw out ways that self and identity are framed and highlight key assumptions of an uncommitted self and identity as an objective construction. I trace these assumptions through second-generation immigration literature and critically question how individuals can be shown to experience ambivalence or value an identity if they are conceptually framed as selves who stand apart from their ethnic identity constructions. To better appreciate their ambivalence and convincingly illustrate that one identity matters above another, as a claim for ambivalence inherently assumes, I argue that second-generation immigrants must be understood as strong evaluating, moral selves and the ethnic identities they embody as moral narratives which underlie their self-constitution. In advancing this argument, I look outside of sociology to the work of Charles Taylor (1989) and Charles Guignon (2004) who articulate a view of moral, committed selves. Building from these authors' work, I present moral identification as an alternative framework for understanding ethnic identity. In this moral approach, I delineate the concepts of valuation and moral identification and present them in a framework of identity authenticity and social accountability.

There has been a recent trend towards increasing accountability of mental health care providers through the use of treatment outcome measures, in order to reduce spending and improve patient care. This qualitative study utilized focus groups to elicit input regarding the need and possible content involved in creating an improved outcome measure specifically designed for severe emotionally disturbed (SED) children and adolescents. We conducted 60-90 minute focus groups with each of the following three separate constituent groups who are regularly involved in the care of SED youth at the Utah State Hospital (USH), including a) hospital clinical staff, b) affiliated education staff, and c) parents/primary caregivers; as well as clinical staff at a community mental health youth outpatient clinic, the Wasatch Mental Health (WMH) Youth Outpatient Program. While the groups agreed that a new unified system of tracking outcomes could be beneficial as an aid in improving outcomes, their greater concern is about a lack of communication between disciplines and between levels of care. Six broad domains were divided between two sections of Internal versus External Locus of Control (Internal: Behavior, Social/Emotional, Academic/Cognitive, and Strength-Based Assessment; External: Collaboration among Care Providers and Family) and 23 subdomains were generated based on themes identified from the focus groups' responses. We also compared these domains and subdomains to ones previously generated by a USH pilot study and found some overarching similarities, but also some notable differences and both should be considered in any future outcome measure created. However, the most prevalent theme we found was a desire for an increase in collaboration and communication between constituencies and throughout levels of care, which is vitally important to improve care and long-term outcomes of SED youth.

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential for using propensity score-based matching methods to estimate teacher contributions to student learning. Value-added models are increasingly used in teacher accountability systems in the United States in spite of ongoing qualms about the validity of teacher quality estimates resulting from those models. Using a large national dataset, teacher effects were estimated for 435 teachers using both value-added and propensity score-based approaches. The two approaches resulted in teacher effect estimates that were moderately correlated, with propensity score-based estimates more highly correlating with the value-added estimates as the matching ratio was increased. For many teachers' students, finding a set of matched control students was impossible unless the set of matching variables was reduced. Results suggest that many teachers have classroom compositions that are unusual, making evaluation of the teachers' impacts on student outcomes problematic. It was also found that, while value-added estimates were relatively insensitive to covariate inclusion choices or method of effect estimation, propensity score-based estimates were somewhat sensitive. Propensity score-based teacher effect estimates offer promise both for better accounting for classroom composition and student background variables and for indicating when a teacher's context is unique with respect to those variables, making the teacher's impact challenging to evaluate.

The American system of governance includes a network of state and local units identified as either general purpose or special purpose governments. The latter are often aligned with, but operate independently of, general purpose governments. Even as these special purpose or special district governments have shown extraordinary growth relative to their general purpose counterparts, there has been little interest in them or the structural characteristics that distinguish their systems for maintaining order and assuring accountable behaviors. In the meanwhile, the literature regarding accountability has been expanded materially in the last several years leading to debates about its form, component parts, objectives, and the preferred means for achieving accountability as an end state. While these concepts may have application to special districts, inquiry has yet to extend to the particular devices required to monitor or control these governments. This research effort closes the knowledge gap by linking this little studied form of government with recent ideas about accountability and the role that citizen participation plays in developing or advancing accountable behaviors. The analysis applies an adaptation of the well known model developed by Romzek and Dubnick (1987) to create an accountability framework and documents the role that public participation plays in influencing accountable behaviors. The analysis culminates in a multivariate model that examines the role of pubic participation in the context of competing influences that might also force accountable behaviors. The research concludes that participation can be an important influence in shaping specific forms of accountable behavior but that other factors are also essential to sustaining accountability. Most notable among these other factors is the role of the workplace environment, defined here in terns of employee interaction, ethics training, purpose, overall sense of commitment and other attributes.

The issue of high school reform has received national attention during the first part of the 21st century. One idea brought forth in this restructuring effort has been the desire to create high schools with smaller student populations. However, in an era of tight budgets, where resources are not always available to build more schools, educators have explored the possibility of dividing existing large high schools into smaller units. This restructuring approach has many titles, but is frequently referred to as a Smaller Learning Community (SLC). Since 2000, the federal government has pledged $245 million to schools willing to create SLCs. This research has studied the schools in Florida that have received the federal implementation grant and have established SLCs. The 39 Florida high schools that were awarded the federal grant in 2000, 2001, and 2002 served as the population for this study. Twenty schools in the population completed a 45-item survey which measured implementation of five key SLC elements:(a) accountability, (b) autonomy, (c) identity, (d) instructional focus, and (e) personalization. Based on the survey results, an implementation score was determined for each participating school. Based on 5-point Likert scale (with a not applicable option) for the 35 questions that pertained to the five elements, a total score of 175 was the maximum amount possible. Individual responding school scores ranged from 104.7 - 157.1. The overall implementation score was also correlated with selected school indicators. Survey respondents also provided rationale for the implementation of SLCs and perceived benefits to students, teachers, and parents. In general, the survey respondents agreed that SLCs at their schools addressed the five key elements. The implementation scores and teacher comments, however, provided evidence that the levels of implementation of SLCs across the state varied in terms of the elements. Suggestions for future research and educational practices are provided

Student retention has become a serious topic in the past several decades (Wild and Ebbers, 2002). Problematic, however, is how retention is defined and measured, as well as a lack of multi-institutional studies that support a theoretical model for improving student retention, particularly in community colleges (Bailey & Alfonso, 2005). The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) was launched in 2001. Based on extensive research that pertains to student learning and persistence, CCSSE defined five benchmarks of educational practice. Three of the benchmarks comprise the Retention Index. CCSSE has encouraged additional studies to further validate the relatively new survey instrument. Florida's legislature has a keen interest in the performance of educational institutions which are mandated by statute to participate in system-wide data collection from which accountability measures are drawn, including institutional retention rates. Using institutional level data in simple and multiple linear regressions, this study examined the relationship between the Florida Community Colleges' CCSSE Retention Indices and their retention rate(s) measured by the Florida Accountability Measure. Student level data was also analyzed using a Nested ANOVA to examine mean differences in CCSSE Retention Index scores of students from different racial and gender groups when accounting for the possible influence of institution attended.

No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are Federal educational policies that have evoked criticism from teachers and administrators. Both policies extended the federal government’s reach into local education by tying federal funds to a school’s student growth and teacher effectiveness. With an increasing emphasis on economic mechanisms such as choice and competition, teachers’ effectiveness is now determined by standardized and quantifiable measurements. These policies have created a data driven and high stakes accountability culture within each school. Teachers are finding themselves in a new balancing act of recording quantifiable yearly progress for all students while trying to work against environmental factors that are out of their control. The rising trend to utilize a “no zero” homework policy under these new pressures merits investigation into its role within teacher culture and these current tensions. The recent call for anthropology to re-enter the classroom as a cultural site allows the researcher to provide context to the fluid relationships that often lead to the reproduction of or resistance against dominant ideology. Using the case study method, this ethnography employs the critical theory framework to examine policy impact on teacher culture and gain an understanding for how and why trends such as the “no zero” homework become a part of school policy. By looking at a “school of choice” and a traditional “feeder middle school,” this thesis gives context to how the local trends illuminate larger cultural shifts

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions that central Florida public high school principals had regarding the Florida School Indicators Report (FSIR) and its usefulness. The FSIR, published by the Florida Education, was designed to be a comprehensive, single source document for parents, lawmakers, and school administrators to compare key performance indicators to similar schools or districts state wide. It provided information on 74 different indicators of school or district performance. A total of 70 public high school principals from 13 central Florida school districts responded to a postal survey and provided their perceptions regarding the importance of indicators in the FSIR, how they used the FSIR at their schools, and what barriers they felt affected the ability of their administrative staffs to collect and analyze data on the FSIR indicators. Eighteen of the 70 principals participated in follow-up telephone interviews. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the postal surveys and interviews revealed the principals perceived FSIR indicators related to Florida's mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as the most important indictors in the FSIR. The indicators FCAT Results and FCAT Writes were ranked first and second respectively in priority by the participating principals. This finding demonstrated the importance that principals placed on the state's high-stakes test. Other categories of FSIR indicators are were also ranked in the findings reported in this study, along with how the principals used the FSIR at their schools. The data collected from the postal survey revealed there was a statistically significant relationship between the priority principals assigned to the FSIR indicators and their ability to collect and analyze data related to them. In addition, survey data allowed development of multiple regression models that could be used to predict the priority principals assigned to several FSIR categories of indicators based on the ability to collect and analyze data. The study findings indicated that principals perceived lack of time for data analysis as the biggest barrier they faced when evaluating the FSIR indicators. After the lack of time, principals rated lack of administrator training in data analysis as the second biggest obstacle to using the FSIR. The findings indicated that principals felt the availability of data and technology were not significant barriers to their staff's ability to conduct data analysis on the FSIR. The conclusions drawn from the study were that central Florida high school principals perceived the results on the state's mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) to be the most important indicators in the FSIR. In addition, the research identified that the lack of time was the single greatest barrier principals encountered when it came to collecting and analyzing data on the FSIR. A lack of training programs in data collection and analysis for administrators was also noted in the findings.