This study evaluates literacy levels of education using senior high school mathematics textbooks. It uses content analysis, the latent approach and the evaluation research design, to study the costs and benefits of literacy instruction. The examination discusses demands for a literate society in the year 2000, estimates the level instruction to changes in student behavior, and correlates exposure with assessed student performance. The study specifically observes the codes and contents of mathematics textbooks adopted for use in Maryland's inner city public high school mathematics programs. It compares levels of literacy exposure in the Special Education, Regular and Honors programs. It evaluates mathematics education benefits and costs based on the students performance on functional mathematics tests; completion of minimum requirements for admission to college; and vocational certification. It compares the applicability of the mathematics to the demands of society in the year 2000.

The purpose of the study was to address the issues regarding professionalization of teachers in regional vocational-technical schools in southeastern Massachusetts. Professionalization was defined as the degree to which teachers participate in organizational decisions. The study was intended to determine the perceptions of vocational teachers, academic teachers, and administrators toward professionalization. The extent to which teachers in eight regional vocational-technical high schools were empowered was also explored. A review of the literature was incorporated into the design of the study. A survey was conducted at the eight schools. Five hundred two teachers and administrators responded (86 percent). The questionnaire measured six dimensions which included: horizontal and vertical communication, teaching behavior, leadership, centralization of influence, empowerment, and satisfaction. The findings indicate that there are many differences between the three groups with regard to the role of teachers in school decisions. Administrators tended to overestimate teacher influence. They rated nine of the fourteen areas higher than teachers. Vocational and academic teacher ratings were similar in nine of fourteen dimensions and categories. Vocational teachers rated four areas higher including teaching behavior and willingness. There is evidence of professionalization in the eight schools. Empowered schools show evidence of strong administrative influence, facilitative leadership, vertical communication and satisfied respondents.

A new plant cultivar, Fast Plants (Brassica rapa), originally developed for research purposes, shows great potential for improving science teaching and learning. The extremely short life cycle and petite size of the material, plus easy classroom maintenance procedures, suggest that Fast Plants may be an important vehicle for changing attitudes toward plants and plant study, and for changing classroom practice. This study has been undertaken to assess the usefulness and effectiveness of Fast Plants to middle and high school science teachers. A group of middle and high school teachers were introduced to Fast Plants at a one-day workshop. 22 of those attending volunteered to use Fast Plants in their classrooms during the subsequent school year. Although teachers were not specifically asked to continue work with Fast Plants after the first year, their use of the innovation was documented through the three years of the study. Teacher response to the material was assessed using questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observation during the three years. The final summative evaluation made at the end of the study indicates that the material was very useful in the classroom and a highly effective teaching tool. Teacher use of Fast Plants increased during the three years, with an expansion both in the numbers of classes in which the innovation was used, and in the ways the material was used. Increases in the time spent on plant study, in student use of live plant material, and in student learning as judged by their teachers were seen. The innovation had a positive effect on both students and teachers.

The pilot study involved ten experimental and ten control mainstreamed special needs students. Three negative behaviors, known as x, y, and z behaviors from the Teacher Questionnaire, were targeted and charted, initially, on No Effect, and then on Effect Charts. Also charted were four rating areas: academic achievement, self-esteem, misdirected learning activities, and negative social behaviors, in a range from one to ten. Both groups were administered the Weinberg Screening Affective Scale Modified Form and the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale. The experimental group were involved with a ten day mini course and workbooks and, later, teacher directed reality testing of the targeted behaviors at three different times over nonconsecutive five day period. Educators should be aware that dissonance manifested in academic dysfunction is the student's attempt to maintain consonance of his or her perceptions of failure. Academic dysfunction is based on Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory and Beck's (1979) cognitive therapy of depression. Academic dysfunction uses positive affect to reduce dysfunction and achieve consonance. Negative affect influences levels of success of middle school students. Academic dysfunction is an educationally related condition based on early childhood experiences of negative feedback by parents and significant others, and relates to the child's and the student's, success in thinking and doing. In the home, this is manifested by an inability to respond to the parent's satisfaction in parent-child relationships. The result is a lowering of self-esteem and the expectation of future failure. The condition continues in the school, manifested by non productive behavior, misdirected learning activities, and/or negative social behaviors. Amelioration is through positive affective teacher interaction with reality testing of student ability in the classroom, and a mini course which offers suggestions for study scheduling, evaluation of current school status and booklets concerned with: understanding the self, self-esteem, peer pressure, stress management, attitude, using imagination, managing time, improving personal skills, and talking about mental health. The assumption is that both home and school contribute to school failure. The school must offer failing students a means for overcoming academic dysfunction.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not components within middle school organizations promote and nurture efforts to implement collegial coaching programs. Three schools were selected on the basis of the following criteria: (1) the schools were middle schools, (2) coaching was in at least its third year of implementation, (3) the coaching concept encompassed a transaction among equals, and (4) the program was not related to staff evaluation. Data was collected at each site through interviews, direct observation and document review. Findings were reported using a cross-case analysis format in which cross case issues and information from the individual cases were dispersed throughout the data presentation in Chapter 4 and the data analysis in Chapter 5. The effects of teaming and common planning time on school climate and the enabling nature of enhanced levels of teacher empowerment were identified as powerful variables which contributed to the successful implementation of coaching programs at each site. Factors such as common planning time, supportive leadership, teacher accountability and empowerment in the areas of curriculum, scheduling, grouping, staff development, and staffing are analyzed. Ultimately the form of coaching in accepted use became much less formalized following the implementation period. As coaching becomes an accepted part of the fabric of the school, its practice becomes much more informal and focuses on the improvement of current instructional techniques. Time and the reluctance of teachers to assume quasi-administrative roles were found to be significant factors in this area. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

American employers are concerned that our schools are continuing to produce an increasing number of graduates who are undereducated, unskilled, and unable to cope with the needs of business in this technological age. Schools are struggling to become accountable and must recognize the problems that affect the performance and success of students in and out of school. This study focuses on the perceptions that secondary school students have of the training they receive for entry-level positions, how it affects their performance, and its relationship to the perceptions/expectations and level of satisfaction of employers in the workplace. A Likert-style rating scale was used to measure the students' and businesses' perceptions of the secondary school training. One hundred eighty-students and twenty-eight businesses participated in the surveys. Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics--frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion, Pearson correlations, cross-tabulations, and chi-squares. Four specific research questions guided the study. The analysis of the data indicated that the majority of students show positive perceptions toward their school training for entry-level positions. However, variables such as gender, grade level, ethnic background, academic achievement, and employment status influenced the perceptions held by students. There was a significant and positive relationship between students' academic achievement and their overall perceptions of their school academic training. A large proportion of the participating businesses showed negative perceptions toward the secondary school training for entry-level positions in the workplace. Variable factors such as in-service training and type of product produced influenced the businesses' perceptions. While businesses were satisfied with some aspects of the school training, the overall majority expressed dissatisfaction with such training and complained about spending thousands of dollars annually for in-service training. Data from the study indicate that indeed there is a mismatch between the training students receive in school and the skills needed for successful entry-level employment. The researcher supports the recommendation offered by both students and businesses that School-Business partnerships are needed for improvement of student training and their success in the workplace.

The NCTM Standards have established new directions for math teaching and learning. The problem of implementation, particularly in urban school systems remains. This study focuses on an urban school system in Western Massachusetts. Of particular interest to the researcher is the lack of success of students in Algebra I. This particular course has traditionally been the pivotal course that determines if a student gets into and remains in the "College Preparatory" sequence. The fact that too many minority and women students are left out of these choices due to lack of mathematics preparation can be traced back to being left out of algebra in high school. What happened to these students? Why were they left out? Why is the failure rate nearly 45 percent in Algebra I in this public school system? Teachers working in the traditional classroom structure of the current school setting are isolated without opportunities to work in cooperation with other teachers. Without a process for sharing ideas and a method to support new teaching strategies, it will not be possible for the vision of the Standards to become a reality. The challenge for a supervisor is to bring the message of the Standards to the secondary mathematics teachers in an urban school system. This study develops and tests a supervision model, based on peer supervision, for the implementation of teaching strategies recommended in the Standards. The findings of this study show that peer supervision can help school systems bring new teaching strategies, like cooperative learning and hands-on activities, into its Algebra I classrooms.

This study was undertaken to discover which determinants led Massachusetts regional vocational technical high school students to choose nontraditional occupations by examining two populations: (a) all of the nontraditional students enrolled in the 26 Massachusetts regional vocational technical schools, of which 19 schools participated, and (b) one of each student's parents or guardians. Two survey instruments were used of which the first 15 items were questions directed to the nontraditional student or the parent/guardian. The last 10 items were reasons that may have led the student to a nontraditional choice, the importance of which were determined by the student and the parent/guardian. All the responses were subjected to a frequency distribution analysis, and the last 10 items were subjected to the chi-square test to determine relationships existing between variables of the student and of the parent/guardian to each of the reasons. The student variables were gender of student, vocational experience of a student's sibling/s, and participation in an exploratory program. The parent/guardian variables were educational level, employment status, and economic status. Findings revealed that the following determinants were important to the nontraditional choice: career opportunity of the program, interest in the subject, and exploratory programs and their teachers. There were significant positive relationships (p = $\leq$.01) between the student variable "Participation in an exploratory program" and the following: "The exploratory program made me interested in the career" and "Teachers in the exploratory program were great." There was only one significant relationship between the parent/guardian variables and their view of the importance of the reasons for the nontraditional choice, and it was a positive relationship (p = $\leq$.05). This variable was "Employment status" and the reason for the choice was "The program seemed easy." Regardless of the employment status of the parent or guardian, most respondents believed the reason was not important to the nontraditional choice. Based on these findings, it was concluded that exploratory programs for all the courses offered by the schools should be presented to every new student and that the teachers of these exploratory programs should be chosen with great care.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Also available in print.