This qualitative study focused on ten middle school dropouts, and their personal experiences. Ten middle school dropouts were interviewed to examine their personal experiences rather than from the vantage points of teachers and the educated professionals. Two major findings were found: (a) the causes that underlined the subjects actions and (b) methods to rectify the problem. Our technologically advanced society requires many years of schooling for its citizens. The present job market requires students to obtain an education that is equivalent to a high school diploma in order to compete in the work force. The focus of this study as forementioned was to examine the students personal experiences before making a decision to drop out of school. The data was intended to bring about an awareness of the existing dropout problems among teachers and educators. The findings indicate the characteristics and causes of the middle school dropout problem, as well as preventive measures, which revolve around greater flexibility and understanding of the needs of at-risk students in the public school system. Research indicates the need for educators to rethink and restructure the curriculums and teaching methods as well as teacher training to meet the needs of at-risk students. Research further suggests that endeavors be made to counter the dropout problem; and then attempt to prepare students for a successful and productive adult life. According to research the lack of sensitivity and preventive measures among educators have caused widespread dropout problems in public schools. In addition the dropout problem is compounded by teacher-student conflicts as well as tension and humiliation among students. The dropout population accepts unemployment as normal. Furthermore, they treat dropouts as normal, and in many circumstances, even positive. The preventive measures found in this study emphasize (a) small class size, (b) common planning and meeting time for staff, (c) collaboration with at-risk students, (d) a partnership with the outside community resources, and (e) an intimate home/school communication in an attempt to deal effectively with the dropout problem.

This study examined the effects of cross-age tutoring on the reading achievement of thirty second graders and their tutors' levels of performance. Additionally, the study assessed whether the role of tutors raised the academic performance of those younger students in the tutoring program. Participants in the study were academically, economically, and socially deficient. This study involved African American students from an urban public school in an after school tutoring program for two months. The students were paired during the tutoring sessions. They were administered the Morrison-McCall Diagnostic Spelling Scale pretests and posttests. Analysis of variance was used to compare and assess the levels of performance of the tutored and untutored groups. Overall, participants in the cross-age tutoring study produced remarkable gains of mastery in their reading achievement performances. This achievement was determined through the use of the Morrison-McCall Diagnostic Spelling Scale Test, which was administered to all students prior to the beginning of the program and at the end of the tutoring sessions. The results indicated significant gains made by the tutored group of students. Students in the study improved their reading, spelling, writing and comprehension skills. The effects of cross-age tutoring on the achievement level of the tutored group was successful. The posttest findings regarding level of reading improvement were increased. The results were used to make recommendations relative to the efficacy of cross-age tutoring as an instructional strategy for improving and measuring the achievement levels of "underachieving" African American students. Previous findings suggested that cross-age tutoring programs have been a positive choice of intervention for underachieving students in some school districts. As a result of cross-age tutoring, students elevated (independent or in a group setting) their level of academic performances. Thus, the study determined that cross-age tutoring has provided students with the academic tools to "carry over" to the daily mastery of skills at school to enhance accomplishments.

This year-long ethnographic study focuses on six Spanish dominant, English as a second language learners in an English mainstream kindergarten classroom. The study is based on a theoretical framework which views language as the site of social meaning construction and power negotiations (Fairclough, 1989). Four broad research questions address the local meanings of bilingualism, gender, and friendship and how the ideologies, identities, and social relationships relevant to these socially constructed discourses impact language learners. Broad, mid, and micro level analyses are conducted using standard interpretive analytic procedures. Findings are presented regarding the meanings of the local discourses of bilingualism, gender, and friendship and their implications for the English as a second language learners in the study. Findings indicate that: (1) Bilingualism was not highly valued in this setting and provided no status, and possibly reduced status, to the Spanish dominant students within their mainstream English dominant peer group, in spite of the classroom teacher's efforts to the contrary. (2) The children's gender ideology, which emphasized gender segregation and gender differences, limited the children's relationships, participation in whole class events, and interaction with opposite gender peers. Boys dominated public discussions and constructed themselves as superior to girls. (3) Friendship was highly valued among all the children. Friend relationships were less accessible to the Spanish dominant children due to a variety of contextual constraints. As a result they were not always able to claim the high status identity of close friend in the mainstream classroom. (4) The differing identities related to bilingualism, gender, and friendship had differing consequences for the children in the classroom. Implications of the study for second language learners, teachers, institutions, and the field of second language acquisition are presented. It is argued that a focus on effective second language instruction and language acquisition alone are inadequate for understanding and addressing complex learning environments and the needs of language learners. The consequences of the meanings of local discourses and their inherent power dynamics impact students' identities, classroom participation, access to relationships, access to knowledge, and ultimately their investment in school. A critical analysis of local discourses, their power relations, and meanings is suggested as a means of changing classroom practice when both students and teachers are involved in this process.

This critical ethnographic study explores the possibilities and challenges of dialogue across differences within a school-university partnership between a state university and a low-achieving urban elementary school. The focal point of the study is the dialogue (reflection and action) that occurred in a focus group composed of school and university educators, parents, and community members. The study uses “third space” as a metaphor and theoretical lens to illuminate how dialogue complicates understanding through the collision of multiple perspectives, and, in some cases, produces a hybrid consciousness that results in novel action. In addition, the study draws on the postmodern notion of discourses to show how societal discourses permeate the multiple perspectives that constitute “third space.” The findings of this study suggest that creating a time apart from normal routine, positioning participants as learners and co-inquirers, and expecting and valuing different perspectives contribute to a dialogue process and to the building of parity among participants. Moreover, multiple and different viewpoints are crucial for complicating understanding in ways that lead to a hybrid consciousness that has the possibility of creating new agency. This study shows that the potential for hybrid understanding and negotiated agency is diminished when participants draw on primarily middle class discourses. The study concludes that a commitment to issues of social justice must occur at several levels of a partnership: (1) gathering a diverse group of participants whose perspectives are shaped by dominant and non-dominant discourses; (2) posing questions about the school context and teaching/learning practices in relation to sociocultural, political messages; (3) participating in social action that addresses the political and economic factors that produce inequities in schooling.

This dissertation explored the perspectives of mentor teachers, program supervisors and interns in a preservice licensure program in a research-based flagship university in northeast on the roles, influences and preparation of mentor teachers, program supervisors, and peer coaching. Surveys were designed and administered to all 15 program supervisors, 69 mentor teachers and 69 interns in the program (with effective responsive samples of 12, 50 and 52 and responsive rates of 80%, 72% and 75% respectively) to capture a quick snapshot of the samples' descriptive characteristics, such as attitudes, opinions, and preferences towards the three components and to provide additional prompts of inquiry. An interviewing approach was utilized. Totally 24 participants were selected—program coordinator, 8 program supervisors, 7 mentor teachers, and 8 interns. Each participant received two semi-structured in-depth interviews, each of which lasted about 90 minutes. Program documents were collected to reveal the requirements and expectations of the program. Results demonstrated that mentor teachers were the most vital to interns learning to teach; that program supervisors helped interns the most in learning about clinical supervision; and that peer coaching was the most helpful to interns in emotional support. Each role was compared to a unique set of analogies, the utilization of which concretized the descriptions of each role's responsibilities and influences. Each member of the triad was not programmatically prepared for his/her specific role. Based on the issues and concerns emerged from the practice of each component, a rationale and an implication plan of action for the preparation of each role were developed.

These collective case studies highlight the experiences of the preservice teachers, mentor teachers, university facilitators and other participants in three teacher training programs. The meaning that the participants make of their professional development in teaching, alongside the ways in which they describe their experiences as developing professionals, provides the framework for an exploration of what contributions professional development makes to the capacity of teachers and schools to reform. In essence this dissertation is a window into how all the participants who are currently working in a reform active environment are affected, in their practice, in their professional growth, and in their commitment to the profession. Key themes that were extracted from the data include the impact of working in a culture of collegiality; the importance of connectedness between schools and universities, practice and theory; the validity and value of practioners' voices and views on educational renewal and change; and the importance of building understandings of teaching as a learning profession. Prompted by the current standards based reforms and high stakes assessments being implemented in schools and teacher training programs across the country, this dissertation seeks to highlight the importance of teacher agency and ownership across the professional lifespan. It asserts that teachers who assume an inquiry stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) will be best able to meet the current demands of students in classrooms, schools as learning communities and teacher training as preparation for lifelong learning. The data suggests that if the rhetoric of reform that pushes for changes in standards and assessments, new modes of school organization and decision making, and revised curriculum are to become a reality, teachers' professional development across the lifespan from preservice training to lifelong learning needs to become a central focus in the process and implementation of educational change.

While the goal of mathematics education reform is to improve the mathematics achievement of all students (NCTM, 2000), at the core of these efforts is the teacher (Garet, Porter, Desimore, Birman, & Yoon, 2001). Educational change ultimately rests on the teachers who directly impact the students. Teacher leaders with expertise in all the dimensions of mathematics education can provide school-based professional development needed to support and maintain the teacher change process. The focus of this self-study is a critical examination of the influences on my development as an elementary mathematics teacher leader and on the strategies I develop as I coach teachers to improve, and change their practice. "Reciprocal Mathematics Coaching" was designed as a process to promote collaborative, job-embedded professional development. This model provided a means to meet each teacher's individual goals along a professional development continuum. Findings from the study indicate that teacher leader coaching interventions ranged along a continuum from the support of surface features of the curriculum, to co-teaching, and then to critical colleagueship in pursuit of a deeper pedagogy. Expected teacher outcomes occurred, but practice of reform-based instruction would require a longer time frame and the establishment of peer coaching support. My teacher leadership evolved from my approach to visualizing mathematics; elementary subject specialization; experience from teaching special education and regular education; beliefs in personalizing learning for students and teachers; self-reflective practice and practitioner research; and professional empowerment through collegial collaboration. Through "Reciprocal Mathematics Coaching", I came to learn how the pervasiveness of the affective domain impacts teachers even as they choose to improve their practice. Negative memories from their own mathematics education continue to influence their teaching. Formal teacher leadership can facilitate steps toward effective teacher growth and change. The strength of teacher leadership emanates from the nexus of teacher knowledge domains (Hill & Ball, 2004; Shulman, 1986;) situated within a learning community of reflective practice (Senge, 1990; Sergiovanni, 2000).

This study investigated the effects of Picture Rehearsal with and without covert reinforcement on the turn-taking behavior of four children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and placed in a public school. A counterbalanced multiple baseline design across participants was used to examine treatment effects. Data were analyzed using visual analysis and statistical analysis. Visual analysis included an inspection of adjacent phase changes in means, levels, trends, and latency of change. A time-series analysis was used to identify statistically significant trends in the data. Results indicated that the Picture Rehearsal with the covert reinforcement condition was more effective at increasing turn-taking behavior than the Picture Rehearsal without the covert reinforcement condition. These results offer some support for covert conditioning; however, conclusions are limited by a number of factors. Additional research is needed in order to obtain more reliable conclusions.

This study was a test of the relative importance of theory versus facts among six and nine year old children in explaining how something works. In learning science for young children, there is a misconception in understanding of theory and facts. Children learn by reconstructing their misconceptions of theory based on their everyday experience. Their ability was measured by examining the drawing of a pencil sharpener in the act of sharpening a pencil. The research design has four treatments: Treatment 1 (Think), Treatment 2 (See), Treatment 3 (Do) and Treatment 4 (Speak and Do). One hundred and sixty preschoolers and one hundred and sixty third graders were randomly assigned to perform four groups of treatments. The participants in each group of treatments had to explain how the pencil sharpener works by using drawing and words spoken (orally) describing what they see and think. The results of this study were not confirmed, but the ad hoc findings demonstrated that when showing the representation of functional relations of a system, children expressed their understanding better in words than in drawing. However, children are better able to represent the details of objects and the relationship between two objects of a working system by using the medium of drawing rather than the medium of words. These findings also suggest that third graders can make more improvements in representing the details of a working system than preschoolers can.

This qualitative, exploratory case study focused on the design and implementation of a human rights curriculum in a fourth grade, public school classroom. Based on a review of the literature on human rights education, a curriculum incorporating a month long unit, democratic classroom practices, and social action projects was designed and carried out with a group of eighteen, White fourth graders. The study examined students' responses in terms of their thinking about human rights, themselves, and others; their peer relations; and their involvement in social action projects. Data collection methods included participant observation, interviews, audiotaping and videotaping classroom events, and document analysis. Feedback from the students, parents, and teachers in the school helped to establish reliability and confirmability. The major finding of the study was that students' personal experiences, developmental levels, and family and cultural backgrounds strongly influenced their ideas, interests, and subsequent learning about human rights. Most students were able to develop a basic understanding of human rights concepts. Effective teaching techniques were simulations, using children's literature, role play, and action projects. Though the students' peer relations did not change appreciably, most of the students developed a greater interest in human rights issues and learning about different others as a result of the human rights curriculum. The democratic classroom practices and the social action projects gave many students opportunities to become empowered in their own learning. The implications of this study are relevant for teaching at the upper elementary level. It is important for teachers to become aware of children's pre-existing knowledge and attitudes and provide them with with meaningful experiences to build upon or change their thinking. In teaching about human rights and other cultural issues, educators need to be aware of their own biases and teach in ways that reduce rather than increase stereotypes and prejudice. An integrated, comprehensive, and developmentally appropriate approach to human rights instruction will maximize students' learning.