The purpose of this study was to determine differences in online student perception of the quality of instruction between online instructors who did and did not complete faculty training for online instruction. There has been very little research identifying the factors influencing online students perception on quality of instruction, specifically at Florida public institutions. This research is important in establishing if public universities should require some level of training before an instructor can teach online. Experiencing poor quality of instruction can negatively impact an online student academically, which can, in turn, be detrimental to a university’s student retention and graduation rates. This study adds to the current body of research regarding improvement of the quality of instruction in online courses based on the online students perception of faculty and the completion of faculty training for online instruction. The results of this study demonstrated no significant difference overall in student perception of quality of instruction between online instructors who did and did not complete faculty training as measured in courses with five or more student respondents. Additional results revealed that multiple academic colleges demonstrated a significant difference in student perception of quality of instruction. This study also discovered a slight negative effect of online faculty training on other areas of student satisfaction that did not include quality of instruction. Recommendations for future research are provided, including those for the improvement of online faculty training, university policy, and faculty and student preparation for online teaching and learning, respectively. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The Migrant Education Program was enacted by Congress in 1966 as an amendment to the Elementary and Second Education Act of 1965. Today Title 1, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provides funding to states and subsequently to local educational agencies (LEAs) to provide educational programs and services to children of migratory farm workers. These funds are intended to enable these unique children to have access to state standards-based curriculum and to find success on standards-based assessments. This study examined the LEA utilization of funds awarded to the State of Florida under Title 1, Part C, from AY2007-09, identified the specific activities implemented by LEAs to meet the unique educational needs of the migrant students, and analyzed the impact of total student membership, total migrant entitlement, and concentration of migrant students relative to the total LEA student membership on the utilization of the funding. The study demonstrated that the Federal Office of Migrant Education policies and rules promulgated by the State of Florida channel funding away from educational activities for the students to non-academic expenditures. / by Robert W. Murray. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of West Florida, 2006. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 135 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

"The history of the movement to provide a special program of education for low-visioned children is of short duration. The New England Asylum for the Blind, the first school of its kind in America, was established in Boston, in 1832. This school is now the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. At the start, this school tried unsuccessfully to educate a youngster whose vision was poor, by the Braille method. Experience soon taught futility of this, for the youngster that had any vision at used his eyes to read the raised dots instead of his fingers. This spelled doom to the tactile method of teaching youngsters with defective eyesight. In 1912, Mr. Edward E. Allen, the director of Perkins Institution at that time, went abroad and found in Germany and England classes for myopes had been established. He visited a number of the classes in London and found satisfactory results in this method of education. He immediately set about to organize a class upon his return to the United States. The task was greater than he anticipated, but finally in Boston in 1913, in the Abbe May School Annex in Roxbury, the first sight-saving class was opened. The room in which the class was housed was poor, the lighting bad, and the equipment meager. However, the Perkins Institution came to the rescue with some equipment and the class began under the guidance of two capable teachers who has previously taught blind children. They had made a study of the methods used in teaching myopes in Germany and England"--Introduction. / "February, 1950." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts under Plan II." / Advisor: R. L. Goulding, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-47).

"Perhaps few would question Olsen's premise that amiable public relations are essential to the successful building of bridges between school and community life. This study deals with a recent experiment in school-community bridge building- namely, a cooperative curriculum survey that was made in South Broward High School, Broward County, Florida"--Introduction. / "August, 1952." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-62).

"It is the purpose of this study to examine current trends in the production of outdoor music performances in the public schools of the South Florida area with a view toward determining not only the extent of such practices, but the techniques involved. Apparently no study has been published concerning the unique opportunity for outdoor music performances this climate affords, although outdoor programs have long been a part of South Florida's school activities"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Education." / Advisor: Robert L. Briggs, Professor Directing Paper.

The attempts to reform general education programs in higher education have been applied and studied throughout the history of higher education in the United States, but with even greater frequency and urgency over the past fifty years. Countless studies show the high percentage of institutions participating in these efforts and further studies lament the state of general education both as a reason to initiate reforms and as a result of the reforms. This effort is difficult enough for universities, but is further complicated when the curriculum for general education is part of a community college degree program. A grounded theory study was conducted to identify the underlying understanding of general education at one community college as well as the process for implementing and reforming the curriculum, especially the general education curriculum. Members of the curriculum committee as well as other administrators and faculty at the college who have a voice in the curriculum were interviewed and their responses were coded following classic grounded theory methodology. The resulting theory showed a divergence of understanding of general education when speaking about it abstractly and when speaking about the process to change the college’s existing general education program. The abstract understanding of general education is very consistent with the stated purposes of general education and the educational goals of the college. The practical understanding, however, indicates that the work of curriculum reform is compliance with guidelines from legislation and accreditation requirements. Thus, any efforts to establish a model of general education that would be more consistent with the understood purpose of general education that would require modifying the existing structure would meet great iv resistance because of the perceived need to comply with the existing model. Further studies concerning the same issue at other community colleges within the state, as well as the understanding of general education within the university system would contribute to a better understanding of the role of general education at the college and throughout the state system of higher education. The use of grounded theory as a methodology to achieve this reform provides a way to engage everyone involved more openly and to permit the efforts to be far more intentional.

The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the perceptions of several elementary science mentors and their mentees within one school district based on a fivefactor mentoring model. Utilizing a qualitative methodology in the form of a case study, five mentors and three mentees were interviewed using a structured protocol. From verbatim interview data and field notes, three themes pertaining to the role of the mentor within elementary science emerged as emotional support, technical support, and educative support. Within the five-factor mentoring model, personal attributes suggested notions of support and expert status as critical elements for effective mentoring. The factors of system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modeling, and feedback were found to be interrelated amongst themselves and with the factor of personal attributes. Effective mentors demonstrated a commitment to the role as well as a flexibility pertaining to role adjustment depending on the context of the mentoring relationship.

This study examined the action research reports written by teachers in one Florida school district after they had received professional development on differentiated instruction and the action research process in the 2009-2010 school year. The 69 reports that were completed by the teachers were assessed using the Action Research Rubric that was developed for this study. This rubric evaluated whether the reports contained the elements of action research along with the characteristics that the district emphasized as part of the professional development such as differentiation, student subgroups, and collaboration. The Action Research Rubric contained seven subscales: Purpose of the Study, Plan, Professional Collaboration and Resources, Data and Evidence, Results, Instructional Decisions and Professional Reflection, and Sharing Results. Descriptive statistics were found for the aggregate group of reports as well as subgroups depending upon the school level (elementary, middle, or high school), the types of teachers within the elementary category, or the FCAT subject area of focus for the report. Overall, the action research reports met the district‟s standard as measured by the Action Research Rubric. As an aggregate group, the reports also met the standard on the Purpose of the Study, Professional Collaboration and Resource, and Data and Evidence Subscales. They did not perform as well on the Plan and Sharing Results Subscales.

This study examined the impact of involuntary mobility on the academic achievement of tenth grade students in a Central Florida school district. Students of involuntary mobility were selected as the result of new attendance boundaries due to new high school construction. Students were compared against non-mobile peers at schools of like demographics (i.e. poverty level and ethnicity). Mobility status (involuntary or no mobility) was the independent variable. The dependent variable, academic achievement, was measured by students’ tenth grade developmental scale scores in reading and mathematics on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Students’ ninth grade test scores were used as a covariate to control for students’ prior achievement and isolate the impact of mobility. Additional subgroups (minority and poverty) were compared to determine if involuntary mobility had a more significant impact on these groups. Finally, a hierarchical linear regression was used to determine if a model for reading and mathematics could be used to predict future academic performance for students of involuntary mobility. Findings showed consistently there was no statistically significant difference in the achievement performance among groups or subgroups and the subject tests of reading and/or mathematics with one exception. There was a statistically significant difference in mathematics achievement in the all students group when comparing those students of involuntary mobility with students of stability. Students of mobility actually indicated a modest level of higher achievement than non-mobile peers. The hierarchical linear model iv was found to be marginally significant for predicting achievement among involuntary mobility students in the area of mathematics, but not necessarily in reading. Future research recommendations include broadening the research to additional grade-levels. This research only considered the impact of achievement on high school students. Future research should consider similar impact on students at both the elementary and/or middle school levels. Qualitative measures would provide additional information, particularly the perceptions and experiences that stakeholders have throughout the involuntary mobility process. Other at-risk subgroups, particularly those of residential mobility and/or previous retention, provide additional considerations that would add to this body of research. Finally, involuntary mobility as the result of school closings would provide additional insight as this factor often has public negative perceptions.