<p> As a local education agency, school districts play an important role in providing instructional support for teachers and school leaders, making instructional goals, and allocating financial and human capital resources in a rational way to promote overall students&rsquo; learning outcomes. Studies on school districts that look to find reasons or characteristics related to school district success are known as <i>district effectiveness research </i> (DER). Previous quantitative research in DER using longitudinal dataset has assumed that all school district effectiveness (SDE) changes in a common pattern through a traditional ordinary linear regression or a hierarchal linear model while ignoring the probability that there might exist distinct subgroups of school district effectiveness trajectories. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of different SDE trajectories and how school district demographic variables and financial expenditures affect classification of SDE groups using a growth mixture model (GMM) with a national longitudinal dataset containing all public school districts in all 50 states and Washington D.C. from 2009 to 2015 (<i>n</i> = 11,185). The results indicated that (a) there are three different classes of school district effectiveness growth trajectories, which can be named as a constant SDE group (3.66%), a decreasing SDE group (34.16%), and an increasing SDE group (62.18%); (b) school district demographic characteristics such as a percentage of free lunch students and general administration expenditure per pupil are significantly associated with the probability of a school district being classified to a specific group; and (c) the longitudinal effects of school district demographic covariates and financial expenditures within each class such as school district locations (e.g., urban, suburban, etc.) are associated with the growth factors (intercept and slopes) in different ways. </p><p>

<p> Providing students with a free and appropriate education in a safe environment is at the core of education in a democratic society. Discipline issues are of grave concern in American schools today. Carver and Lewis (2010) in a 2007-2008 study commissioned by the United States Department of Education revealed that 64% of school districts had at least one alternative setting for at-risk students that was administered either by the district or by another entity. Consequently, the question remains: Does a relationship exist between key demographics and specific communities with placement in an alternative setting? If so, to what degree? In order to better understand alternative settings for at-risk students, the relationships between gender, grade, race, SPED status, socioeconomic status and specific communities will be examined. This study can be of great value to school systems and education officials in their search to provide at-risk students with adequate support to ensure educational success. For example, if results suggest that key demographics and specific communities may impact placement in an alternative program, this discovery could result in early identification of the specific needs of students more likely to require alternative education placement.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation is a mixed-method study that includes research on how school administrators perceive the effectiveness of their district walk-through instrument and their walk-through process as they pertain to helping teachers improve in instruction and prepare for their formal observations. The Louisiana Department of Education's desire for an increase in student achievement and classroom instruction led to the phasing in of the Common Core State Standards and Louisiana's Comprehensive Performance Management System (Compass) in the 2012-13 school year. Louisiana, just like Tennessee, Texas, Florida, and other states, chose to use a value-added assessment system to evaluate teachers and measure student progress. Louisiana's Compass, a value-added model, is developed to use student achievement data to make decisions about student learning, school status, and teacher effectiveness. In order for teachers to meet the expectations of Compass, they need immediate support from school leadership. One support strategy to get teachers prepared for their Compass Evaluations is for principals to frequently conduct walk-through observations. &ldquo;According to the Center of Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, a classroom walk-through is defined as a brief, structured, non-evaluative classroom observation by a principal that is followed by a conversation between the principal and the teacher about what was observed&rdquo; (Moersch, 2013, p. 3). Value-Added Measure (VAM) is accompanied by great accolades as well as harsh criticism. Whether researchers are in favor or against VAM, 234 stronger accountability is here to stay, and school administrators must help teachers to be successful in the classroom, thus be successful on their evaluations.</p><p>

<p> The ability to think critically and complexly amid novel experiences that require self- and other-awareness is something that leaders in an array of social institutions seek to develop in their communities. Global and Diversity Learning (GDL) practices, one category of high impact practices (Kuh, 2008), aim to increase students&rsquo; awareness of self and others and imbue critical thinking skills that will help students see how their own background and experiences interact with those of peers. This study aims to understand the relationship of four GDL practices (education abroad, multicultural programming, intercultural living-learning communities, and global studies coursework) to desired learning outcomes. Through completing ANCOVAs and multiple regression analyses on an existing dataset of GDL participants, this study demonstrates the influence of gender, socio-economic status, and citizenship within GDL practice types. The study findings also reveal significant differences between group members&rsquo; other awareness and critical thinking capacity. Understanding how different GDL practice types affect capacity development will allow university leadership to direct collaboration between departments and align programming, to allocate resources more effectively, and communicate potential outcomes based on empirical data.</p><p>

<p> The workshop method of teaching in English Language Arts classrooms allowed teachers to be student-centered. Through the method, teachers taught for a specific amount of time and focused on one skill. Students always received independent reading time during the class period. In this mixed-methods study, the researcher investigated the use of the workshop method of teaching and growth in Lexile scores with middle school students. The study began January 2017 and took place in a suburban school district encompassing three middle schools. Thirteen middle school English Language Arts teachers chose to participate and 1,180 student scores were analyzed. The researcher utilized a teacher questionnaire to examine teacher confidence and knowledge of workshop teaching and SRI assessments, to gain the users&rsquo; perspective of the two variables examined in this study. Implementation was checked through the use of a classroom observation checklist, completed on each teacher twice, to ensure proper workshop teaching methods were taking place. Also, teachers answered a survey question determining how often they taught using the workshop method of teaching. Through qualitative data, the researcher found teachers positively regarded the workshop method of teaching; however, most teachers were not using all of the components of the workshop method of teaching in the classroom when observed. The quantitative data showed SRI student growth in every classroom. There was no significant difference between teachers who reported using the workshop method five days a week and those who reported using the method less than five days a week. The researcher recommends adding professional development for each teacher through book studies which will allow a focus on the individual needs of each educator. After the professional development occurs, a new study should take place for a longer duration of time and include more observations with teacher reflections.</p><p>

<p> The traditional face-to-face classroom is slowly losing its place in education as online learning becomes increasingly popular. With the growth of online learning, it falls to educators, administrators, and researchers to ensure students enrolled in online courses are being given an education equal to students enrolled in face-to-face courses. Beyond ensuring the students in online courses perform the same as their peers in traditional courses, students across all delivery systems need to be engaged. In this study, the effectiveness and perceived engagement of students between online and face-to-face courses were examined comparing outcomes, attendance, and withdrawal rates; and perceptions of engagement from the view of students and faculty. From the results, there was no significant difference in outcomes between online and face-to-face courses. There was a difference in withdrawal and attendance rates between online and face-to-face courses, and students indicated adequate engagement in online courses, but still showed a preference for face-to-face courses when available. Faculty members felt better able to engage with students in face-to-face courses, and some tools (discussion boards and social media) did not aid in meaningful engagement. Online learning cannot be considered a trend, and students in online course perform at least as well as students in face-to-face courses. As students become increasingly more comfortable with online learning, it is incumbent upon educators to find a path to meaningful online student engagement.</p><p>

<p> Although research is limited on the effectiveness of co-teaching as a service delivery model for students with disabilities, through observation, many educators have reported positive outcomes with co-teaching (Beninghof, 2011). This case study was designed to examine the implementation of co-teaching in an elementary magnet school in a Midwestern school district driven by science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) and with a strong emphasis on personalized learning. General education teachers, special education teachers, and administrators were interviewed three times during the initial implementation school year. In addition, journaling was documented by three of the participants, and co-teaching fidelity checks were completed by the school district&rsquo;s Executive Director of Special Services. After information was gathered and analyzed, it was discovered both students with and without disabilities benefit from co-teaching as a service delivery model. It was also noted there are similarities between the benefits and challenges in a traditional co-taught classroom and a co-taught class in a STEAM elementary school with an emphasis on personalized learning. The benefits of co-teaching far outweigh the detriments. It was further discovered the success of co-teaching is attributed to the pairing of co-teaching partnerships. Finally, the participants shared the need for special education administrators to play a more active role in professional development and the sustainability of co-teaching.</p><p>

Success in early literacy activities is associated with improved educational outcomes, including reduced dropout risk, in-grade retention, and special education referrals. When considering programs that will work for a particular school and context; cost-effectiveness analysis may provide useful information for decision makers. The study provides information about the cost-effectiveness of four early literacy programs that the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), a government agency that evaluates effectiveness research in education, has determined show evidence of effectiveness: Accelerated Reader, Classwide Peer Tutoring, Reading Recovery, and Success for All. By using meta-analytic techniques to combine effect sizes for different studies and weighting literacy outcomes, the study provides new information about the relative effectiveness of early literacy programs. In particular, by weighting literacy outcomes, the study casts new light upon the relative importance of different kinds of literacy outcomes for creating successful beginning readers. Costs are often ignored, but are a necessary consideration given budget constraints. Rigorous measurement of program costs and presentation of cost-effectiveness ratios provides information about the relative cost-effectiveness of four "effective" programs.

<p> Despite teacher evaluation reforms, there is little evidence of improvements in the quality of teachers&rsquo; performance or in student achievement. This raises questions of principals&rsquo; implementation of teacher evaluations, and how evaluation-related practices are implemented and utilized within schools to meet the dual purposes of evaluations as an accountability measure and to improve teacher performance. Principals&rsquo; implementation of teacher evaluations and using the subsequent data to drive improvement is dependent upon their content and pedagogical knowledge and understanding of and experience with teacher effectiveness, evaluations, and evaluation-related practices. In addition, principals&rsquo; biases and perspectives, framing, experience and ability, training, time, and position influence how they make sense of, analyze, interpret, and integrate evaluations within their buildings. This phenomenological study uses sensemaking theory to uncover charter school leaders&rsquo; authentic experiences as they interpret evaluations as a policy initiative, determine how to balance the accountability component with their existing school goals and instructional values, and how (and if) they use information derived from evaluation rubrics to design and implement professional learning to support teacher performance. Specifically, I ask: <i>What are charter school leaders&rsquo; experiences gathering data to drive teacher evaluation decisions? And What are charter school leaders&rsquo; experiences using teacher evaluation data to facilitate growth in teacher performance?</i> Findings indicate that leaders see promise in evaluations to support teacher growth, yet seek greater autonomy in evaluating teachers due to constrictions of evaluation framework design and of summative reporting. </p><p>

<p> In my study, I examined teacher perceptions of the factors that contribute to or work against the success of African American (Black) students in predominately White independent schools. I asked three questions and two subquestions:</p><p> 1. What do teachers observe across elementary, middle, and high school age groups that they perceive contributes to or works against the success of Black students?</p><p> 1a. How do teachers in a predominately White, independent school define success for their Black students?</p><p> 1b. Do teachers at different grade levels have different perceptions of Black student success?</p><p> 2. Is it possible to develop valid, reliable measure of teacher perceptions of independent school racial climate and Black student coping?</p><p> 3. Does a relationship exist between individual demographic factors of teachers and their perceptions of the success of Black students?</p><p> My study was conducted at three independent schools in New York City. Focus group interviews were conducted at each school with teachers and administrators who had 10 or more years of experience at their schools. Surveys with direct and open-ended questions were distributed to faculty, administrators, and staff of the three schools to explore perceptions of Black student success, racial climate, and Black student coping, and to determine whether a relationship existed among individual demographic factors and teacher perceptions of Black student success. I found four relationships:</p><p> 1. Participants perceived that, regardless of their grade level, Black students in their schools experienced similar forms of implicit and explicit racial bias that negatively affected their success; however, patterns emerged in the participants&rsquo; responses that demonstrated a higher level of concern for their elementary-age Black students compared to the students who entered in middle or high school.</p><p> 2. Participants identified <i>strong sense of self</i> and <i> sense of connection</i> as two core dimensions of success for all of their students, but identified knowing the &ldquo;rules of the private school game&rdquo; and having a strong support <i>network</i> early on as important success factors for Black students.</p><p> 3. It is possible to develop valid and reliable measures of teacher perceptions of racial climate and Black student coping.</p><p> 4. A significant relationship existed among teacher perceptions of Black student success and teachers&rsquo; race, years in current school, years in position, and school level taught.</p>