<p> There is little written about the use of foundational courses in high school science. This study seeks to identify if a foundational course in high school biology improves student outcomes as measured by Biology I EOC exam proficiency scale scores and student growth. Efforts were made to determine differences in cognitive skill areas and affective/conative skill areas as students progress from the foundational course of Greenhouse Biology (GH Bio) to Biology I. Three years of test score data from over 15,000 student participants are evaluated, as well as extant survey data from biology teachers and district student scheduling personnel. Findings from the study indicate GH Bio does make a difference in academic outcomes in students taking the foundational course before taking the Biology I course, and subsequently, the Biology I EOC exam. Findings also show there are cognitive, affective, and conative differences between the GH Bio students and their non-GH Bio peers while in Biology I. The study also seeks to determine why some students are scheduled for GH Bio and others are not. Findings indicate there are variances as to the reasons and intent for scheduling students into GH Bio. Some students who could benefit from the course are not being scheduled into the course.</p>

This quantitative study examined secondary schools across a south Florida school district to determine the relationship between school characteristics and measures of teacher quality with the aim of ascertaining the equitable distribution of the educational resource, teacher quality. Data regarding student population, staff climate survey responses, school points, and measures of teacher quality were requested from the school district; however, the requested teacher quality data was not available from the district. The researcher accessed publicly available teacher quality data from the Florida Department of Education regarding advanced degree completion, out-of-field teachers, and highly qualified teachers to serve as measures of teacher quality at secondary schools. Data were collected and analyzed using quantitative methods for 119 schools that served as the unit of analysis. Using multiple regressions, the study found a significant negative relationship between the percentage of students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program and the percentage of teachers who possessed an advanced degree. The study also found a significant positive relationship between the percentages of Black students, English language learners, students with disabilities, students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program and the percentage of out-offield teachers. Additionally, the study found a significant positive relationship between the percentages of Hispanic students, students with disabilities, students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program, and the percentage of not highly qualified teachers at schools. The investigation also discovered predictive relationships between some of these school characteristics and the measures of teacher quality examined in the study. All of the findings provided evidence of structural inequality regarding the distribution of teacher quality and were analyzed by the study’s theoretical framework, which drew on critical race theory, critical multiculturalism, and other critical studies. These works underscore the inequitable distribution of teacher quality. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered for further examination of the equitable distribution of teacher quality and the role of policy to inform the equitable distribution of teacher quality across schools in order to address the most urgent problem facing U.S. education: the unequal distribution of quality teachers. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

<p> The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine whether alternative school interventions were effective in reducing the incidences of violence in schools and improving attendance and graduation rates, whether positive behavior intervention supports were effective intervention strategies in school violence prevention initiatives, and whether parental and community involvements were necessary for intervention strategies and supports to be effective in school violence prevention initiatives. </p><p> I was concerned about the negative impact violence had on academics, health, the school environment, and within the community. I expected to identify as many problem types as possible and research similar problems in other areas to see what had been done to reduce violence and improve conditions in those schools and communities affected by violence. The presence of violence in schools led to a disruptive and threatening environment, physical injury, and emotional stress. To address this, teachers and administrators implemented programs designed to prevent, deter, and respond to potential violence in schools. </p><p> What I found was that it was difficult to assess the effectiveness of individual intervention strategies, because districts applied them in combination with one or more additional interventions. One way to overcome this difficulty and provide more useful data on the success of particular interventions was to begin longitudinal studies that tracked specific students over a long period of time, if those interventions could be studied in isolation. The impact of external factors, such as the neighborhood and home environment, must be considered and factored into each individual case as well, because of the many variations that existed. Generalizations were made in this study, because many of the schools studied had similar demographics. Despite the collateral influences that negatively impacted student success, the use of the various intervention strategies appeared to have had an impact on school improvement in the United States.</p><p>

<p> The U.S. higher education system faces an unprecedented convergence of financial challenges that have the potential to negatively affect the operations of smaller institutions (Denneen &amp; Dretler, 2012; Eide, 2018). These forces have increased the expectation for institutions to adopt innovative educational models that will ensure the financial sustainability of the institution. One such innovation is the church-based extension site program at a private, Christian university in the southeastern region of the United States. The extension site program provides affordable pathways to baccalaureate degrees through a combination of experiential learning and classroom experiences within a local church context. The Christian university that was the focus of this study has experienced dramatic enrollment growth since the program's inception, with more than 2,400 students enrolled at 112 locations across the United States. Given the growth of this educational modality, this study evaluated whether the church-based extension site program is an effective alternative to the traditional campus experience. The <i>Thriving Quotient,</i> a reliable and valid instrument that measures students' academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal well-being (Schreiner, 2016), was utilized to examine the differences in thriving levels and pathways to thriving among extension site and traditional students at the target university. After matching students through propensity score analysis, the results of the univariate and multivariate analyses of variance indicated that extension site students (<i>M</i> = 5.12, <i>SD</i> = .45) reported significantly higher thriving scores than their matched counterparts on the traditional campus (<i> M</i> = 4.82, <i>SD</i> = .49, <i>F</i>[1, 616] = 62.871, <i>p</i> &lt; .001, &eta;² = .093). Structural equation modeling with multiple-group analysis further indicated significant differences in the pathways to thriving among extension site and traditional students, with each model accounting for 73% and 62% of the variation in college student thriving, respectively. Spirituality, faculty commitment to diverse students, and psychological sense of community represented the largest contributors to extension site student thriving. The study recommends the expansion of the extension site model at Christian institutions as an effective alternative to the traditional experience for a particular group of students and offers implications for practice that will support student thriving within the extension site context.</p><p>

<p> This mixed methods study was concerned with the relationship between teachers&rsquo; personality traits and teachers&rsquo; self-efficacy and their impact on student learning. The study utilized descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, one-way ANOVA, and a focus group interview to answer seven underlying questions that would lead to a clear understanding of the overarching research question, do teacher personality traits and teacher self-efficacy impact student learning? Quantitative and qualitative research results indicated that participants perceived the personality traits conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to have an impact of student learning. Participants also suggested that teacher self-efficacy played an even more significant role in student learning.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to design a grammar curriculum that could help college age students in basic writing classes to identify and correct grammatical errors in their own writing. After reviewing literature in best practices in grammar instruction as well as other kinds of instructional best practices, the grammar curriculum, <i>Effective MUGs</i> (MUGs stands for mechanics, usage, and grammar), takes advantage of these best practices including sentence combining, sentence revision, sentence creation, grammar in context, strategies instruction, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The study was designed to measure how effective the grammar curriculum was (by examining student writing in essays as well as grammar exercises), how students used tools in the curriculum (by examining results from cognition labs), and how students and instructors perceived the curriculum (through interviews). The data on student grammatical error from this study must be viewed with reservations because of the lack of statistical significance. The most significant findings were qualitative and offered insight into the strengths of the Effective MUGs curriculum as well as which aspects that need revision. Both students and instructors thought that the gradual release of strategies instruction was one of the most effective tools and they both enjoyed using BYOD in conjunction with Google Docs. Students were most challenged by subject-verb identification and feeling confident about use of unfamiliar sentence elements; instructor interviews confirmed these student challenges. The data from the study will prompt revision to the curriculum as well as enhanced professional development.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study is centered on health information management (HIM) student learning outcomes and attrition in an online learning environment as compared with that of a traditional face-to-face learning environment. Online education has become mainstream and enrollment continues to grow even though overall enrollment in higher education has decreased (Poulin &amp; Straut, 2016). In addition, colleges and universities retain fewer online students than traditional face-to-face students (Brown, 2017). Furthermore, student satisfaction has been labeled as a measure of quality for online education (Online Learning Consortium, 2017). The Community of Inquiry theory of student satisfaction with an online learning environment was utilized as the theoretical framework for this study (Garrison, Anderson, &amp; Archer, 2000). Quantitative data were collected from accredited two-year associate health information management program directors for analysis in this study. Students currently enrolled in health information management online courses were surveyed with a Community of Inquiry survey instrument to assess their perceptions of satisfaction with online courses. Descriptive analysis methods were utilized to answer the four research questions which guided this study. The findings of the study on differences between the national Registered Health Information Technician final exam scores and domain scores from graduates of traditional face-to-face courses with similar peers enrolled in online courses demonstrated a significant difference with lower overall scores for online graduates. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference between attrition rates of traditional face-to-face and online programs. Based on the analysis of the Community of Inquiry data, students of current online HIM courses have an above average degree of satisfaction.</p><p>

In developed countries, the evidence on the impact of school type on student performance is mixed. Researchers are also interested in finding out the effect of private school competition on educational outcomes. The evidence on this for developed countries is mixed as well. What is the effect in developing countries? There are not sufficient studies for developing countries to reach one conclusion. Using data from the survey of the Ministry of Education, Nepal-2005 for School Leaving Certificate Exam (SLC), this dissertation attempts to seek answers to the above two issues for the case of Nepal. The first part of this study analyzes private and public school performance using OLS and logistic models. The study adopts the propensity score matching technique to account for the selection bias problem. The second part of this dissertation attempts to explore the impact of private school competition on public school performance using the number of private schools in the neighborhood as a continuous measure of competition. A binary measure of competition is also used where school is defined to face competition if there is more than one private school in the vicinity of the sample public school. However, in this analysis, there exists an identification problem because private school enrollment is likely to be correlated with public school performance. To address this problem, the study uses the existence of a motorable road within an hour's walking distance from the sample school as an instrument for number of private schools in the neighborhood. The results from the OLS and logistic estimation on the effect of school type on student performance show that public schools consistently have a negative relationship with student performance. On the impact of private school competition on public school performance, the OLS results show no significant relationship using both continuous and binary measures of competition. In contrast, the IV method indicates a positive and significant impact of private school competition on public school performance, which holds true for both types of measures of private school competition.

Community colleges play an important role in providing first and second generation immigrants access to higher education and the opportunity to earn a postsecondary credential. However, immigrant students may face obstacles in pursuit of a postsecondary degree, particularly second language challenges that can inhibit their success in college-level coursework. This dissertation seeks to provide some of the first evidence on the impact of developmental English and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses on the educational outcomes of language minority students at community college. Using a large, administrative dataset from the City University of New York (CUNY) on applicants and enrollees in the fall 2001 to fall 2007 cohorts, tracked for at least three years to summer 2010, I highlight the diverse demographic and academic outcomes of language minority students at the community colleges, and then conduct two quasi-experimental studies that use a regression discontinuity design and a difference-in-differences approach to identify the effects of developmental education and ESL coursework on this student population. These studies provide evidence that certain features of pre-college English coursework can have potentially positive or negative effects on specific outcomes. In particular, assignment to and enrollment in pre-college reading and writing coursework compared to just writing coursework is tied to positive effects on persistence and perhaps learning, while the longer sequence length in ESL compared to developmental English decelerates language minority students' progression through college and degree attainment.

What are the socioeconomic implications of the time allocation decisions made by low-income adolescents? The way adolescents allocate their time between schooling, labor and leisure has important implications for their education attainment, college aspirations, job opportunities and future earnings. This study focuses on adolescents and young adults in urban areas of Brazil that, due to household income constraints, family or peer pressures enter the labor market at an early age, stop studying, and/or start engaging into risky behaviors, such as drug use or sexual activities. The key policy question in this context is then: what incentives could prove an efficient tool to change the time allocation patterns and behaviors that make adolescents drop out of school, fall pregnant (or impregnate) or consume drugs? This dissertation uses data from the Young Agent Project (YAP) a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program targeting exclusively adolescents in Brazil to examine this issue. This program targets adolescents aged 15 to 17 and its goals are to improve the socioeconomic and educational outcomes of youth in Brazil. The research in the dissertation seeks to determine whether the program has indeed influenced or not the time allocation decisions of low-income youth in Brazil, thus improving their socioeconomic and educational outcomes. The research addresses this issue in three different levels of analysis: 1) whether the YAP has affected schooling outcomes, youth labor decisions and risky behaviors, by gender, ethnicity or region, 2) whether transferring cash directly to the adolescent is more efficient than transferring to the parents, on improving schooling, labor and risky behavior outcomes, and 3) Whether the number of hours per week dedicated to the YAP's after school program is a strong predictor of better outcomes. The data used is the 2006 Projeto Agente Jovem dataset, which is a matched non-experimental, with a treatment group and a constructed control group. This dataset is representative of the recipients of the YAP across regions, states, genders and racial composition, which was administered to 2,210 households with adolescents aged 16 to 20 at least one year after having finished the program. For the analysis, this study used econometric techniques such as Propensity Score Matching (Average Treatment Effect on the Treated, Nearest Neighbor with Replacement) and performed robustness checks with a sensitivity analysis by comparing the treatment effects obtained from linear regression and Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting.