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Purpose. This research examined the relationship between stress and job satisfaction of elementary school principals. The purpose of the study was to determine if the situational variables, socioeconomic level of students and student enrollment, and the demographic variables, sex, age, and experience, influenced the stress-job satisfaction of the principal.;Method. A random sample of 100 elementary school principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia completed the Administrative Stress Index and the Index of Job Satisfaction. Results from 87 percent mail return were subjected to regression analysis.;Findings and Conclusions. There was a negative relationship (r = -.25) between stress and job satisfaction of elementary school principals. Based on the findings of this study, stress will tend to reduce the job satisfaction of elementary school principals regardless of socioeconomic level of students, student enrollment or sex of the principal, and for principals 40+ years of age or with 6+ years of experience. There was no relationship between stress and job satisfaction for principals under 40 or those with 1-5 years of experience. In addition, job satisfaction was significantly greater for principals who are females.;Job satisfaction for this sample was predicted using the following regression weights for those variables which significantly influenced the stress-job satisfaction relationship: Overall satisfaction = 71.82, Female = 3.78, Age 40+ = 19.26, Stress for 40+ = -9.36. Using these increments, expected job satisfaction was calculated for four groups of elementary school principals: Males < 40 = 71.82 (out of a possible 90), Females < 40 = 75.60, Males 40+ = 70.58, Females 40+ = 74.36. Both males and females 40+ years of age experience a reduction in job satisfaction for stress. Implications for future research were discussed.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the instructional leadership behaviors of the superintendent during an era of educational reform in Virginia. Specifically, the study sought to determine what behaviors of the superintendent contributed to improvement in student achievement on the Standards of Learning assessment. Superintendent instructional behaviors were explored in relation to the five points of the conceptual framework drawn from the literature and professional standards of the superintendency: (1) The leadership style for the superintendent must be collaborative and exercised between teachers, administrators and other constituents; (2) Superintendents must be able to articulate a clear vision for educational improvement that is drawn from collaborative relationships with constituents; (3) Superintendents must have an understanding of curriculum and instruction that allows them to diagnose local educational need as well as discern possibilities for educational improvement; (4) Superintendents must be able to implement and monitor change processes as a means of ensuring improved student achievement; and (5) All leadership is shaped by the contexts in which it occurs---historical, community and organizational. The data collected was accomplished using semi-structured interviews of eight selected superintendents and principals of school divisions of no more than 5000 students. Principals also completed the Superintendent as Instructional Leader Survey (SILS). Results were presented in narrative form and analyzed for common themes and language congruent with the conceptual framework. The themes and language were compared with the areas of the conceptual framework looking for similarities and differences. The instructional behaviors of participating superintendents in this study could be used in practice by superintendents seeking to respond to student achievement reform initiatives as well as in training programs for superintendents.

Community colleges are a crucial channel for achieving postsecondary education success, especially for minority and nontraditionally aged students. Nonetheless, community colleges are inadequate to meeting national goals for postsecondary educational attainment. Most notably, the lack of a strong guidance of academic interventions stifles a student’s preparation to transfer to four-year institutions as well as to attain an associate’s degree. The majority of research concerning community colleges rarely addresses the issues of low degree attainment rates from rigorous guidance of academic interventions by student status difference, including race/ethnicity, age, first-generation status, motivation, and academic preparation. First, few community colleges and associations have proposed and implemented designed guidance for students. As such, evaluating the impact of guidance plans in community colleges provides us with a better understanding of student success at these schools. Second, previous studies used samples collected from a single community college, city, or state, which make generalizability difficult to attain. Third, researchers have paid little attention to how the variation across community colleges differs across the nation in terms of the mission and purpose of the institutions as well as the students who attend these colleges. This variation may influence students’ academic curriculum and exposure to academic advising, which in turn may impact their success. Fourth, even though minority and nontraditional students are overrepresented at two-year intuitions, few studies investigate whether the impact of academic interventions in community colleges differs by race/ethnic and age. Building upon the literature on student development in higher education, in this dissertation, I examined how academic interventions (i.e., academic advising and faculty–student interactions) promote student success after controlling for potential confounding factors at both the student and institution level. Employing propensity-scored based techniques, I compared student success (a) among Black, Latino, and White students, and (b) between traditionally aged students (18–21 years of age), and nontraditionally aged students (24 years of age and older). Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I employed doubly robust estimation to provide better estimates of academic advising and formal faculty–student interactions on student success. I measured students’ successes by determining whether students attained an associate’s degree or whether they transferred to a four-year institution. To accomplish these tasks, I first used a multinomial logit model to estimate the propensity scores of receiving academic advising and faculty–student interactions. I then created a sample weight based on the inverse of the propensity score. I used multinomial logit regression model, weighted by the inverse of the propensity score, to estimate the effects of academic advising and faculty–student interactions. Finally, I examined the conditional effects of academic advising and faculty–student interactions by students’ race, age, first-generation status, motivation, and academic preparation. The findings indicate that both academic advising and formal faculty–student interactions benefit student success at community colleges. Specifically, academic advising increases student success of transferring to a four-year institution, but African American students benefit less from academic advising than their White peers. Academic advising positively influences both Hispanic students and White students in terms of their upward transfer to a four-year institution. In addition to academic advising, formal faculty–student interactions improve student success regarding both upward transfers and attainment of associate degrees. The positive impact of formal faculty–student interactions is consistent across students’ race, age, first-generation status, motivation, and academic preparation. This dissertation contributes to the existing literature on community colleges in two ways. First, my dissertation seeks to better inform policy makers in designing academic interventions that can improve student development in community colleges, especially for minority and nontraditional students. Second, my dissertation contributes to the research literature on higher education by providing improved estimates that have stronger internal and external validity than estimates from past studies on the effects of academic interventions in community colleges.

The acquisition of early childhood literacy skills is a predictor of academic success in elementary education. In a local school district, 22% of children entering kindergarten were assessed as having a gap in their reading readiness skills (RRS) based on their pre-K scores on the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning (DIAL-4). The average kindergarten beginning-year difference on the Reading Baseline Inventory (RBI) between the students with a gap and students without a gap was 15 out of 100 points. The purpose of this quantitative research was to examine the change between fall and spring RBI scores of kindergarten students who entered school with a gap and those who entered without a gap to determine if the gap was closed by the end of the school year. The framework for this study was Vygotsky's constructivist theory of how children construct knowledge based on their early experiences. From a census sample of 118 students, 26 students were classified as having a gap in their DIAL-4 readiness scores. Fall pretest and spring posttest RBI scores served as the dependent variable. Within group t tests revealed the group identified as having a reading readiness gap increased their average RBI reading performance by 47% while the group identified as not having a gap increased by 26%, t(26) = -11.47, p < .001. However, the between groups t test comparing the groups' RBI difference scores was also significant, t(116) = -3.12, p = .002, indicating a closed but still significant gap (6.8 points) remaining. A white paper presents the results of the study and will contribute to positive social change by providing school leaders with evidence based practical suggestions to better serve their students. By working to close the reading gap early it will help ensure students have a better chance to reach their full potential for academic success.

The alternative school in this case study has experienced resistance to the assignments the past few years. Present enrollment consists mostly of African American male students, whose parents complain about constant fighting, inadequate educational resources and the lack of class selections necessary for student academic progress. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and parents regarding academic information, and general information, they perceived have had the greatest impact on behavior, discipline, and achievement in the school environment. In addition, parents' primary concerns about student assignment to the alternative school were explored. Constructivist learning theory was used to guide the study and research questions addressed the perspectives of teachers and parents about best practices concerning the behavior and academic achievement problems among black males attending the school. Data collection included interviews with 20 past and present parents and 15 teachers selected using purposive sampling. Data analyses involved using Hatch's nine-step typology to code data and analyze for common themes. The results indicated that the alternative school has generally been successful in promoting student achievement and facilitating correct behaviors of assigned students. However, parents' views differed regarding with the school environment. To address these differences, a professional development project was developed that included working with teacher, parent and student perspectives regarding academics and behavior concerns that were affecting the functioning of the school. Positive social change might occur as stakeholders realize the return of alternative school students to the educational environment who have the potential to be productive members of the community.

Parental involvement in schools has been linked to student academic success and dropout prevention. However, some parents are disenfranchised by the educational system because they do not know how to become involved in the schools. The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers to parental involvement in a rural school district with increased dropouts and low academic success. Epstein's framework provided structure to analyze the ways parents participate in schools, classify the barriers, and organize suggestions for improvement. The research questions focused on African American parents' perceptions of barriers to parental involvement by using a focus group, interviews, and a questionnaire. A qualitative research design and case study interviewing approach identified barriers to parental involvement. The sample consisted of 20 African American parents of middle and high school students. Data analysis included coding and categorizing themes. Findings revealed 4 specific barriers to parental involvement that included (a) unclear understanding of parental involvement, (b) inadequate school communication, (c) ineffective school leader support, and (d) communal disintegration. In addition, most parents identified varied teacher conference times as the most effective influence in promoting parental involvement. The project stemming from this doctoral study is the beginning of an ongoing parent engagement network that will utilize the educational network platform Edmodo to aid parents in implementing effective parental practices. The potential for social change includes increased academic success, improved behavior, and increased esteem among students as a result of active parental involvement.

Impulsive choice (i.e., preference for smaller, sooner over larger, later rewards) is cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with drug dependence in humans. Similarly, impulsive choice is associated with greater drug self-administration in rodents. These findings suggest that impulsive choice plays a causal role in drug use. However, little research has been designed to experimentally test this hypothesis or the boundary conditions under which it may operate. The research reported in this document examined the relation between impulsive choice and alcohol consumption in rats. We developed and refined an experimental method, in which rats were pre-exposed to delayed rewards, to produce trait-like reductions in impulsive choice. We then examined the effects of this manipulation on subsequent alcohol consumption. If impulsive choice is causally related to alcohol consumption in this rodent model, then reduction of impulsive choice should be accompanied by a reduction in alcohol consumption. However, in the experiment presented in Chapter 2, reductions in impulsive choice for food rewards were accompanied by unexpected increases in alcohol consumption. Accordingly, the goals of the experiments in Chapters 3 and 4 were to help determine the conditions that produced this unexpected finding. Results reported in Chapters 3 and 4 suggest that the unexpected results reported in Chapter 2 were dependent on the way in which alcohol was introduced in that experiment and perhaps other variables specific to orally consumed alcohol (e.g., taste, slow onset of pharmacological effects). Moreover, in Chapter 3, examination of our own and newly reported data suggests that the naturally occurring relation between impulsive choice and alcohol consumption in rodents is not as robust as it is for other drugs of abuse (e.g., psychostimulants, such as cocaine or nicotine). Nonetheless, the work reported in these experiments developed a method of reducing impulsive choice which may be used in future research to examine its related effects on consumption of other drugs of abuse.

The Vermont Educational Quality Standards, passed in 2014, require students to graduate high school based on proficiency not merely by the accrual of course credits. The deadline to implement this policy is 2020, and thus, high schools across Vermont are feverishly revamping their systems and structures to support this change. Like many reforms, teachers are at the forefront of putting this policy into practice. The purpose of this study is to understand how teachers experience the shift to implement proficiency-based learning practices in their classrooms and how administrators support teachers in making this transition. Two Vermont high schools were selected for this study. Both were well underway with formal implementation efforts. An online questionnaire was provided to all teachers at both schools. The district curriculum coordinators and all school administrators, in addition to any instructional coaches, were interviewed on a one-on-one basis. Four teachers from each site, representing a variety of subject areas (math, science, ELA, and social studies) were also interviewed on an individual basis. Furthermore, a variety of documents were analyzed from each site, including grading policies, teacher handbooks, and other artifacts related to the implementation of proficiency-based learning. Findings suggest that teachers were actively engaged in implementation efforts within their classrooms but found the process challenging. Certain aspects of proficiency-based learning prove to be more difficult than other elements to put into practice. Engaging in a “pedagogical triage”, teachers were selective with regard to which aspects of proficiency-based learning they attempted to implement. Given a lack of time and resources and the complex nature of the reform, teachers generally implemented those elements that were easier to put into practice. Furthermore, school and district administrators provided a variety of supports and resources to assist teachers’ sensemaking of proficiency-based learning practices. Intentional educational infrastructure that included instructional coaches, assessment cycles, professional learning communities, and curriculum materials, were evident at both the high schools in this study. Overall, the changes teachers discussed were more evolutionary than revolutionary. This study illuminates the specific challenges with implementing proficiency-based learning in a high school setting and how teachers experience putting proficiency-based learning into practice in the classroom. Additionally, the role of instructional coaches emerged as a key element of a coherent educational infrastructure in supporting teacher sensemaking of policy messages. Proficiency-based learning holds promise as an education reform but will only work with a coordinated educational infrastructure and a timeline that allows teachers to full comprehend all aspects of the policy.