published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

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The number of schools failing to prepare students for post-secondary life continues to increase; thus, school reform continues to be a pressing concern. Millions of dollars have been spent on school reform initiatives, particularly comprehensive reform such as complete school turnaround. Turnaround efforts include full closure, restarts, and transformation of schools that are currently failing. School turnaround requires the immediate disruption of past practices to establish new practices. These changes require the development of new habits of mind, a refocus on expectations and a re-examination of adult-adult, adult-student, and student-student relationships. For stakeholders, school turnaround is viewed as what happens to them rather than what happens for their benefit. The stakeholders who are the students and teachers within the school are affected in numerous ways by the disruption. This study reviewed literature on turnaround endeavors and pinpointed the important organizational design, traits of leadership, culture and climate, and adult actions that can be leveraged to create comprehensive school turnaround that is sustainable. The findings of this study resulted in the development of a handbook that provides school turnaround leaders with the tools to design a comprehensive turnaround program. This Turnaround Handbook is built on the premise of stabilizing culture and climate within the school to drive change practices that lead to school success. This handbook takes into account the needs of students to have a voice, adults to be supported and developed, and practices to be sustained beyond a finite period of classification as a turnaround school. The significance of this research is that school turnaround leaders can design programs that are sustainable and can significantly improve the lives and educational experiences of those affected by the reform process.

This investigation of secondary geometry teachers' decision making in a mathematics curricular reform context examined the following questions: (a) What planning and interactive decisions were secondary geometry teachers making during this time of reform, and (b) what factors influenced the decisions that these teachers made? In addition, comparisons were generated between influential factors identified during a mathematics reform context and the stable context of previous decision making studies. A multi-case study approach involving detailed examination of five geometry teachers' decision making was used. The data collected and analyzed included a questionnaire, interviews, observational field notes, audiotapes and videotapes of classroom instruction, and written instructional documents. Teachers' profiles were created describing geometry and teaching biographies, views toward curricular change, the classroom, planning decisions and influential factors, and interactive decisions and influential factors. Findings were developed by searching for similarities and differences across the sample. Teachers' decisions generated descriptions of their geometry courses. One teacher promoted geometry as a mathematical system using predominantly a lecture approach. The other four teachers advocated a multifaceted view of geometry recognizing geometry as a mathematical system and as a setting for developing communication and problem solving skills. In addition, the four teachers' courses included references to connections between geometry and the real world. These four teachers used a variety of instructional approaches that encouraged students' active involvement in their geometry learning with an emphasis on developing student understanding. Factors influencing teachers' decisions included: (a) past geometry experiences, (b) professional development experiences, (c) articulated course goals, (d) advanced planning decisions, (e) teachers' beliefs, (f) the geometry textbook and other materials, (g) teachers' school settings, and (h) students' needs and actions. Some findings highlighted differences between this study and previous decision making studies. All teachers in this study appeared to be influenced by their beliefs about the nature of geometry as a discipline. Teachers were also influenced by whether they viewed the process of becoming an effective teacher as a life-long process. For four of the teachers, reform agendas were influential as another source of curriculum ideas. / Graduation date: 1997

Thesis (EdD)-Open University.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 133-138.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-289). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2009. / Thesis advisor: Karen Beyard. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-210). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-289). Also available on the Internet.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration