No description available.

The primary guiding question proposed for this study is, what are the variations and commonalities in policies among the 132 school districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia that govern whether or not students who are educated at home have access to public school courses and extra-curricular activities? In order to obtain this information the study was conducted of two phases. The first phase consisted of a policy analysis in order to determine the scope and nature of home school policies across Virginia's 132 operational school districts, and whether they fall within the legal parameters established by state regulations and case law. The second phase involved ascertaining how school officials perceived local control of home schoolers' access to public school classes or extracurricular activities through a multiple case study. This phase involved interviewing the person designated to implement these policies from selected school districts. The intent was that the data analysis would provide the basis for recommending changes or perhaps no changes, in the state's role in governing home school access. / Ed. D.

This dissertation examines school renovation and student achievement. The study focuses on the relationship between a complete renovation of a school facility and its influence on student achievement before, during, and after the renovation process. This is a replication study of previous research, Mayo (2012), which focused on middle schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia that were identified as a complete renovation project during the years of 2004-2010. This study utilized the procedures and the descriptive research methodology established in the Mayo (2012) study. Which allowed for the same three demographic variables (minority, socioeconomic, and teacher quality) to be addressed. The only modification made was the selection of a new grade level (K-5) focusing on elementary schools. The research question posed in this study, Does the complete renovation process, which includes structural, plumbing, electrical, and heating and air conditioning changes of a school building, influence student achievement? Out of 514 school construction projects listed by the Virginia Department of Education during 2004-2010, 89 were classified as renovation projects. Out of the 89, only 39 met the criteria of elementary schools servicing fifth grade students. The 39 elementary schools were then further reviewed, and 15 met the criteria of fulfilling the four components of a complete renovation; structural, plumbing, electrical, and heating/air conditioning. The findings of the 15 schools identified as being a complete renovation showed no statistical significance between the variables and were not statistically significant when comparing the fifth grade mathematics and reading student performance to each stage of the renovation process. / Ed. D.

The purposes of this study were (1) to ascertain the effect of three approaches of presenting reading material to fifth-grade children, (2) to analyze the results of each approach in relationship to reading ability, mental ability, and sex, and (3) to ascertain the implications of these approaches for elementary teachers and principals.

The purpose of this study was to determine the interrelationship of self-concept and attitude toward mathematics to academic achievement in the areas of arithmetical computation, concepts, and application.

A major change being advocated in education is that of making students more self-directing; that is, helping them become more responsible for their own learning. The focus of this investigation was on fifth grade students' use of self-directed learning strategies and self-directed perceptual skills. An experimental study was conducted using the nested design for analyzing data obtained from the Guglielmino Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale, the Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons1 Self-Regulated Learning Interview Schedule, and the Bradley-Lane Self-Directing Perceptual Scale. One hundred fifty-two fifth graders were involved in the eight week study along with their six teachers. Both students and teachers were immersed in a module of training that included emphasis upon self-directing behaviors and learning strategies. Two striking findings emerged; namely, (a) in comparing the average number of learning strategies acquired after treatment, the experimental group (low, middle, and high IQ levels) scored 40%, 50% and 29% higher respectively, than did the control group; (b) in comparing the fifth grade students use of learning strategies it was found that most students nearly doubled the number of learning strategies they had previously acquired. Thus, it was concluded that children who do not have actual teaching of information or data concerning learning strategies will likely never acquire the same repertoire of skills that students acquire when exposed to this critical information in some specific, systematic fashion. A primary product developed for the purposes of this investigation was the Bradley-Lane Self-Directing Perceptual Scale—a 132-item Likert Scale designed to identify the self-perceptions of elementary and middle school students. After field-testing, a chi-square treatment was applied to each item of the Perceptual Scale resulting in a reliability of p<.01 for the majority (79%) of the test items, while an additional twelve items (9%) were found to be reliable at the .02 level of significance.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / William P. Winslow III / MDI Superfund is an abandoned 36 acre metal casting foundry site in the Fifth Ward Houston, TX. The site was recently remediated and cleared of nearly all industrial remnants including more than 16,000 cubic yards of lead contaminated soil. Completion of the remedial action allows the removal of fences that have been separating this tract of land and the community for nearly ten years. Proximity to downtown Houston makes this a desirable location for new development, which has threatened to displace the poor and elderly in recent years. This project explores design alternatives that facilitate affordable housing without isolating it from new development. The integration of affordable housing with community needs is necessary to improve the dynamic in a mixed use, mixed income development. This research is intended to shape redevelopment of MDI Superfund, while providing community needs, minimizing gentrification, and improving quality of life of its inhabitants. The achievement of these goals relies upon the application of specific design principles that minimize conflict and increase success in similar communities.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the drug knowledge levels and attitudes toward drug abuse of fifth and sixth grade schoolchildren.

The purpose of this study was to determine the personal reading interests of students in the third, fourth, and fifth grades and to determine if advances in technology in the past twenty years have changed their reading interests.

Children afflicted with speech disorders represent the largest single group of exceptional children. The numbers of speech defectives reach between 2 and 2 1/2 million or about 5% of the population (Johnson et a l., 1956). Newman (1961) has disputed this claim and has stressed the difference to be made between speech differences and handicapping conditions: