Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Michael F. Perl / This exploratory correlational study seeks to answer the question of whether a relationship exists between student average test score gains on state exams and teachers’ rating of values on the Schwartz Values Survey. Eighty-seven randomly selected Kansas teachers of math and/or reading, grades four through eight, participated. Student test score gains were paired with teachers and averaged. The results of these backward stepwise entries of multiple regressions using SPSS software are reported. Significant relationships with large effect sizes are reported for teacher values and student test score gains in reading and math. Models of teacher values are found that account for thirty-two percent of the average student test score gains in reading and for forty-three percent of the average student test score gains in mathematics. The significant model of values with the greatest adjusted relationship with reading test score gains is described as the Relational Teacher Value Type. The valuing of True Friendship (close supportive friends) and the valuing of Sense of Belonging (feeling that others care about me) proved to be the most powerful indicators of student reading score gains within this type. The significant model of values with the greatest adjusted relationship with mathematics test score gains is described as the Well-Being Teacher Value Type. The valuing of Healthy (not being sick physically or mentally), the valuing of Reciprocation of Favors (avoidance of indebtedness), and Self Respect (belief in one’s own worth) proved to be the most powerful indicators of student mathematics test score gains within this type. The significant value items within each of the above types’ models are discussed regarding possible reasons for their relationships to student test score gains. A value that is found significant for both reading and mathematics teachers in accounting for student test score gains is Moderate (avoiding extremes of feeling and action). Of the teachers in the study that taught mathematics and reading, their students’ mathematics score gains did not correlate in a statistically significant way with their students’ reading score gains, suggesting that a teacher’s ability to teach math has little to do with a teacher’s ability to teach reading.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Lotta Larson / Writing teachers teach students to read, write, and think through text. They draw upon their own comprehension to determine if, when, and how to intervene in directing students to deeper, more thoughtfully written texts by encouraging them to monitor and regulate their thoughts—to be metacognitive. Writing itself has been called “applied metacognition,” for it is essentially the production of thought (Hacker, Keener, & Kircher, 2009, p. 154). Yet little is known about the metacognitive practices and behaviors of those who teach writing. The purpose of this instrumental, collective case study was to explore and describe writing teachers’ metacognition as they took part in two range-finding events in a midwestern school district. Participants were tasked with reading and scoring student essays and providing narrative feedback to fuel training efforts for future scorers of the district’s writing assessments. Each range-finding event constituted a case with fourteen participants. Three administrative facilitators and four retired English teachers participated in both events, along with seven different practicing teachers per case. The study concluded that, indeed, participants perceived and regulated their thinking in numerous ways while reading and responding to student essays. With Flavell’s (1979) theoretical model of metacognition as a framework for data analysis, 28 distinct content codes emerged in the data: 1) twelve codes under metacognitive knowledge of person, task, and strategy, 2) seven codes under metacognitive experiences, 3) six codes under metacognitive goals (tasks), and 4) three codes under metacognitive actions (strategies). In addition, three dichotomous themes emerged across the cases indicating transformational distinctions in teachers’ thinking: 1) teaching writing and scoring writing, 2) confusion and clarity, and 3) frustrations and fruits. The study highlighted the potential of improving teachers’ meta-thinking about teaching and assessing writing through dialectic conversations with other professionals. Its findings and conclusions implicate teacher educators, practicing teachers, and school district administrators to seek opportunities for cultivating teachers’ awareness, monitoring, and regulation of their thoughts about content, instruction, and selves to better serve their students.