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The artist scholars: E pluribus unum is an exploratory curriculum designed to be implemented into middle schools. Adolescents experience a period of chaotic and emotional changes that can be both confusing and challanging. This cummiculum seeks to give adolescents a means of expressing themselves. By introducing students to performing arts, the literary arts, and the visual arts, adolescents will begin to answer the basic questions of being human: who are we? Where do we come from? How is knowledge constructed, used, and valued? Each unit consists of lesson plans intended to introduce students to the basic elements of the arts.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the values, beliefs, and ideas in school reading textbooks (Readers) in Taiwan and in Texas. It intended to examine the social control function of school Readers, with which a culture deliberately molds its young generation. This study employed primarily qualitative methods. The collection of data used the technique of content analysis, student surveys, and teacher expert panel discussions. The analysis of data followed a constant comparative approach. The themes shared by the two sets of Readers included family, friends, humans and living creatures, political ideals, reading/writing, appreciation of nature, science, indomitable spirit, turning danger into safety, setting goals, education, desirable and undesirable qualities or behaviors. Despite the similarities of these themes, the substance or focus of them may vary. The themes unique to the Texas Readers were content knowledge, cultural diversity, dilemma and choice, observations about people, words, tomorrow's technology, winning, and general truth. The themes unique to the Taiwan Readers included life philosophy, learning, necessary difficulties, sensitivity, and military strategies. The theme occurring most frequently in both sets of Readers was the desirable qualities or behaviors. The values advocated in the Taiwan Readers were idealistic and had a society-centered focus (for example, patriotism, appreciation of others, serving others, and honesty). Absolute moral principles were taught. A group orientation and altruism were evident. In contrast, the Texas Readers did not have such an emphasis on the concept of group. Personal feelings, individual accomplishments, and self-centered values (for instance, effort, courage, determination, talent, and independence) received more attention. The values were perceived to be relative to the situation. The Taiwan Readers, produced by a national education system, transmitted traditional Chinese beliefs and values. The Texas Readers, with the publishers' intent to avoid controversies, presented more general or universal values. Although the sources of control were different, they influenced textbook content in a similar way.

This study investigated the self-efficacy (also often referred to as self-confidence) of principals as determined by school administrator certification credentials and teaching endorsements at low performing middle schools in Mississippi. In educational literature, the term “self-confidence” is often referred to under the nomenclature of self-efficacy. In the context of an educational environment, self-efficacy pertains to a principal’s capability to organize and execute courses of action required in leading and managing a school. Successful school management requires a leader who is task oriented, consistently stays focused, employs effective strategies, and utilizes managerial skills. The investigation focused on the self-efficacy, as determined by credentials and endorsements, of the principals charged with leading and managing the 24 Mississippi middle schools that received Mississippi Department of Education accountability ratings of “D” or “F” in relation to student academic performance. The overall research question that guided the investigation asked: Did the self-efficacy of the principals charged with leading and managing the 24 Mississippi middle schools that received low accountability scores suggest any connection to the ratings? Based on the findings of the investigation, it may be concluded that the self efficacy of the principals charged with leading and managing the middle schools that received low accountability scores didn’t appear to have any connection to the ratings. Also, neither the principals’ certification credential levels nor teaching endorsements appeared to be factors.

The disproportionate representation of ethnically and racially diverse students in special education has been an enduring problem in education for the past four decades. However, most of the research on disproportionality has focused on the ethnic/racial variable; the body of research focusing on the linguistic variable is still slim in comparison. As linguistic diversity in the United States continues to rise, teachers will continue to be challenged to meet the needs of the English Language Learners in their classrooms. However, many teachers feel unprepared to deal with this diversity and have difficulty discriminating whether a student’s poor performance is due to linguistic or cognitive factors. Consequently, many English Language Learners are misidentified and misplaced in special education programs. The purpose of this study was to analyze the representation of English Language Learners in special education high incidence disability categories in a large, urban school district in Florida. Cross-tabulations and chi-square statistics were used to analyze the distribution of special education students by ethnicity/race, home language, ESOL status, and English proficiency level; risk ratio and relative risk ratio statistics were used to determine whether the district’s English Language Learners showed under, equal, or over-representation in special education high incidence disability categories. The results indicated that English Language Learners were at the greatest risk for being identified as Specific Learning Disabled when compared to the other learning disability categories, and English Language Learners with intermediate English proficiency levels were at a higher risk for being identified and placed in special education high incidence disability categories when compared to beginning and advanced level English Language Learners.

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When it comes to improving schools, context always matters (Murphy, 2013, p. 260). School leaders are "masters at brokering" (Murphy, 2013, p. 259) change. These changes are usually through the transfer of programs, interventions, and structures that worked elsewhere and pay little regard to the conditions and context that made them work (Murphy, 2013). School improvement reform will require "substantive systemic change" (Adelman and Taylor, 2007, p. 55) that considers the "current culture of schools and intended school improvements" (Adelman and Taylor, 2007, p. 56). This study will use a qualitative, multiple case-study methodology, a semi-structured interview protocol, and a document review to identify how school leaders in five, accredited high or mid-high poverty Virginia middle schools both identified and provided resources to address barriers to student learning. The instrumentation tool for this study was based on the learning or enabling components of the Adelman and Taylor improvement model (2008). The tool was used to qualify the school leaders' site-based school resource allocation and then analyzed for common themes. The study found that some learning or enabling supports were more represented than others. The study also found that there were three key leadership traits among school leaders who had effectively resourced the learning supports: instructional leadership; human-resource leadership; and culture and expectations leadership. Implications from this study include the need for further research on models for school improvement that require schools and districts to identify, plan, and provide for barriers to student learning. A second implication is the need for further study on leadership traits that might exist in school leaders who not only recognize but are able to inspire the implicit and explicit need to plan and provide for overcoming barriers to student learning. / Doctor of Education / The process of improving schools is important. The decision-making and school improvement structures that most schools employ is one that focuses mainly on classroom instruction with little regard to planning for students who may struggle because of outside barriers, like the effects of poverty, lack of exposure to background knowledge, or insufficient schooling and experiences. This study used a qualitative, multiple case-study methodology, a semi-structured interview protocol, and a document review to identify how school principals in five, accredited high or mid-high poverty Virginia middle schools both identified and provided resources to address barriers to student learning. The study used the learning or enabling components of the Adelman and Taylor improvement model (2008) to qualify the school leaders’ site-based school resource allocation and then analyzed them for common themes. The study found that some learning or enabling supports were more represented than others. The study also found that there were three key leadership traits among school leaders who had effectively resourced the learning supports: instructional leadership; human-resource leadership; and culture and expectations leadership.

The problem of this study was to determine whether differences exist between elementary and middle school campuses that participate in University Interscholastic League (UIL) academic activities and similar campuses that do not participate. The Texas Education Agency Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) furnished data from 1993 through 1997 for this ex post facto comparative research. Using all Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) scores for grades 3 through 8, economically disadvantaged population data, attendance rates and campus accountability ratings, 12 hypotheses and 4 research questions were addressed.