This study examines the role of the Campus Technologist in diffusing innovation at the Central Texas High School. The study defines the CT position, its evolution and the effects of the position on the diffusion of innovation. The study further examines the relationship of the CT with the facilitation, infusion and integration of technology in the classroom at the Central Texas High School. Interview and survey data from both the CT and the faculty provided insight and findings that indicate the role of the CT has evolved. The evolution of the CT position was found to be characterized as three distinct roles a pedagogy specialist, a content specialist and a technology specialist. The study also investigated teacher perception, utilization frequencies and data patterns in relationship to the role of the CT at the Central Texas High School. Finally, the study examined technology integration in the classroom and provided findings in a frequency distribution of technology application practices and integration applications by teachers in their classrooms at the Central Texas High School.

This analysis of California's Public School Accountability Act (PSAA) and the federal government's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation reviews the components, implementation timelines, and impact these two accountability policies have had on secondary schools and more specifically secondary schools located in Tulare and Kings Counties of the San Joaquin Valley of California. The study identifies both Immediate Intervention for Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP) schools and similar schools that did not elect to enter the program Non-II/USP schools. Quantitative analysis of Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) from 1999 to 2006 is statistically compared. Summary interviews with site administrators from all schools within the study reflect how these two populations II/USP schools and Non-II/USP schools addressed the requirements and met the challenges of the PSAA and NCLB legislation. Conclusions draw into question the state and federal legislations implementation timeline, readiness to support changes needed in the secondary schools starting in 1999, and recognition of communication issues with secondary schools concerning the expectations of the accountability legislation. Finally, issues are outlined concerning the effectiveness of the timeline and funding process associated with the state sanctions of II/USP and SAIT programs.

This study was designed to examine computer based instruction in the 9-12 public high school. All high schools included in the study were part of the original Digital High School grants, and had a student population of over 1000 students. The purposes of the study were to examine factors affecting technology implementation, to explore how teacher attitudes, expertise, and cultural and pedagogical beliefs affected adoption, to determine how critical staff development and resources were in successful implementation, and to investigate organizational variables that were in place for successful adoption of computer based instruction. The study was conducted using Everett Rogers' five stages of the innovation-decision process. Nine technology coordinators were interviewed for this study. Following the interviews, 13 categories emerged and a grounded theory was formed. The study concluded with five recommendations for practitioners who would like to successfully implement technology on their school sites.

This research examines the practices of Title I school principals. The purpose of this research is to examine schools with strong AYP scores to understand the reasons for their success, the teacher's roles, the principal's role, and the process of change initiated by each principal. The schools that have been included in the study are Title I Elementary/Middle Schools in Northern California with at least a 30% Latino population. The researcher was able to develop a working model for school improvement called the "Good School Functional Model" through extensive data analysis. This model identifies the common attributes of these schools that have enabled them to become successful.

Title II of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is intended to increase student academic achievement through strategies such as improving teacher quality and increasing the number of "highly qualified teachers" (HQTs) in the classroom. This Federal policy relies on educational research that demonstrates a connection between student achievement and teacher quality. Although NCLB considers each route that teachers may take to meet HQT requirements as equivalent, research demonstrates that some routes may foster higher student achievement than others; those teachers, who met HQT requirements through these routes, are referred to in this study as "research-based HQTs" (RB-HQTs). The quantitative phase of this mixed methodology explores how northern California secondary mathematics teachers in suburban, urban, and rural schools meet "highly qualified teacher" requirements. The subsequent qualitative phase explores the challenges and promising practices in retention and recruitment of RB-HQTs used by those mathematics departments identified as having a "common" or "distinguished" profile of each respective suburban, urban, or rural sub-sample. This study identifies and reports eight strategies used by mathematics departments that have demonstrated success in retention and recruitment of RB-HQTs. The eight identified strategies, when implemented individually or collectively, may increase the proportion of RB-HQTs and improve student academic achievement in each mathematics department across northern California secondary schools, be it suburban, urban, or rural.

The purpose of this study was to identify the family literacy practices of low socioeconomic, LEP, Hispanic families, with parents who had low levels of parental education and whose children were successful in math and reading. An ethnographic approach was employed by the researcher to gather, collect and analyze the data. The researcher interviewed and observed the home environment of 10 Hispanic families with deficit factors whose children were successful students in math and reading. Additional interviews of 5 experienced Bilingual Certified Language Acquisition Development [BCLAD] teachers were conducted. A discussion of the results reviewed findings of interest from the study. These findings were as follows: (a) families implemented a variety of purposeful and effective strategies within the context of their home environment to support and develop their children's Spanish and English literacy, as well as their own; (b) families and school shared common expectations and values in regards to academic achievement; (c) families aspired to a better life; and (d) the effectiveness of the school in providing resources to meet the needs of children and parents contributed to the families' efforts to support and develop literacy. The relationship between the findings of the study and prior research have also been included in the discussion section. This study provided school administrators with recommendations to assist families with deficit factors in their efforts to foster their children's success in math and reading. Suggestions for additional research were also offered.

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine if the knowledge of literacy development and reading instruction practices an elementary school principal possesses impacts the level of reading achievement of his/her students. Principals' scores on an assessment of knowledge of literacy development and instruction were compared to students' levels of reading achievement found on the California Standards Test. High poverty/low performing schools were compared to high poverty/high performing schools to determine if the students' performance varied based on the administrator's knowledge. Leadership characteristics from directive to non-directive were examined to see if there was a difference in students' literacy achievement based on leadership styles. Finally levels of principals' knowledge and leadership were compared to determine if a correlation existed. Schools determined to be high poverty/high performing and schools determined to be high poverty/low performing were identified. School site administrators from the selected schools were asked to provide an assessment of their knowledge of literacy development and instruction and to identify their primary style of leadership. The research found that there were no significant differences in student reading achievement based on principals' knowledge of literacy development and instruction or based on leadership styles. The research also found to no significant correlation between leadership styles and student achievement in reading. The research found no significant differences in principal knowledge at high performing schools versus low performing schools. Finally, the research found no significant correlation between an elementary principal's leadership style and knowledge of literacy development and literacy instruction. The research did suggest a possible correlation between the length of time an administrator served at a school site and student achievement in reading.

In 1999, the United States Department of Education began its Small Learning Community Program in an effort to support the breakup of large schools into smaller learning communities. In an effort to improve the academic success rate of students, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB had as its purpose, the closing of the gap in academic achievement between White students and the historically underserved student groups of African American, Hispanic/Latino(a), and low-income. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in how small learning environments effect the academic achievement of historically underserved students. In addition, several school districts, e.g. Chicago Public Schools, New York City, and Sacramento City Unified School District, have reformed their schools into comprehensive high schools with Small Learning Communities (SLCs) and small schools. Determining which of these two small learning environments is most effective in improving academic achievement can then be used to inform education policy regarding school design. This study used quantitative methods to determine if there is a difference in the academic achievement of African American high school students attending large urban high schools with small learning communities and those attending small urban high schools with student populations under 500. Independent samples t -tests were performed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in the English Language Arts and Algebra 1 California Standards Test scores between African American high school students attending SLCs and African American high school students attending small schools. Additionally the research focused on the difference in the graduation and dropout rates between the two small learning environments. In none of the four measures of academic achievement studied did African American students in the large high schools with small learning communities outperform students in small schools. Based on the findings of this research—lower dropout rates, higher CST scores, and higher graduation rates in the small schools, school districts might consider creating small schools rather than breaking up large schools into SLCs.

This multiple case study explores the supervisory and evaluative roles of three elementary school site administrators in relation to the literacy pull-out programs on each school site. These three administrators all worked at sites with low SES student populations yet had attained high standardized testing scores as compared to comparable schools in the state of California. Cross-case analysis found that these three administrators all had a strong knowledge base in the area of literacy development. They used this knowledge base as the foundation for the supervision and evaluation of literacy programs on their sites. As instructional leaders, they reflected upon individual student data and monitored the literacy programs in an ongoing manner. The cyclic nature of the supervision and evaluation allowed them to continually improve instruction for their at-risk students.

This study examined whether two selected metacognitive classroom instructional strategies, attributional retraining instruction (ARI) and self-management (SM) training, improve the academic performance of three selected learning disabled (LD) African American high school male students enrolled in the ninth grade of a comprehensive urban high school located in the county of Los Angeles. A single-subject design was used to examine the selected interventions in a self-contained math instructional special education classroom. The participating special education teacher received trainings on how to implement the interventions in her classroom setting. This study replicated Barry and Messer's (2003) method of measuring academic performance by having the participating teacher design a point system that separately considered percentage of completeness of assignments and correct answers on all classroom assignments. The researcher also administered Likert-type scales to assess both the participating students' and the teacher's level of satisfaction with the interventions. The results of the study suggested the selected metacognitive strategies were both effective in promoting the academic performance of the selected participants. The desirable outcome was also maintained following the intervention phase. The surveys revealed the participating students and the teacher found the interventions to be favorable. The results of the study add to the existing literature suggesting both ARI and SM as viable classroom instructional interventions to promote the academic achievement of LD African American students. Implications for research and practice are discussed. The author also provided a synthesis which summarized historical perspectives and current knowledge about the multifaceted limitations of the current special education model when it comes to serving the students targeted in the study and advocates for advancement in the field of educational administration by systematically incorporating metacognitive strategies in curriculum and instruction across special education and general education institutions.