Problem. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of elementary school teachers who had received intensive training in the Essential Elements of Instruction model, a teaching methodology composed of specific teacher behaviors. Teacher effectiveness was measured by analyzing student achievement results in reading. Procedure. Elementary teachers at specified grade levels in two selected school districts were divided into two groups: Group A, teachers who had received training in the Essential Elements of Instruction, and Group B, teachers who had not received this training. In School District I, a student population of approximately two hundred and twenty-five students was selected as the treatment group and a student population of approximately two hundred and ten students was selected as the control group. In School District II, a student population of approximately one hundred and forty-five students was selected as the treatment group and a student population of approximately one hundred and forty students was selected as the control group. The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (Form A-E) was used as the post test measure of achievement for all students. This test was used to determine if a teacher's training in the Essential Elements of Instruction model would result in greater student achievement gains as measured by the selected reading test. Results. The analysis of variance treatment of the data indicated that there were significant differences between the reading scores of students whose teachers had received training in the Essential Elements of Instruction model and those students whose teachers did not receive this training. Thus, the data did allow for the rejection of null Hypothesis 1. The analysis of variance treatment of the data indicated that there were no interaction effects of teacher training and student reading achievement by the grade level of the student, the socioeconomic level of the student, or the interaction of student grade level and student socioeconomic level. Thus, the data did not allow for the rejection of null Hypothesis 2, null Hypothesis 3 and null Hypothesis 4.

This quantitative, non-experimental study was conducted to investigate the link between school principal influence actions, climate, culture, and school performance. Additionally, this study sought to determine if the influence of these variables or the relationship among them is altered by individual and/or institutional characteristics. The first phase of the study was conducted to determine whether or not the Customer Survey aligned to distinct dimensions. Two factors were identified: Staff Attitudes and Student Disruptions. The second part used regression to examine the relationships among four constructs and test the seven hypotheses. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study explored how contextual factors influenced the effect of educational practices on student reading achievement and describes an alternative means of assessing educational programs under conditions of multiple-treatment interference and innovation diffusion. Over 1,500 reading teachers at 69 elementary schools within a large diverse district completed surveys regarding multiple aspects of the reading program, actions of their reading leaders, and instructional program coherence at their schools. Nearly 13,000 students in grades 2 through 5 were assigned to those teachers. Factor analyses were used to separately identify patterns within survey items that measured educational practices, leadership actions, and instructional program coherence. Then, the students' achievement gains were adjusted for the effects of fixed demographic and organizational variables through hierarchical linear modeling. Finally, classroom level relationships between the adjusted achievement gains, and subscales computed from the factors that were identified, were examined through a path analysis. Educational practices were found to align to six factors labeled Technology, Training Utility, Advanced Skills, Basic Skills, Grouping, and Assessment. Leadership actions were found to align to two factors labeled Relationship and Task. Fixed effects at the student, classroom, and school levels were found to have an impact on both the initial status and growth components of student achievement. In the path model, Task was found to have a significant direct effect on Advanced Skills, while the effect of Relationship on educational practices was partially mediated by Instructional Program Coherence. Both Advanced and Basic skills were found to have positive effects on Adjusted Gain when taught at the appropriate level, and negative effects, when taught at the inappropriate level. / Technology was found to facilitate Basic Skills instruction overall, with greater benefits seen at the upper grades. It was concluded the rates of use seen for Advanced and Basic skills instruction were similar at the three types of schools examined because of poor differentiation due to innovation diffusion. Teachers who perceived their leaders as supportive, tended to rate their schools as more coherent and training requirements as more appropriate, and used technology and assessment more often, leading to gains in student achievement. / by Steven M. Urdegar. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.