published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Evaluation is not unfamiliar : educators in classrooms use constant feedback from learners as the basis for self-evaluation. What may be less familiar is for groups of educators in a school to carry out a self-evaluation or experience a whole-school evaluation process, which in the latter case means more than a single educator. Whether familiar or not school evaluation has increased in importance in recent years, particularly at the level of the whole school. The introduction of WSE, notwithstanding its worthy intentions, has proved to be a contentious issue for educator unions, which expressed considerable reservation both about which led to the introduction of WSE and the underlying purposes of the process. In addition, there is no widely available, if any, assessment of the success or failure of the pilot project. Within this broad context, this small-scale research project, subject to limitations, attempts to investigate the experiences and reactions of one school in which an attempt has been made to implement the process. Based upon the responses of the participants in this research study, it became clear that there is a desire to be involved in the traditions of 'school improvement'. If one assumes that the sample group is representative of stakeholders at the pilot school, then this study believes that some important principle of WSE are implicit in the way things are now being done and thought of at the school. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The search for instructional methodologies which maximize student achievement has been of central concern to educators for many years. Intensified by the recent focus on staff development and school reform initiatives, this search has begun to produce models for school improvement. The majority of the research studies on these models have centered on the academic achievement of inner-city elementary school students in reading and math. One effort to operationalize the research findings has been the instructional model developed by Dr. Madeline Hunter. The few research studies which have been done on her model focus on the effects of teacher training on teacher performance at the elementary level and on student achievement in reading and mathematics. Claims about the effectiveness of teacher training at the secondary level across a wide variety of subject areas and on selected student variables have not been thoroughly substantiated. It was the purpose of this study to determine if the Instructional Effectiveness Model of Madeline Hunter could be applied at the secondary level and to determine what effects the training would have on teacher performance and on selected student variables. This study was conducted employing 14 secondary school teachers, seven in the experimental group and seven in the control group. one class from each teacher's schedule was videotaped prior to and after training. Using the Instructional Skills Observation Instrument each videotape was scored by outside observers. Teachers in the experimental group were also presented with four questionnaires which were used to determine the teacher's perceptions of the content and process of the training sessions. Students in each class (N= 245) were measured in regard to class attendance, number of class discipline referrals, class grade point average, class attitude, and class achievement. In addition, four students from each teacher's class (56 students in total) were interviewed to determine their opinion of how the training affected them. The information obtained from the classroom observations, teacher questionnaires and student interviews was supplemented by ethnographic data. The findings indicated that the teachers in the experimental group did not teach differently than teachers in the control group. The findings also indicated that the selected secondary students of teachers in the experimental group did not differ from selected secondary students of teachers in the control group in overall class attendance, class grade point average, class attitude, and class achievement. There was a significant difference in overall number of class discipline referrals by sex. The correlation between the teacher's performance score as measured on the ISOI and their mean class score on each of the student variables was not significant. The findings from the ethnographic data corroborated the quantitative findings. / Ed. D.

Schools are among the most important contributors to human capital development. Over the past few decades, the education sector has witnessed two significant trends that highlight the complex challenges and opportunities that schools currently face. First, there is a growing concern over the quality of the public school system. In response, school choice initiatives have become increasingly common, proposed as a means to introduce competitive forces into the education market, thereby incentivizing incumbent schools to enhance their quality. Second, the impact of climate change on human capital development has become increasingly apparent. The education system is particularly vulnerable to disruptions caused by climate-induced adverse events, such as natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks, which are growing more frequent and severe. This dissertation examines the consequences of these two important trends, aiming to provide insights into their implications for education policy. In the first chapter, I study the impact of competitive pressures on school resource allocation and the consequent impact on student achievement. Using administrative data in North Carolina, I examine the impact of nearby charter openings on the class structure and the allocation of teachers to students within traditional public schools (TPSs). I find that TPSs experience a significant attrition of teachers and a disproportionate exodus of economically advantaged and high-achieving students to charter schools. Subsequently, TPSs reduce the number of classes, resulting in a significant increase in both class size and the student-teacher ratio. Faced with the dual pressures of enlarged class sizes and the necessity of maintaining school proficiency rates dictated by accountability systems, TPSs undertake measures to enhance the allocation equity and efficiency of teaching resources. This involves a strategic reassignment of more high-quality teachers to disadvantaged students, and the enhancement in teacher-student racial matching. These effects remain consistent after accounting for changes in the composition of both teachers and students at the school level before and after the introduction of charter schools. Exposure to charter schools does not significantly affect the average standardized test scores in Math for TPSs, but it does lead to a noticeable increase in school proficiency rates. The second chapter studies the implications of alternative school choice designs for the equity and efficiency in the allocation of teachers within TPSs. This chapter develops and estimates an empirical model of school choice and school competition to characterize how TPSs reallocate teachers to students in response to competitive forces from charter schools, and the subsequent impacts on the distribution of student academic performance. I use administrative data from North Carolina to estimate the model with standard structural model estimation techniques. I utilize the model to assess the policy implications of expanding charter schools, decomposing the policy's effects into those stemming from student sorting and those from the reallocation of teachers (via the competition channel). I find that expanding the charter school sector effectively enhances equity in the distribution of high-quality teachers within TPSs and reduces achievement gaps, primarily through the competition channel. Additionally, optimizing the matching process between teachers and students can further facilitate allocative efficiency as a result of this policy. The third chapter focuses on the distributional effects of climate change on human capital development, with an acute emphasis on the suffering of the most disadvantaged students. We examine the causal effect of unexpected school closures due to wildfires on student academic achievement and the underlying mechanisms. We exploit exogenous variation in the intensity of wildfire school closures in California between 2009 and 2017 as a natural experiment. We find that wildfire school closures have negative effects on both English language arts and Math test scores. Students with lower socioeconomic status experience larger negative effects from such unexpected closures. Furthermore, we show that school time loss and air pollution are two important mechanisms contributing to the decline we measure in student achievement.

The purpose of this research is three-folded. First, it aims to study the complex and organic interaction of SSE in the school contexts with reference to uniqueness of Policy, Place and People. Second, it intends to provide a new perspective for the theoretical debate between the managerialists and the critical performativists on the perceived effects of SSE on school improvement or managerial control. Third, it aims at providing an answer to the theoretical debate on the implementation approach of SSE from the top-down, bottom-up or hybrid approaches in policy studies. In this regard, this study presents three research questions: 1. From the perspective of teacher administrators and teachers, how was SSE implemented in the three sample schools? 2. From the perspective of teacher administrators and teachers, what were the perceived effects and/or consequences of SSE? 3. Given these implementation experiences and perceptions, how could the implementation of SSE be accounted for from the perspectives of policy implementation within the policy studies in education? This study was qualitative in nature. Only 3 selected secondary schools experiencing a complete cycle of External School Review (ESR) or Quality Assurance Inspection (QAI) and SSE were studied. The use of descriptive and exploratory approach was adopted. Qualitative design of the study provided a platform for closer exploration into their description of implementation process, perceived effects and implementation approaches of SSE. / The research has theoretical implications for the literature of policy implementation, literature of school administration, literature of perceived effects of SSE. Furthermore, this research has policy implications for policy instrumentalisations, policy alienation and instrumental rationalism and policy localisation at schools. Finally, this research ends with practical implications for school administrators. / The study investigates how teacher administrators and teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools experienced the implementation process of School Self-Evaluation (SSE), perceived the effects of SSE and described the implementation approach of SSE from the perspectives of policy implementation within the policy studies in education. Given that this area is under-researched in Hong Kong context, the study aims to add to the knowledge base of implementation process, perceived effects and implementation approach of SSE and inform policy administrators of SSE in the government and the schools. / There were three arguments made in this study. First, it argued that the implementation of SSE was an organic and complex interaction of the Policy to be implemented, Place where the policy embedded, and the People who implemented the policy. Second, this study argued that the debate between the managerialists and critical performativists might not be applicable to the Hong Kong context. Instead, it was found that the implementation situation of the school, the biographical and professional background of teachers in which they grew up and socialised and the position of a teacher shaped the perception lens of teachers, through which they perceived the effects of SSE on school improvement or managerial control. The last contribution of this study was to provide interpretations to account for the implementation of SSE. It was argued that the implementation of SSE was neither accounted by the top-down, bottom-up or hybrid approaches, but the complexity of the implementation context including the Policy to be implemented, the Place and the People who implemented the policy. / Wong, Wai Lun. / Advisers: Wing-kwong Tsang; Leslie Lo. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-02, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 393-433). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Submitted by Maria de Lourdes Mariano (lmariano@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-18T17:39:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 NOGUEIRA_Danielle_2015.pdf: 13929503 bytes, checksum: 6c1c668a5af79ad2dc2030614419188d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria de Lourdes Mariano (lmariano@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-18T17:39:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 NOGUEIRA_Danielle_2015.pdf: 13929503 bytes, checksum: 6c1c668a5af79ad2dc2030614419188d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria de Lourdes Mariano (lmariano@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-18T17:39:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 NOGUEIRA_Danielle_2015.pdf: 13929503 bytes, checksum: 6c1c668a5af79ad2dc2030614419188d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-18T17:39:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NOGUEIRA_Danielle_2015.pdf: 13929503 bytes, checksum: 6c1c668a5af79ad2dc2030614419188d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-12 / Não recebi financiamento / This study aims to understand the sense made by teachers about the external evaluation called SARESP (São Paulo State System of School Performance Evaluation) in a priority public school in São Paulo?s countryside. Theoretical support are used some authors who are dedicated to assessing the theme as Freitas, Barriga and Luckesi. In order to understand the meanings produced by teachers, this research opt for the qualitative methodology, case study, in which I propose to analyze the speeches of the subjects involved in this school context for understanding the relationship between the events described and the school failed, Since the school is considered a priority for the Secretary of Education of São Paulo (SEE-SP) due to low results obtained in SARESP. In this analysis I appropriate the concept of sense and meaning proposed by Vygotsky to understand from their comments, to the methodological construction of the research I appropriate to Lüdke, André and Certeau and discussion about school failure and use as a reference Esteban Patto. The data and analysis from the theoretical framework and statements of the teachers, signal the blame teachers for the results of this assessment creating a network of guilty that begins by category, but evolves in the use of their tactics to a larger share of blame for the Portuguese language and mathematics teachers. In the culprits game apex is the student himself in the individualization of failure, institutionalized as intellectual deficient. The data also led us to the need to understand what becomes the intellectual deficiency, understood as an element of materiality of school failure in this dissertation / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo compreender os sentidos produzidos pelos professores sobre a avaliação externa SARESP (Sistema de Avaliação do Rendimento Escolar de São Paulo) em uma escola prioritária da Rede Estadual do interior de São Paulo. Como suporte teórico é utilizado alguns autores que se dedicam a temática da avaliação como Freitas, Barriga e Luckesi no campo da avaliação. A fim de compreender os sentidos produzidos pelos professores, nessa pesquisa opto pela metodologia qualitativa e estudo de caso, no qual me proponho à análise das falas dos sujeitos envolvidos nesse contexto da escola para entender a relação entre a avaliação externa e o fracasso escolar. Nessa análise me aproprio do conceito de sentido e significado proposto por Vigotsky para a compreensão das falas dos sujeitos; para a construção metodológica da pesquisa me aproprio de Lüdke, André e Certeau; e para discussão sobre o fracasso escolar utilizo como referencial Esteban e Patto. Os dados obtidos e sua análise, a partir do referencial teórico e das falas dos professores, sinalizam a responsabilização dos professores pelos resultados dessa avaliação criando uma rede de culpados que se inicia pela categoria, mas evolui no uso de suas táticas para uma parcela representada pelos professores de Língua Portuguesa e Matemática. No ápice do jogo de culpados se encontra o próprio aluno na individualização do fracasso, institucionalizado como deficiente intelectual. Os dados também nos levaram à necessidade de compreender o que vem a ser a deficiência intelectual, compreendida como um dos elementos da materialidade do fracasso escolar nesta dissertação

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-26T10:03:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcela Araujo de Mello Lemos.pdf: 5272715 bytes, checksum: 7059c0319546ce9da11db6e50706835e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-26T10:03:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcela Araujo de Mello Lemos.pdf: 5272715 bytes, checksum: 7059c0319546ce9da11db6e50706835e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-17 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The study aims to analyze geography curriculum of São Paulo state, as product of the 2008 São Paulo Faz Escola program, from SARESP evaluation applied to elementary school between 2009 and 2013. To achieve this goal, the following documents were consult as a primary source: Curricular Proposal of São Paulo State (2010), Array of Reference for Evaluation – SARESP (2009), SARESP Educational Reports (2009, 2010 and 2013) and Geography Notebooks for Teachers (2014). Finally, the Students Newspaper (2008) as secondary source. This research justifies the relevance when considering that the São Paulo Faz Escola program, created by the government of São Paulo state in 2008, aimed at improving the quality of education in accordance with the proposals linked to the interests of the major international institutions, like the World Bank. Therefore, the hypothesis is that SARESP is an assessment designed to shape the curriculum. This hypothesis confirmed when noticed the poor quality of the items produced for evaluation, containing conceptual errors and incompatibility between the skill and the theme of the question. In addition, the Array of Reference for Evaluation containing the guidelines for the SARESP was a document prepared and published before the Curricular Proposal of São Paulo, configuring this curriculum as assessed conformed to the reports of international institutions / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o currículo de Geografia do estado de São Paulo, constituído no programa São Paulo Faz Escola, de 2008, a partir da avaliação SARESP de Geografia aplicada para o Ensino Fundamental II, entre os anos de 2009 e 2013. Para atingir este objetivo, foram consultados os seguintes documentos como fonte primária: Proposta Curricular do Estado de São Paulo (2008 e 2010), Matriz de Referência para Avaliação – SARESP (2009), Relatórios Pedagógicos do SARESP dos anos de 2009, 2011 e 2013 e os Cadernos do Professor de Geografia de 2014 e Jornais do Aluno de EF II que datam de 2008, como fonte secundária. Justifica-se, então, a relevância desta pesquisa ao se considerar que o programa São Paulo Faz Escola, criado pelo governo do estado de São Paulo em 2008, teve como objetivo a melhoria da qualidade da educação de acordo com as propostas ligadas aos interesses dos grandes órgãos internacionais, como Banco Mundial. Sendo assim, levanta-se como hipótese a ideia de que o SARESP é uma avaliação elaborada para modelar o currículo. Esta hipótese foi confirmada, quando se percebeu a baixa qualidade das questões produzidas para a avaliação, contendo erros conceituais da disciplina e incompatibilidade entre a habilidade e o tema da questão. Além disso, a Matriz de Referência para Avaliação contendo as orientações para o SARESP foi um documento elaborado e publicado antes da Proposta Curricular do Estado de São Paulo, configurando este currículo como avaliado e que obedece aos ditames do mercado internacional