The pilot study involved ten experimental and ten control mainstreamed special needs students. Three negative behaviors, known as x, y, and z behaviors from the Teacher Questionnaire, were targeted and charted, initially, on No Effect, and then on Effect Charts. Also charted were four rating areas: academic achievement, self-esteem, misdirected learning activities, and negative social behaviors, in a range from one to ten. Both groups were administered the Weinberg Screening Affective Scale Modified Form and the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale. The experimental group were involved with a ten day mini course and workbooks and, later, teacher directed reality testing of the targeted behaviors at three different times over nonconsecutive five day period. Educators should be aware that dissonance manifested in academic dysfunction is the student's attempt to maintain consonance of his or her perceptions of failure. Academic dysfunction is based on Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory and Beck's (1979) cognitive therapy of depression. Academic dysfunction uses positive affect to reduce dysfunction and achieve consonance. Negative affect influences levels of success of middle school students. Academic dysfunction is an educationally related condition based on early childhood experiences of negative feedback by parents and significant others, and relates to the child's and the student's, success in thinking and doing. In the home, this is manifested by an inability to respond to the parent's satisfaction in parent-child relationships. The result is a lowering of self-esteem and the expectation of future failure. The condition continues in the school, manifested by non productive behavior, misdirected learning activities, and/or negative social behaviors. Amelioration is through positive affective teacher interaction with reality testing of student ability in the classroom, and a mini course which offers suggestions for study scheduling, evaluation of current school status and booklets concerned with: understanding the self, self-esteem, peer pressure, stress management, attitude, using imagination, managing time, improving personal skills, and talking about mental health. The assumption is that both home and school contribute to school failure. The school must offer failing students a means for overcoming academic dysfunction.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not components within middle school organizations promote and nurture efforts to implement collegial coaching programs. Three schools were selected on the basis of the following criteria: (1) the schools were middle schools, (2) coaching was in at least its third year of implementation, (3) the coaching concept encompassed a transaction among equals, and (4) the program was not related to staff evaluation. Data was collected at each site through interviews, direct observation and document review. Findings were reported using a cross-case analysis format in which cross case issues and information from the individual cases were dispersed throughout the data presentation in Chapter 4 and the data analysis in Chapter 5. The effects of teaming and common planning time on school climate and the enabling nature of enhanced levels of teacher empowerment were identified as powerful variables which contributed to the successful implementation of coaching programs at each site. Factors such as common planning time, supportive leadership, teacher accountability and empowerment in the areas of curriculum, scheduling, grouping, staff development, and staffing are analyzed. Ultimately the form of coaching in accepted use became much less formalized following the implementation period. As coaching becomes an accepted part of the fabric of the school, its practice becomes much more informal and focuses on the improvement of current instructional techniques. Time and the reluctance of teachers to assume quasi-administrative roles were found to be significant factors in this area. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

American employers are concerned that our schools are continuing to produce an increasing number of graduates who are undereducated, unskilled, and unable to cope with the needs of business in this technological age. Schools are struggling to become accountable and must recognize the problems that affect the performance and success of students in and out of school. This study focuses on the perceptions that secondary school students have of the training they receive for entry-level positions, how it affects their performance, and its relationship to the perceptions/expectations and level of satisfaction of employers in the workplace. A Likert-style rating scale was used to measure the students' and businesses' perceptions of the secondary school training. One hundred eighty-students and twenty-eight businesses participated in the surveys. Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics--frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion, Pearson correlations, cross-tabulations, and chi-squares. Four specific research questions guided the study. The analysis of the data indicated that the majority of students show positive perceptions toward their school training for entry-level positions. However, variables such as gender, grade level, ethnic background, academic achievement, and employment status influenced the perceptions held by students. There was a significant and positive relationship between students' academic achievement and their overall perceptions of their school academic training. A large proportion of the participating businesses showed negative perceptions toward the secondary school training for entry-level positions in the workplace. Variable factors such as in-service training and type of product produced influenced the businesses' perceptions. While businesses were satisfied with some aspects of the school training, the overall majority expressed dissatisfaction with such training and complained about spending thousands of dollars annually for in-service training. Data from the study indicate that indeed there is a mismatch between the training students receive in school and the skills needed for successful entry-level employment. The researcher supports the recommendation offered by both students and businesses that School-Business partnerships are needed for improvement of student training and their success in the workplace.

This study is an examination of the revised teacher evaluation procedures implemented by the Newton, Massachusetts public school department. The primary objective of the investigation was to determine how the participants, the teachers involved, viewed the pre-training, the common language features, the use of narrative evaluations, and the 'cycle' format proffered by Robert Goldhammer in his pioneering clinical supervision model designed at Harvard University in the mid 60's. An analysis of the literature critiques and presents clinical supervision models from Green Bay, Wisconsin and Avondale, Michigan, as well as research that documents the evolution of clinical supervision, and its adaptation by educators such as Madeline Hunter. Higher means were recorded by respondents who participated in pre-training workshops, conducted over a three year period, than those who did not on all survey items. Teachers felt that they benefited from the revised evaluation procedure using clinical supervision techniques. They found narrative evaluative reports more helpful, especially the female teachers. They were clearer on common language terms shared with their supervisors and they found evaluation less a source of anxiety than those who did not participate in the pre-training.

The Evolutionary Tool Kit, a new software package, is the prototype of a concept simulator providing an environment for students to create microworlds of populations of artificial organisms. Its function is to model processes, concepts and arguments in natural selection and evolutionary biology, using either Mendelian asexual or sexual reproduction, or counterfactual systems such as 'paint pot' or blending inheritance. In this environment students can explore a conceptual "What if?" in evolutionary biology, test misconceptions and deepen understanding of inheritance and changes in populations. Populations can be defined either with typological, or with populational thinking, to inquire into the role and necessity of variation in natural selection. The approach is generative not tutorial. The interface is highly graphic with twenty traits set as icons that are moved onto the 'phenotypes'. Activities include investigations of evolutionary theory of aging, reproductive advantage, sexual selection and mimicry. Design of the activities incorporates Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Draft of a teacher and student manual are included.

The concept of a school-business partnership offered education a tool to forge linkages with business organizations to smooth the transition from school to work for noncollege-bound students. Massachusetts became the first state to charter student branch banks under the sponsorship of a school-bank partnership. The purpose of the descriptive study was to document the initiation process that promotes the implementation of a public high school student branch bank with a collaborating financial partner. Using two dimensional samples of secondary administrators and financial executives, perceptions were obtained for clarification of four basic research questions: (1) How does the high school student-bank innovation become a component of the school curriculum? (2) What are the perceptions of educators and financial executives concerning their roles and responsibilities in the evolvement of a school-bank collaboration? (3) How does the school structure affect the learning environment of student branch bank (SBB) students? (4) How does the student-bank partnership contribute to the learning experience? Qualitative research methodology--including in-depth, semi-structured interviews; a survey questionnaire; field observations; and analysis of related documents--was used to collect data from 37 educators and 34 financial executives. Data gathered in the study indicated the catalysts of school-bank partnerships were mainly educators seeking to offer noncollege-bound students experiences to aid them in their transition from school to work. The research also showed that financial institutions used the student-branch-bank innovation as an investment in the youth of the community and as a future pool of trained, qualified teller-employees. The findings of the study revealed the success of welding the relationship between education and bank organizations rested heavily on leadership efforts to provide solutions to difficult problems, particularly those identified with scheduling and interorganizational communication. A review of literature covered the theoretical parameters of partnership, change, interorganizational relations, and leadership that were associated with innovation. Research design; data presentation and analysis; summary, conclusions, and recommendations; and further research implications are included in final chapters.

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of talk in peer instructional writing groups. It is concerned with the relationship of talk and various writing process activities to the construction of the community within the group and to the definition of social identity by the members of the peer group. The research question asked was "what norms of language use can be identified in the talk of peer writing groups, and for what purpose are the norms used by the group members?" The study was conducted in an English class at a regional vocational high school over a two and one half year period. The same peer writing group of four adolescent males was observed from tenth grade through twelfth grade. Data in the form of audio tapes, fieldnotes, and student writing was collected and then analyzed using a sociolinguistic based method of conversational coding and analysis. The purpose of the analysis was to identify norms of language use established by the members of the peer writing group, and to evaluate the purpose for which the norms were used. Eighteen norms of language use connected to writing process activities and storytelling in the group were identified. The findings suggest that talk within a peer writing group is being used for more than the accomplishment of the assigned task; the talk connected to the writing process activities is also being used to accomplish the construction of a language community within the group and to define the individual social identities of the peer group members. That the group established norms of language use for directing the talk within their group is significant, and that those norms were based upon aspects of the writing process and storytelling is important in that it indicates the existence of a means through which writing and social identity are connected.

The NCTM Standards have established new directions for math teaching and learning. The problem of implementation, particularly in urban school systems remains. This study focuses on an urban school system in Western Massachusetts. Of particular interest to the researcher is the lack of success of students in Algebra I. This particular course has traditionally been the pivotal course that determines if a student gets into and remains in the "College Preparatory" sequence. The fact that too many minority and women students are left out of these choices due to lack of mathematics preparation can be traced back to being left out of algebra in high school. What happened to these students? Why were they left out? Why is the failure rate nearly 45 percent in Algebra I in this public school system? Teachers working in the traditional classroom structure of the current school setting are isolated without opportunities to work in cooperation with other teachers. Without a process for sharing ideas and a method to support new teaching strategies, it will not be possible for the vision of the Standards to become a reality. The challenge for a supervisor is to bring the message of the Standards to the secondary mathematics teachers in an urban school system. This study develops and tests a supervision model, based on peer supervision, for the implementation of teaching strategies recommended in the Standards. The findings of this study show that peer supervision can help school systems bring new teaching strategies, like cooperative learning and hands-on activities, into its Algebra I classrooms.

The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study is to discover how toxic masculine beliefs manifest in English Language Arts curriculum content and instructional approaches in grades 9 through 12. Using Charmaz's (2014) constructivist methodological approach to grounded theory, the study explored the following central research question: How are toxic masculine beliefs manifested in secondary English Language Arts (9-12) curriculum content and instruction approaches in three states in the southeastern United States? Five thematic categories emerged from this study: (1) Characteristics of Masculine Beliefs in Curriculum; (2) Navigating Toxic Masculine Beliefs During Instruction; (3) Awareness and Agency of Teachers; (4) Awareness and Responses of Students, and (5) Endurance of Toxic Masculine Beliefs in Texts and Culture. These thematic categories serve as a theoretical framework for the emergent theory – Transactional Theory of Toxic Masculine Beliefs in Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum and Instruction – which can be used to further investigate the role toxic masculinity plays in the process of delivering curriculum and instruction in high school English Language Arts. The findings of this study bring awareness to ways in which toxic masculine beliefs are present in the literary texts included in secondary curriculum content and engaged with during instruction.

What are the sources of a teacher's commitment to lifelong learning and to reflection-in-action? In order to improve the quality of teacher training and development programs, we need to reach a better understanding about what motivates a teacher to develop and sustain a commitment to her own learning as well as a capacity to apply new learning, upon reflection, into action in the classroom. Applying case study methodology, the researcher will trace the "intellectual biographies" (Shulman, 1986) of four secondary teachers of English. The case study approach provides for hypothesis-generating, qualitative investigation. This particular investigation will take many forms: (1) a series of interviews with each subject; (2) a written narrative (a guided autobiography) of each subject; (3) field site (school and classroom observations; and (4) background questionnaires and inventories. The final data gathering mode will be a group meeting to discuss the researcher's findings. Her subsequent analysis of the data must also be confirmed by the subjects themselves if it is to have any validity. The goal of the project is to understand what experiences, influences, and responses in the lives of four teachers have contributed to their on-going productive involvement in professional development. Case study findings are instructive in their descriptions. The researcher's concrete and direct efforts will be to suggest the possibilities of transferring any lessons to be learned through the study of the lives of these four teachers to the design and implementation of teacher training and professional development programs.