This study investigated the relationship between school building conditions and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania's high schools. Research questions analyzed by step-wise multiple regression were: (a) Is there a relationship between overall school building conditions and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania's high schools when socio-economic status (SES) is held constant?; (b) Is there a relationship between the cosmetic conditions of school facilities and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania's high schools when socio-economic status (SES) is held constant?; and (c) Is there a relationship between the structural conditions of school facilities and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania's high schools when socio-economic status (SES) is held constant? Two hundred and five randomly selected high schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were identified as the population for this study. Selected high school principals or principal designees were sent an on-line version of a modified Commonwealth Assessment of Physical Environment (CAPE) survey to ascertain information regarding the building conditions of their respective high schools. Student academic achievement data was measured by a three year scale score average of students' performance on the writing, reading and mathematics sections of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams. Socio-economic status (SES) was identified as the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch. This factor was used as a covariant to control academic achievement variance related to SES. A step-wise regression analysis identified that a relationship exists between high school building conditions and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania's high schools. As the building conditions in the participant high schools surveyed improved, a corresponding increase in the academic achievement of its students was noted. It did not appear to matter if the improvement in a school buildings condition was cosmetic or structural; any improvement in a school buildings condition was associated with an increase in student academic achievement. This would seem to indicate that a relationship exists between student academic achievement and school building conditions in Pennsylvania high schools. / Ed. D.

This study analyzed all published research articles examining the relationship between professional community efforts (plc) (used here as a broader category than, but inclusive of, Professional Learning Communities or PLCs) and student academic achievement (SAA) that reported primary research findings published before January 1, 2015. This study specifically identified primary, quantitative studies of SAA that in context are plc, but which may or may not be labeled as such, that were published before January 1, 2015. Analyses examined how many studies of plc and SAA were of a descriptive, correlational, causal comparative, quasi-experimental,or experimental design type, evaluated the internal validity of their findings, and assessed the generalizability of each study based on normative expectations of implementation and study design type. Each of the 57 studies meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated using a Design and Quality of Implementation Matrix. Findings indicated that none of 57 primary research efforts examining plc and SAA exhibited acceptable levels of generalizability. For articles demonstrating high design and implementation scores, threats to external validity are presented and discussed. Recommendations are provided for improving the generalizability of research in plc.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not a significant relationship exists between the implementation of the Morristown-Hamblen High School East (MHHSE) Freshman Academy, student academic achievement, and the high school graduation rate at MHHSE. The testing variables included GPA, attendance, number of core course failures, number of discipline referrals, English I End-of-Course test scores, and graduation rate. Grouping variables included 8th grade (pretreatment) and 9th grade (posttreatment) groups, preacademy and postacademy groups, socioeconomic status, and gender. Ten faculty members of the MHHSE Freshman Academy were interviewed to ascertain their perceptions about the smaller learning community concept. The population of the study was limited to students enrolled in the MHHSE Freshman Academy (2004-2008) and students enrolled at MHHSE 2 years prior to the implementation of the academy (2002-2004). Paired-samples t-tests were used to make comparisons between the same students on 8th grade (pretreatment) and 9th grade (posttreatment) measures. Independentsamples t-tests were used to make additional comparisons between different groups of students categorized according to socioeconomic status and gender, as well as preacademy and postacademy groups. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that the 9th grade transition year is a very difficult year for most students. Male students and those classified as economically disadvantaged develop additional risk factors during their freshmen year that might identify them as potential dropouts. The MHHSE Freshman Academy has had a positive effect on student academic performance and conduct as measured by the data analyses and teacher opinions.

Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / Education researchers are frequently interested in examining the causal impact of academic services and interventions; however, it is often not feasible to randomly assign study elements to treatment conditions in the field of education (Adelson, 2013). When assignment to treatment conditions is non-random, the omission of any variables relevant to treatment selection creates a correlation between the treatment variable and the error in regression models. This is termed endogeneity (Ebbes, 2004). In the presence of endogeneity, treatment effect estimates from traditionally used regression approaches may be biased. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal impact of an integrated student support model, namely City Connects, on student academic achievement. Given that students are not randomly assigned to the City Connects intervention, endogeneity bias may be present. To address this issue, two novel and underused statistical approaches were used with school admissions lottery data, namely Gaussian copula regression developed by Park and Gupta (2012), and Latent Instrumental Variable (LIV) regression developed by Peter Ebbes (2004). The use of real-world school admissions lottery data allowed the first-ever comparison of the two proposed methods with Instrumental Variable (IV) regression under a large-scale randomized control (RCT) trial. Additionally, the researcher used simulation data to investigate both the performance and boundaries of the two proposed methods compared with that of OLS and IV regression. Simulation study findings suggest that both Gaussian copula and LIV regression are useful approaches for addressing endogeneity bias across a range of research conditions. Furthermore, simulation findings suggest that the two proposed methods have important differences in their set of identifying assumptions, and that some assumptions are more crucial than others. Results from the application of the Gaussian copula and LIV regression in the City Connects school lottery admissions study demonstrated that receiving the City Connects model of integrated student support during elementary school has a positive impact on mathematics achievement. Such findings underscore the importance of addressing out-of-school barriers to learning. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

影響學生學業成就因素，是值得關注的議題。本研究欲瞭解教育指標和家庭資本對學生學業成就之間的影響關係，以臺灣、日本、韓國、美國和義大利五個國家已公佈的教育指標資料和TIMSS 2007資料庫問卷調查結果的24383份追蹤樣本，進行現況分析、變異數分析、相關分析、多元逐步回歸分析、結構方程式分析，結果發現： 一、教育指標中，在學率和數學及科學學業成就為正相關。中等教育師生比、識字率、教育經費占國民所得比與數學及科學學業成就為負相關。 二、教育指標對數學學業成就的解釋變異量為25%，對科學學業成就的解釋變異量為9.7%。 三、家中藏書量和學習資源對數學及科學學業成就的變異數分析中可得知擁有越多藏書和資源的組別大於擁有較少藏書和資源的組別。 四、父母親學歷對數學及科學學業成就的變異數分析中可得知美國在此分析中未達顯著，臺灣、日本、韓國和義大利都是學歷越高的組別大於學歷低的組別。 五、自我期望對數學及科學的學業成就的變異數分析中可得知自我期望越高學歷的組別大於自我期望低學歷的組別，但美國學生在數學及科學學業成就及韓國學生在數學學業成就的自我期望皆以「不知道」的組別最高。 六、家長支持對學生數學及科學學業成就的變異數分析可得知家長支持度高的組別普遍大於支持度低的組別，但是義大利的家長支持在數學及科學學業成就和臺灣的家長支持在科學學業成就上都是支持度最高的組別小於支持度最低的組別。 七、家長參與對學生數學及科學學業成就的變異數分析可得知家長參與度高的組別普遍大於參與度低的組別，但是臺灣的家長參與在科學學業成就上是參與度最高的組別小於參與度最低的組別。 八、家庭資本和學業成就之間的相關分析可得到母親學歷和學業成就無關，家庭資本變項中的自我期望與數學學業成就也無關，父親學歷與學業成就為負相關，其它變項與學業成就為正相關。 九、家庭資本對學業成就的解釋變異量以台灣最高，家庭資本對數學學業成就的解釋變異量為27.5%，對科學學業成就的解釋變異量為28.8%。 十、由SEM結果得知家庭資本中的家長支持和家長參與對數學及科學學業成就未達顯著差異。教育指標和家庭資本對學業成就具有一定的解釋力。 依據上述研究結果將提出相關結論與建議以供參考。 / The issue of student achievement has been concerned. In this research, will focus on the relationships between educational indicators and family capital on student academic achievement, the participants include students in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Italy. The published educational indicators and TIMSS 2007 survey results of 24,383 samples for the analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, stepwise multiple regression, structural equation modeling found that: 1. The relationship between educational indicators, student academic achievement in mathematics and science as a positive. Secondary education teacher/ student ratio, literacy, education expenditure/ GDP ratio of and academic achievement in mathematics and science as a negative. 2. The educational indicators of academic achievement in mathematics accounts for 25% variance, in science accounts for 9.7% variance. 3. In analysis of variance, the collection of books and learning resources on academic achievement in mathematics and science indicate that a group has more is higher than the group has fewer. 4. In analysis of variance, parental education on academic achievement in mathematics and science find that in United States is not significant in this analysis. In Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Italy, groups of higher education is the highest. 5. In analysis of variance, self expectation on academic achievement in mathematics and science indicate that a group with high self expectation is highest, but U.S. students in math and science academic achievement and Korea students in mathematics can find out that the students who "do not know" is the highest group. 6. In analysis of variance, parental support in student academic achievement in mathematics and science that groups with high parental support is higher than those with low parental support, but parental support on student academic achievement in mathematics and science in Italy, and parental support on academic achievement in science in Taiwan indicate that the highest group is less than the lowest one. 7. In analysis of variance, parental involvement in student academic achievement in mathematics and science that groups with high parental involvement is higher than those with low parental involvement, but in Taiwan, parental involvement on academic achievement in science indicate that the highest group is less than the lowest one. 8. The correlations between family capital and student academic achievement indicate that mother’s education is in no relation with academic achievement in mathematics and science, self-expectation is in no relation with mathematics academic achievement, the relationship between father’s education and academic achievement is negative, other variables and academic achievements is positive. 9. The variance of family capital in academic achievement in Taiwan is the highest: 27.5% in mathematics and 28.8% in science. 10. SEM results show that parental support and parental involvement is in no relationship with academic achievement in math and science. Educational indicators and family capital on academic achievement can be explained. Based on the results of the study, conclusions and recommendations will be presented for reference. Key words: Educational indicator, Family capital, Student academic achievement, TIMSS 2007.

This study explored the role of school-based teacher financial incentives on student academic achievement. Despite great efforts made by Zimbabwean government towards improving the education system in terms of infrastructure development and increasing number of schools, prior and after 1980, not much attention had been paid to the role of teachers’ extra-financial incentives on enhancing teacher motivation which leads to student achievement in and outside classroom situation. Extra-financial incentives differ from government to government depending on the revenue base and political will by such governments to support these teacher incentives programmes. In developed countries, respective governments pay different teacher incentives while in developing countries, parents/guardians or School Development Committees (SDCs) shoulder the burden. This study contented that one of the ways to improve student achievement has been payment of school-based teacher incentives to supplement teachers’ low salaries. While the need to adequately compensate teachers had been a worldwide phenomenon, this is in contrast to Zimbabwean experience after 2014, when Government of National Unity (GNU) came to an end. Zimbabwean government banned payment of teacher incentives under unclear reasons which were widely purported to be political. This research adopted a qualitative approach and as such, collection of primary and secondary data were done using multiple data collection techniques. Techniques included interviews with key informants, focus group discussions and open ended questionnaires in selected secondary schools. Results from this study revealed that improving teacher motivation through school-based incentives had been central to improved student achievement. In schools where teacher incentive system was practiced pass-rates increased, with a sudden decline when teacher incentives were banned. Banning or lack of properly designed incentive systems, where teachers were consulted, was seen as negatively affecting student achievement in selected secondary schools of Makoni District. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Socio-Education)

Career Academy instructors’ technical literacy is vital to the academic success of students. This nonexperimental ex post facto study examined the relationships between the level of technical literacy of instructors in career academies and student academic performance. It was also undertaken to explore the relationship between the pedagogical training of instructors and the academic performance of students. Out of a heterogeneous population of 564 teachers in six targeted schools, 136 teachers (26.0 %) responded to an online survey. The survey was designed to gather demographic and teaching experience data. Each demographic item was linked by researchers to teachers’ technology use in the classroom. Student achievement was measured by student learning gains as assessed by the reading section of the FCAT from the previous to the present school year. Linear and hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine the research questions. To clarify the possibility of teacher gender and teacher race/ethnic group differences by research variable, a series of one-way ANOVAs were conducted. As revealed by the ANOVA results, there were not statistically significant group differences in any of the research variables by teacher gender or teacher race/ethnicity. Greater student learning gains were associated with greater teacher technical expertise integrating computers and technology into the classroom, even after controlling for teacher attitude towards computers. Neither teacher attitude toward technology integration nor years of experience in integrating computers into the curriculum significantly predicted student learning gains in the regression models. Implications for HRD theory, research, and practice suggest that identifying teacher levels of technical literacy may help improve student academic performance by facilitating professional development strategies and new parameters for defining highly qualified instructors with 21st century skills. District professional development programs can benefit by increasing their offerings to include more computer and information communication technology courses. Teacher preparation programs can benefit by including technical literacy as part of their curriculum. State certification requirements could be expanded to include formal surveys to assess teacher use of technology.