This investigation was a synthesis of 35 research studies with a total sample size of 3,082 students selected on the basis of Witkin’s theory of Field Dependence-Independence. The Hunter-Schmidt approach to meta-analysis was used to determine if a difference in achievement exists between field dependent and field independent students within technology-based learning environments, and whether study, treatment or methodology variables influenced the effect size outcome. The results indicated an achievement difference in favor of field independent learners with a total mean weighted effect size of 0.426 and a pooled standard deviation of 0.311. However, a large proportion of population variance was not accounted for through statistical corrections. A subsequent moderator analysis indicated that the total heterogeneity for each moderator was significant; suggesting the variance among effect sizes was greater than could be expected by sampling error, and unidentified variables and study artifacts likely contributed to the overall effect size.

The purpose of this study was to review the empirical research evidence on the effect of teacher certification on student achievement. An exploratory meta-analysis was conducted on studies that examined the effect of fully certified and less-than-fully certified teachers on student achievement. The meta-analysis focused on the areas of mathematics, science and reading and explored trends across areas of achievement, school level and research design. The study was directed towards (a) a synthesis of findings, and (b) recommendations for future research and policy decisions.The meta-analysis population consisted of five individual studies that generated twenty-seven effect size estimates. Three studies utilized either an individual level or class level of analysis and yielded twelve mean difference effect size estimates. Two studies utilized either a school or state level of analysis and yielded fifteen correlational effect size estimates. The majority of findings in mathematics favor the positive effect of fully certified teachers. In science, the findings pointed towards equivalent levels of student achievement for fully certified and less-than fully certified teachers. All the findings associated with reading favored the positive effect of fully certified teachers. It appears that certification may be more crucial to student achievement in reading and mathematics than in science. Across school levels, the overall trend suggests that full certification may be more crucial to student achievement in elementary school than middle or high school. Across levels of analysis and research design, studies that utilize an aggregate level of analysis yield a greater number of positive study outcomes than designs conducted at the individual or class level. A key finding is that given the specifications of the meta-analysis, direct evidence of the relationship between certification and student achievement is limited to five peer-reviewed, published studies. Additional findings illuminated several issues that are vital to improving the quantity and quality of research on teacher certification. Eight specific recommendations were directed towards academic researchers who plan to study the topic. Four recommendations are directed towards policy-makers at the state and federal level who are involved in setting standards and planning legislation for educator preparation.

This investigation examined the impact on student achievement of teachers who participated in a professional development program using industry partnerships. One treatment and one non-treatment school in a large urban school district served as the sites for this inquiry with teacher participation in a professional development program and the achievement data of their science students being collected during the 2001-2002 school period. The impact of a teacher professional development program with industry partnerships such as Education for the Energy Industry (EEI) on student achievement in science was determined. National and state standardized tests were analyzed using extant data obtained from administering the fourth through the eighth grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) test and the eighth grade Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. The differential influence of a professional development program for teachers on the achievement of students of diversity was determined by the TAAS scores and ITBS scores, which were partitioned by treatment condition and student ethnicity. Findings from this quantitative investigation suggest enhanced student achievement in science if teachers participated in a professional development program involving industry partnerships.

Distributed Leadership is often considered an optimal form of leadership to improve student achievement. The challenge though is that previous research on distributed leadership has often described what distributed leadership is as opposed to what distributed leadership's impact on student achievement might be. Since leadership has an indirect effect on student achievement, exploring organizational factors that may have a more direct impact on student achievement is important. Academic optimism describes teachers' perceptions of the staff's collective efficacy, the trust experienced between teachers, and between teachers and administrators, and the extent to which academic press (high expectations) is evident in the school. Academic optimism is an organizational factor that improves student achievement according to previous research. This thesis examined patterns of distributed leadership and their correlation to academic optimism. Further I examined the impact that academic optimism has on student achievement. By surveying 2122 teachers in 113 schools in a large school board in south-central Ontario, I determined that planfully aligned distributed leadership had a significant correlation to academic optimism but academic optimism did not have a significant correlation to student achievement. Rather, academic press, one of the variables within academic optimism, did have a significant correlation to student achievement in language and math. This study concluded that planfully aligned distributed leadership mediated by academic press had a significant impact on student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between school facility conditions and school outcomes such as student academic achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate. School facility condition for the participating schools was determined by the Total Learning Environment Assessment (TLEA) as completed by the principal or principal’s designee on high school campuses in Texas with enrollments between 1,000 and 2000 and economically disadvantaged enrollments less than 40%. Each school in the study population was organized by grades nine through twelve. Data for achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate were collected through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) managed by the Texas Education Agency. Student achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate and their relation to school facilities were investigated using multiple regression models to compare sections and subsections of the TLEA with each of the five dependent variables. Major research findings of this study included the following: first, student achievement, attendance and completion rate measures were not found to be statistically significant in relation to school facility conditions as measured by the TLEA at the 0.05 level; second, discipline, or behavior, was found to be significantly related to the TLEA. This indicates that the subsections of the TLEA could be used to predict discipline factors for schools in the study population; third, teacher turnover rate was found to be related to the TLEA subsections of Specialized Learning Space and Support Space, with the correlation to Support Space being indirect. Literature from prior studies infers that relationships do exist between all five of the study’s dependent variables. However, this study only yielded significant findings in the areas of student discipline and teacher turnover. The researchers recommendations based upon this study include the following: administrators and designers should take into account factors such as interior environment and academic learning space when planning schools to positively impact student discipline; school design and construction should focus on specialized learning spaces and other academic areas more than administrative support spaces when striving to increase teacher satisfaction with physical working conditions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership responsibilities of Title I principals and student achievement. This study involved the analysis of the results of a 92 item survey sent to successful Title I principals. The 92 items were grouped into 21 leadership responsibilities, first and second order change. The first research question was an examination of the relationship between the 21 leadership responsibilities of Title I principals and student achievement. The overall indication is that a substantial relationship exists between the 21 Leadership responsibilities and combination reading and math averages. Fourteen leadership responsibilities were positively correlated to the overall achievement ranging from Input with r s = .169 to Focus with r s = .018. This indicates principals of successful Title I schools are proactive with their leadership which increases student overall achievement. The second research question was an examination of the most influential 21 leadership responsibilities of Title I schools student achievement in math and reading. The indication of influence of the 21 Leadership responsibilities and math was that a strong correlation does not exist. There are seven positively correlated leadership responsibilities ranging from r s = .103 to r s = .014 indicating student achievement is more affected by the educational conduct within the classroom compared to leadership of the principal (outside the classroom). There was a strong relationship between the leadership responsibilities and reading, with all 21 Leadership responsibilities being positively correlated. This indicates student achievement is dependent on the leadership of the principal to create a school or campus wide effort. The third research question was an examination of the relationship between the 21 leadership responsibilities and student achievement based on school size and demographics. The overall indication is that a relationship exists between student achievement and size of the school (r s = .187), math and population (r s = .234) and a particularly small correlation between reading and population (r s = .045). This finding suggests that the size of the school does matter with regard to overall (math and reading combined) and math student achievement of Title I schools.

The purpose of this study was to review the empirical research evidence on the effect of teacher certification on student achievement. An exploratory meta-analysis was conducted on studies that examined the effect of fully certified and less-than-fully certified teachers on student achievement. The meta-analysis focused on the areas of mathematics, science and reading and explored trends across areas of achievement, school level and research design. The study was directed towards (a) a synthesis of findings, and (b) recommendations for future research and policy decisions.The meta-analysis population consisted of five individual studies that generated twenty-seven effect size estimates. Three studies utilized either an individual level or class level of analysis and yielded twelve mean difference effect size estimates. Two studies utilized either a school or state level of analysis and yielded fifteen correlational effect size estimates. The majority of findings in mathematics favor the positive effect of fully certified teachers. In science, the findings pointed towards equivalent levels of student achievement for fully certified and less-than fully certified teachers. All the findings associated with reading favored the positive effect of fully certified teachers. It appears that certification may be more crucial to student achievement in reading and mathematics than in science. Across school levels, the overall trend suggests that full certification may be more crucial to student achievement in elementary school than middle or high school. Across levels of analysis and research design, studies that utilize an aggregate level of analysis yield a greater number of positive study outcomes than designs conducted at the individual or class level. A key finding is that given the specifications of the meta-analysis, direct evidence of the relationship between certification and student achievement is limited to five peer-reviewed, published studies. Additional findings illuminated several issues that are vital to improving the quantity and quality of research on teacher certification. Eight specific recommendations were directed towards academic researchers who plan to study the topic. Four recommendations are directed towards policy-makers at the state and federal level who are involved in setting standards and planning legislation for educator preparation.

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between school facility conditions and school outcomes such as student academic achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate. School facility condition for the participating schools was determined by the Total Learning Environment Assessment (TLEA) as completed by the principal or principal's designee on high school campuses in Texas with enrollments between 1,000 and 2000 and economically disadvantaged enrollments less than 40%. Each school in the study population was organized by grades nine through twelve. Data for achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate were collected through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) managed by the Texas Education Agency. Student achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate and their relation to school facilities were investigated using multiple regression models to compare sections and subsections of the TLEA with each of the five dependent variables. Major research findings of this study included the following: first, student achievement, attendance and completion rate measures were not found to be statistically significant in relation to school facility conditions as measured by the TLEA at the 0.05 level; second, discipline, or behavior, was found to be significantly related to the TLEA. This indicates that the subsections of the TLEA could be used to predict discipline factors for schools in the study population; third, teacher turnover rate was found to be related to the TLEA subsections of Specialized Learning Space and Support Space, with the correlation to Support Space being indirect. Literature from prior studies infers that relationships do exist between all five of the study's dependent variables. However, this study only yielded significant findings in the areas of student discipline and teacher turnover. The researchers recommendations based upon this study include the following: administrators and designers should take into account factors such as interior environment and academic learning space when planning schools to positively impact student discipline; school design and construction should focus on specialized learning spaces and other academic areas more than administrative support spaces when striving to increase teacher satisfaction with physical working conditions.

This investigation examined the impact on student achievement of teachers who participated in a professional development program using industry partnerships. One treatment and one non-treatment school in a large urban school district served as the sites for this inquiry with teacher participation in a professional development program and the achievement data of their science students being collected during the 2001-2002 school period. The impact of a teacher professional development program with industry partnerships such as Education for the Energy Industry (EEI) on student achievement in science was determined. National and state standardized tests were analyzed using extant data obtained from administering the fourth through the eighth grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) test and the eighth grade Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. The differential influence of a professional development program for teachers on the achievement of students of diversity was determined by the TAAS scores and ITBS scores, which were partitioned by treatment condition and student ethnicity. Findings from this quantitative investigation suggest enhanced student achievement in science if teachers participated in a professional development program involving industry partnerships.

Increasing the amount and quality of parental involvement as a means of increasing student achievement has been an important policy focus for the last half century, and is especially true today as the United States is faced with an increasingly diverse student body in its public school system. This report examines what parental involvement and student achievement are, the impact of parental involvement, which groups receive the most impact, and factors that affect parental involvement. The focus is the elementary school level, using literacy level as the primary means of student achievement. Of particular interest are schools with diverse student populations that tend to be linguistically diverse and are identified under the federal Title I program. Current research indicates a positive relationship between parental involvement and its effect on student achievement. The most important factor for quality parental involvement that results in improved student achievement is not the type of activity, but how interaction occurs and the intensity level. Parental involvement programs should provide targeted activities that are curriculum related and culturally sound; they must also have the capacity to be practically implemented in the increasingly busy lives of parents and students. While current studies do support this relationship, parental involvement operates within a complex web of interrelated contexts; further quantitative research using more experimental methods and controlled studies could provide results that would strengthen the evidence of using parental involvement as a policy or program choice for increasing student achievement. Policy recommendations are directed primarily at school teachers and administration. Those recommendations are to 1) ensure a welcoming environment through invitations by teachers and students; 2) increase parental self-efficacy; 3) develop extended family resources; 4) highlight the different avenues of parental involvement; 5) allow time for teachers to plan and develop relationships; and 6) ask the parents. / text