With much emphasis on school accountability ratings and student achievement, it is imperative that building level leaders are equipped with leadership practices that will enhance academic progress. In essence, principals must implement leadership practices that will turn around low-performing schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate principals’ practices and ways to modify their existing leadership strategies to adapt to school improvement needs in low-performing schools in Mississippi. This study focused on 4 areas of principal practices in improving low-performing schools: (1) communication with staff, (2) instructional leadership, (3) professional development and growth opportunities, and (4) connection with key stakeholders as they relate to student achievement. A quantitative cross-sectional, non-experimental questionnaire design was utilized to examine leadership practices and principals’ preconceptions of communication, collaboration, and professional development used to promote student achievement. A self-reflective questionnaire was distributed via email to 898 Mississippi principals of which 152 responded. Generally speaking, for all schools, this study revealed there was a significant relationship between overall scale scores and math growth scores. However, there were no significant relationships between leadership practices and the other sub-scales of this study and student growth and proficiency for all participants. Further, when analyzing the results of individual leadership practices of principals of low-performing schools, findings indicated principals modeling instructional strategies displayed a significant relationship with English Language Arts growth. Findings also revealed a significant relationship between math growth and “using department chairs to collect data about staff concerns”. Further, findings revealed a significant relationship between math growth and “tracking and discussing professional growth with staff”. Additionally, when analyzing the results of individual leadership practices from all schools, communicating often and clearly to staff that change is not optional displayed a significant relationship to math growth. Also, principals utilizing shared leadership practices displayed a significant relationship with ELA proficiency. Recommendations for further research include conducting studies on the following: (a) high- performing Mississippi schools and leadership practices, (b) leadership practices utilized by principals in high-performing states, and (c) teachers’ perspectives of leadership practices and student achievement.

Candidate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School Administration The state of Louisiana has spent a large amount of money over the past years to ensure highly qualified teachers for every student. This study aimed to discover whether or not there was a statistically significant association between teachers who attain National Board Certification and student gains in achievement on standardized tests specifically the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) in an urban Louisiana school district. The research was to determine if students taught by Nationally Board Certified teachers (NBCTs) outperformed students of comparable backgrounds taught by Non-Nationally Board Certified Teachers (Non-NBCTs). To accomplish this, the research examined English Language Arts and Mathematics test scores of fourth and eighth grade students taught by NBCTs and compared them with those of students taught by Non-NBCTs to determine if the gains made by the group taught by NBCTs were statistically significantly different from those taught by Non-NBCTs. The results of the data analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the score differences of fourth grade English Language Arts students and eighth grade English Language Arts students taught by NBCTs when compared to those taught by Non-NBCTs. The fourth and eighth grade score differences of students taught by NBCTs were statistically significantly higher. However, the analysis of the data also revealed there was not a statistically significant difference between the score differences of 4th grade math students taught by NBCTs when compared to those taught by Non-NBCTs. There were no NBCTs for 8th grade Mathematics students. One recommendation for further research should be to focus on more than one district to determine if results would be similar. Another recommendation, the Louisiana Department of Education should study all areas of high-stakes testing within the state to determine if teacher certification, especially NBCTs, have an impact on student achievement. The Louisiana Department of Education’s should use its extensive data base for a study determine whether National Board Certification contributes to increases in student achievement across all grade levels.

This study was developed to produce data about the cultures of selected Florida middle schools. The research was intended to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on collaboration, collegiality, and self-determination/efficacy as related to student achievement. The focus for this study was provided through three research questions: (a) to determine to what extent middle schools scoring in the top half and the bottom half on the modified version of Wagner and Masden-Copas' School Culture Triage Survey differed on various demographic elements; (b) to determine what differences, if any, existed between the cultures of the selected Florida middle schools and student achievement as measured by the percentage of middle school students scoring at level 3 and above on the 2004-2005 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) reading portion; and (c) to determine what relationships, if any, existed among the three key areas of school culture (collaboration, collegiality, and self-determination/efficacy) and student achievement. The population of this study was comprised of instructional personnel employed at one of the six participating middle schools in Osceola County School District, Florida during the 2004-2005 school year. One middle school chose not to participate in the study. Data were generated from the six middle schools using a self-administered survey. Based on an extensive review of literature and the research findings, it was concluded that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students that attended schools with higher culture scores produced higher FCAT reading scores. The reverse was also true: sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students that attended schools with lower culture scores produced lower FCAT reading scores. There was a relationship between the three key areas of school culture (collaboration, collegiality, and self-determination/efficacy) and the reading achievement of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.

This study investigated the effectiveness of a sustained professional development initiative, Brevard's Peer Coaching Model, on improving teacher performance and student achievement in a large Central Florida school district. The study analyzed professional practices scores and value-added scores for teachers who participated in a minimum of six of nine days of professional learning before the study, after year one of the training, and after year two of the training to evaluate growth in professional practices and student achievement, and also compared the scores of BPCM participants to the scores of teachers who did not participate in the study. The findings of the study replicated those of previous researchers who found that peer coaching generally has a positive impact on improving teacher practice but limited impact on student achievement. Both professional practices scores and value-added results improved over the course of the study, during and after implementation of BPCM. However, the results were not statistically significant when comparing improvements of value-added results for BPCM participants with the VAM scores of the population of Brevard Public Schools teachers who did not participate in the professional development. BPCM participants showed significant growth over the course of the study and demonstrated stronger improvements in observation scores when compared to the non-BPCM teachers. The most significant growth occurred after the first year of the BPCM training, with smaller levels of growth in year two. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research were provided.

Federal, state, and local government agencies are promoting merit pay systems that are tied to student achievement. The main problem facing governments, school districts, and educators is that money is hard to come by in the current market and choosing where to spend merit pay monies to receive a maximum rate of return on the investment realized in increased student achievement is difficult to determine. This study did explore the student achievement results of third, fourth, and fifth grade state certified, graduate degreed, and National Board Certified teachers in Brevard and Seminole County Public Schools as compared to those of other teachers within and across these schools. The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of state certified, graduate degreed, and National Board Certified teachers. For this study teacher effectiveness was defined by their students' Lexile Framework for Reading scores from the 2008-2009 school year. The hypothesis is that the Lexile Framework for Reading data demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference between the learning gains of the students between groups. Overall, the findings indicate that there was a statistically significant difference between the learning gains of the students between groups; however, that change could not be attributed to the factor of teacher category. Specific teacher education levels or certifications did not make any difference in the learning gains as measured by the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), among 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students in Brevard or Seminole County Public Schools.

Although sampling techniques have been used effectively in education research and practice it is not clear how stratified random sampling techniques apply to high-stakes testing in the current educational environment. The present study focused on representative sampling as a possible means for reducing the quantity of state-administered tests in Texas public education. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to determine if stratified random sampling is a viable option for reducing the number of students participating in Texas state assessments, and (2) to determine which sampling rate provides consistent estimates of the actual test results among the population of students. The study examined students’ scaled scores, percent of students passing, and student growth over a three-year period on state-mandated assessments in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. Four sampling rates were considered (10%, 15%, 20%, & 25%) when analyzing student performance across demographic variables, including population estimates by socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, and placement in special education classes. The data set for this study included five school districts and 68,641 students. Factorial ANOVAs were used initially to examine the effects of sampling rate on bias in reading and mathematics scores and bias in percentage of students passing these tests. Also 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and effect sizes for each model were examined to aid in the interpretation of the results. The results showed main effects for sampling rate and campus as well as a two-way interaction between these variables. The results indicated that a 20% sampling rate would closely approximate the parameter values regarding the mean TAKS reading and mathematics scale scores and the percentage of students passing these assessments. However, as population size decreases, sampling rate may have to be increased. For example, in populations with 30 or fewer students in a subgroup it is recommended that all students be included in the testing program. This study situated in one state contributes to the growing body of research being conducted on an international basis in sample-based educational assessments.

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of using AR in the Computer Architecture unit for male 11th grade students in a school in the eastern area of Arar City in Saudi Arabia through monitoring its impact on student achievement and students' perceptions of the learning environment. Two research questions are explored: What is the effect of using AR on student achievement, and what are students' perceptions of the learning environment when they use AR? Two instruments were used to collect the data in this study: an achievement test taken from the official teacher book issued by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia and the Technology-Rich Outcomes-Focused Learning Environment Inventory (TROFLEI) modified questionnaire "actual form." Statistical analyses employed to answer the first research question included an independent-samples t-test and descriptive statistics. To investigate the second research question, descriptive statistics and a paired t-test were used. These results from the first question indicate a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between the two groups' mean values: the students who used AR achieved a higher level of learning compared to the students who learned in the traditional way. The study found that using AR helped the students to increase their achievements through many aspects, one of which was being able to feel in contact with objects and events that were physically out of their reach. In addition, AR offered a safe environment for learning and training away from potential and real dangers. The results for the second research question show statically significant increases in seven out of eight TROFLEI scales. This suggests that there was a positive feeling among the students regarding the teacher's interaction and his interest in providing equal opportunities to the students to answer the questions.

The purpose of this study was to better predict how a first semester college freshman becomes prepared for college. the theoretical framework guiding this study is Vrooms’ expectancy theory, motivation plays a key role in success. This study used a hierarchical multiple regression model. the independent variables of interest included high school percentile class rank, composite ACT scores, composite SAT scores, and the 10 themes as measured by the Student Readiness Inventory (SRI) to address two research questions: What are the psychosocial factors identified by the SRI are most relevant in predicting college success? What conventional academic indicators are most relevant in predicting college success? the sample size for this study was 5279 (n), including a stratified random sample of first semester college freshman enrolled in credit bearing courses; these participants were deemed college ready by the university. Academic Discipline accounted for 4.2% of the variance in first semester college GPA, General Determination accounted for 1.7% of the variance, and the remaining psychosocial factors of the SRI accounted for less than 1% of the variance. High school percentile class rank accounted for 10.7% of the variance, composite ACT accounted for 5.9% of the variance, and composite SAT accounted for 5.6% of the variance. Future analysis could be completed within demographic groups to include a stratified random sample of participants by ethnicity, gender, or economic status. Such analysis would build on this body of research providing additional guidance admission officers and K-12 educators.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of teacher attributes and school contextual factors to student achievement in career and technical education in Mississippi. The teacher attributes years of teaching experience, degree(s) of attainment, professional development, and national board certification were included as independent variables. Additionally, the contextual factors of enrollment, academic achievement, and socio-economic status were included as independent variables. The statewide standardized assessment for career and technical education was used as the dependent variable measuring student achievement at the school district, career and technical program area, and individual career and technical course levels. The predictor model including all independent variables resulted in statistically significant variance explained in student achievement. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards® showed a statistically significant positive impact on student achievement at the school district level, the cooperative education and marketing program level, and the following five individual career and technical courses: allied health, automotive service technology, business and computer technology, early childhood services and education, and horticulture. Additionally, at the career and technical program level, academic achievement and degree(s) of attainment showed positive impacts on student achievement. Also, on the program level, more years of teaching experience, higher enrollment, and higher levels of socio-economic status showed negative impacts on student achievement. On the school district and program levels, attendance at the professional development workshop had a negative impact on career and technical student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of four variables, principal salary, district wealth, student socioeconomic status, and school size, on the achievement level of public school students in Mississippi. The first, principal salary, was found not to have been studied as a variable that may correlate with student achievement. One may have hypothesized that more effective principals would correlate with increased student achievement test scores and that those principals would have been rewarded with higher salaries. The results of this study did not support that idea. The data indicated that there was no meaningful correlation between highly paid principals and higher student achievement. There was no significant correlation between district wealth and student achievement. This may indicate that Mississippi school funding (MAEP) and federal funding have been effective in aiding low-wealth schools as was intended by lawmakers. There was a significant low positive correlation between school size and student achievement in non-urban elementary schools and a significant very low positive correlation with student achievement in high schools. That places this study in the minority camp of recent research in concluding that larger schools did not correlate with lower achievement. The most significant, meaningful, and important finding of this study was the dramatic impact that student poverty has on student achievement in Mississippi. In urban schools and rural schools, in elementary, middle, and high schools, poorer children scored poorly on their achievement tests. Correlations were significant moderate to high at all levels, with the highest at middle schools with a significant high negative correlation of -.636. The analysis indicates that a decrease in poverty will result in a dramatic increase in student achievement.