With so many paraeducators working in special education, it is important for teachers, administrators, and researchers to know how paraeducators are being utilized, supervised, and managed in order to create the most effective programs for students with special needs. Research is needed regarding current practices in supervising paraeducators. The purposes of this study were to (a) delineate the current practices being utilized by special education teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who supervise paraeducators that work with students with EBD in the general education classroom and (b) determine how effective the supervised paraeducators perceive those practices to be. Current practices were revealed by answering the following questions: (1) According to special education teachers and paraeducators, what procedures and practices are being utilized to supervise paraeducators who work in the general education environment with students with EBD? (2) In what ways do teachers and paraeducators see these supervision practices as being effective? (3) What is the relationship between actual supervision practices and accepted best practices? There were 60 participants in all, 30 professional teachers and 30 paraeducators. All 60 participants completed a survey; of these 60, 5 teachers and 5 paraeducators were individually interviewed Findings from the study indicate that actual supervision practices of teachers do not represent the best practices found in the literature. The study found that each of the seven executive functions of supervision (orientation, planning, scheduling, delegating, training/coaching, monitoring/feedback, and managing the workplace) need additional attention from school districts in order to maximize paraeducator effectiveness.

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The purpose of this study is to determine some principles of a counseling program which applies the principles of democratic supervision. The major emphasis has been given to an analysis of such a program in the light of accepted principles of democratic supervision.

Teacher evaluation is mandated by state law and practiced in every public school district. The evaluation of teachers is a vital part of the work of school administrators and the evidence that aligns teacher supervision and its direct or indirect impact on student achievement is scant (Ebmeier, 2003). The researcher examined perceptions of elementary teachers in a southeastern Virginia school division regarding the teacher evaluation process. The goal was to determine how the teacher evaluation process influences professional growth and instructional practices at the elementary school level. In addition to identifying the overall perception of the evaluative practices employed in the school division, the researcher gleaned additional understandings of teacher perceptions on how a particular evaluation tool's effectiveness, purposes, and reliability impact teacher behavior. Perceptions of teachers from 20 elementary schools in an urban school division in Virginia were researched using a quantitative methodology. There were a total of 446 teachers in grades PreK through 5 in the 20 schools. Data were collected through an online teacher questionnaire. The revised Teacher Evaluation Profile (TEP), created by Stiggins and Duke (1988), was used as the survey tool. The TEP was designed to elicit responses on a Likert scale using five attributes of a particular teacher evaluation experience. Data from the TEP indicate that teacher perceptions of the overall quality of the evaluation process vary. While there was a consistent perception of neutrality, less than 50% of the teachers perceived the evaluation as a meaningful process. Furthermore, teachers reported that the evaluation process had minimal impact on their professional growth and professional practice. The results of this study may impact the professional development opportunities linked to the evaluation process. / Ed. D. / Teacher evaluation is mandated by state law and practiced in every public school district. The evaluation of teachers is a vital part of the work of school administrators and the evidence that aligns teacher supervision and its direct or indirect impact on student achievement is scant (Ebmeier, 2003). The researcher examined perceptions of elementary teachers in a southeastern Virginia school division regarding the teacher evaluation process. The goal was to determine how the teacher evaluation process influences professional growth and instructional practices at the elementary school level. In addition to identifying the overall perception of the evaluative practices employed in the school division, the researcher gleaned additional understandings of teacher perceptions on how a particular evaluation tool’s effectiveness, purposes, and reliability impact teacher behavior. Perceptions of teachers from 20 elementary schools in an urban school division in Virginia were researched using a quantitative methodology. There were a total of 446 teachers in grades PreK through 5 in the 20 schools. Data were collected through an online teacher questionnaire. The revised Teacher Evaluation Profile (TEP), created by Stiggins and Duke (1988), was used as the survey tool. The TEP was designed to elicit responses on a Likert scale using five attributes of a particular teacher evaluation experience. Data from the TEP indicate that teacher perceptions of the overall quality of the evaluation process vary. While there was a consistent perception of neutrality, less than 50% of the teachers perceived the evaluation as a meaningful process. Furthermore, teachers reported that the evaluation process had minimal impact on their professional growth and professional practice. The results of this study may impact the professional development opportunities linked to the evaluation process.

In this thesis, I apply Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s ontology of becoming to my own learning, thinking and writing. The adopted method - nomadic inquiry, is derived from the philosophising of Deleuze, whose concepts function as pedagogic values that I mobilise throughout my writing and perform – not merely explain, to problematise common perceptions of the thesis, supervision and doctoral experience. Deleuze resists models that inhibit context-specific creativity, yet I can readily identify the defining features of my own supervision: resolutely student-centred, facilitative of free experimentation, supportive of my becoming as an academic subject and the writing through which this was achieved. Non-teleological nomadic writing does not preclude strategic intent. Hence, the thesis records the process of my learning but equally functions as a crucial resource for additional and post-doctoral writing. It was conceived as a ‘body without organs’ – a surface of inscription for affective learning processes arising in a supervisory assemblage where rigid distinctions between self and other proved unsustainable. Contra characterisation of doctoral research as solitary scholarly activity, the heterogeneity and relationality of learning emerges through my writing and in the areas to which I am drawn in my theoretical engagement. I consider former academic experiences and characterise my current supervisory assemblage as rhizomatic - a complex relational space where connections are continually made, but not fixed, in the knowledge-seeking process. Such connections are not wholly undetermined but reveal processes of stratification and destratification. I seek to show that the creative potential of the rhizomatic supervisory assemblage lies in the tensions thereby generated. I also lay bare sedimented resistances that arise as I mobilise the concept of theoretical assemblage and connect with writers like Butler and Cixous. This thesis defies the ascetic ideal pervading normative accounts of doctoral experience, academic textual production and theoretical engagement. It embodies my desire to embrace an ontology of becoming and its pedagogic corollaries.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify and explain the selective responses that dropout students felt contributed to their leaving school before graduation. Procedures The researcher collected three sets of data which included the review of the literature, the student records in the Southwest School District and the interviews of two hundred participants using McDowell's questionnaire. The questions were conceived of as functioning primarily in the context of justification. Thus, the researcher did not begin with previously identified reasons; rather, the researcher examined the responses to determine reasons which seem to be fruitful. The Sophia McDowell questionnaire was used to collect demographic information on each student to further explain their reasons for dropping out of school in four areas: personal data, family information, career information and school achievement. The results of data findings were described collectively and individually and summarized in tables. Conclusions 1. The literature on early school leavers depicts a profile which identifies them as suffering from personal problems, lack of parental support, economic condition and poor student/teacher relationships. However, these statements represent social and administrative judgments rather than functional terminology. 2. The student personnel records are of little value in gaining insight into early school leaving. The records seem to classify the students' departure as the result of "lack of interest" which offers little insight into the students' real circumstance. 3. The superficial responses for early school leaving as offered by students on a questionnaire varies little from the causes as reported in the literature. When the total sample is viewed, one finds that there were more Black Americans and more males who dropped out of school and at an earlier age than Caucasians and females. The marital status of the participants' parents indicates that more of the dropouts come from homes with married parents. The majority of these students, however, did return to some kind of basic education or to a job training program. On the other hand, more of the permanent dropouts come from single-parent or broken homes and did not return to school. Before one can justify that parental marital status does influence students to either remain in school or to drop out of school, however, more research is needed in this area. The majority of the participants studied were preparing for their future occupations by going back to school. From a sample of two hundred participants, there were 144 attending extended day school, vocational school, on-the-job training and apprenticeship training.

This study investigated educators' perceptions of an instructional supervision system for implementing discipline-based art education (DBAE). The purpose was to determine whether teachers, principals, and supervisors who are in a position to use the system perceive its components as clear and useful. The survey research design on which this study was based was carried out at the 1985 Getty Summer Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts. The sample for the design included 47 educators defined by their institutional role and their knowledge of DBAE: Returning Principals, Elementary Classroom Teachers, Art Educators, Art Supervisors, and New Principals. The respondents rated 25 DBAE teaching behaviors on a Supervision Scale from 1 (No Help) to 5 (Very Helpful), and an Art Content Scale from 1 (Unclear) to 5 (Clear). Written comments were compiled and qualitative comparisons were made within and between groups. A Principal Components Factor Analysis was used to determine the underlying factors within the Supervision System. Analyses of variance techniques were used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences among the four educator groups for each of the teaching behaviors. Pearson product moment correlation was used to determine relationships between total ratings and the respondents' years teaching, years in educational administration, and years as art educator. The results of this study indicate that: (1) the teaching behaviors in the Supervision System measure three distinct constructs of DBAE instruction: Content, Curriculum, and Context; (2) the System was perceived as clear and useful by each of the educator groups included in this study; (3) the items were rated higher as their years in educational administration increased; and (4) the Content and Curriculum items were rated lower as years in art education increased, while the context items were rated higher. The DBAE approach to teaching art is in its development stages. The constructs included in the Supervision System should be reevaluated as DBAE evolves.

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No description available.