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The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI). The CABI consist of forty-six items that measures urban teachers’ cultural awareness and beliefs on a Likert-type four-point scale. In addition, this study also examined the extent the CABI determined statistically significant differences by demographic characteristics, such as teachers’ ethnicity or years of teaching experience. During the 2005–2006 academic year, data for this study was collected from the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI). Approximately 1873 Prekindergarten through Grade 12 teachers, employed by an urban public school district located in southeastern Texas, completed the survey. Construct validity was determined by internal consistency, content validity, convergent and divergent validity. To investigate the internal structure, an exploratory factor analysis, EFA, yielded an eight-factor, 36-item inventory. The eight factors, Factor I: Teachers’ Beliefs, Factor II: School Climate, Factor III: Culturally Responsive Classroom Management, Factor IV: Home Community School, Factor V: Cultural Awareness, Factor VI: Curriculum and Instruction, Factor VII: Cultural Sensitivity, and Factor VIII: Teacher Efficacy were examined by a jury of experts to establish the content validity of the eight-factor, 36-item inventory. Convergent and divergent validity was established for six of the eight constructs by conducting a Pearson product moment correlation. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was conducted to measure the internal consistency reliability of the 36-item CABI. The reliability was established at .83. Further, the alpha for the eight factors, or scales, ranged from 46 percent for TE to 88 percent for CRCM. Differences in the teachers’ perceptions by teachers’ ethnicity were determined for TB, CRCM, CS and TE. Follow-up Scheffe post hoc analyses indicated that African American teachers had significantly more positive perceptions of TB, CRCM, and CS. Hispanic American teachers had significantly more positive perceptions of TE. Differences in the teachers’ perceptions by years of experience were determined for CRCM and HCS. Follow-up Scheffe post hoc analyses indicated that teachers with more years of experience had significantly more positive perceptions of CRCM than first year teachers. First year teachers had significantly more positive perceptions of HCS.

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Cheating in British secondary schools has not been previously researched. The aim of this thesis was to ascertain what factors affect cheating in secondary school and why? Initially, four questions were posed: "what is cheating?', "when is it wrong to cheat?', 'what role do parents play' and 'what are teacher perceptions of cheating compared with those of students?'. These questions were addressed by studying the perspectives of students, parents and teachers using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, involving nearly 1000 respondents in six studies. Two models were developed. The first, a four dimensional model, explained what students thought cheating was. Cheating was perceived to be comprised of the following interrelated dimensions: non-academic and academic behaviours, a temporal component, assessment events and degrees of severity. The second, a decision model, indicated under what circumstances cheating might be right or wrong. Cheating was wrong for respondents who perceived only negative academic associations, whilst It could be right for others, when motives for cheating were perceived to be honourable. Respondents reported the extent to which they were like students in scenarios who were portrayed to have cheated in a variety of ways. Data from parents and teachers were used to test and amplify these models. Students and teachers held similar perceptions regarding cheating frequency, but not severity. Parents held perceptions of cheating that were more extreme than those of students and teachers. The findings of these studies have major implications for those involved in the wider educational environments of the home, school and society. Recommendations are made regarding cun-ent educational testing policies, the promotion of leaming and the reduction of cheating.

Administrators in a rural K-5 school district provided leadership, technical assistance, and technology resources to increase teachers' use of technology to improve student achievement. Despite these efforts, teachers incorporated technology on a limited basis and some teachers reported they were unprepared to integrate technology. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to examine teaching practices and teachers' perceptions of technology integration in their daily lessons. The conceptual framework for this study included technology integration and constructivism, a theory based on observation and scientific study about how people learn. A purposeful sample of 10 K-5 teachers who integrated technology in instruction volunteered to participate in interviews and classroom observations, and provided lesson plans for document review. Qualitative data were analyzed using open coding to identify patterns and themes. Based on the findings, teachers used instructional videos and PowerPoint-guided lessons in daily instruction, and they used technology to monitor student progress weekly or biweekly. Teachers expressed a need for ongoing professional development in technology integration to enhance instruction, and they requested more time to collaborate with colleagues to develop technology-integrated lessons. It is recommended that K-5 teachers receive easily accessible onsite professional development to learn strategies and methods to integrate technology in the classroom. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change by restructuring the current district technology-based professional development models to support teachers' integration of technology to improve student instruction.

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the beliefs of teachers about their African American students. The Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI) was used to measure the perceptions and attitudes of urban teachers‘ cultural awareness and beliefs for the purpose of designing professional development. The themes which emerged from the first study include: (a) teachers devalue students‘ home and family environment; (b) teachers‘ beliefs about their ability to teach all children; (c) teachers have negative perceptions of the school environment; (d) teachers and student have cultural mismatch; and (e) . The themes which emerged from the second study include: (a) teachers find the behaviors of students to be challenging and (b) teachers do not feel supported. In the third study, a constant comparative method was used to analyze the teachers‘ written responses.

The literature reports controversy among teachers about the value of an alternate assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) (Kampfer, Horvath, Kleinert, & Kearns, 2001).The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of special education teachers about the value and implementation of the Arizona Alternate Assessment (AIMS-A) for instructional planning.Twelve elementary special education teachers from three school districts in Southern Arizona were placed in one of two focus groups. They were asked questions about the value of the alternate assessment, the impact on instructional planning, the allocation of time to complete the assessment, and the usefulness of the data collected for the alternate assessment. Later, in-depth interviews were held with three of the 12 teachers representing each of the districts. The teachers' responses to the questions asked in the focus group and interview sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed, and organized into themes.Results revealed four major themes and 11 sub-themes. Most teachers valued the AIMS-A information in guiding their teaching. Some teachers, however, believed the instrument did not accurately assess students with the most severe disabilities. Teachers reported the assessment helped guide their instructional planning. The limited time allocated during the school day to complete the assessment resulted in an additional burden on teachers' personal time. Teachers found documenting and collection data throughout the school year was necessary to be able to accurately assess students during the spring testing period. Most of the teachers found the progress data useful.Six recommendations for State (SEAs) and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) resulted from the implications. The first recommendation is to acquire positive teacher perceptions and support for the AIMS-A by providing teachers with a thorough understanding of the benefits of the assessment. A second recommendation is for LEA administrators to assist teachers in finding time to administer the AIMS-A. The third recommendation is that the LEA's must provide in-service training. The fourth recommendation requires modification of existing policies when needed. The fifth recommendation is to create a state-wide data base that articulates student progress on the AIMS-A. The final recommendation is to modify existing policies where needed.

This study was based on the assumption that classroom teachers were in an advantageous position to judge their principal's role behavior and their principal's administrative performance. The problem of this study was to determine whether or not significant differences existed between teachers' perceptions of their principal's role behavior; whether or not significant differences existed between teachers' perceptions of their principal's administrative performance; and whether or not there was any relationship between teachers' perceptions of their principal's role behavior and his administrative performance. The findings in this study led to the following conclusions: Factors such as sex, education level, teaching experience, school level, school size, and school district do not effect principal’s behavior or administrative performance. However, differences were found in teacher perceptions for teachers with 5 years or less of teaching experience, rural/urban school setting, principal’s sex don’t differ in their role behavior; differing instead in educational leadership ability. It is concluded that principals are least effective in the area of educational leadership when comparing the four areas of administrative decision-making, communications, general administrative behavior, and educational leadership. They are most effective in general administrative behavior. Principals, in general, tend to exhibit transactional behavior. The majority of teachers do not indicate that their principal's role behavior has any relationship to their administrative performance as school principals.

In order to prepare students to be globally competitive, teachers must equip them with the knowledge and skills to be successful in the 21st century. To this aim, school spending on e-books and e-readers is at an all-time high, but evidence indicates teachers are not fully integrating them into the reading classroom. This qualitative study was grounded in sociocultural theory and explored veteran primary teachers’ knowledge of and persistent attitudes about using e-books in reading instruction. Within a collaborative inquiry group, five teachers explored the way to best use e-books in their primary reading classrooms. Through the cyclical process of planning, observing, acting, and reflecting, the teachers explored e-books during the meetings and then took them into the classroom to use with their students. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, participant observation notes, transcribed audio recordings, and reflective journals. Thematic and directed content analyses were used on the data, and findings of both analyses were presented in a pleated text that framed analytical texts with researcher notes. Findings demonstrated that there was an emotionality to reading books in traditional and electronic format, but by experimenting with the e-books in the supportive, dialogic context of the collaborative inquiry meeting, teachers changed both their knowledge of and persistent attitudes about electronic books. Important implications were noted for professional development coordinators, administrators, and policy-makers.

This study examined Texas high school teachers’ perceptions of their principals as culturally proficient leaders, focusing specifically on how teacher-, school-, and principal-related factors impacted these perceptions. A sample of 104 teachers in culturally diverse secondary schools from a large urban district in Texas participated. An electronic survey was utilized to collect data. Results yielded an average total cultural proficiency score of 111 out of a possible 175, indicating that teachers perceived their principals “sometimes use” culturally proficient practices. Teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s use of culturally proficient leadership practices varied significantly by years of teachers’ experience and school accountability rating (exemplary, academically acceptable, and academically unacceptable). Perceptions of teachers at an Exemplary school were significantly different (higher than the perceptions of teachers at other schools from the same district). Teachers with 11 to 20 years of teaching experience gave significantly lower ratings (22.45 points) than teachers with 1 to 5 years of experience (125.53) and teachers with over 20 years of experience (118.94). While differences were not statistically significant, black and Hispanic teachers rated their principals’ culturally proficient practices higher than white teachers. Age, subject area taught and teacher’s gender, or race being the same as the principal’s gender or race had no significant effect on total proficiency scores. This study supports prior findings that leadership policy and development programs must be refined to help leaders develop and utilize more culturally proficient skills that will lead to greater academic success for all students. Results indicate that principals need assistance in adapting to and managing the dynamics of difference as well as providing teachers with conflict resolution training. It is recommended that professional development departments conduct similar district-wide proficiency assessments as a first step in helping educators to understand the cultural proficiency conceptual framework. It is also recommended that school districts develop a rating system using the tenets of cultural proficiency to assist principals in improving their cultural proficiency scores.