Accountability in education has been expanding for the past twenty years. As standards for curricular areas continued to develop, educational shareholders desired a way to measure student achievement contextualized by the established standards. Since 1964, policies expanded federal involvement with education, and with the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, high-stakes testing became a significant part of public education. In Texas, testing transitioned in 2003 to the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skill (TAKS) test, an assessment that determines grade advancement for students, ratings for school districts, and additional compensation for some teachers. Along with the increasing expectations for student achievement, the need for effective instruction also increases. This dissertation studies how English language arts (ELA) teachers in four North Texas suburban high schools perceive instructional change following the implementation of TAKS. One hundred twenty-one teachers (n=121) were surveyed using an instrument broken into seven categories: student-centered instruction, student interest, instructional communication, time, classroom environment, teacher knowledge, and assessment. Participants were separated into two groups, teachers with one to six years of experience with a district or seven or more years with a district. Using a rating scale for each statement on the survey instrument, participants indicated the direction and magnitude of change or indicated no change occurred. When comparing an overall average frequency percentage for each possible rating for each category, the two highest percentages for both surveyed groups indicated no instructional change since the implementation of TAKS. However, when considering specific statements about professional growth and instructor knowledge, both groups were likely to rate a change as positive. Whereas, if the statement suggested instructional areas constricted by time, participants for both groups were likely to rate a change as negative. Additionally, an ANOVA indicated no significant difference between either of the participating groups.

This is a study of the utilization of industrial arts personnel and equipment for school maintenance in Texas secondary schools.

The problem of this study is the economic status of college teachers in Texas, with emphasis on actual support afforded that profession in the past and in the present; and objective statistical analysis of the ability of the state to more adequately support the profession now and in the future, and the theoretical and actual importance which that economic status presages for out state and society. Actual support of higher education will be measured by salaries and expenditures; ability to support will be measured by the relative wealth of each state in per capita income.

The purpose of this study is to appraise the opportunities offered to the pupils of Sam Houston school; to gain experiences through self interests and democratic procedures; to develop procedures which may determine the changes taking place in these boys and girls and thereby enable the writer to discover the degree to which the school is accomplishing its significant educational purposes. Suggestions of criticisms will be incorporated; however, it is not the intended purpose of this study to suggest or criticize.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant relationship existed between teacher attrition and student success in middle school reading by conducting a quantitative analysis. Additionally, the inclusion of school demographic characteristics were included in the model to consider previous findings referencing the challenges schools face in attracting and retaining teachers in low performing urban schools with high populations of economically disadvantaged and minority students. In this analysis, the relationship between teacher attrition and student achievement in middle school as measured by the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) for reading among middle school students in Grades 6, 7, and 8, as reported on the Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR), were examined. The regression models used to analyze the three research questions addressed in the study include an examination of teacher attrition on campus pass rates, and grade level pass rates for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades as measured by the STAAR Reading assessment. The data utilized in this study were collected from seven North Texas middle schools in a fast growth school district together with their comparable campuses as identified by the Texas Education Agency for the school years 2013-2014 through 2015-2016. The results of the analysis indicate teacher attrition accounts for a significant variance in STAAR Reading pass rates among middle school students. Additionally, the school demographic characteristics defined as percentage economically disadvantaged, percentage English language learners, mobility rates, and percentage white students account for 83.4% of the variance in the average campus pass rates for STAAR Reading when combined.

This study was concerned with determining the awareness of secondary public school teachers, in the Lewisville Independent School District, regarding the laws which relate to their profession. Fifty-nine true or false statements, involving nine areas of public school law, were administered. The study compared teachers' knowledge in areas of school law based on their personal background. The thesis was divided into five chapters. These chapters included the Introduction, Review of Literature, Procedure, Analysis of Data, and Summary and Recommendations. The findings of this study indicated the majority of teachers and administrators had an average knowledge of school law. Areas with lower incorrect responses included students' rights and the copyright law. A recommendation was made to plan an inservice meeting with emphasis placed on the most frequently missed responses

The purpose of this study, in addition to measuring and comparing attitudes of teachers, principals and library media specialists toward the role of the school library media specialist, was to identify and measure factors contributing to those attitudes. Nine factors were identified. Further path analysis revealed that the performance level of the library media specialist had the most influence on principals' and teachers' attitudes toward the Consultant, Technological and Instructional Roles. For principals and teachers, staff development had the most influence on attitudes toward the Management Role, while involvement in the school-wide program was most influential for library media specialists.

The impact of change facilitator styles (CFS) on elementary teachers' stages of concerns (SoC) about adopting outcome-based education (OBE) in their schools was studied. The group studied was 266 teachers from the Texas Network for Outcome-Based Education. Principal styles are based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM. Styles were determined by the Change Facilitator Style Questionnaire, and teachers' concerns profiles were measured by the Stages of Concern Questionnaire. ANOVA and t tests were conducted to assess the effects of CFS at each of the seven stages of concern. ANOVA assessed teachers' educational level, experience with teaching and OBE, principal gender and type of community related to SoC. Chi-square addressed the relationship among the demographic variables and CFS. With schools as the unit of analysis, significant differences at stages 0,1,2 were found. When teachers were the unit of analysis, significant differences were found at stages 0,1,2, and 3. Concerns of teachers with Initiator style principals were significantly lower at these stages. All teachers demonstrated concerns typical of nonusers, indicating resistance to OBE. Concerns were significantly lower for teachers with master's degree than for bachelor's at stages 0 to 3. Teachers with the least experience with OBE had significantly higher concerns. Chi-square compared change facilitator styles with the demographic variables. The only significant results were more males at the management style than expected. These findings support the CBAMtheory that the initiator style is more effective at impacting SoC and improving success in adopting an innovation. Teacher demographic variables do not affect SoC or CFS. The study indicates problems implementing OBE but suggests effective leadership could impact teachers' concerns.

This dissertation is a qualitative study that focuses on ten pre-service teachers as students in an undergraduate teacher preparation program at a 4-year university in Texas and follows four of them into the classroom as novice teachers. The primary data consists of paired (auto)biographical dialogues, oral (her)story interviews, ethnographic classroom observations, and participant interviews. Cross-cultural insights provided by this work aim to inform multicultural approaches to teacher education and novice teacher induction by providing tools for identifying and integrating the cultural resources of maestras in school contexts. Participants in this study learn to become maestras in the home at an early age by contributing to the household and caring for others in various ways, including as bicultural brokers, translators, surrogate parents, and by tutoring relatives, family friends, and neighbors. The term maestra includes both Latina bilingual education pre-service (student) teachers and Latina novice (first- and second-year) teachers. Analysis indicates that the maestras draw upon their "funds of knowledge" or cultural resources as they formulate their philosophies of education in making decisions about majoring in bilingual education. This study also found that they relate their "pedagogies of the home" or cultural strategies for survival and lived experiences to the academic theories learned at the university and the knowledge gained through their classroom student teaching as they decide whether or not to pursue a career as bilingual education teachers after graduation. I argue that maestras are receptive to becoming critically conscious educators as they articulate their situatedness as gendered, raced, and classed Latinas. However their situatedness is not integrated with their teacher preparation or their novice teacher induction. U.S. public school culture does not understand or facilitate processes for maestras to create transformative practices. Thus the maestras in this study create their own on-the-ground consciousness raising. Implementing opportunities for maestras to uncover, reflect, discuss, and act upon their varied perspectives allows them to formulate culturally sensitive pedagogies for affirming diversity at every level in schools and in the larger society. Retaining highly qualified maestras is critical to increasing Latina/o students' opportunities for academic access and success through the Pre-K--16 educational pipeline. / text

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