The purpose of this study was to depict and analyze the components of the process by which the Northwest Indiana Curriculum Evaluation Project was applied from a theoretical model of curriculum evaluation which had been developed by Drs. James McElhinney and Richard Kunkel of Ball State University. This task was accomplished through participant observation. In this capacity the participant observer initially recorded the events, insights, and anecdotes which occurred while at the same time, he served as the project director. These recorded observations were then used as a basis for designing a questionnaire which was administered to the team leaders of the project. This instrument, which used a semantic differential as a rating scale, attempted to solicit the team leaders' perceptions and reactions to many concepts about the project which had originally been identified through participant observation.The questionnaire and other data, which was accumulated, as well as the study itself, were organized and presented within the framework of five sequential phases. These were as follows: 1. Phase I - Training Workshops for Data Collectors 1. Phase II - Interviews and Observations3. Phase III - Administration of Questionnaires4. Phase IV - Organization of Data5. Phase V - Writing of Individual Building ReportsThe final section of the study attempted to determine how the team leaders felt about the project once their direct involvement had been completed. Attention was also accorded to what would and should be done with the final project results in the various participating school corporations.Based upon the data and findings of the study, it was concluded that the theoretical model of curriculum evaluation investigated was an effective vehicle with which to collect data and accurately describe the curricular offerings of a given school.In addition, it was determined that public school personnel can be trained to serve effectively as data collectors within the model in a relatively short period of time (In this case, a one and one-half day workshop proved sufficient). However, much of the success or failure of such an undertaking appeared to be determined by the personal and professional qualifications of the consultant who conducted the training workshops. It was also found that the potential for success of a curriculum evaluation project such as the Northwest Indiana Curriculum Evaluation Project would have been enhanced by increasing the man-day commitment of participating school corporations so as to accommodate unexpected time and personnel problems which occurred; by budgeting for more adequate secretarial services; and by providing more adequate storage and office space in which to house the permanent staff required for such a project.Beyond the initial approval which was given by the chief administrator of each participating school corporation, the attitude which the superintendent extended to the project significantly influenced the attitudes which his subordinates displayed as participating data collectors.Other conclusions obtained from the study were: communication plays a vital role in determining the success or failure of a curriculum evaluation project; certain professional public school personnel seem threatened by involvement in curriculum evaluation projects; cooperative curriculum evaluation projects possess a high potential as in-service programs; students tend to be more frank in their responses to the inquiries made by data-collectors than are teachers; professional educators recognize a need for curricular change based on systematically acquired evidence, and the advent of a curriculum evaluation project in and of itself is unlikely to foster significant curricular change.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-171).

The literature sees community members of Mexican ancestry as persons who are denied full participation in matters of school policies and practices. It also cites that forty percent of children of Mexican ancestry who enter school drop out before they graduate from the twelfth grade. In view of these perceptions, this study was designed to examine what relationship existed among three factors: (1) the goals of a school district; (2) student academic achievement as indicated by GPA; and (3) the intra- group variability among Chicano, Mexican American and Mexican students. This study assumed that if students, parents and teachers prioritized goals congruently, students would do better in school than if there was not a congruity of ranking. However, data results revealed that the existence or nonexistence of goal -ranking congruence among students, parents and teachers made no practical significant difference in student GPA. The research sample included 267 middle school age students of Mexican ancestry, their parents and 74 teachers. The three groups of students, that is, Chicano, Mexican American and Mexican, each ranked communication, work skills, logical thinking, critical thinking skills, study of one's own heritage and other ethnic groups, and accomplishing one's own potential among the seven most important goals. It is recommended that school districts develop their goals with representative input from the total community and that goals be coherently and consistently publicized among professional and lay people in order that the purpose and consistency of school practices be underscored.

Against the backdrop of religious disaffiliation and social fragmentation in the United States, the future of both practices and venues for American religious education is uncertain. In this study of Tapestry, a church-run foster youth mentoring network, and St. Sebastian’s Summer Camp, a predominantly Latinx church-run community day camp, I develop and document one promising pairing in response to this quandary: an adapted form of Digital Storytelling (Lambert, 2012) as a communal spiritual practice appropriate to what I call faith-adjacent spaces. Such spaces are convened by modes of activity separate from formal institutional programs and rituals but still connected to religion in meaningful, visible ways. In this participatory multimodal ethnography, I draw on socio-spatial and narrative analytic frameworks to reveal and explore (1) organizational practices of belonging that already exist at Tapestry, (2) the function of new collaboratively designed Digital Storytelling practices at Tapestry and St. Sebastian’s, and (3) the role of my various researcher-facilitator identities in this work. I present these findings in the form of a four-part audio documentary that interweaves recordings from my ethnographic fieldwork, excerpts from the artifacts that participants and I co-created, audio engagements with academic and practitioner literature, and researcher narrative and analysis. The annotated production scripts for Becoming Tapestry comprise both the bulk of this manuscript and, together with the four podcast episodes themselves, the dissertation proper.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the beliefs and experiences of Korean immigrant parents who chose to send their children to a Korean dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program in the United States. Utilizing cultural historical activity theory and bilingualism as theoretical and conceptual frameworks, the author explored (a) how these parents’ prior experiences, transnational/transcultural knowledge, ethnic and cultural identities, and language ideologies have contributed to their educational decision and (b) how the parents are mobilizing their children’s heritage language education through a DLBE program. To honor and value the participants’ emic view, this study employed in-depth individual interviews, activity-based focused group interviews, home visits, and participant observations. Furthermore, for participants to experience and explore dynamic ways to share their stories and lived experiences, the author facilitated opportunities for multiple multimodal research activities such as a shared community walk, a word association activity, and a map drawing activity. The findings revealed that the most important motivation for choosing a Korean DLBE program over English-only programs came from their strong Korean ethnic pride and identity, which they all felt obliged to pass on to their children. Additionally, the participants became social, cultural, and educational resources for each other to compensate and overcome various challenges in supporting their children’s bilingual education due to the short bilingual teacher retention, isolated program configuration, and discontinuity of the program after elementary school. All the participants embodied the importance of maintaining heritage language and culture, actively supporting their children’s in and out of school experience and advocating for their children’s bilingual education. This study offers implications and suggestions for teaching and research as well as for ethnically, culturally, and linguistically marginalized immigrant bilingual communities. The author hopes to contribute to research and pedagogical practices in bilingual/bicultural education, heritage language learning, and community-based research, focusing on finding ways to better serve minoritized immigrant communities in the United States.

The Latinx communities are one of the fastest-growing minority groups in the United States, and that shift has brought new challenges to the field of education. An increase in the Latinx student body presents unique challenges to this particular group (Alemán, 2009a), such as the stigmatization of speaking Spanish in a country where the majority speak English (Murakami et al., 2013). Today’s Latinx leaders have endured similar patterns of discrimination to prior generations (Hondgneu-Sotelo, 2020). Latinx leaders who are aware of injustices that exist in their schools lead with social justice agendas to overcome inequities and barriers (López, 2003). The purpose of this study was to explore and examine how school leaders who identify as Latinx conceptualize and practice leadership for equity and social justice. To collect data, testimonios were conducted with all participants in this study. Testimonio presents participants with an opportunity to share their experience of oppression, views on how to challenge inequities, and their advocacy toward social justice (Huber, 2009). Two interviews were conducted per candidate lasting approximately 60 minutes. The first conclusion of the study: all participants in the study showed evidence of the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogical practices. Second, while the overwhelming majority of the participants in this study acknowledged racial discrimination and called out policies that maintained injustices in place, only two of the Latinx leaders in this study centered race and led their community with equity and social justice as the core of their work.

No description available.

Looking for best teaching practices has always been an important issue for educators. Teacher education programs, school districts, and researchers have gone to great lengths to train teachers to teach "better." Yet, students are still not performing well in school, specifically minority students. The achievement gap and dropout rates only get larger between Latino students and their White peers. According to National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2002), in the United States the drop out rate for Latino students is 23.8% compared to 6.8% for White students. With such disparities occurring, what is being done to address this large, under-performing population? What do Latino students need in order to succeed in the American school system? One of the known ways to help Latino students succeed is culturally responsive teaching (Banks, 2006). Are culturally responsive teaching practices the best pedagogical approach for Latino students? And if so, do teachers understand what these practices entail? This inquiry was a qualitative study highlighting the teaching practices of three self-identified culturally responsive teachers working in an inner-city school that is predominately populated by low performing Latino students. This study involved observations and interviews with three teachers and employed ethnographic methods highlighting not only what culturally relevant teachers in classroom practices with Latino students, but also how these practices help teachers' efficacy improve.

No description available.