Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 80-102) Also available in print.

The purpose of this study was to determine if agriscience teacher integration of instructional technology was related to student achievement. Knowledge of these correlations will assist teacher educators in offering more appropriate professional development opportunities for agriscience teachers. This information will also assist secondary schools in making decisions regarding technology purchases for agriscience departments. Instructional technology researchers have worked since the 1960s to gain a better understanding of the role that instructional technology plays in student achievement. Many researchers have found that instructional technology influences student learning. In the early 1980s Richard Clark published controversial findings that media has no influence on student learning. These conflicting findings led to the development of this study. A survey was developed to collect information on the level at which teachers integrate technology into their instruction. The instrument was pilot tested, and a reliability measure of .95 was found for the 42 items measuring the technology skills of teachers. Section three of the instrument had a reliability of .93 for the nine items that were used to measure teacher integration of technolo gy. Teachers' demographics, teachers' technology integration skill levels, teachers' administrative use of technology skill levels, and teachers' technology integration levels were collected from a random sample of 150 agriscience teachers in Texas. Student achievement was measured using the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. Student data were collected on 10th grade students in classes taught by the 150 teachers selected to participate in the study. The Texas Education Agency provided all TAAS data in a single data file. The primary student variables used in the study to quantify math, reading, and writing achievement were the total number of multiple choice items correct for each of these three subject areas. A low positive correlation was found between student achievement in math and teacher instructional technology integration level (.14). Negligible positive correlations (r < .10) were found between teacher instructional technology integration level and student achievement on the writing portions and reading portions of the TAAS.

This dissertation describes the results of two studies that examined preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of social and emotional learning (SEL) and its impact on academic achievement. Components of SEL, such as self-efficacy and self-regulation, play an important role in academic attainment and can be especially beneficial to young readers. One hundred and seventy inservice and 155 preservice teachers completed surveys that measured their overall knowledge of SEL concepts and perceptions regarding their preparedness for teaching SEL, its importance, and implementation. The descriptive results indicated both inservice and preservice teachers had some underlying knowledge regarding SEL, but performed poorly in identifying definitions of fundamental SEL terms. The large majority of preservice and inservice teachers felt SEL was important to academic achievement, but seemed conflicted about the role of SEL in classroom instruction. Responses from inservice and preservice teachers indicate they may feel underprepared for teaching SEL in their classrooms. Multiple regression analyses revealed preservice teachers' responses to items on the perceptions scales predicted overall knowledge scores. Analysis of Variance results indicated there were no differences by demographic variables on overall teacher knowledge scores and responses to perceptions scales. The results are consistent with previous findings on teachers' perceptions of SEL's importance. Implications for teacher preparation programs and classroom instruction are discussed along with directions for future research.

The focus of this study was to examine the relationship between principal ethnicity and other chosen demographics (community type of the school, average years of teacher experience, and percent of students qualifying as economically disadvantaged) and student achievement as measured by the Texas Education Agency?s (TEA?s) accountability rating system in predominantly Hispanic public high schools in Texas. The study sought to identify causal factors in relation to campus accountability rating and principal ethnicity in an effort to determine if principal ethnicity had an impact on student achievement in predominantly Hispanic public high schools in Texas. The study examined data obtained from the Texas Education Agency for the 2007-2008 school year. There were 335 schools that met the criteria set forth for the study. The findings of the study stated there was no statistically significant relationship between principal ethnicity and student achievement as measured by the TEA?s accountability system. There were some significant statistical findings in relation to principal ethnicity, accountability rating and indicators of community type of school, years of teacher experience, and percent of students qualifying as economically disadvantaged. Moderate relationships were found between community type and accountability rating and between community type and ethnicity of the principal. There were also significant relationships found between accountability rating and average years of teacher experience as well as principal ethnicity and percent of students qualifying as economically disadvantaged. There was no significant finding between principal ethnicity and average years of teaching experience. There was also no significant finding in relation to accountability rating and percent of students qualifying as economically disadvantaged. The growing number of Hispanic students entering schools is leading to more campuses becoming predominantly Hispanic in student population. The achievement gap between Hispanic students and White students has continued to be an ongoing problem and important issue. The findings of this study show that ethnicity of the principal does not have an impact on student achievement in predominantly Hispanic public high schools in Texas. Hiring administrators should focus on hiring school leaders who possess identified characteristics that lead to improved student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to determine if agriscience teacher integration of instructional technology was related to student achievement. Knowledge of these correlations will assist teacher educators in offering more appropriate professional development opportunities for agriscience teachers. This information will also assist secondary schools in making decisions regarding technology purchases for agriscience departments. Instructional technology researchers have worked since the 1960s to gain a better understanding of the role that instructional technology plays in student achievement. Many researchers have found that instructional technology influences student learning. In the early 1980s Richard Clark published controversial findings that media has no influence on student learning. These conflicting findings led to the development of this study. A survey was developed to collect information on the level at which teachers integrate technology into their instruction. The instrument was pilot tested, and a reliability measure of .95 was found for the 42 items measuring the technology skills of teachers. Section three of the instrument had a reliability of .93 for the nine items that were used to measure teacher integration of technolo gy. Teachers' demographics, teachers' technology integration skill levels, teachers' administrative use of technology skill levels, and teachers' technology integration levels were collected from a random sample of 150 agriscience teachers in Texas. Student achievement was measured using the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. Student data were collected on 10th grade students in classes taught by the 150 teachers selected to participate in the study. The Texas Education Agency provided all TAAS data in a single data file. The primary student variables used in the study to quantify math, reading, and writing achievement were the total number of multiple choice items correct for each of these three subject areas. A low positive correlation was found between student achievement in math and teacher instructional technology integration level (.14). Negligible positive correlations (r < .10) were found between teacher instructional technology integration level and student achievement on the writing portions and reading portions of the TAAS.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-146). Also available by subscription via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-146).

This research focused on the cultural bias in the items the California Achievement Tests (CAT). Performance variability was examined across all individual items of the CAT for the third graders from four ethnic groups. A sample of 1600 third grade children was randomly selected from population of children attending various elementary schools in the state of Arizona. Four hundred subjects within each ethnic group were matched for sex, ethnicity, and grade level. A two-factor (items scores and ethnicity) ANOVA procedure was used to examine the interaction between the item performances and ethnicity for groups of Anglo and Black, Hispanic, and American Indian on all individual test items of the eight subtest of the CAT. An examination of obtained findings revealed that a total of 31 items were found to be as culturally biased against Hispanic, Blacks, and Native-American children. Of these items, thirty were biased toward American Indians, six items were biased toward Hispanics, and four items were biased toward Blacks. Some items were biased toward more than one ethnic group. Twenty-eight items identified as biased belonged to five of the six language subtests and three items are part of one of the two mathematics subtests. It should be noted that even though most of the items (98%) did not reveal any statistical evidence of bias, there were only four items (1.9%) on which minority group children performed higher than did the Anglo children. The overall direction of the findings would seem to suggest that most of the content of the CAT is free from cultural bias.

The current study evaluated a multiple-membership growth curve model that can be used to model growth in student achievement, in the presence of student mobility. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of ignoring multiple school membership when modeling student achievement across time. Part one of the study consisted of an analysis of real longitudinal student achievement data. This real data analysis compared parameter estimates, standard error estimates, and model-fit statistics obtained from a growth curve model that ignores multiple membership, to those obtained from a growth model that accounts for multiple school membership via the MMREM approach. Part two of the study consisted of a simulation study designed to determine the impact of ignoring multiple membership and the accuracy of parameter estimates obtained under the two modeling approaches, under a series of data conditions. The goal of the study was to assess the importance of incorporating a more flexible MMREM approach when modeling students’ academic achievement across time. Overall, the results of the current study indicated that the Cross-classified multiple membership growth curve model (CCMM-GCM) may provide more accurate parameter estimates than competing approaches for a number of data conditions. Both modeling approaches, however, yielded substantially biased estimates of parameters for some experimental conditions. Overall, results demonstrate that incorporating student mobility into achievement growth modeling can result in more accurate estimates of schools effects. / text

Researchers defined achievement motivation as a viable research construct in the early 1950s. Adults increased their achievement motivation scores--often with correlative increased achievement. The literature is replete with ways to increase achievement but researchers paid less attention to what could be a core issue--affecting achievement motication itself. McClelland demonstrated repeatedly that adult business people could develop achievement motivation. Alschuler and deCharms found that classroom treatment procedures could yield increased student achievement motivation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which treatment activites could foster achievement motivation in a sample of rural Southern Alberta grade four students. To accomplish this, the investigator in the present study employed a combination of the methods used by Alschuler with adolescents and deCharms with younger students. The treatment group experienced achievement motivation action strategies, conceptualized achievement motivation thoughts, related the achievement motivation syndrome to three areas of personal life, and practised what they learned. Two control groups were grade four classes in rural Alberta; one received a pre-test, the other received the post-test only. This investigator used Gumpgookies (Ballif & Adkins, 1968) to quantify achievement motivation. Grade four students in rural Southern Alberta did not obtain significantly different Gumpgookies (Ballif & Adkins, 1968) (achievement motivation) scores following four weeks of achievement motivation training modelled after Alschuler and deCharms. Birth order and rank in class emerged as significant variables. / ix, 161 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.