Thesis (Ed. D.)--Graduate School of Education, Oral Roberts University, 2006. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-101).

The purpose of this study was to review the empirical research evidence on the effect of teacher certification on student achievement. An exploratory meta-analysis was conducted on studies that examined the effect of fully certified and less-than-fully certified teachers on student achievement. The meta-analysis focused on the areas of mathematics, science and reading and explored trends across areas of achievement, school level and research design. The study was directed towards (a) a synthesis of findings, and (b) recommendations for future research and policy decisions.The meta-analysis population consisted of five individual studies that generated twenty-seven effect size estimates. Three studies utilized either an individual level or class level of analysis and yielded twelve mean difference effect size estimates. Two studies utilized either a school or state level of analysis and yielded fifteen correlational effect size estimates. The majority of findings in mathematics favor the positive effect of fully certified teachers. In science, the findings pointed towards equivalent levels of student achievement for fully certified and less-than fully certified teachers. All the findings associated with reading favored the positive effect of fully certified teachers. It appears that certification may be more crucial to student achievement in reading and mathematics than in science. Across school levels, the overall trend suggests that full certification may be more crucial to student achievement in elementary school than middle or high school. Across levels of analysis and research design, studies that utilize an aggregate level of analysis yield a greater number of positive study outcomes than designs conducted at the individual or class level. A key finding is that given the specifications of the meta-analysis, direct evidence of the relationship between certification and student achievement is limited to five peer-reviewed, published studies. Additional findings illuminated several issues that are vital to improving the quantity and quality of research on teacher certification. Eight specific recommendations were directed towards academic researchers who plan to study the topic. Four recommendations are directed towards policy-makers at the state and federal level who are involved in setting standards and planning legislation for educator preparation.

There has been a growing discussion in the fields of education and psychology about the relationship between social skill proficiency and academic excellence. However, the presence of extracurricular involvement as promoting both academic and social development has not been thoroughly explored. The most recent literature syntheses and meta-analyses on extracurricular activity participation were conducted in the 1980??s. An updated review and quantitative look at the participation literature is due. The purpose of this study is to integrate participation studies from the 1990s and give summative information as to the impact of extracurricular activity participation on various educational and psycho-social characteristics. Of the 164 identified studies, 41 were included in these meta-analyses. The current analyses produced 6 different activity categories: general extracurricular activity, sports, work and vocational activities, performing arts, pro-social activities, and community-based activities. The current meta-analyses suggest student outcomes were significantly related to general extracurricular activity and pro-social activity participation. General activities and pro-social activities had the most impact on academic achievement, while performing arts and pro-social activities?? participants reported the largest effect on identity and self esteem related outcomes. Sports and related activities (i.e. Cheerleading) were not as strongly linked to academic achievement indicators as anticipated and student workers had more negative outcomes than any other activity participants. In conclusion, the best outcomes for children and adolescents are brought about through well-built, developmentally appropriate structured activities. Moreover, the academic and social profits of extracurricular activities that have been examined in this study can be used to inform program planning and implementation.

This investigation examined the impact on student achievement of teachers who participated in a professional development program using industry partnerships. One treatment and one non-treatment school in a large urban school district served as the sites for this inquiry with teacher participation in a professional development program and the achievement data of their science students being collected during the 2001-2002 school period. The impact of a teacher professional development program with industry partnerships such as Education for the Energy Industry (EEI) on student achievement in science was determined. National and state standardized tests were analyzed using extant data obtained from administering the fourth through the eighth grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) test and the eighth grade Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. The differential influence of a professional development program for teachers on the achievement of students of diversity was determined by the TAAS scores and ITBS scores, which were partitioned by treatment condition and student ethnicity. Findings from this quantitative investigation suggest enhanced student achievement in science if teachers participated in a professional development program involving industry partnerships.

Studiens syfte var att beskriva hur ett positivt motivationsklimat kan utvecklas i en golfförening baserat på medlemmarnas uppfattning av existerande förening. Femton stycken golfare (9 manliga och 6 kvinnliga) i åldrarna 15-76 år från tre olika klubbar i Sverige deltog i studien. I studien användes ett kvalitativt angreppssätt och en egen komponerad intervjuguide utformades utifrån bl.a. Vazou, Ntoumanis och Duda (2005) forskning kring motivationsklimat. För att analysera rådata användes metoden kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet visade att de relationer, som framkommit genom tidigare forskning, mellan motivationsklimat och de tre stora områdena; tränare, föräldrar och kamrater också fanns inom golfidrotten. Det som framkom och var nytt i denna studie var att det fanns en annan viktig faktor som påverkade motivationsklimatet inom golf, nämligen anläggningens kvalité.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) affect 1 in every 88 U.S. children. ASDs have been described as neurological and developmental disorders impacting visual, motor, and visual-motor integration (VMI) abilities that affect academic achievement (CDC, 2010). Forty-five participants (22 ASD and 23 Typically Developing [TD]) 8 to 14 years old completed the Bender-Gestalt Test, Second Edition (BG II), Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, 5th Edition (VMI-V), NEPSY Second Edition (NEPSY-II), Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-3 (TVPS-3), Navon Task, Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition, Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Second Edition, Behavior Assessment Scale for Children, Second Edition, and Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire. Three hypotheses examined whether students with ASDs were more likely than TD peers to have: (1) a visual processing bias; (2) fine motor difficulties; and (3) VMI difficulties. Additional hypotheses analyzed the relationship between (4) local processing bias and fine motor difficulties on VMI ability and (5) local processing bias, fine motor difficulties, and VMI difficulties on academic achievement. A series oft-tests indicated the TVPS-3 (p=.72), Navon Task (p= .78), BG-II (p = .39), and VMI-V (p = .14) were not significantly different between groups. Students with ASDs demonstrated increased difficulty compared to TD students on the NEPSY-II (p = .01) and slower completion time on the Navon Task (p = .01). Regression analyses for VMI indicated the best predictors for the BG-II (p < .001) were the TVPS-3 and Navon Completion Time; the best predictor for the VMI-V (p< .001) was the TVPS-3. Regression analyses indicated that VMI-V predicted all domains of academic achievement. In addition to VMI-V, fine motor skills related to writing achievement, and BG-II related to math achievement. Based on the results, the speed of processing plays an important role on VMI skills and academic achievement, more so than the local processing bias. Although this study may have been impacted by homogeneity in the participants, it investigates a relationship between visual processing biases, fine motor difficulties, visual-motor integration and academic achievement that has received little attention in the literature. Findings can inform the development of more effective interventions for academic functioning for students with ASDs.

Distributed Leadership is often considered an optimal form of leadership to improve student achievement. The challenge though is that previous research on distributed leadership has often described what distributed leadership is as opposed to what distributed leadership's impact on student achievement might be. Since leadership has an indirect effect on student achievement, exploring organizational factors that may have a more direct impact on student achievement is important. Academic optimism describes teachers' perceptions of the staff's collective efficacy, the trust experienced between teachers, and between teachers and administrators, and the extent to which academic press (high expectations) is evident in the school. Academic optimism is an organizational factor that improves student achievement according to previous research. This thesis examined patterns of distributed leadership and their correlation to academic optimism. Further I examined the impact that academic optimism has on student achievement. By surveying 2122 teachers in 113 schools in a large school board in south-central Ontario, I determined that planfully aligned distributed leadership had a significant correlation to academic optimism but academic optimism did not have a significant correlation to student achievement. Rather, academic press, one of the variables within academic optimism, did have a significant correlation to student achievement in language and math. This study concluded that planfully aligned distributed leadership mediated by academic press had a significant impact on student achievement.

This research was undertaken to identify variables that accounted for major changes in academic performance between high school and college. Differences between predicted and actual college GPA were used to classify students as gainers or decliners among a group of sophomores and a group of seniors at a medium-sized research university. A model composed of nine variables was developed to explain the change in performance. Each variable was classified as an Environmental Triggering Mechanism (environmental stimulus), an Internal Psychological state (a cognitive response to the stimulus), or an Academic Behavior. Seven of the variables were derived from the literature of academic achievement in college. Two of the variables were identified in the course of exploratory interviews with senior performance changers. Two-way discriminant function analysis was performed to determine which of the variables contributed most to classifying students as gainers or decliners. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationships between variables. Academic expectancies, the number of terms required to adjust to college academically, and the students' approach to study (consistency and priority of study) emerged as making the strongest contribution to the discriminant function for both sophomores and seniors. Significant correlations were found between some, but not all, of the variables in each category, supporting the basic structure of the model. Variables categorized as Environmental Triggering Mechanisms played a secondary role with respect to those Internal Psychological States and Academic Behaviors that contributed most to academic performance change. / Graduation date: 1991

In this qualitative action research study, five lower-achieving freshman prealgebra students in a rural high school were interviewed about mathematics anxiety. The subjects ranged in age from 13 to 15 years and included three boys and two girls, of which one was Hispanic, one was African-American, and three were Caucasian. These students had tested below the fourth-grade level in mathematics during their eighth-grade year and were placed in special pre-algebra classes, which met for 30 additional minutes each day and progressed with more depth, but at a slower pace. The researcher employed personal interviews to answer the research question: How do students describe and cope with mathematics anxiety? The researcher utilized the constant comparative method to analyze data and developed the following seven categories: setting and background information; self-image; mathematics difficulties; success in mathematics; support for learning; teacher support; and coping techniques, which was the context of the students’ anxiety. While they have encountered some success in mathematics, the descriptions of support from family and student friends, along with teacher support, explain how these students’ cope with the anxiety. When the students talked positively about mathematics, they discussed activities that made mathematics fun or enjoyable. However, these participants also spoke of negative mathematics experiences as early as the first grade. A poor self-image, as it relates to a student’s mathematical knowledge, affects current learning. Past negative perceptions appeared to contribute to their defeat. The findings coincided with previous research that mathematics anxiety is negatively related to mathematics achievement. Students reported gains from hands-on activities, facilitative teaching, teacher encouragement, additional assessments, and goal settings, but interview data suggested they had mostly given up on getting much better in mathematics, because they thought they were not going to succeed. They stopped trying and giving up was their way of coping.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether African American male students' academic achievement level can be positively impacted by teachers' use of instructional technology. In addition, this study examined teachers' level of preparedness in the use of instructional technology as well as their perceptions regarding their level of use of instructional technology. Finally, this study investigated the relationship between the technological activities and how effective these activities were in teaching mathematics objectives to African American males. The participants of this study were middle school teachers from six schools in the southwestern portion of the United States. Participants of this study also consisted of the African American male students enrolled in these teachers' classes. The Middle School Students' Mathematics Teacher Survey was developed and administered to a sample of 33 teachers of middle school-aged African American male students. The results of the study revealed that the level of teachers' preparedness had an influence on the use and implementation of technology use in the classroom. Teachers' preparedness in the use of instructional technology was related to their African American male students' mathematical achievement. Teachers' perceptions of the use of instructional technology was related to their African American male students' mathematics achievement. Results also indicated that teachers' perceptions regarding use of instructional technology were related to their African American male students' mathematics achievement. The level of teachers' preparedness and their perceptions toward the use of instructional technology in the classroom were reliable predictors of their African American male students meeting the standards in mathematics. When analyzing data, inferential statistical techniques were used to determine the differences between observed and expected frequencies.