Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

The following material is designed better to prepare primary teachers for the task which lies ahead, that of teaching children to read. This material may serve as a guide for teachers who have taught without giving the children adequate help in their reading readiness program, but who wish now to make plans for increasing experiences in this program. Many available materials which have been used by the writer and others, believed to be helpful in carrying on a readiness program have been listed. / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences." / Advisor: Marian W. Black, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42).

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 20 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 14-15).

Algebra readiness has been a topic of much research and debate. This report summarizes findings pertaining to how researchers and experts in the field of mathematics education define the term algebra readiness. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) identified a list of readiness indicators for success in algebra. This list is explored. Finally, current teaching practices that have been found successful in helping students become algebra ready are detailed. / text

The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship of developing print awareness in eight kindergarten and first grade children to their development in beginning reading of texts. The following questions are analyzed: (1) What is the relationship of awareness of environmental print to beginning text reading? (2) What is the relationship of book handling knowledge to beginning reading? (3) What is the relationship of metalinguistic awareness to beginning reading? (4) Do these relationships change over time? This descriptive, longitudinal study over one year presents several types of data collected and analyzed with the following instruments: audio taped recordings using the script "Signs of the Environment"; Sand, A Diagnostic Survey: Concepts About Print; informal teacher interviews; parent surveys; tape recordings of the children's reading analyzed with miscue techniques; and classroom observation. The data indicate that the children in this study are aware of environmental print in context. When the print becomes decontextualized, differences are seen between middle- and working-class children. While environmental print awareness was used to select high and low groups, the groups did not remain constant when observed in relationship to reading connected discourse. Children whose parents reported early book experiences demonstrate the greatest knowledge about using books and about the reading of connected discourse. Metalinguistic awareness does not appear to be closely related to success in beginning reading. In their transitions into literacy, children first use personal experience and context to gain meaning from print in the environment and in books. Knowing that print makes sense, children use contextual supports to read print in the environment and apply semantically-oriented transitional reading responses to the reading of connected discourse. As they read from books, their focus narrows from using pictures, knowledge of plot, and past reading experience to focus on print. As children discover that their transitional reading responses do not work on connected discourse, they begin to integrate reading strategies to text. Whole language classrooms, like the one in this study, are important to beginning readers, particularly to those who need additional support for making the transitions into literacy, because it highlights all beginning reading of functional print.

This thesis examines methods to assess the value of the Manpower Systems Analysis (MSA) Curriculum at the Naval Postgraduate School. What exactly does the Navy get in return from the MSA curriculum graduates? Is the return on investment simply an increase in â Quality of Life,â thus increasing retention? Or does the MSA curriculum teach graduates the necessary skills for follow-on billets? Individuals in the private and public sections have tried to quantify the value of both training and education. However, currently most measures of effectiveness are based purely on financial aspects of the education. Little has been done to capture the result of the investments in human capital on any part of the organization. The result of this research is the creation of two surveys that will be used as vehicles to access the value of the MSA curriculum to the Navy and to the graduate. The surveys created are for MSA graduates and their immediate supervisors. This research identifies specific measures and survey techniques that can be used to evaluate education and training. In the future, this approach can be applied to other curricula. / US Navy (USN) author.

Prevalent literature about school counselors' professional development (PD) needs to prepare diverse learners for college is in short supply. Simultaneously, school counselors oftentimes encounter role confusion due to misperceptions of their job responsibilities by educational leaders. This discrepancy has led to the completion of noncounseling assignments, thus prohibiting counselors in this study from appropriate training and adhering to college readiness mandates for all students. This study explored high school counselors' attitudes about their PD needs to prepare diverse students for college in an urban populated school district located in southern Texas. The conceptual framework that guided this study defines school counselors' motivation to improve college access for diverse students when counselors learn information that is practical to their job activities. A qualitative case study was used to answer the question of how counselors perceive their PD needs to prepare diverse learners for college. Data were collected from 8 high school counselors through semistructured interviews and documents of counselors' PD profiles that were analyzed and coded to develop themes. Results established that participants had not received PD about college readiness, and they had not taken the initiative to advocate this need for themselves. Notably, counselors in the study indicated that developing a professional learning community with local colleges would be an effective approach to their professional growth. Although this study immediately benefits counselors in the participating school district, this study also provides information that may expand college enrollment for diverse students. Findings from this study not only will help close the gap between diverse students and their counterparts, but findings from this study may also help enhance PD for school counselors in surrounding school districts.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Although research supports the use of measures of typical performance for assessing academic and cognitive skills, there are currently few such measures in existence. Other measures have been used for research purposes, but they are not normed on a large, nationally-representative sample. The Ratings of Everyday Academic and Cognitive Skills (REACS) was created to address the need for a measure of typical academic and cognitive skills. The goal of the REACS is to provide a timely, easy to administer, and comprehensive assessment of a child's typical functioning in various academic and cognitive domains. The purpose for this dissertation was to develop the initial scale and conduct analyses to provide evidence of its reliability and validity. In an attempt to provide preliminary evidence of the validity of scores from this measure, Parent (n = 142) and Teacher (n = 109) REACS forms were collected for data analysis. A subsample of parents and teachers completed forms to examine interrater and test-retest reliability. A group of children (n = 32) were assessed with measures of academic achievement, cognitive ability, and memory for comparison to the REACS. Results generally showed high internal consistency, yet less reliable test-retest and interrater reliability. While the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the parent scale supported a factor structure that approximated the intended structure of the REACS, a better fit was found with a simpler model for the teacher scale. Finally, both the Parent and Teacher REACS forms were found to predict academic achievement better than cognitive ability. The predictive ability of the REACS was enhanced when used in conjunction with a measure of cognitive ability.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.