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This study explored the components of Maryland's newly-implemented teacher evaluation framework and compared state requirements with evaluations to three local school systems' evaluation procedures. The study sought to investigate the relationship between three evaluation protocols in comparison to the state requirements.;Three local school districts were selected based on their student population served and the availability of their evaluation documents. Howard County Public Schools, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and Montgomery County Public Schools were selected. State evaluation documents were also included in the study, coming from the Maryland State Department of Education. Evaluation documents underwent a qualitative data analysis using computer coding software and were checked manually repeatedly.;It was hypothesized that the local school district evaluation documents would not be in compliance with the state's evaluation procedures. However, it was concluded that this was, in fact, not the case. The school districts used in the study each differed in their means of developing the professional practice of teachers, but remained true to the Danielson evaluation model that the state of Maryland utilized. Further study is needed to explore the initial implementation of these evaluation procedures.

The aim of this study was to determine the organizational characteristics and behaviors that contribute to sustaining a culture of academic optimism as a mechanism of student achievement. While there is a developing research base identifying both the individual elements of academic optimism as well as the academic optimism construct itself as contributors to student achievement, little information exists to assist school leaders in identifying specific organizational practices that sustain collective teacher efficacy, academic emphasis, and trust in students and families. This study employs case study methodology to investigate faculties' interpretations of academic optimism by examining the organizational and instructional practices at three well performing Virginia high schools. Gathered data includes information obtained through direct interviews with 18 (six at each site) faculty members, observations from 12 (four at each site) classrooms, and a review of each school's vision or mission statements, improvement initiatives, and course offerings and enrollments.

As school districts negotiate accountability requirements imposed by federal and state policies regarding exit outcomes for students with disabilities, one strategic response has been to provide students with mild disabilities such as SLD, ED, and Gil with alternative routes to graduation (Goertz & Duffy, 2003; Guy, Shin & Lee, 1999; Johnson & Thurlow, 2003; Johnson, Thurlow, & Stout, 2007; Pankaskie & Webb, 1999). These alternatives made available by state policy may assist school districts to maintain legitimacy by meeting accountability targets and obtaining resources; however, unintended negative consequences may arise.;The purpose of this study was to examine the responses of school districts to educational policy regarding exit outcomes for students with disabilities. A mid-Atlantic state serving over 1.2 million students was the setting of the study.;The results of this study support institutional theory in that organizational change does not occur through coercive methods alone but also by similar responses to uncertainty influenced by environmental contexts. Significant relationships were found among exit outcomes and district context variables such as size, poverty level and reading and math proficiency. The size of the district was negatively related to the Modified Standard Diploma, Special Diploma, and GED. Poverty was negatively related to the Standard Diploma and positively related to the Special Diploma.;The reading and math proficiency of the district was positively related to the Standard Diploma and negatively related to the Special Diploma.

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This research was designed with the primary purpose of identifying the dimensions of principal support perceived by public high school teachers in Virginia and identifying the relationship between principal support and organizational citizenship behaviors. In addition, this study also examined the relationship between principal support and student achievement; organizational citizenship and student achievement, as well as the interaction of Principal Support, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Student Achievement when controlling for SES. Participants in the study were self-selected after being contacted by a member of a team of researchers from The College of William & Mary. Thirty-four schools elected to participate in the survey which required teachers in the selected high schools to complete one of the two forms of the School Social Variables Survey. For this study, data were collected using the Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Schools Survey, the Principal Support Survey, and Standard of Learning Test results for the areas of Algebra II, Biology, English 11 Reading, and World History I. SES was accounted for by calculating the percentage of free and reduced price lunch students served in each building.;This study found that principal support has two dimensions; expressive support and instrumental support. Only expressive support was found to have a significant positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, this study found that there was a significant and positive correlation between SES and all measures of student achievement. It also found that there was a significant positive correlation between Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and the measures of student achievement for Biology and English 11.;No significant correlation was found between instrumental support and organizational citizenship, either dimension of principal support and student achievement, or organizational citizenship and the student achievement measures of Algebra II or World History I.

This single case study explores education of multilingual learners (MLs) from Hispanic backgrounds in an urban inner city school. Using a single case study to answer the research questions was ideal because it allowed the researcher to investigate the school through an objective lens (Gomm, Hammersley, Martyn, & Foster, 2000). The main purpose of the study is to investigate the systems in place in a public school that prevent those students to reach their potential. Several factors have influenced this enlarging academic and achievement gap. Even though, Hispanic community making-up to 16.7% of the entire U.S. population and being the largest and fastest-growing minority group, reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011). Educating Hispanic children continues being a challenge. (Liu, C.-Y. A., & Liu, W.-H, 2012). However, with a growing number of Hispanic students in the US schools, it is imperative to improve their education and minimize those barriers. Using a single case study, this qualitative research focused on a single school in Boston where students Hispanic MLs students represents more than 50% of the schools’ population. The researcher visited classrooms and interviewed teachers to collect qualitative data. This information was later coded in themes to find trends and patterns affecting education of MLs. The researcher found that despite existence of several positive systems in place in the classrooms, such as knowledgeable teachers delivering sounds lessons, and strong systems to address family engagement, other factors are preventing students’ success. In effect, the results concluded existence of several opportunities to improve MLs education including changing language programs models and adding resources to be intentional in addressing MLs linguistic and academic needs.

Education reform has grown into a major policy issue at the state and national level in the United States and for that matter around the world. The purpose of this study was to determine the political and social forces supporting, the rationale behind, and the growth and impact of education reform policies in the K-12 public education system of the United States from 2001-2011. Through mixed-methods data analysis a descriptive and analytical picture of education reform was able to be concluded. The results of the analysis showed that with an increase in education reforms from 2001-2011, legislators, predominantly Republican, created state level education reforms which fell in line with both neoliberal economic (market based policies) and neoconservative political (smaller government and increased individualism) ideals. With a focus on accountability, achievement, and choice, reformers, proliferated in profiles of corporations, PACs and other organizations outside the realm of traditional public education, school systems in the United States continued on similar paths of education reform as other post-industrialized countries that have grown out of an economically globalized world.

This dissertation addresses the problem of African American K-12 miseducation and its institutional pathways in carceral and employment agency reduction. Merging cultural and public policy frameworks, it creates a novel theoretical paradigm altogether. Culturally, it anchors in three Diopan concepts: cultural unity, historical continuity and cradles theory. Through this cultural lens it reimagines the current gold standard in public policy analysis, the problem solving methodology. Pursuing expansive cultural-policy holism, the new framework establishes broad, systemic categories conjoining multiple values for who commits three hierarchical behaviors within an institutional triumvirate—all united historically in when, and culturally by why and how they miseducate African descended children. Using the mixed methods of qualitative, multi-institutional cultural observation and quantitative public policy empiricism, the author, thus, derives a series of novel joint categories and cultural-policy concepts within each category. Hierarchical racism, patriarchy and classism form one combined western cultural behavioral phenomenon. Institutional geographies of school, prison and work constitute the same analytical sequence. Cultural purpose, similarly, unifies western men, women and corporate actors. As importantly, these multi-actor, behavior and institution unities form cross-associations among each other. Ultimately, Afrocentric recentering necessitates African Womanist, Manist and community based Maatic cultural policy correctives. Key terms: K-12, miseducation, cultural unity, historical continuity, criminal injustice, economic injustice, institutional analysis, Afrocentricity, Diopism, Maat, location, racism, patriarchy, classism, public policy / Africology and African American Studies