The primary goal of this study was to investigate principals' perceptions of the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) and the “high stakes” nature of the exam. Twelfth grade students who have not passed either the English Language Arts or Math sections of the MCAS will not receive a diploma starting in the 2003. A decade after the signing of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, educators are still grappling with the ever-changing educational landscape and how to best increase the amount of learning occurring in schools. The MCAS serves as the formal educational assessment system in Massachusetts. This qualitative study involved individually interviewing twelve middle/elementary school principals from Massachusetts, all of whom had at least ten years of experience as a building administrator. The principals were categorized by MCAS results as well as school demographic settings (urban, suburban or rural) in order to provide a representative sampling similar to that found in the state. An interview guide with a specific set of twelve predetermined questions was utilized for the semi-structured interviews. The first five questions were previously used in D. F. Brown's study of principals' perceptions in Illinois, New York and Tennessee in 1993. The remaining questions were geared toward eliciting responses specific to the MCAS. Responses from the participants were analyzed using an inductive process that allowed themes to emerge from the data. Findings from the data analysis included three themes: principals from higher performing schools spoke favorably about the MCAS, principals from all categories were concerned over the public release of the scores, and finally principals from lower scoring schools felt that there is too much pressure to improve their MCAS scores. Further analysis of the data included a comparison of themes from this study with that of Brown's 1993 study.

As the content and format of educational assessments evolve, the need for valid and workable standard setting methods grows as well. Although there are numerous standard setting methods available for multiple-choice items, there is a much smaller pool of methods from which to choose when constructed-response items or performance assessments are considered. In this study, four standard setting methods were evaluated. Two of the methods were used with the simulation component of a licensing examination, and two were used with the multiple-choice component. The two methods used with the simulations were the Work Classification method and the Analytic method. With the multiple-choice items, the Item Cluster method and Direct Consensus method were employed. The Item Cluster and Direct Consensus methods had each been the subject of research on two previous occasions, and the aims of the current study were to make modifications suggested by earlier findings and to seek replication of trends found earlier. The Work Classification and Analytic methods, while bearing some similarity to existing methods, are seen as new approaches specially configured to reflect the features of the simulations under consideration in the study. The results for each method were evaluated in terms of three sources of validity evidence—procedural, internal, and external—and the methods for each item type were contrasted to each other to assess their relative strengths and weaknesses. For the methods used with the simulations, the Analytic method has an advantage procedurally due to time factors, but panelists felt more positively about the Work Classification method. Internally, interrater reliability for the Analytic method was lower. Externally, the consistency of cut scores between methods was good in two of the three simulations; the larger difference on the third simulation may be explainable by other factors. For the methods used with the multiple-choice items, this study's findings support most of those found in earlier research. Procedurally, the Direct Consensus method is more efficient. Internally, there was less consistency across panels with the Direct Consensus method. Externally, the Direct Consensus method produced higher cut scores. Suggestions for future research for all four methods are given.

Developmental dyslexia is a specific impairment of reading ability in the presence of normal intelligence and adequate reading instruction. Current research has linked dyslexia to genetic underpinnings, which are identifiable. Furthermore, there are cognitive processes that are influenced by unique genetically programmed neural networks that determine the manner in which a dyslexic child learns to read. As a result of these breakdowns in cognitive processing, specific breakdowns are noted using measurable assessments. The constellation of measurable symptoms or markers can differentiate the dyslexic child from other children who are typically developing readers or those who are poor readers for reasons not related to genetic pre-programming. Identification of children with dyslexia is critical in providing the appropriate services and remedial models as early intervention in the classroom is of the utmost importance. This study will investigate one aspect, motor function and motor processes that are purported to be one dimension associated with a breakdown in reading acquisition. According to the Cerebellar Deficit Hypothesis, motor function is one valid process and salient feature by which true dyslexia can be identified in children during the second grade year of their education. By the second grade, most typically developing children have acquired the fundamentals of reading. As such, early identification and appropriate intervention for children with dyslexia can be targeted as soon as possible to ensure long-term success and quality of life in these individuals.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the comparative analysis of dynamic assessment procedures when two types of tests are used. Specifically, the aim of this study was to find out whether instructions on basic cognitive skills would improve the students' performance on specific standardized tests. The tests that were used were: a verbal educational test (Standardized Test of Essential Writing Skills), and a non-verbal intelligence test (Raven Progressive Matrices). Fifty two subjects were randomly selected from the 7th grade population of a middle school in Western Massachusetts. This sample represented slightly more than 35% of the 7th grade population of this school (N = 148). Two out of five seventh grade classes were selected by the principal and the researcher. One was a low academic performance class and the other was a high academic performance class. Prior academic performance and achievement scores were collected from the school records. Participation in this study was voluntary. The administration of the pretest instruments (Raven progressive Matrices and Standardized Test of Essential Writing Skills) was done in group sessions. Students were divided into two treatment groups and each group was exposed to two sessions of graduated prompting instructions, each session lasting 30-40 minutes. The same pretest assessment instruments were then administered during the post test. Individual student data was held confidential and combined into a group statistical process. According to the research findings it appears that dynamic assessment did improve the subjects' performance on the verbal, educational test (Standardized Test of Essential Writing Skills), but not on the non-verbal, intelligence test (Raven Progressive Matrices). The type of instructions received did not seem to have a significant effect on the subjects' post test performance on both the Standardized Test of Essential Writing Skills and Raven Progressive Matrices. However, a comparison of the highest and lowest academic groups, (as defined by the teachers) showed that the lowest group improved their scores on all test measures as compared to the highest academic group.

This descriptive study identified the perceived influences that prompt teachers to initiate changes in curriculum and instruction. The study also examined teachers' perceptions of the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) in relation to curricular and instructional change. Three major research questions guided the study: (1) What are the perceived influences that prompt teachers to initiate changes in curriculum and instruction? (2) How has the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) been helpful to teachers in prompting them to initiate changes in curriculum and instruction? (3) How has the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) fallen short in in prompting teachers to initiate changes in curriculum and instruction. Data are drawn from 52 teachers in 13 schools representing five different Kinds of Communities in Massachusetts; Urbanized, Economically Developed Suburbs, Growth Communities, Residential Suburbs, and Economic Rural Centers. Selection was based on reading scores from the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program. Collection of data were accomplished through a free response interviews about educational change, written surveys of possible influences which might prompt change, and teacher interviews concerning the benefits and drawbacks of the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program as a prompt in initiating changes in curriculum and instruction. Findings indicate teachers are most influenced by students' needs and a desire to make learning enjoyable, as well as by workshops, conferences, and courses. Testing was one of the lowest areas of influence for teachers. However, in several schools teachers were prompted by administration to initiate changes in curriculum and instruction because of the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program. Teachers indicated the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program helped them to evaluate and update their present curriculum and their instructional style. Many teachers were not influenced by the MEAP because they were not familiar with the test, did not understand the test results, were given no training, materials, or guidance by their own school system or by the State Department of Education.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have granted educational opportunities to students with a diverse aptitude of scholastic success. As a result, many of these students require additional academic support and assistance. Through the process of academic advising, specifically prescriptive advising, many students receive guidance and solutions to their immediate concerns. As it pertains to career and life goals, the Developmental Advising approach is designed to assist students in selecting the ideal major and courses based on their respective interest. However, for the lower achieving students, research indicates that prescriptive and developmental advising is not as effective as intrusive advising and does not meet the needs of these students. Intrusive advising, an academic advising strategy designed to build relationships with students in an effort to anticipate their needs, was developed in the 1970's and improved upon thereafter to offer additional support to students. This dissertation is a formative evaluation of intrusive advising on low achieving students at an HBCU in the south of the United States. Interviews were conducted with a sample of students who participated in the pilot program and the change in GPA data was collected. The results of this study provide insight into the impact intrusive advising can have on students' academics and attitude towards education. Many participants in the study were able to improve their GPA and overall disposition towards their education. The analysis of intrusive advising on low achieving students highlights the importance of the interrelationship between advisor and advisee. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Education. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 9, 2015. / Advising, African American Students, Intrusive Advising, Retention / Includes bibliographical references. / Carolyn Herrington, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lance DeHaven-Smith, University Representative; Bradley Cox, Committee Member; Ayesha Khurshid, Committee Member; Stacey Rutledge, Committee Member.

Although response scholarship has continually called for a greater emphasis on context when analyzing instructors' written commentary on student writing, textual analysis of written comments remains a primary direction for response research. Additionally, when context is accounted for, it is oftentimes done so in a rather reductive fashion, with a single contextual factor examined in relation to response or context approached in a solely theoretical fashion. As a result, discussions of the influence of context in response scholarship remain limited in scope and/or mostly theoretical. However, an increased attentiveness to context is not as easy as it appears. Since context is a rather opaque concept, and setting parameters for context is a difficult endeavor, this dissertation sought to provide a model for examining the context that surrounds response that focused on three primarily textual contextual factors—what I call (con)texts. Chapter 1 examines the dilemma of context in response scholarship and reviews the literature on the influence of context on written commentary. Afterwards, a new model for contextual response scholarship is proposed, one that accounts for multiple contextual factors that share unifying characteristics. For this study, the three contextual factors under examination—assignment description/texts, student/teacher interactions, and grading materials—were primarily textual in nature, creating the (con)texts for the study. This study sought to examine the manner in which students articulated their interpretations and uses of their instructors' written commentary in relation to the three (con)textual factors under examination. After introducing the new model for response scholarship, Chapter 2 delves into the details of the study and the methodology employed. The study focused on two composition classrooms, with three students participating from each classroom. The details of the participating instructors, participating students, and the classroom contexts—as well as the (con)texts within each classroom—are depicted. Furthermore, the methodological approaches, which primarily consisted of student interviews and discourse analysis, are discussed. In particular, the second half of the chapter focuses on the structure of the student interviews and the coding schemes employed to analyze the student interviews. The student interviews consisted of both unprompted—not directly addressing the (con)texts—questions and prompted—directly addressing the (con)texts—questions and were coded in two distinct fashions. The empirical results of the study are presented in Chapter 3 with each of the student interview results being presented separately to begin the chapter. Following the results of each individual student's interview, the results of the students in Jill's (Instructor #1) class are compared along with the results of the students in Jack's (Instructor #2) class. Finally, the results for all students in the study are presented. Chapter 4 discusses the results of the study in a more nuanced, intricate fashion. This discussion is arranged by seven key findings that emerged from the study: 1) Each of the students in the study drew upon the (con)texts in order to help them interpret and use their instructor's written feedback in a unique fashion; 2) Students' answers to the unprompted questions demonstrated that they were less inclined to put the (con)texts directly in conversation with the teachers' written responses until prompted to later in the interview; 3) During the unprompted portion of the interviews, the instructors' written commentary frequently promoted student engagement with particular (con)texts; 4) Students used the assignment description/texts to understand how well they understood and executed the teachers' expectations of the assignments as well as to gain a firmer understanding of what the expectations for the assignments were; 5) Student/teacher interactions—primarily face-to-face in conferences—played a pivotal role in how students articulated their interpretations and uses of instructors' written feedback; 6) While the rubric or grading criteria had a more subtle influence, the actual paper grade had a substantial impact on students' interpretations and uses of their instructors' written commentary; and 7) The (con)texts frequently worked together as students articulated their interpretations and uses of their instructors' written commentary. This dissertation concludes in Chapter 5 by revisiting the exigence for the study while also discussing delimitations and limitations for the study. Afterwards, implications for the study—both pedagogical and scholarly—are discussed in-depth and the necessity for greater attention to context in response scholarship is emphasized. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 31, 2016. / Assessment, Assignments, Conferences, Context, Grades, Response / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael R. Neal, Professor Directing Dissertation; Melissa R. Gross, University Representative; Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Committee Member; Deborah C. Teague, Committee Member; Kathleen B. Yancey, Committee Member.

This study examines how student learning conditions are impacted by the allocation of school resources, especially time and staff. It also explores the consequences of such allocation on student achievement. More specifically, it investigates the impacts of restructuring class schedule on class size as well as on student achievement. In their efforts to improve student achievement, policymakers and school administrators have leveraged two important resource-allocation decisions—the number of students in a classroom and the duration and frequency of classes taught. Although each practice has been independently studied in the literature, researchers have devoted little attention to the relationship between class schedule and class size. In this dissertation, I explore how class schedule plays a role in determining class size as well as what the impacts of changing class schedule are on student achievement. Essentially, this study evaluates whether school districts, when reducing class size, may consider it a viable option to adopt a traditional seven-period class schedule. The study draws on nine-year class-level data from 2006-07 to 2014-15 and student-level two- or three-year data from 2011-12 to 2013-14. These data are obtained from a large school district, Broward County Public Schools, in Florida. Through several quasi-experimental approaches, such as a comparative interrupted time-series, difference-in-differences, and fixed-effects model, I empirically examine the relationships between class schedule and class size and between class schedule and student achievement. The results show that changing class schedule has positive impacts on reducing class size when block schedules are replaced by the 7-period class schedule, especially in Math and Social Studies. However, when the 6-period class schedule is changed to the 7-period schedule, no policy impact is found for the 6-period schools compared to the 7-period schools. Rather, the 6-period schedule schools reduced class size less than the 7-period schedule schools did in certain subjects. When explaining the results of the period-type class schedule schools, the role of teaching load is discussed in reducing class size. In addition, the student math achievement, which is measured by the End-of-Course Algebra I and Geometry, is reported to be negatively affected by changing to the traditional 7-period class schedule, especially for low-achieving students in the 4x4 block schools. Based on these results, several implications for policy and future research are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 29, 2017. / Class Schedule, Class Size, Class Size Reduction / Includes bibliographical references. / Patrice Iatarola, Professor Directing Dissertation; Anastasia Semykina, University Representative; Carolyn Herrington, Committee Member; Toby Park, Committee Member.

In Florida, persistently low-performing schools generally service high concentrations of minority and free and reduced-price lunch students. As minority demographics grow throughout Florida (Florida Office of Economic & Demographic Research, 2017), so does the potential for increases in the number of persistently low-performing schools. In 2017, Florida lawmakers passed House Bill 7069, which includes the Schools of Hope policy. This policy incentivizes charter schools to compete for the rights to educate students in areas of persistently low-performing schools. This critical race theory policy analysis examined Florida’s Schools of Hope policy at the intersection of race, poverty, education, and policy to explore its potential to address performance outcomes of economically disadvantaged Black students attending persistently low-performing schools. The use of critical race theory to conduct this critical policy analysis provided a framework to evaluate the Schools of Hope policy and its potential to remove or reinforce the status quo for large populations of economically disadvantaged Black students attending persistently low-performing schools. Additionally, the use of the critical race theory tenet narrative/storytelling and counter-narrative/counter-storytelling to conduct semi-structured interviews allowed key stakeholders to provide insights about the policy in their local context and be a part of the policy discourse. This policy analysis presented what was learned about the Schools of Hope policy when the four critical race theory tenets—critique of liberalism, interest convergence, permanence of racism, and narratives/storytelling—were used to analyze it. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / 2019 / October 17, 2019. / Charter School, Economically Disadvantaged, Hope Operator, Persistently Low-performing Schools, Schools of Hope / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, Professor Directing Dissertation; Steve McDowell, University Representative; Motoko Akiba, Committee Member; Robert Schwartz, Committee Member.

In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities which constitute an effective teacher and promote a positive learning climate, a field study methodology was employed to develop an evaluative instrument and to gain descriptive data. For the purpose of developing an instrument to describe and measure effective teachers, 24 actual learning sessions (classes) were observed, extensive notes taken, and tape recordings were made in order to isolate and describe the behaviors which seemed critical to the situation being studied. This was done by observing the teacher as he taught and the learners while they learned. The teacher was reputed to be an "effective" teacher and was chosen for this reason. At the end of the 24 sessions the perceptions, observations, and inferences of the investigator were measured against those of the learners in the same classroom situation to determine how congruent they were. The results of the study also confirmed the reputation of the teacher. This information was utilized in the development of scale items. In addition, a second study was designed as a measure of the same teacher, teaching another course, and different students (92 second year medical students). A questionnaire was designed to test the overall effectiveness of the teacher, by the students, and just as important as the rating was the information elicited from the students regarding the teacher and the class process. This was done by way of open ended questions, and the coding of these questions by the investigator. This information too became useful in developing scale items. Once the scale items were developed by the empirical method described above, the items were pretested on teachers teaching in the same department as the exemplar teacher. The results of the pre-test were statistically significant correlations between the scale items and a student rating of the overall effectiveness of the teachers being studied. The scale items were refined and tested on another larger and different samples of teachers. The teachers in this sample were teachers at Portland State University in various departments. Thirty teachers participated in the testing of the instrument. This part of the study was designed to compare the instrument developed by the investigator using the process of a trained observer (direct observation) against a study designed and developed by the traditional survey method of scale development which utilized factor analysis to select scale items. The correlation between the b10 scales (a split model design was used--one half the students answered the investigator's instrument, one half the students answered the criterion instrument) was nearly perfect.