<p> The purpose of this study was to better understand districts' responses to curriculum audit findings and to determine the role the audit plays in school reform. Questions to guide this understanding include (1) How do school districts implement recommendations from Curriculum Management Audits?; (2) What processes do districts use to facilitate change based on audit recommendations?; (3) What timelines are established to implement these changes?; (4) What personnel is involved in the implementation?; and (5) Why, if any, were some recommendations not implemented? This study then followed a phenomenological research design. Four districts that consented to participation were contacted and interviews were conducted. The data generated by the interviews was analyzed using QSR NVivo 10. Prejudgments about the data were bracketed and the data was coded looking for emerging themes or nodes in each of the transcripts. These nodes were then classified based on their similarity into the four common themes that emerged as being important during the implementation process. These themes are: Changes in curriculum take (1) time and effort, (2) communication and collaboration, (3) a structured plan for implementation, and (4) consistency of leadership.</p>

<p> As teacher recruitment intensifies to locate qualified teachers for our nation's classrooms, alternative teacher certification programs are becoming prevalent. Initially these programs were designed to attract professionals and college graduates to enter urban classrooms. However, what has occurred is that over 140 alternative certification programs are available to teacher candidates. Some of these programs are well designed with education courses and content area methodology along with pre-service teaching internships while others may not provide the opportunities for new teachers to be successful in their first years of teaching. This study investigated the perceptions of secondary school principals regarding the effectiveness of traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs.</p>

<p> Since No Child Left Behind legislation was enacted, accountability features intended to assure that all students receive quality education have influenced teachers' perceptions and actions in the classroom leading many to leave the profession. The problem is that high teacher attrition rates plague education. The intent of this research was to explore and discover teachers' experiences with NCLB, including how they made sense of their experiences, and how it affected their patterns of behaviors and decision making. Fifteen instructors of grades three through five in Texas participated in interviews and responded to a grand tour question. Utilizing classical grounded theory methodology, the core variable, <i>Caring Less,</i> emerged from the data. Initial stages began with conditions and consequences that were present in participants' experiences in the substantive area of teachers working with NCLB legislation, forming the framework for the theory. The theory, Caring Less, accounted for the greatest variation in participants' behavior explaining how educators resolved their main concerns. It established four main categories: conforming to the mandate, obeying authority, being in relationship, and wanting out. Overwhelmed and overloaded educators de-prioritized critical portions of their work, caring less about components of their employment that affect students. The high level of stress associated with the pressures of testing and accountability seriously impacted their role as educators and contributed to teacher demoralization and instructor attrition. Conclusions include the necessity for pre-service training at the university level to include instruction and practical experiences with co-teaching, new teacher induction and mentoring, and training for social and emotional competence. For veteran instructors, districts' likelihood of retaining teachers is greater if choices in voluntary staff development are offered, training in social emotional competence is available, and teacherpreneural opportunities are supported by school administration. For school districts, campus studies of burnout and modifying hiring practices to measure grit as part of the hiring process may improve teacher retention. Recommended for future research is administrative leadership due to its effect on campus culture. In this study, effective school leadership was the most significant factor in determining how educators perceived their ability to navigate their employment under NCLB.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-191). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 264-283). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

<p> Emotional labor refers to the efforts workers engage in to manage the expression of their feelings in order to meet organizational goals or norms. Although education researchers have established emotional labor among classroom teachers, the nuances and effects of emotional labor in classroom settings still requires more study and understanding. In particular, as researchers have identified the connections between emotional labor and stress among educators, they have posited that providing instruction on the constructs of emotional labor may help to decrease those feelings of stress. Researchers have not yet studied this idea. The aim of this study was to fill that gap by creating and evaluating an in-service training program for educators that teaches about the constructs of emotional labor.</p><p> The study design incorporated both qualitative and quantitative measures to determine not only if teachers can increase their understanding of emotional labor constructs through in-service training, but also how they apply these new understandings in their daily practice. The participants included 22 K-5 classroom teachers from an elementary school in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Over the course of 10 weeks, the teachers participated in five 30-minute long training sessions that were delivered via direct instruction, whole group discussion, and small group discussion. They completed a pre-test and post-test around the first direct instruction training session to determine if their understanding of emotional labor increased after the training. As the training program continued over the course of four more sessions, the participants completed journal entries, which were analyzed to determine how the teachers were recognizing and understanding emotional labor in their practice. The analysis of the journal entries and post-test results serve to extend the field of emotional labor research, because it established that this group of teachers increased their understanding of emotional labor and applied their new learning to their practice. The findings from this study may also be interpreted as a call to action for further research, because the participants requested additional training during which they could talk with colleagues about how to manage the stress they feel related to emotional labor.</p><p>

<p> To highlight exemplary school counseling programs, in 2003, the American School Counselor Association developed the Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) as an acknowledgement for those schools that have implemented a comprehensive school counseling program based on the ASCA National Model (American School Counselor Association, 2016b). Since the inception of the RAMP program, 668 schools have earned the RAMP designation. Of those, 189 have current RAMP status and 469 have had RAMP status at some point but have let it lapse. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that contributed to a school&rsquo;s decision to continue or discontinue the pursuit of subsequent RAMP designations. This mixed-methods study surveyed 238 schools of various levels (e.g., elementary, middle and high school) located in 36 states. Following the analysis of the questionnaire data, six in-depth interviews were conducted. Two of the interviews were with schools that had earned multiple-consecutive RAMP designations, two were with schools that earned multiple RAMP designations in non-consecutive years, and two were with lapsed RAMP schools. </p><p> The findings of this study indicate that current RAMP schools and lapsed RAMP schools that did not have significant turnover within the counseling department from the time of their original RAMP designation, report to be currently implementing comprehensive school counseling programs regardless of their current RAMP status. Additionally, schools that were unwilling to pursue subsequent Re-RAMP designations were likely to cite multiple barriers or challenges that include: time, a lack of support or understanding from school administrators and staffing turnover. Finally, the results indicate that schools are more willing to pursue the Re-RAMP designation if they have a variety of supports in place and perceive the benefits of the designation to be valuable. </p><p> Implications of these findings for the association&rsquo;s management, improvement and support of the Recognized ASCA Model Program are discussed. Further areas for research regarding the various components of comprehensive school counseling programs are suggested.</p><p>

<p> Transitioning High School Students from Psychiatric Hospitalization into the Public School Setting: The Student Perspective There is evidence to suggest that connectedness to parent, school, and peers influences the student transition between psychiatric hospitalization and public high school (Millings et al., 2012; Murnaghan et al., 2014; Oldfield et al., 2016, Waters et al., 2014; Vaz et al., 2014). Exploring the student perspective of transition revealed practices and connections that strongly influenced the transition experience. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of high school students who transition between psychiatric hospitalization and the public high school setting, and the supports they perceived to exist during the transition process, if any. An interpretive qualitative design was considered the most appropriate methodology to understand the retrospective student perspective of the transition between settings (Merriam, 2009). Structured and semi- structured interviews were conducted with ten young adults from three counties in one state. </p><p> The theoretical framework for this study was complexity theory, which allowed a variety of outcomes to evolve from similar experiences. The conceptual framework included the concepts of stigma, academic and emotional supports, and connectedness to school, parents, and peers. Findings from the data analysis revealed three themes: (a) Participants felt little connection to school, family, or peers before hospitalization, which influenced perceptions of the transition experience; (b) Participants perceived a lack of academic support during the transition between hospital and high school; and (c) Participants perceived a lack of emotional support during the transition between hospital and high school. </p><p> This study expanded the literature by providing the student voice to the discourse regarding transition between psychiatric hospitalization and public high school. It is vital for district and school leaders to understand how to support students when they transition between psychiatric hospital and public school in order for them to successfully reintegrate into school and meet their academic potential.</p><p>

<p> Student academic success and retention are primary concerns for colleges and universities. This researcher used a mixed method study to explore the impact of Supplemental Instruction (SI) on student success and persistence in two introductory, college-level algebra courses, Math 1030 Intermediate Algebra, and, Math 1040 Algebra for College Students, at a minority-serving, private not-for-profit university in Southeastern Florida. In response to greater accountability to increase students&rsquo; achievement and retention, SI, in conjunction with other academic support programs, was developed to assist students to progress successfully through high-risk courses, for example, mathematics. Developed by Deanna Martin at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, SI is an academic support tool that incorporates collaborative learning study sessions to improve student academic success and persistence. </p><p> This study allowed the researcher to understand if students are more successful academically because of participating in SI sessions. More specifically, the researcher&rsquo;s goals were to find out if student achievement and long-term retention is gained when students participate in SI, and, if additional benefits outside of course grades and retention are achieved because of SI participation. Using a convenience sample, the researcher sought to answer five research questions: (a) To what extent are students who participated in SI Mathematics more successful than students who did not participate in SI Mathematics, as measured by final course grades? (b) What is the persistence of students who participated in two or more SI sessions as measured by fall-to-fall semester retention? (c) Does the level of persistence differ by gender? (d) What additional benefits occur with SI student participation outside of course grades and retention as measured by focus groups? (e) To what extent does the quantitative and qualitative data converge? </p><p> This study required the use of archival data of students who participated in SI Math 1030 Intermediate Algebra and SI Math 1040 Algebra for College Students in the 2015&ndash;2016 academic year. In addition, the researcher conducted a focus group and two one-on-one interviews to investigate if additional benefits were gained when students participate in SI Math. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed that student academic success is achieved, based on final course grades, and fall-to-fall retention is statistically significant when students participate in two or more SI sessions. However, a Mann-Whitney U test showed that persistence level did not differ by gender. Results from the qualitative data indicated that additional benefits such as increased student engagement and integration, enhanced learning, and communication is gained by attending SI.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this multi-case, Appreciative Inquiry, is to discover the strengths of Kansas Reward schools and compare them with practices included within the Turnaround Principles. Data, collected through focus groups, includes staff opinions regarding the Reward schools&rsquo; successes. This study comprises themes that participants believe have had an effect on school success and that align with the Turnaround Principles. Practical implications of this study suggest using Reward school practices to frame future statewide technical assistance improvements and opportunities for high-progress and high-performance schools, or other schools with distinguished practices and to use Reward schools to mentor lower-performing schools in order to demonstrate effective practices. </p><p> <i><b>Keywords:</b></i> school improvement, high-performance school, high-progress school, Reward school, Appreciative Inquiry, Turnaround Principles: (a) provide strong leadership, (b) enable effective educators, (c) maximize learning time, (d) ensure rigorous curriculum, (e) utilize data analysis, (f) establish safe environment, and (g) grow family and community engagement (KSDE, 2013).</p><p>