The curriculum developed in this project was designed to meet the requirements of the Clay County gifted program. It provides a comprehensive American history curriculum, discovery through the Civil War, to promote mastery of the content area, increase involvement and interest of students in learning through the reduction of irrelevant and redundant material, and encourage individual initiative for one/sown investigations. The program consists of a series of independent studies in which the teacher is a facilitator who sets the stage and encourages students' endeavors. The study units developed for this project include objectives representing all levels in Bloom/s Taxonomy. The curriculum was evaluated by pilot-testing and surveying the students involved, as well as by surveying a team of teachers of the gifted and a university faculty member in social studies education.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of administrators, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers in the high schools of Northeast Tennessee regarding their schools’ academics, climate, culture, parent engagement, and their English Language Learners’ school experiences. The researcher sought to ascertain if significant differences exist between the perceptions of different groups of educational professionals in the school, with those groups to include school administrators, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers. Data were analyzed from 50 survey questions with 42 of those questions measured on a 5-point Likert scale, 5 questions as multiple choice, and 3 questions as open-ended. Data were collected through an online survey program, Survey Monkey. The survey was distributed to 12 school districts consisting of 39 high schools. There was a 23% response rate among administrators, a 29% response rate among counselors, and a nearly 10% response rate among teachers. There were no significant variations of the participants’ perceptions of their schools’ conduciveness to ELLs’ success with regard to classroom practice, student resilience, school climate, school culture, and the strength of home and school partnership.

The Maryville City School system has implemented the first year of the iReach blended learning model for which all students in the school district have access to either a laptop or an iPad to support their learning every day. The availability of research on the impact of iReach is limited because the blended learning instructional model is relatively new and has not yet been subjected to numerous research studies. The purpose of this ex post facto quasi-experimental quantitative study was to compare student reading Lexile growth data collected through the use of the Reading Comprehension Assessment before and after iReach implementation to determine if there was a correlation between the implementation of iReach and reading Lexile growth of students in Maryville City Schools. Paired-samples t test results based on data collected from the 2015-2016 freshman cohort as well as subgroups (males, females, economically disadvantaged, and noneconomically disadvantaged) depict significantly more reading Lexile score growth during the eighth grade year before the school system implemented the iReach blended learning initiative than during the ninth grade, the first full year of iReach implementation. Paired-samples t test results based on data collected from the 2015-2016 sophomore cohort to use for comparison to the freshman cohort demonstrated the same significant pattern of growth. These findings suggest that the implementation of iReach is not a sole factor affecting the reading Lexile growth of students. Results from a 2-way contingency table analysis reflect that the freshmen cohort had significantly more students than expected who increased their reading Lexile scores from eighth grade pretest to ninth grade posttest than the expected frequency of students in the sophomore cohort who increased their scores. These significant findings indicate that either the implementation of iReach, another variable, or a combination of variables worked better for the freshman cohort and attributed to the higher than expected frequency of students whose scores increased.

This paper explores fugitive slave advertisements from the pages of the New Orleans Argus in 1828. As the main repository for runaway slave advertisements in New Orleans at the time, the Argus played a critical role in policing and surveillance of the city’s enslaved population just as New Orleans was becoming the largest slave market in the South. Using the Argus as well as historians’ accounts of the city, this thesis argues that as the market in enslaved people grew, slave owners depended upon local jailers in tandem with papers like the Argus, to police the enslaved population. The large volume of these advertisements, however, also testifies to enslaved people’s frequent rejection of bondage. This thesis is designed primarily as an index of the existing ads for 1828 with the aim of assisting further research into these sources.

The purpose of this study was to explore, study, outline and describe tutoring strategies applied by American Reads (AR) tutors and non-America Reads (nAR) tutors helping young tutees develop early literacy skills. There is limited research on the implementation of effective tutoring strategies during one-on-one tutoring with elementary school children in terms of early literacy development. Most of the literature is split between peer tutoring and program tutoring. This lack of research presents a particular challenge when it comes to identifying an effective tutor and effective tutoring methodologies. Using a qualitative approach, this study utilizes survey data, session recordings, and interviews to not only explore the process of tutoring, but also the strategies, learned or otherwise improvised, applied by volunteer and paid tutors. Based on the data and analysis, the researcher identified effective tutoring strategies of early literacy tutors and made suggestions for further research.

This study explored pre-existing quantitative data for 55 students when they were in the seventh grade who eventually attended a continuation high school years later. There were 101 students at a particular continuation high school, and this research explored pre-existing data looking solely at the students who were in the same district while they were in seventh grade. Attendance and grades from the pre-existing data in the district’s software system were analyzed using a descriptive methodology followed by a cluster analysis through SPSS. Attendance findings for the 55 students revealed that nine students (16%) were absent with a frequency of 10 or more days in each semester. Reasons given for some absences were bereavement for four students (7%) and suspensions for 10 students (18%). Eight out of these 10 students (80%) declined in their grades from the first semester to the second semester. Overall, 33 students (60%) declined in their grades from the first semester to the second semester regardless. Findings related to grades looked at the number of Fs over the two semesters of the seventh-grade school year and at the number of Fs earned in each course. Forty-four students (80%) earned at least one F either semester. Language Arts was the highest failed academic class second semester, with 32 out of 55 students (58%), and Computer Applications was the highest failed elective class for 5 out of 9 students (56%) who took this class second semester. Other findings related to grades were that 0 students (0%) failed only the elective, and only 2 students (4%) failed Physical Education. Additional findings through cluster analysis revealed a connection between failing an elective in combination with failing Language Arts: 81.8% first semester (9 out of 11 students) and 83.3% second semester (5 out of 6 students). Using a cross-tabulation, the highest pattern between the two semesters was for 10 students of the overall 55 (18%) with no Fs both semesters, and the second-highest pattern was for 6 students (11%) with no Fs first semester and 1 F second semester.

Years of high stakes testing and managerial directives to improve student test scores created a trend of teachers’ declining sense of efficacy and agency. Researchers have yet to examine the perceptions of teachers following requirements to improve student engagement and school climate in an effort to improve academic performance following the authorization of local and national educational accountability reforms. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers perceive their efficacy and agency in response to the addition of nonacademic measures and the requirement of documented input from teachers and other stakeholders into educational policy planning procedures. Veteran K-12 teachers’ responses to survey and interview questions were coded, analyzed, and organized into themes to generate an educational theory. Grounded Theory Methodologies (GTM), Culturally Responsive Methodologies (CRM) and Critical Pedagogy (CP) informed data collection methods and theoretical foundations for this study. The creation of a safe dialogical space between the practitioner researcher and participants developed a relationship for both to engage as co-researchers. Teachers discovered renewed senses of efficacy and agency while acknowledging their leadership potential in schools and the community. This study and further practitioner research with teachers in schools will inform pre-service education training programs and confirm teachers’ role as critical intellectuals in American society.

Democracy does not automatically maintain itself by prescribed constitutions and procedural codes (Dewey, 1939), but rather its citizens must have certain dispositions to protect and strengthen it (Biesta, 2006). According to John Stuart Mill (1859/1991), people can tyrannize one another within the structures of a democracy, a concept he phrased “tyranny of the majority” (p. 7). To safeguard against such tyranny and to maintain a democratic way of life conducive to progress, I contend that our schools must be tasked with developing critical thinking dispositions in our future adults. The literature on education for democracy was reviewed and aligned with the critical thinking dispositions defined in the present study. Critical thinking dispositions are taught through interactions that promote them, not only limited to methods of direct instruction, such that they are infused throughout all academic subjects at all grade levels (Facione, 1990). Therefore, the present study explored the relationship between teachers’ critical thinking dispositions and their teaching styles. The main research question was: How do critical thinking dispositions differentiate between teaching styles? To best answer this question 10 mixed methods case studies were conducted of the teachers at one private pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school. The data were collected through a quantitative questionnaire, the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI), and through qualitative observations and interviews. Subsequently, each strand, qualitative and quantitative, was analyzed individually and sequentially. Finally, through cross-case analyses, 10 distinctions in teaching styles were found for teachers who scored high on the critical thinking dispositions: truth-seeking to teacher explorer, truth-seeking to student teaching, open-mindedness to student teaching, inquisitiveness to fallibility, analyticity to emotional adaptability, analyticity to fallibility, analyticity to observational listening, systematicity to nurturing, confidence in reasoning to curriculum expansion, and confidence in reasoning to self-actualization. Understanding these relationships is the start of possibly being able to use teachers’ CCTDI profiles to predict teaching styles and to guide teacher education. Implications for future research include more focused studies around the consistent relationships emerging from the present study and research about students’ development of critical thinking dispositions in relation to teaching styles.

Adolescent literacy rates for students who struggle, particularly those with disabilities are alarming, especially in light of increased educational standards. As higher standards place a greater emphasis on reading and writing, addressing students’ literacy needs in the content areas has become a topic of interest in reading education. Although there is much debate about how to address this need, it is clear that content area teachers need support addressing literacy in their subject areas. An exploratory case study design was used to examine the responses of high school content area teachers to an EIE (exploratory, investigative, and experimental) professional development (PD) program. Specifically, the researcher sought to describe what the teachers considered to be valuable and useful aspects of the different components of the experience as it related to their practice, the outcomes they anticipated for struggling students, and their knowledge of literacy in the content areas. Ten content area teachers participated in 21.5 hours of professional development over a period of two months. Data about their PD experiences were collected during focus group discussions, individual interviews, observations, and completed questionnaires. When discussing the teachers’ descriptions and observations of their literacy practices, teachers reported an increased awareness of their practice as it pertained to literacy implementation. In the analysis of the outcomes teachers anticipated for struggling adolescents, including those with disabilities, teachers reported increased sense of control over the academic outcomes of struggling students. When addressing questions in reference to the effective components of the EIE PD experience, the teachers favored equally: (a) applicability of information, (b) exposure to literature, (c) autonomous systems, and (d) collaboration. Lastly, support emerged as an integral component of a constructivist EIE PD approach. All teachers in the study reported that support played a pivotal role in how they learned about and implemented literacy practices in their content area. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that PD address and validate the current perceptions and concerns among content area teachers in relation to literacy implementation. PD should support teachers as they reflect upon their reported instructional limitations in relation to their needs and their students’ needs. Second, literacy PD for content area teachers must provide systematic support for teachers to explore, investigate and experiment with literacy in their content. Lastly, PD designed to support content area teacher’s use of literacy strategies in the content areas should provide teachers the opportunities to drive the literacy PD content in order to address needs specific to their classroom and school communities.

This applied study was designed to explore the opinions and perceptions of classroom teachers and school administrators toward substitute teachers in an urban religious school located in the mid-Atlantic United States. The researcher also investigated how these opinions and perceptions impacted the school’s culture and students’ learning abilities. The theoretical framework of the study was based on the social cognitive theory, which is based on the reciprocal causality that a strong sense of collective efficacy enhances teachers’ selfefficacy beliefs, whereas weak collective efficacy beliefs undermine teachers’ sense of efficacy and vice versa. Self-efficacy and collective efficacy shape the normative school environment in which teachers work and students can perform. Three research questions guided the present study: How do opinions or perceptions of substitute teachers from classroom teachers, school administrators, and district personnel affect the substitute teaching process and student learning continuity? What methods of collaboration and strategies can classroom teachers, school administrators, and district personnel use to enhance substitute teachers’ efficacy? How could the professional development of substitute teachers improve instruction? This study used a qualitative approach that involved surveys and interviews as instruments to collect data. The study sample consisted of available regular classroom teachers, substitute teachers, and administrators from the research site. Traditional methods were used to analyze and synthesize the collected data. The validity of the findings was ensured through member checking, peer review, and triangulation. Findings revealed that the leadership at the target institution has a philosophy and practice of integrated and comprehensive services both for substitute teachers and regular staff in the school system. Therefore, the general opinions and perceptions of the school administrators, classroom teachers, and substitute teachers about substitute teaching remain positive. That means substitute teachers are fully integrated into the target school system. Relationships between permanent staff members and substitutes also remain positive in that institution. The productive teaching and learning process takes place when substitute teachers are in charge of the classrooms and their contributions positively impact the students continuing learning. These outcomes may contribute to the improvement of the views and practices of education policy makers, school leaders, classroom teachers, curriculum department, support staff, students, parents, community members, and school partners about substitute teachers and integrate their value into the school system toward the learning continuity of students.