Education in America has made substantial growth in its various phases. No factor has been more marked than in the secondary field. The South was tardy in establishing a systematic scheme owing to the devastation of a Civil War and the misunderstandings natural to a reconstruction period. Many forces for the improvement of the secondary field in this section are now accomplishing wonderful results. Accrediting associations to investigate, recommend, and regulate certain practices, different divisions of the state department of education to supervise and inspect, research organizations, graduate schools, and school authorities are adding to the fund of knowledge regarding the different conditions and situations. This naturally leads to much study and criticism regarding the efficiency of the different types of high schools. Some of the schools are small, merely in the formative stage, and have a very small number of teachers and students, while others have large faculties and a student body that reaches into the thousands. Having evolved from the grammar school and conventional academy, in a land of varying possibilities and changing conditions, the high school cannot escape the ever perpetual experimental stage. No matter what is considered a standardized school today, tomorrow introduces new demands and situations. In this connection it seems appropriate to mention some general criticisms, and to make a study of what the high school is contributing to the educational system.

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This study, "A Guide to Teaching Materials for Industrial Arts," was prompted by the fact that the writer is concerned with teaching aids available to the shop teacher in the field. Several years teaching has brought the writer face to face with the problem of supplementary teaching materials. Knowing that complete listings of teaching aids for the teacher are not available, the writer determined to make available such a listing which would be most beneficial to the shop teachers. The problem is fourfold: To catalogue industrial arts teaching aids. To determine the extent of the educational departments in the industrial firms. To determine the free and low cost teaching aids made available for the industrial arts teacher. To educate the teacher and the pupil as to the materials available and thus educate them to better buying.

Through my experiences interning as a first-year teacher of underprivileged students, I have learned that being an educator is more than a career, it is a lifestyle. It is not a job title, but an identity we inhabit. This year my role as an educator consumed every part of me; mind, body, and soul. It pushed me to analyze my identity, critique my privilege, study learning theories, implement various pedagogies, evaluate meaningful content and research contextual situations. Through this process of self-discovery and research, I have determined my educational philosophy to be: children are born with greatness and have unique experiences that can be crafted into excellence through emancipatory environments that are mentally, physically, and socially inclusive.

Diversity across U.S. classrooms is on the rise which is leading to renewed calls for teachers to meet individual learning needs. Studies indicate the failure to address individual learning needs can lead to higher rates of student disengagement, off-task behaviors, and diminished learning outcomes. Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that meets the growing diversity of individual learning needs by considering students' readiness, interest, and learning styles. Differentiated instructional approaches help teachers meet individual learning needs by allowing them to modify instruction as needed. However, despite the apparent benefits of differentiated instruction, teachers are hesitant to abandon other educational models. Research has shown beliefs about student learning influence teachers classroom practices. If teachers do not possess beliefs supporting differentiated classroom practices, then calls for additional implementation may go unheeded. Thus it is important to examine teacher beliefs that may help or hinder implementation of differentiated instructional practices. The purpose of this study was to explore teacher beliefs connected to teaching, learning, and differentiated instruction in diverse classrooms. This study used qualitative case study methodologies to interview, survey, and observe the beliefs and practices of four white, female, veteran middle level educators operating in diverse classroom settings. Data analysis revealed the following themes: (a) differentiated instruction is considered essential, (b) teachers' diversity definitions influenced their differentiated instructional strategies, (c) the classroom environment influences teachers self-efficacy, and (d) professional development sessions support differentiated instructional practices. Conclusions drawn from this study may be used to help improve teacher practices--and ultimately learner outcomes--by informing teacher preparation and professional development, state and local educational policies, and curricular reform efforts.

Student discipline issues can impact student achievement and disrupt the learning process in the school setting. Behavioral issues among female students have become prevalent in public schools, and disciplinary rates of African American female students are disproportionately high. School administrators have the responsibility to manage student discipline on their school campuses while ensuring a positive and safe learning environment for all students. Previous researchers have focused on student discipline of male students; there have been limited studies on the perspectives of school administrators on disciplinary practices for female students. The purpose of this study was to gain the perspectives of campus behavior coordinators (CBCs), school administrators designated by law to effectively manage student discipline on Texas public school campuses; specifically regarding female students. Social learning and labeling theories framed this generic qualitative study. Purposive sampling and discipline scenarios were used to collect in person data from 8 CBCs at 6 junior high schools in a public school district in Texas. Data content analysis entailed identifying emerging codes and themes from audiotaped and transcribed interviews. The findings of the study led to 6 themes identified; realtionships with students, student behavioral supports, traditional discipline practices, mandatory discipline practices, discipline concerns for female students, and school climate. The impact for social change will inform discipline practices of school administrators for female students; bring awareness of the state mandate and its implementation by school administrators, determine best practices to address student discipline, and explore behavioral supports for female students.

Public schools have used varying school configurations for middle grades-typically K-8 or traditional middle school arrangements-to improve students' academic outcomes. A small Northeastern school district was experiencing problems with student achievement, suspensions, and truancy, and was considering school configuration as a potential method of improving student performance. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the associations between school configuration and student achievement, suspensions, and truancy. Erikson's psychosocial theory of development and Dickinson's middle school philosophy guided this study since both address the needs of adolescents. Five years of archival data were collected from 2 demographically comparable Northeast school districts: one with K-8 schools and one with a traditional middle school configuration. Student sample sizes for each of the 5 years ranged from 1,841 to 2,076. Chi-square analyses for each year of data were used to examine the associations between configuration (elemiddle/middle) and the 4 independent variables: math achievement (proficient/not proficient), reading achievement (proficient/not proficient), suspensions (suspended/not suspended), and truancy (truant/not truant). Key results yielded statistically significant associations in certain years for each independent variable. The K-8 school students had higher achievement in math 3 of the 5 years and in reading for 2 of the 5 years. This group also had a lower percentage of truancy 4 of the 5 years, but a greater proportion of suspensions 4 of the 5 years. Results of this study can influence positive social change as district administrators can use the data to guide their decisions regarding which school configuration is most beneficial for middle school aged students.

The purpose of the present study was to record Cedar Middle School's (CMS) response to intervention implementation journey. It is a qualitative case study that examines one school's efforts to bring school improvements under the response to inventory (RtI) umbrella in order to achieve a more systematic approach to providing high-quality educational services to every student enrolled at CMS. Participants included the 10 members of the school's Student Success Team along with the principal and assistant principal. The recorded journey included: (a) a description of the RtI consensus and infrastructure-building processes, (b) an exploration of the SST perceptions of school-wide intervention efforts both past and present, (c) a review of the school's accomplishments and the barriers to implementation encountered, and (d) the implications for further school improvement efforts and research. Participants submitted to interviews, observations, and focus group meetings. Although the purpose of the study was not to measure program effectiveness, preliminary data are included that report the school's efforts toward systems change was helpful for students and is having a positive effect on student performance in reading comprehension. Participants were also able to share anecdotal evidence of increased student motivation and other behavioral changes that were natural consequences of their efforts. This evidence is reported in the narrative found in Chapters IV and V. Conclusions were based on participant input, recorded measures, and analyses conducted as part of the present study. Cautions were also discussed, including the limitations and delimitations. Finally, implications of the present study were provided for RtI and the field of schoolwide systematic interventions and support.

The purpose of this research study is to examine reading assignments given in the secondary classroom of a rural secondary school. The intention is to analyze student readiness to handle complex text found in post-secondary education and/or the workforce, based on current reading trends within the school. The research questions guiding this study focus on the average amount of reading students are expected to complete in a week, what strategic support is being provided to students to enhance comprehension of text, the methodology behind how teachers select both reading assignments and reading strategies, and finally the methodology behind how teachers assess student content learning through assigned text. This study is broken down into three major components: teacher-completed reading logs, student surveys, and two case studies. This mixed methods data collection process revealed that students are typically assigned less than two reading assignments per class per week, however nearly half of these students indicate that they read all of an assigned text. Case study data concluded that teachers are not consistent in their methodology neither in selecting reading assignments nor in utilization of reading strategies. Finally, based on the data, it is reasonable to conclude that students in this setting may not be prepared to handle complex texts found in post-secondary education and/or in the workforce.

Despite significant growth in research examining the effects of mindfulness interventions on teachers (Roeser, 2014), studies have mainly relied on self-reports of teacher mindfulness and have not examined observable behavioral manifestations of teacher mindfulness in the classroom. Due to possible biases in self-report measures (Dotterer & Lowe, 2011), as well as the need for a greater range of assessments of the effects of mindfulness trainings on teachers, the current study sought to create a new measure of teacher mindfulness in the classroom from three sources of information: teacher self-reports of their own behavior in the classroom, student perceptions of their teachers' behavior, and third-person observations of teacher behavior in the classroom. Another aim of this study was to demonstrate the concurrent validity of these new measures with teacher dispositional mindfulness and job stress. It was hypothesized that the newly created measures of teacher mindfulness in the classroom would be internally reliable, share modest inter-correlations across data sources, and would significantly correlate with hypothesized antecedents such as teachers' dispositional mindfulness and ratings of job stress. CFA, correlation, and regression analyses found good internal consistencies for each informant source of teacher calmness, clarity, and kindness; partial support for the convergent validity of each informant source; and partial concurrent validity only for teacher reports of mindfulness in the classroom with teachers' dispositional mindfulness and job stress. Evidence of method effects was suggested from these analyses. The future use, re-configuration, and implications of this suite of measures are discussed.