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The purpose of this study was to understand how secondary level United States History teachers approached controversial issues in their standards-based, high-stakes testing classrooms. Controversial issues consisted of multiple points of view, were socially constructed, and had the potential to challenge belief systems. The audience and their perception of a topic determined the degree of controversy. The questions explored were what factors did secondary level United States History teachers identify as influential in creating controversy in their classrooms and how did they introduce what they considered controversial issues into their standards-based, high-stakes testing classrooms? To answer these questions, twelve secondary level teachers who taught 6th, 7th, or 11th grade United States History participated in this study. Information was garnered through interviews of individuals and focus groups. Some participants provided resources used in their lessons and scenarios of their teaching experiences. My principle findings were: • Place played a role in teachers' willingness to incorporate controversial issues into their classrooms. This was due to students' preconceived notions developed by their geographical location and family. • The experiences of teachers and students influenced discussion of controversial issues. This included how long the teacher had taught the content or past experiences with parents and administrators. Students' experiences were derived from their family and community, which influenced incorporation of controversial issues. • Teachers were influenced by the standards they were required to teach. Though some saw these as a restriction in teaching, others used them as a springboard to what they perceived as deeper, meaningful teaching. / Ph. D.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Sherri Martinie / This study examined the impact grading policies have on students’ mindsets in urban Midwestern middle schools. The components of this quasi-experimental, causal comparative survey research relied on the grading policies in place at the school level and the students’ reporting of their mindset. Data was collected using a questionnaire containing eight Likert-type questions from the Implicit Theories of Intelligence scale (Dweck, 2006), as well as additional questions seeking the students’ perceptions of grading practices implemented in their buildings. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, t-tests and ANOVA tests were run measuring the impact that a variety of perceived grading practices had on students’ mindset levels. The findings from the research demonstrated no statistically significant differences between the mindset levels of students from schools with different grading policies. Further analysis revealed inconsistencies between student perceptions of the grading practices and the schools’ actual stated grading policies. It appears standards based and traditional grading practices, although specifically stated at the building level, appear to have blended together in the large school district, which may have led to the inconclusive results. Of significance was the finding that students perceived to understand the meaning of their grade, even if it is misaligned with the schools’ policy, reported a growth mindset in comparison to students that reported they did not understand their grade. These findings begin to explore the impact grading practices have on students, especially during the transition from traditional to standards based grading. Further research is needed to fully examine the transition between grading practices and students’ perceptions of those policies. When students’ perceptions of the standards based grading policy do not align with the actual policy, it is assumed that it will have no impact on students’ mindset levels. Future research would seek to understand ways in which educators making a transition from traditional to standards based grading can seek clarity of policies, seek accuracy of implementation and monitor students’ perceptions in alignment with the policies and practices.

Although standards-based IEP goals have been mandated in many states for almost a decade, their effectiveness is unknown. Standards-based IEP goals were first created to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which increased accountability for all students as well as those with disabilities, while providing targets for state standardized test scores and ensuring access to, and progress in, the general education curriculum for students with disabilities. Factors, such as teacher training, collaboration, and accountability may influence teachers’ perceptions of aligning IEP goals to grade level expectations. Using a survey, this study examined teachers’ perceptions of the efficacy of standards-based IEP goals. One hundred prekindergarten and kindergarten female teachers responded to the survey. Calculations from a linear regression indicated that a relationship existed between the usage of standards-based goals and curriculum-based measures. Results also indicated that teachers may choose to ignore standards-based IEP goals at times to focus on individual students’ needs. Overall, teachers reported that they wrote or gave input into the development of IEPs. However, not all teachers recognized the benefits of students with disabilities in general education classrooms, despite indicating that accommodations and modifications were generally defined. Future research suggestions include investigating perceptions regarding standards-based IEP goals in terms of type of disability of the student. Additionally, a review of personnel preparation programs could provide additional information about the training that teachers receive regarding standards-based IEP goals.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Across the nation, most states are implementing a new set of standards- and accountability-based reforms: the Common Core State Standards and their accompanying assessments. Unfortunately, the perspectives of school-based educators are largely missing from policy and implementation decisions about the Common Core. To address some of the gaps in previous research, the purpose of this dissertation—a comparative case study of two middle schools on the East Coast of the United States—was to describe and analyze school-based educators’ perceptions of and responses to the Common Core and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Exam. Data analysis revealed that educators in the two schools generally worked from an inquiry stance on teaching, learning, and schooling (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) in that they collectively and critically analyzed the intentions of educational policy and practice based in part on their beliefs about student-centered, constructivist teaching and learning. Consistent with this perspective, they made sense of the Common Core and SBAC based on the degree of alignment they perceived between their own educational values and beliefs, on the one hand, and the values and beliefs that animated the policies, on the other hand, which I conceptualized as “principled sensemaking.” How the educators actually implemented the Common Core and SBAC was the result of the intersection of their principled sensemaking of these standards-based reforms and the degree of agency they had over policy implementation. I termed this type of response to policy “principled implementation.” Four types of principled implementation were identified: principled adoption, principled neglect, principled compliance, and principled resistance. New understandings of school-based educators’ unique, critical, and nuanced perceptions of the Common Core and SBAC and how they believe the Common Core and SBAC influence teaching and learning have the capacity to inform decisions about the future of the Common Core in schools, and contributes to a broader understanding of how school-based educators take up and respond to standards- and accountability-based reforms. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Irwin Blumer / This study was conducted within a large urban high school in the northeastern United States. This school resides in a district that utilizes a standards-based system of teacher evaluation. The purpose of the study was to determine teachers' perspectives on the effectiveness of standards-based teacher evaluation systems as a means of improving instruction and student achievement. The question for research, <&ldquo>What are teacher perceptions of evaluation in an urban high school that uses a standards<&ndash>based evaluation system?<&rdquo> served as the framework for development and implementation of this study and for interpretation of the study findings. The body of related literature provided the theoretical rationale for the data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Major sections of the literature review included: a historical perspective on performance standards and of teacher evaluation from the mid-nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries; an examination of contemporary teacher evaluation systems; a review of recent theoretical and empirical research concerning best evaluation practices; and a review of the research regarding teachers' perceptions of supervision and evaluation. Data were gathered from thirty participants through a thirty-one question Likert<&ndash>based attitude scale. Key findings included teachers' perceptions that: they were not familiar with the teaching performance standards used in their district; they did not believe that their evaluations were rooted solely in the these standards; they believed their evaluation conferences with supervisors helped then to improve their practice; their evaluations were not tied to annual goals or individual and school professional development plans; supervisors did not use multiple sources of data as a part of teacher evaluation; supervisors do not spend enough time in classrooms to carry out expectations for effective evaluation; and that peer observation aided teachers in improving their practice. While current research asserts that standards-based teacher evaluation systems coupled with an array of activities that foster teacher ownership for the process can be used as a powerful vehicle for improving student achievement, study findings were inconclusive regarding any perceived association between standards<&ndash>based performance evaluation structures and practices and the improvement of student achievement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

Reliable cost estimation is important for economic production, cost control and maintaining competitive advantage in manufacturing contract bidding. Therefore, estimating the manufacturing cost of a machined part is of critical importance in CNC manufacture. Computers aided systems the link to manufacturers CAD systems and databases have been used since the 1980’s to identify product cost and enable a company to evaluate resource utilisation. While the concept of an integrated costing system has made significant advances in integrating the design function with the cost estimation process, there are still major gaps in acquisition and application of detailed product data for generation of timely and reliable costing information feedback to engineers. Integrated costing systems are information intensive and require significant manufacturing data support. A major obstacle is the bespoke nature of the available cost relevant data and their storage in company specific database tailored to individual company practices. Thus there is need to consider standardisation of information from the design of component through to their process planning and manufacture. This will allow seamless exchange of detailed, cost relevant, information between other computers aided systems and costing systems to facilitate automatic and reliable cost information feedback. In this research a novel framework is specified and designed for enabling detailed product information that exists across CNC manufacturing, to be utilised for generation of reliable cost estimates. The standards based costing proposed in this thesis framework facilitates high-level integration of various CAx resources and increases the availability of product creation process (PCP) data that are applicable in costing process. A prototype implementation of the unified costing framework is utilised to demonstrate the capabilities of the framework. The demonstration is conducted using two industrially inspired prismatic test components where the components machining cycles were timed with a stop watch and the actual result compared with the prototype system estimated result to determine its reliability. The research shows that implementation of manufacturing standard that contain structured representation PCP information together with an effective data retrieval mechanism and computational algorithms can provide a standard compliant framework to realise an information rich (detailed) costing system. The potential of the proposed framework is not limited to enabling the use of detailed information that exist within manufacturing facility to generate cost information; it also provides a standard compliant approach for the development of future generations of costing systems.

ABSTRACT STANDARDS-BASED INSTRUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF A COLLEGE ALGEBRA TEACHER by Anthonia Ekwuocha The lecture method has dominated undergraduate mathematics education (Bergsten, 2007). The lecture method promotes passive learning instead of active learning among students, thus contributing to attrition in undergraduate mathematics. Standards-based instruction has been found to be effective in reducing students’ attrition in undergraduate mathematics (Ellington, 2005). College algebra is gatekeeper for higher undergraduate mathematics courses (Thiel, Peterman & Brown, 2008). Research indicates that if college algebra is taught with standards-based teaching strategies, it will help reduce students’ attrition and encourage more students to take higher level mathematics courses (Burmeister, Kenney, & Nice, 1996). Standards-based instructional strategies include but are not limited to real life applications, cooperative learning, proper use of technology, implementation of writing, multiple approaches, connection with other experiences, and experiential teaching (American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), 2006). Despite all effort to improve undergraduate mathematics instruction, there are still limited empirical studies on standards-based instruction in college algebra. Research in undergraduate mathematics education is a new field of study (Brown & Murphy, 2000). Research reported that overall students’ attrition in college algebra could be as high as 41% in a community college (Owens, 2003). This high attrition rate in college algebra may impact students’ continuation in higher mathematics courses and their interest in the field of mathematics. As a result more research efforts must be focused on ways to improve college algebra instruction. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices of a college algebra teacher who adopts standards-based techniques in his classroom. The research questions that guided the study were: What teaching practices are used in the mathematics classroom of a college algebra teacher? How are the teaching practices of the teacher aligned with the characteristics of standards-based instruction? The participant of the study was a college algebra teacher who was identified as a standards-based teacher. The teaching practices of the teacher were analyzed and presented using a qualitative single case study method. Data were collected from interviews with the teacher, classroom observations, and artifacts. The research project was drawn from the frameworks of culturally relevant pedagogy theory, symbolic interaction theory, experiential teaching theory, and standards-based instruction. Analysis of the data showed that the teaching practices of the participant were mathematical communication, proper use of technology in instruction and assessment, building mathematical connections, multiple representations, motivating students to learn mathematics, and repetition of key terms. The teaching practices aligned with the characteristics of standards-based instruction. Findings from the study suggest that standards-based instruction strategies should be used in undergraduate mathematics education, especially in teaching college algebra to alleviate some of the problems. Moreover, university administrators at college level should organize workshops and professional development about standards-based instruction strategies for their teachers.

During the 1990s, standards-based reform became the predominant education reform inthe country. However, neither federal legislation nor state standards-based reform programshave focused much on addressing the needs of special groups. While, the explicit goal ofstandards-based reform was to raise academic achievement of all students, the implicit goal wasto change beliefs about specific groups of students, particularly students who traditionally havebeen perceived as "disadvantaged." This dissertation examines the implementation of standards-based reform policies withpopulations of limited English proficient (LEP) high school students to determine the strength of the Kentucky's policies to include LEP students and the capacity for those policies to influenceeducator beliefs about the abilities of LEP students. The study includes an analysis ofKentucky's reform policies and a case study of one high school English as a Second Languageprogram seen as a leader in implementing standards-based reforms. The case study approachprovided an opportunity to learn about the issues associated with educating LEP high schoolstudents in the context of standards-based reform from the point of view of those who arecharged with implementing these policies. The findings from this study suggest that it is notsufficient to include LEP students in state assessment and accountability systems. In order foraccountability systems to ensure strong student performance, they must also address inequities instudents' opportunities to learn to high standards. The success of Kentucky's policies, as well asother standards-based policies, depends on their ability to drive changes in educator beliefs aboutstudents' capabilities and to drive the creation of local conditions supportive of practicesconsistent with achieving the goals of the Kentucky Education Reform Act.

abstract: ABSTRACT Education policymakers at the national level have initiated reforms in K-12 education for that past several years that have focused on teacher quality and teacher evaluation. More recently, reforms have included legislation that focuses on administrator quality as well. Included in far-reaching recent legislation in Arizona is a requirement that administrators be evaluated on a standards-based evaluation system that is linked to student outcomes. The end result is an annual summative measure of administrator effectiveness that impacts job retention. Because of this, Arizona administrators have become concerned about rapidly becoming proficient in the new evaluation systems. Administrators rarely have the explicit professional development opportunities they need to collaborate on a shared understanding of these new evaluation systems. This action research study focused on a group of eight administrators in a small urban district grappling with a new, complex, and high-stakes administrator evaluation that is a component of an all-encompassing Teacher Incentive Fund Grant. An existing professional learning time was engaged to assist administrators in lessening their concerns and increasing their understanding and use of the evaluation instrument. Activities were designed to engage the administrators in dynamic, contextualized learning. Participants interacted in a group to interpret the meaning of the evaluation instrument share practical knowledge and support each other's acquisition understanding. Data were gathered with mixed methods. Administrators were given pre-and post-surveys prior to and immediately after this six-week innovation. Formal and informal interviews were conduct throughout the innovation. Additionally, detailed records in the form of meeting records and a researcher journal were kept. Qualitative and quantitative data were triangulated to validate findings. Results identified concerns and understanding of administrators as they attempted to come to a shared understanding of the new evaluation instrument. As a result of learning together, their concerns about the use of the instrument lessened. Other concerns however, remained or increased. Administrators found the process of the Administrator Learning Community valuable and felt their understanding and use of the instrument had increased. Intense concerns about the competing priorities and initiatives led to the administrators to consider a reevaluation of the competing initiatives. Implications from this study can be used to help other administrators and professional development facilitators grappling with common concerns. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Leadership and Innovation 2014