In an attempt to help middle school art students to be more engaged and have more ownership over their learning experience, the researcher, who is also the classroom teacher, created and implemented student-directed and teacher-supported strategies. Using a design-based research methodology, the author conducted a qualitative study over a twelve-week period investigating the affordances or limitations of implementing more student-directed strategies. The results showed three categories of student responses. The students that were ready and capable to direct their own learning excelled, guiding their own learning, and were able to generate personally relevant and disciplinary connected art. The second category of students initially did not have the artistic skills or the skills necessary to direct their own learning. Through interventions and scaffolding, these students were able to direct their learning and make personally relevant and disciplinary connected art. The last category of students struggled to guide their learning, were unmotivated, and relied on the teacher to direct their learning. The results suggest that neither a teacher-centered or student-directed model alone is adequate to achieve desired outcomes of students guiding their learning and achieving high academic standards. There is a need for a teacher to perceive and adapt their practice to address the multifaceted needs of students.

This study examined how teachers' perceptions and attitudes and students' perceptions impacted the learning outcomes students received from their participation in service-learning. Service-learning is a form of experiential learning that endeavors to enhance students' academic and civic education through participation in community service. Two learning outcomes of service-learning were investigated: student problem solving and leadership skills. The data consisted of survey responses from 443 middle and high school students and their respective teachers that participated in evaluation research conducted by the Texas Center for Service-Learning and Texas A&M University during the 2007-2008 academic year. The survey items used from the teacher surveys focused on whether teachers felt that administrators took their opinions and ideas into account when making decisions regarding the service-learning program, as well as items that focused on teachers' general attitude towards the program. Survey items used from the student surveys focused on whether students felt their teacher enjoyed service-learning projects, as well as survey items that focused on students' selfefficacy in terms of problem solving and leadership skills. The basic hypotheses were: (1) the more institutionalized the service-learning program is in the students' school, the more positive benefits they receive from their program involvement, (2) when students perceive that they have more ownership of the service-learning program, they receive more benefits from their participation, and (3) the more positively students perceive the teacher's perception of the service-learning program, the more positive benefits students receive for their program involvement. Path analysis and multiple regression are used to test the hypotheses. Contrary to what was expected, the data indicated that institutionalization was significantly, negatively related to student problem solving (-.3007, p less than or equal to .001) and leadership skills (-.4020, p less than or equal to .001). As expected, the data showed that student perception of student ownership of the service-learning program was significantly, positively related to student problem solving (1.0845, p less than or equal to .05) and leadership skills (2.4721, p less than or equal to .001). The data also showed that teacher attitude was very important in regard to student perception of the teacher's attitude and student perception of student ownership of the program, as well as student problem solving and leadership skills. The data suggested that the teacher's attitude was more important in terms of student learning outcomes than the student's perception of the teacher's attitude.

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of school culture that influenced college-going rates for high school graduates in northeast Tennessee. The study involved one-toone interviews with selected high school teachers and principals. Six high schools in northeast Tennessee were used in the study. The significance of this study was to generate a grounded theory that could be used to explain the characteristics of school cultures that were effective in supporting students' college-going rates. This knowledge could be used to inform high school principals, school boards, state legislatures and other government bodies, and colleges and universities. Findings in this study indicated that effective schools needed to establish a school culture that exhibited 5 major characteristics. These major characteristics helped schools improve students' performance, they helped improve students attendance rate and reduced students' drop-out rate, and they improved student college-going rate. The 5 characteristics were: (a) communicating high expectations to all stakeholders, (b) building a strong learning community, (c) promoting positive partnership with parents in the education of their children, (d) establishing partnership with local industries, colleges, and universities, and (e) focusing on students' ownership of their learning, students' performance, and students' continuation to higher education. The conclusion made from this study was that communicating high expectations for stakeholders needed to be combined with support for stakeholders, especially for teachers and students, in order to maximize their potential to achieve high goals. Successful schools also needed to establish knowledge base for a community of learners. The learning community would encompass those areas that made the most impact on students' learning. These were: (1) knowledge supporting growth for the corporate faculty, (2) knowledge supporting growth and orientation of new teachers, and (3) knowledge supporting positive partnership with parents in the education of their children. Parental involvement in the education of their children played a major role in improving students' attendance rate; reducing the drop-out rate, and supporting students' college-going rates.