A study was conducted to determine the relationship between the credentials held by science teachers who taught at a school that administered the Science Texas Assessment on Knowledge and Skills (Science TAKS), the state standardized exam in science, at grade 11 and student performance on a state standardized exam in science administered in grade 11. Years of teaching experience, teacher certification type(s), highest degree level held, teacher and school demographic information, and the percentage of students who met the passing standard on the Science TAKS were obtained through a public records request to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC). Analysis was performed through the use of canonical correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the multiple linear regression analysis indicate that a larger percentage of students met the passing standard on the Science TAKS state attended schools in which a large portion of the high school science teachers held post baccalaureate degrees, elementary and physical science certifications, and had 11-20 years of teaching experience.

"The author has had an interest in teacher welfare throughout his many years as a teacher and as a principal. Observation of his fellow teachers gave evidence of varying stages of adjustment and varying degrees of satisfaction and happiness in the profession. Allowing, even, for individual differences, the questions in his mind were: Why are some faculties more successful than others? Why are some teachers happy and well adjusted whereas others are neurotic, unhappy, and maladjusted? What can be done to build good teacher morale? What can the principal do to improve the personal and professional welfare of the teacher?"--Introduction. / "August, 1953." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: John Permenter, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32).

What causes a teacher to leave and move to another district or campus? Many times, teachers leave because they are unsatisfied, overwhelmed, or unprepared for the demands of the job. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the contextual factors that may explain why teachers decide to transfer to another campus or leave their current district to pursue a position at another district. The following factors, as told from the teachers' perspective, were examined: (a) campus culture, (b) campus leadership, (c) working conditions, and (d) other contributing factors. This study focused on the types of experiences teachers reported encountering, whether positive or negative, that contributed to teacher turnover. Data for this qualitative study included a survey and focus group. Participants selected to participate in this study were teachers who either exited from a public-school district or transferred from one campus to another campus within the same school district. An analysis of the qualitative responses from the teacher survey and a focus group interview provided answers and insight into the research questions. The data were collected and analyzed to further understand the types of experiences or factors that contribute to teacher turnover within one school district. The findings from this study confirm that the literature about factors that influence teacher turnover DO matter to teachers. Based on the research literature, this study and my own experiences, the campus principal holds the major responsibility for building and sustaining positive relationships with teachers. Recommendations for future research and implications for future practice as it relates to school principals and district administration are discussed.

In a Georgia middle school, general and special education teachers expressed concerns about the challenges of working collaboratively in the inclusive classroom. Effective teacher collaboration is pivotal to ensure academic success of all students. The purpose of this qualitative bounded instrumental case study was to explore middle school teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward shared teacher collaboration in inclusion classrooms. Lave and Wenger's situated learning theory was the conceptual framework. Purposeful sampling was used to select 4 general and 4 special education teachers who worked in middle school coteaching classrooms. Face-to-face interviews and teacher lesson plans were the data sources. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis and open and axial coding strategies. Teachers identified ongoing training emphasizing coteaching models, collaboration, and classroom management strategies, coplanning periods, teacher selection guidelines for inclusion classes, and administrative involvement in collaboration as challenges of and optimal opportunities for working collaboratively. Based on these findings, a 3-day professional development project was designed to support effective teacher collaboration and foster positive communication with administration teams. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change when administrators establish and cultivate a school culture of positive teacher collaboration between general and special education teachers involved in coteaching, thereby improving teachers' coteaching experiences and improving the academic environment for all learners.

Teachers at the local study site continue to leave the elementary school and profession at increasingly high rates creating a teacher shortage. The school staff consists of 33 teachers, with an average of 10 resigning each year. Because of the shortage, state and local school boards, school districts, and school-based administrators share the need to understand this phenomenon. Guided by Herzberg's 2-factor theory, which noted that people are motivated by attributes such as recognition and by Maslow's motivational theory, which refers to human needs and personal beliefs as motivational factors, this study investigated factors that contributed to teacher attrition and retention, as well as strategies used to improve retention of novice teachers. Nine novice teachers employed at the local site participated in e-mail interviews. Participants provided their perception of factors that influenced their decision to remain or stay in the profession. Data were analyzed with an emphasis on seeking emerged themes through the process of open coding. Data analysis revealed a gap in the level of support from mentors and administrators that affected novice teachers' professional growth, as well as their decision to leave or stay in the profession. Participants listed incentives, acknowledgment, and training as the primary strategies for retaining teachers. The findings led to the creation of a professional development program. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators a deeper understanding of the problem of teacher attrition and by identifying strategies to manage teacher turnover to improve retention efforts.

The student-teacher relationship quality has shown to predict academic and social outcomes (Crosnoe, Johnson, & Elder, 2004), and relatively recent research suggests its protective nature for children who are academically at-risk, such as those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; Ewe, 2019). Unfortunately, children with ADHD often have strained relationships with their teachers (Rogers & Tannock, 2013). Aside from our understanding of this association, little is known about the developmental trajectory of the association, nor other systemic mechanisms that could be contributing to it. Therefore, three related studies were executed to enhance our understanding of the complexities of the student-teacher relationship for children with ADHD. The first study of the three targeted preschool children in the community (n=113) and their daycare providers (n=55), and assessed the association between early ADHD symptoms and concurrent and later student-teacher relationships in kindergarten (n=67). Findings revealed that higher inattention in preschool was associated with more conflict with daycare providers/educators, whereas higher hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in kindergarten children were associated with higher student-teacher conflict. The second study compared the student-teacher relationship of children with clinical diagnoses of ADHD and typically developing peers (n=76). Additionally, family-school relations and communication were investigated as a potential contribution to the student-teacher relationship quality. Non-significant differences of the parent-teacher relationship for children with ADHD versus those without the disorder were identified. However, home-school communication was established as a mediator between both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms and student-teacher conflict. Utilizing the same research methods as study two, study three evaluated the contribution of teacher-level characteristics on the student-teacher relationship for children with clinical diagnoses of ADHD. Teacher stress, self-efficacy, and knowledge of ADHD were assessed as mediators between ADHD symptoms and the student-teacher relationship quality. Significant main findings revealed that teacher stress significantly mediated the relationship between children’s ADHD symptoms and student-teacher conflict, whereas teacher efficacy and knowledge of ADHD did not. As a whole, this dissertation research project established and enhanced our understanding of developmental and systemic mechanisms contributing to the student-teacher relationship quality for children exhibiting ADHD symptomology. Future research directives and practical implications are reviewed.

The purpose of this study was to explore teacher preparation program content throughout American history in order to determine trends in programs of study, specifically including coursework in education foundations, teaching methods involving the behavioral sciences, and subject area content. These categories were selected because their content is responsible for teachers' working knowledge of their subject area, as well as student learning, behavior management and motivation. The study also examined documented teacher knowledge voids: student behavior management, time management, organization, dealing with parents, motivating students, and meeting individual students' needs to determine which aspects of teacher education could improve teachers' skills in these areas. Programs of study from traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs were gathered from Massachusetts, Indiana, Tennessee, California and Florida in an effort to research across the United States. Traditional programs were defined as four or five-year teacher education programs in colleges or universities which began as teacher normal schools and in those that did not. Program components from 1839 through 2007 were analyzed using Thinking Maps® for organizing and interpreting the information while focusing on education foundations, teaching methods, or subject area content gaps which would correlate to teacher knowledge voids. Patterns were traced within teacher education programs focusing on the art or science of teaching. Trends in course offerings were investigated and linked to concurrent events which may have influenced them. The following results were obtained from this research. American teacher preparation programs began in 1839 with elements of teaching methods, subject area content and education foundations, which remained the common elements in 2007. The ratio of each element in teacher preparation programs fluctuated throughout history. The dissent over teaching as an art or a science was evident in the early years of teacher normal schools, and the argument continued in 2007, largely affected by the absence of a clear definition of either approach. Early teacher normal schools admitted that teacher education programs were "imperfect preparation" for the classroom, and teacher knowledge voids remained an issue in 2007. From the inception of common schools in America, there was a shortage of teachers to fill them, and the teacher shortage continued in 2007, which may have contributed to the vast difference in teacher education program composition. An avenue taken to alleviate the teacher shortage issue was alternative teacher certification. Alternative certification programs were enacted in the 1800s, and alternative certification programs were widely used in 2007.

The Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) has implemented an Educator Evaluation Framework that requires MCAS scores be used as a significant indicator of teacher effectiveness when available. This decision has implications for thousands of Massachusetts public school teachers. To date, DESE has not provided evidence to support the validity of using MCAS scores to make interpretations about teacher effectiveness. A review of the literature reveals much variation in the degree to which teachers use state-adopted content standards to plan instruction. The findings in the literature warrant investigation into teacher practice among Massachusetts public school teachers. The research questions for this study will be: 1.) Are there variations in the degree to which Massachusetts public school teachers use the Curriculum Frameworks to plan Math instruction?; and 2.) Is MCAS as an instrument sensitive enough to reflect variations in teacher practice in the student’s scores? A survey of Massachusetts public school principals and Math teachers, grades three through eight, investigated the research questions. Survey results revealed that Massachusetts teachers use the Curriculum Frameworks to plan instruction to varying degrees. Survey results also suggest a lack of relationship between teacher practice related to the use of the Curriculum Frameworks and student MCAS scores. These findings suggest MCAS scores may not be an appropriate indicator of teacher effectiveness; however, there are limitations to the study that require further investigation into these questions.

The purpose of this study is to listen to teachers' stories and reconstruct their classrooms in the midst of the global upheaval of people's movements in the 1960s-70s through teachers' narratives. The primary research questions are: How did social movements in the 1960s-1970s influence their teaching practices? What was their intention and how did they carry out their daily teaching practice? In the educational research field, narrative inquirers explore teachers' stories, their life experiences and teaching practices, in order to understand how teachers view the world. I collected stories, through in-depth interviews, of ten Japanese teachers who taught in Japanese public school system, and were active in social and educational movements during the 1960s-70s in order to understand how teachers understood and resisted dominant oppressive forces which create and perpetuate social inequality. Teacher narratives were analyzed using two complementary methods: contents analysis and interactional positioning theory. First, stories of teachers' struggles in their classrooms and schools were contextualized in a wider social struggle for humanity and a more just society, in order to explore teachers' understanding of social oppression and their resistance, and multiculturalism in Japanese classrooms in the 1960s-1970s. Through their stories, an indigenous multicultural nature of Japanese classrooms was revealed, even before the multiculturalism became an imported educational topic in the 1980s. Furthermore, using interactional positioning theory, I discussed how teacher activist identities were constructed during the narration, at the same time, uncover how social stigma of being an activist possibly suppressed the participants overtly constructing an activist identity in narratives.

Approximately 25% of beginning teachers leave the profession after the first year, and 50% have left by the end of their fifth years. The purpose of this study was to provide an opportunity for beginning teachers to identify and prioritize their problems and to state their solutions to those problems. Three research questions guided this study, which extended the research on perceived problems begun by Veenman and Ganser: (a) What are the perceived problems of beginning elementary education teachers?, (b) How do Veenman?s (1984) ranked list and Ganser?s (1999b) ranked list of 24 perceived problems compare with the problems identified in question one?, and (c) What are the beginning elementary education teachers?proposed solutions for success?. The stratified random sampling technique was used to choose participants, who were beginning teachers who graduated from Mississippi State University (MSU) and Mississippi State University?Meridian Campus (MSU-M) during the years of 1996-2000. All but one of the 103 participants were female; 95 were Caucasians; six were African-Americans; one was a Native American; and one participant was classified as ?other? Seventy participants were graduates of MSU, and 33 were from MSU-M. This descriptive study included qualitative and quantitative research methods using questionnaires and interviews. A pilot study was conducted; however, the results were not used as part of the data for the main study. The top perceived problem was a sense of being overwhelmed. The second major problem was time, which included: (a) burden of clerical work, (b) heavy teaching load resulting in insufficient preparation time, and (c) taking up money and other morning activities. The third major problem was students?needs. Participants felt accountable for dealing with slow learners and for dealing with problems of individual students. Participants offered solutions primarily for improving teaching conditions and for making changes in teacher education programs. Recommendations included: (a) providing support systems for beginning teachers, such as mentors, (b) conducting studies of graduates each year to find strengths and weaknesses of the program, and (c) replicating this study in other Mississippi universities and in other states.