The Inclusion of Texas Literature in Texas Public School Curricula advocates the organized inclusion of Texas literature in Texas public schools. The first chapter, the introduction, establishes the study's contention that Texas literature, an internationally admired body of literature, is worthy of an organized state inclusion. Another contention in the introduction is that this inclusion would offer its own needed content while reinforcing concepts and skills already mandated for social studies and English and language arts classes.

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between teachers' or principals' effectiveness and their risk tendency. The population consisted of 57 principals and 115 teachers from the state of Texas from average and exemplary campuses. The exemplary campuses were those nominated by Texas Education Agency to participate in the National Exemplary School Recognition Program for the past four years. Data was generated by sending a survey packet to the 57 campuses requesting that the principal and two teachers (one who had been recently been recognized as teacher of the year and one who had never been so honored) complete the instruments. Teachers responded to a 16 item Risk Tolerance Questionnaire and principals responded to the Risk Tolerance Questionnaire and a Styles of Leadership Survey. The hypothesis that exceptional teachers will not take more risks was not upheld. It was determined that exceptional teachers do take more risks; however, there was no significant difference in scores on the Risk Tolerance Questionnaire of principals from average and exemplary campuses. The findings were that 1) exceptional teachers do take more risks, 2) age and years of experience of teachers was not significant, 3) principals from average and exemplary …

The purpose of this study was to determine if students who participated in language arts remediation which was infused with critical thinking activities and metacognition would make greater gains in skills and achievement than those students who were remediated with a regular language arts curriculum. The population for this study was a group of at risk students who were fourteen to sixteen years old and who were participants in the 1987 summer Youth Opportunities Unlimited project at the University of North Texas. Their progress was measured with California Achievement Test and Iowa Test of Basic Skills pretests and posttests. The organization of the study includes a statement of the problem, a review of the literature, the methods and procedures used to collect the data, the analysis of data, and a summary of the findings, conclusions, educational implications, and recommendations tor additional research. Data from the eight hypotheses were treated with an analysis of covariance. The analysis of data revealed the following: 1. The infusion of critical thinking activities and metacognition did not improve students' skills or achievement in the following areas: spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. 2. The infusion of critical thinking activities and metacognition did not improve students' skills in …

Comparison and contrast of perceptions of current and ideal levels of Involvement with 50 tasks by 45 district level school library media supervisors in Texas public schools was accomplished using a survey instrument eliciting information in three areas: Curriculum and Instruction, Public Relations and Communication, Actainistration and Budget. Using tasks based on a Texas Education Agency publication, i, tests for correlated means were used to determine statistically significant differences between means for current and ideal levels of involvement for supervisors grouped by age, degree and certification as well as for the group as a whole. Findings showed that most demographic groupings perceived a need for greater involvement with various curriculum planning and design activities, evaluation of noncertlficated library media personnel and with various public relations activities.

The problem of this study was to determine if study habits can be used to predict academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between selected study skill habits and attitudes and achievement of secondary students in English, mathematics, and spelling. The sample for this study consisted of 82 secondary school students participating in Upward Bound programs at two universities in the north Texas area in a six week period during the summer of 1988. Eighteen different high schools were represented in the study. The sizes of the schools ranged from small to very large. Instruments used were the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, (SSHA) the Stanford Test of Academic Skills, (TASK), and the Otis-Lennon Mental Abilities Test (OLMAT). The statistical analysis indicated that the four subscores of the SSHA are not accurate predictors of academic achievement. However, some of the correlations among the subscores for the SSHA and the TASK were significant. Most noteable of these were work methods and mathematics, teacher acceptance and mathematics, and work methods and spelling. The recommendation is made that the SSHA should not be used to predict academic achievement in Upward Bound programs. Improving study habits and attitudes …

The purpose of this study was to describe factors affecting the use of instructional ideas by secondary teachers in the academic year following a series of staff development sessions designed to present information on effective teaching practices. The research questions addressed the characteristics of information selected for use in classroom practice and the characteristics and relative degree of influence of salient factors affecting the use of ideas. Ten teachers from a large suburban school district in North Texas were selected for this study. Qualitative techniques were used to collect data. Each teacher was interviewed three times and observed in the classroom setting. Documents such as lesson plans were analyzed as a third source of data. Several factors evolved from the data. In varying degrees, these factors predicted teacher use of new instructional practices. Some factors dealt with the teacher's level of understanding and internalization of the information. These factors were labeled as instrumentality, congruence, and analytical thinking. Two other factors which were fairly strong predictors were labeled cost and intrinsic motivation. Cost concerned the amount of time or effort required to implement new ideas versus the perceived benefit to either teacher or student. Intrinsic motivation concerned the personal desire a …