The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which alternative schools add value to the college readiness of their students, as well as to measure the capacity of alternative school students to successfully complete dual credit courses while enrolled at the alternative school. This mixed methods study utilized an exploratory approach with a descriptive research design to explore the extent to which alternative schools produce college-ready students. The Texas Success Initiative Assessment was used to measure participants' academic readiness levels in mathematics, reading, and writing. Additionally, participants had the opportunity to provide their own perspectives on their college readiness levels through a student survey and semi-structured face-to-face interview. The results of this study reveal that the college readiness levels of alternative high school students varied across academic areas. Of the tested participants, 41.1% were college ready in reading, 52.1% in writing, and 16.7% in mathematics. Additionally, the findings reveal that dual credit course participation was not a viable option because of course prerequisites and the amount of time needed to complete dual credit courses. Results of this study expand on the literature to provide a better understanding of the effectiveness of alternative school programs, the college readiness …

The problem of the study was determining the supportive conditions related to instructional rounds (rounds) to understand better what conditions may allow for sustained systemic improvement over time. Three Texas school districts were studied to understand the perceptions of district leaders, principals, teacher leaders, and teachers with regard to the sustainability of instructional rounds as a systemic improvement practice, the supportive conditions necessary for sustainability, the salient characteristics that differentiated rounds from other improvement practices, and the potential of rounds to build organizational capacity. Observation of network rounds visits and document analysis was conducted to determine alignment of perception with observation and documents. Findings include perceptions, themes, and critical factors for the sustainability of rounds as an effective systemic improvement practice. Supportive conditions emerged as the most significant perception expressed by the participants. Implications for action for school districts beginning or continuing implementation of instructional rounds are suggested based upon findings from participant perceptions and observation of networks. Suggestions for future research are shared. With supportive conditions in place, instructional rounds has the potential to serve as an effective systemic improvement practice.

As instructional coaches are being implemented across the country, their purpose is reviewed, as well as which types of instructional coaching tend to have the most impact on teachers' instructional growth. In this study, I explored instructional coaching and coaches' perceived effectiveness as they work with teachers. A look at the effect of non-evaluative feedback with an instructional coach, and how that helps sustain teachers' pedagogical practice, is taken into consideration as coaches' work towards developing teacher efficacy. I examined instructional coaching through the conceptual framework of professional development and change. This qualitative study included a focus group, personal narratives, and individual interviews to analyze the components of successful instructional coaching models, and how well instructional coaches feel supported as they work with teachers. Findings demonstrated that instructional coaches perceive their work with teachers to be effective and provided information on the practices and conditions that surround their work. The information gained from the study provides a resource for district leaders to evaluate a current coaching model program, or implement a new coaching model program, within their district.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the systems in place to build the capacity of elementary instructional coaches in a fast-growth district. Through syntheses of research from educational scholars, the conceptual framework was developed with a focus on building capacity of instructional coaches in an ever-changing environment of fast-growth through the lens of professional learning communities, human and social capital, and support from district and campus administration. This study assessed the perceptions of six instructional coaches, six principals, and six district leaders from Rose ISD regarding the school district's support for building the capacity of instructional coaches within the elementary instructional coaching program. The three-part data collection process included document analysis, in-depth interviews, and focus group interviews to support triangulation of data. Through the a priori coding process, the following four themes emerged that highlight key components needed to support district leaders in establishing systems to build the capacity of instructional coaches in an ever-changing environment caused by fast growth: structured time for professional learning, program clarity, collaborative support systems, and implementation of a professional learning community framework. This study revealed a specific need to further understand systems for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the …

This quantitative and qualitative case study examined the educators' perceptions of both the goals and unique aspects of the foundations for success (FFS) curriculum model. Specifically, this study was designed to explain the experiences of 55 early childhood educators and administrators who all had similar exposure to the FFS curriculum model. This study sought to understand the educators' perceptions of the specific goals of using pertinent curriculum and instruction terminology and the parallel process of content language, connecting the importance of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and learning standards and readiness for kindergarten. In the same way, the perceptions of the unique aspects of the value based curriculum, the use of reflective supervision and the use of design thinking were gathered and interpreted. This study looked closely into program successes, challenges and future implications of the FFS curriculum model. This study also considered the extent to which future implementations of the model could change the current interdependent relationship between early childhood education and the primary grades. The researcher analyzed the perceptions, utilizing the Likert-value survey instrument responses, the open-ended survey responses, along with the focus group responses to triangulate the findings. Common themes shared across all data collection were evaluated and …

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship (predicative capability) between selected variables, specifically, African American student enrollment, teacher ethnicity, and urban or rural district classification and the number of African American student placements in a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP). The study used a non-experimental ex post facto design. Archival data from the Texas Education Agency were used to identify Texas schools that sent African American students to a DAEP during the 2013-2014 school year. Archival data from the Texas Education Agency were also used to identify African American student enrollment and teacher ethnicity for the selected school districts. Finally, archival data from the Texas Department of Agriculture were used to identify district classifications of urban or rural. Participants in this study consisted of 187 school districts that placed African American students in a DAEP during the 2013-2014 school year. Based on the findings, teacher ethnicity and African American student enrollment are statistically significant contributions to African American student placement in a DAEP. Urban or rural district classification is not a statistically significant predictor in the same placements. Results of this study add to existing literature by confirming that there is an overrepresentation of African American student …

This study explores all due process hearings that occurred in Texas public school districts from 2010-2015. Special attention was paid to the reasons for the hearings within the legal reports addressed and their outcomes. The study was conducted using a quantitative approach involving a legal document content analysis of due process hearings to select the participants to be interviewed with a qualitative semi-structured interview protocol. Following this process, nine participants from one district were interviewed. Responses were then analyzed for themes and patterns using qualitative methods, and conclusions were drawn based on the data. The study found that campus and central office administrators believed socio-economic levels, lack of empathy shown to parents, and distrust contributed to parents' decisions to file due process complaints or litigation. They also believed that placement decisions influenced by student discipline, parent denial about the impact of the disability on children, and parent entitlement played a role. Lastly, the nine participants found that parent advocacy and communication were strong contributors to the amount of due process hearings held at Evergreen ISD.

Every year many immigrant families become members of United States communities. Among these are international graduate students whose lives and identities, as well as those of their families, are changed as they negotiate between cultures and experiences. In this study, three Saudi graduate students share their stories about culture, education and literacy. This research employs narrative inquiry to answer the following question: What stories do Saudi immigrant students tell regarding their educational beliefs and experiences, as well as the experiences of their children in the U.S. and in Saudi Arabia? The participants' interview texts are the main data source. The three-dimensional narrative inquiry spaces of temporality, sociality, and place help identify the funds of knowledge in place throughout these narratives. Data analysis uses funds of knowledge as a theoretical lens to make visible the critical events in each narrative. These events point to themes that support the creation of a third space in which the participants negotiate being in two cultures as well as their storying across time to understand their own experiences. Themes of facing challenges, problem solving, adaptation, and decision-making connect these stories and support the discussion of findings within the personal, practical, and social justifications for this …

Preservice teachers (PSTs) bring a plethora of knowledge and experiences to their educator preparation courses. The PSTs have also formed ideas about how to teach based on their observations during the thousands of hours they spent as students in the classroom from kindergarten through high school graduation. This phenomenon, coined by Lortie, is called the apprenticeship of observation. Past research has focused on the apprenticeship of observation in general while neglecting to specifically explore how this phenomenon influences PSTs in regards to writing. Guiding this study were three research questions: (1) what are the PSTs' beliefs about writing instruction and themselves as writers, (2) how have PSTs' experiences as students affected their beliefs about themselves as writers, and (3) how do PSTs' experiences as students influence their plans to teach writing? After conducting a thematic analysis, there are four findings that stemmed from the data. First, PSTs come to their educator preparation programs with beliefs about themselves as writers. Particularly, the PSTs believe they are either writers or non-writers, Next, PSTs believe that writing instruction should be high-quality and foster student interest. Additionally, data suggested that PSTs' past experiences as students in a writing classroom influenced the PSTs' beliefs. Particularly, …

This is a qualitative description of the decision making processes that nine elementary principals use in determining campus level services for the differently abled and of how their administrative styles and values impact those decisions. Both the literature on leadership and on special education inclusion are reviewed. This review creates the framework in which the research questions are examined and structures the reporting of the findings. The defining attributes of leadership styles in conjunction with the defining attributes of inclusion are the heart of this study. Audiotaped interviews with each principal provide the data related to questions of leadership style, decision making, philosophy and autonomy. Separate site visits in which teachers from both regular and special education are queried as to the actual practices on their respective campuses and to their reactions to program changes involving the differently abled students. The combination of data gathered from the principal interviews, from the site visitations and the use of triangulation of data provide the basis for the findings.

The purpose of this study was to examine curricular programs in private, public choice, and public attendance-zone schools to determine whether differences exist among curricular programs in the three types of schools. The findings from the student survey data indicated that private school students reported their curriculum to be more challenging than public school students, but no other significant differences were noted. Findings from the teacher survey showed more positive results for private schools in indicators of a challenging curriculum, expectations of students, school climate, and external support than public schools. This study showed that of the types of schools examined, Catholic schools exhibited the most consistent and well written curriculum that reflected the four research questions. Future research needs to be done to establish whether these indicators of a challenging curriculum result in higher student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to describe the criteria that students reported using when selecting writing samples for an assessment portfolio. Specifically, the study involved content analysis of student responses to five prompts which asked the students to give selection criteria for writing samples in language arts portfolios prepared for assessment. The population consisted of twelve eighth grade students in three urban middle schools. The students were in classes that were participating in the New Standards Portfolio Assessment Field Trial. In addition to the responses to prompts, students also submitted writing samples to be scored using New Standards rubrics. The writing samples were evaluated to determine if the students successfully selected pieces of their writing to provide evidence of standards attainment. Through the analysis of the student responses to the prompts, two categories of selection criteria were noted. Public standards were the standards that corresponded with the criteria that were presented to the students through their use of New Standards performance standards, portfolio exhibit requirements, and entry slips. Personal standards were criteria that did not correspond to the published criteria presented to the students. Ten sub-categories were identified. These ten sub-categories became the instrument for analysis and tabulation of …

This research grew from concerns relative to the mathematical performance of Spanish-speaking limited English proficient (LEP) public school students. This investigation studied the effects of the sheltered mathematics class on eighth-grade Spanish-speaking LEP students with regard to mathematical achievement, attitudes toward mathematics, the dropout rate, and the number of math credits earned in high school. The enrollment of a sheltered mathematics class was limited to LEP students. The purpose was to compare Spanish-speaking LEP students enrolled in sheltered mathematics classes with Spanish-speaking LEP students enrolled in regular mathematics classes. The research hypotheses were that achievement, mathematical attitudes, the dropout rate, and high school math credits earned would favor enrollment in sheltered mathematics classes. The data for achievement, dropout information, and mathematics course work completed were drawn from student records in the school district data bank. A mathematics attitude survey was given to a sample from the 1995-96 eighth-grade advanced level Spanish-speaking LEP students. The research hypotheses were not accepted. All of the populations did show an academic deficit. However, they did have more positive attitudes than negative attitudes toward mathematics. To improve achievement, staying in school, and a higher rate of inclusion in mathematics related careers the following recommendations were …

The management style being used by school personnel in Texas and across the nation today is predominately that of a bureaucracy. This model was organized around the industrial revolution that was exercising authority at the turn of the century. Writers and researchers have pointed out that such a model is not capable of providing students the knowledge and skills they will need to enter an increasingly demanding society. One management style relatively new to the educational arena today is that of Total Quality Management. This study reports the results of the impact of the training in those principles by measurement of student test scores.

Research methods from both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms were used to answer the question concerning how adult readers navigate through informational text embedded in a hypermedia environment to construct meaning.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of an intervention involving teachers' use of children's literature, related storybook manipulatives, and a scaffolding (LMS) approach to learning would improve preschool children's mathematics test scores. Additionally, the LMS approach was examined to determine whether teachers' perceptions of their effectiveness in mathematics instruction changed from the beginning to the end of the study. The subjects of the study included 60 preschool-aged children and six teachers from two child care centers. The preschool teachers participated in either a control or experimental condition (the LMS approach) in their daily mathematics instruction with their preschool children. The researcher tested the children using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability and an abbreviated version of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. The study was based on two main research questions. The first question asked if there was a difference in the Test of Early Mathematics Ability total posttest scores between children in the literature-manipulatives-scaffolding intervention group and children in the control group after assuring equivalency of the two groups. The second question addressed if preschool teachers believed they were more effective in their mathematics instruction after implementing the LMS approach with young children. The answer …

Accountability is a major issue in education and in Texas, the TAAS test is used to indicate performance of students, teachers, campuses, and districts. The stakes are high for students, as performance on this test has determined whether they progress to another grade and whether they will receive a diploma. Most research studies focus on relationships between the teacher and individual students or groups of students, but not classrooms. Expectations and high stakes testing are central within the educational process, and their relationship on student achievement should be investigated, especially since no studies on teacher attitudes toward the TAAS test have been found. This correlational study measured teacher attitudes toward the TAAS and teacher expectations for students through data collected from a survey. Student achievement information was collected from averaged Texas Learning Index scores for students by classroom over a two year period. The sample consisted of 22 4th, 8th, and 10th grade reading and/or math teachers who had taught in the same Texas mid-sized, rural school district for at least two years. Frequency, percent, mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the responses on the survey. A median score distinguished between high/low expectations and between positive/negative attitudes toward …

This study measured the effects of reading aloud informational books to fourth and sixth grade students in the inner city.

Strategic planning practices and superintendents' opinions regarding the effectiveness of strategic planning are different among small, medium, and large Texas independent school districts. This study sought to find areas of agreement and areas of disagreement among school district superintendents relating to the practice and effectiveness of strategic planning. Strategic planning practices examined include the development of a mission statement, operating plan, and budget; involvement of stakeholders, and strategic planning logistics. A stratified random sample of 96 superintendents each from small, medium, and large school districts was selected from a population of 1,042 school districts. Data was also collected and reported from the 7 mega school districts. Questionnaires were sent to 295 superintendents and 246 (83.4%) were returned. The questionnaire contained nine questions relating to 19 strategic planning practices and a five-part question relating to the effectiveness of strategic planning. The data was analyzed using Crosstabs, Chi-square, and one-way ANOVA statistics. The level of significance was established a priori at .05. School district size was an independent variable for six strategic planning practices of small, medium, and large school districts. Significant differences were found regarding (a) whether outside consultants were employed to assist with the district's strategic planning, (b) whether central …

The purpose of the study was to compare the relative benefits of treating at-risk students, those considered to be potential dropouts, by separating them into special classes at a separate facility—a pullout program—versus having them remain in regular classes with periodic supplemental counseling based upon individual needs—a mainstream program. To carry out the purpose of the study, students enrolled in the two types of treatment programs were compared in respect to retention in school, attendance, academic achievement based upon pretest and posttest scores, report card grades, and attitude toward school.

The purpose of this study was to describe the intentions of the designers of the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS) in Texas and the perceptions of teachers regarding its implementation. Information for the study was gathered in two phases using two methodologies. The first was a semi-structured interview with four expert informants instrumental in the design and implementation of the PDAS at the state level. The second component of the study was conducted with teachers using a 37-item Likert survey. The population for this phase of the study was 150 elementary and 150 secondary teachers chosen randomly from three school districts in North Central Texas. The districts were selected to represent a variety of sizes in regard to student population and represent diverse student population characteristics and socioeconomic levels. Data from the semi-structured interviews and the returned surveys were analyzed to determine the designers' intentions and areas of emphasis and to describe the alignment the teachers' perceptions and the designers' intentions. Quantitative data gathered from the surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as a correlation and function analysis and analysis based on a Cronbach alpha coefficient. The analysis of data revealed the following: 1. Teachers perceived that …

Reading researchers agree that content literacy strategies are beneficial in helping students learn. However, teachers remain resistant to teaching the strategies. Additionally, many students, even at the college level, lack the learning strategies necessary to experience academic success. This study sought to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of content literacy strategy instruction. The research questions that guided the study addressed the benefits, obstacles, and support and experiences needed to sustain the use of the strategies over time. Multiple data sources were used to investigate teachers' and students' perceptions of the research questions. The main benefit found was increased student understanding and learning of content; additional benefits included increased instructional repertoire, increased student engagement in class, and improved learner independence. Most of the obstacles documented in the literature were supported in the study; however, the obstacle of time was noted most frequently. Teacher confidence was observed by the researcher as an obstacle. The majority of participants indicated they would continue using the strategies learned during the study in the future. Students noted the support needed to sustain content literacy strategy use depended on teachers providing direct instruction, practice using the strategies, and personal success with the strategies. Teachers also …

A number of studies have been conducted on the attrition rates of undergraduate and graduate students. However, the body of knowledge concerning attrition for doctoral students, especially those who have attained the level of “all but dissertation” (ABD), is limited. The purpose of this research was to examine retention and attrition factors of doctoral candidates from a typical Higher Education Doctoral Program (Research II Public Institution) who were admitted to candidacy from 1991 through July 2000. Participation of the subject population was limited to those who had attained the level of ABD--those who had previously fulfilled the residency, coursework, foreign language or tool-subject requirements, and successfully completed the comprehensive/qualifying exams. This population included current ABDs, previously attrited ABDs, and graduates of the degree program. The research study was qualitative and intended to identify the effect of specific, predetermined factors that may have influenced or affected the progress of current, previous, and graduated students towards the doctoral degree in higher education. This study obtained responses to questions from the questionnaire/survey instrument concerning factors that affected program completion or attrition. Students had the opportunity to elaborate on factors from their dissertation, advisement, and personal, financial, and employment experiences that affected their ability …

This study examines the relationship between service learning innovations and improved academics, self-concept, and social or personal growth in middle and high school students. Meta-Analysis is employed to arrive at effect-size estimates for each construct. A historical overview of service learning is presented and a detailed description of the study selection process is provided. The data revealed a moderate relationship between service learning participation and academics, self-concept and social or personal growth in middle and high school students. The findings are presented, and some appropriate conclusions are drawn. A discussion of the implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are also provided.