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- All Subjects: Educational leadership
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Buss, Ray R
Description
There is a nationwide gap in which African American, Hispanic and low-income students perform significantly lower than their peers. Research suggests that teachers hold lower expectations for these students resulting in lower achievement. There are four main factors that influence teacher expectations: stereotypes, teacher self-efficacy, school culture, language and formal policies and programs aimed at increasing teacher expectations. The purpose of this study was to inquire into the following questions: (1) What are the factors that influence teachers' academic expectations for low-income and minority students? (2) What are teacher's perceptions on the effectiveness of formal policies and programs that are aimed at increasing teacher expectations? More specifically, do teachers feel that top-down formal policies, such as teacher evaluations, uniform curriculum, and performance-based pay are effective in impacting their expectations, or do teachers believe that bottom-up policies, such as book studies and professional learning communities, make more of an impact on increasing their expectations? Ten teachers were interviewed in a school district that is consistent with the state and national achievement gap. The findings revealed that teacher expectations are influenced by the four factors I found in the research as well as two other factors: a cultural disconnect among teachers and students and teachers' level of motivation. A combination of top-down and bottom-up formal policies and programs are needed as teachers are individuals and all respond to various forms of formal policies and programs differently.
ContributorsCraig, Tina (Author) / Mccarty, Teresa (Thesis advisor) / Davey, Lynn (Committee member) / Miller, Lynn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Abstract Much has been researched and written concerning the structure, attributes, and benefits of the professional learning community (PLC), yet many have found that this highly collaborative model is difficult to implement. One reason for this was that conflict among team members often limited communication and therefore halted collaboration. In an attempt to overcome conflict, the researcher introduced an intervention to five grade-level teaching teams at a suburban elementary school where staff had been struggling to develop teams into PLCs. The intervention consisted of training participants in the use of collaborative norms, and then tracking the use of these norms during team meetings, as well as gathering the teachers' perceptions on how their team was being affected by the use of the norms. Seven training sessions were conducted, each devoted to an individual norm such as pausing, putting ideas on the table, or presuming the positive, and so on. A mixed-methods action research model was utilized in gathering and analyzing the data in this study. Qualitative measures included reflection journals completed by the teachers, open-ended survey questions, and written responses in which the teachers described prior to the intervention and again after the intervention how their team: 1. Is like a PLC, 2. Is not like a PLC, and 3. Is becoming like a PLC. Quantitative measures included a survey of team communication that used questions regarding efficacy, conflict, and candor/trust. Quantitative measures also included an instrument developed as part of the System for Multi-Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) which is used for recording evidences of values observed in team members. Results demonstrated increases in teachers' perceptions of friendliness among their colleagues, ability to deal with conflict amicably and constructively, and in teachers' perception that they were now being listened to and understood more than they had been previously. Teachers also reported that they came to think of their team as a PLC, and began to perceive that there were benefits with respect to student achievement because they were becoming a PLC. Discussion focused on lessons learned, implications for practice, and implications for research.
ContributorsSterr, Ronald (Author) / Buss, Ray R (Thesis advisor) / Zucker, Stanley (Thesis advisor) / Roy, Patricia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Families and schools share the monumental responsibility of educating children. Children and parent-teacher conferences remain the primary means by which parents and teachers share academic information. Given the limited effectiveness of these conferences, a more compelling alternative for home-school collaboration on academic matters is warranted. The purpose of this action research study was to examine an alternative approach to parent-teacher conferences, Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT). APTT is a classroom-based parent involvement model composed of three 75-minute parent-teacher team meetings and an individual 30-minute parent-teacher session. Team meetings are highly structured and include six components: personally inviting parents by the teacher; sharing whole-class and individual student data; setting 60-day academic goals; coaching parents in `teaching' skills; distributing take-home practice materials; and networking. Quantitative data included pre- and post-intervention parent surveys, and pre- and post-intervention student scores on high frequency words and oral reading fluency. Qualitative data included field notes from APTT meetings, pre- and post-intervention teacher reflections, and teacher, parent, and student interviews. Findings from this study supported previous research that suggested most parents have high aspirations for their children's academic success. Findings also indicated parents understood their involvement was important to support academic growth. Increased quality and quantity of parent-teacher communication and interaction improved parents' ability to support student learning at home. Parents increased involvement in children's academics was related to teachers' provision of detailed information and training of parents. Qualitative results showed parents' teaching efforts contributed to students' improvement in reading. To understand this outcome, effectual congruence (EC) was offered as an explanation. EC occurred when parents and teachers agreed on an action plan for student achievement, when there was a mutual commitment to taking specific actions and when each person's role was clearly defined and implemented. EC became the process that supported achievement growth. These results demonstrated that relationships between parents and teachers are complex. Further, when teachers and parents were fully invested in collaboration it produced powerful results for students. This study provided critical information for parents, teachers, administrators and policy makers attempting to implement more effective parent involvement initiatives.
ContributorsParedes, Maria C (Author) / Buss, Ray R (Thesis advisor) / Zambo, Ronald (Committee member) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
It is common for graduate programs to be plagued by delays in on-time student completion or to experience student attrition. Students have experienced such delays in a local program at the University where I am employed as a lecturer. Therefore, this dissertation was undertaken with the aim of supporting university students at the graduate level toward successful on-time completion of their programs. This action research study was multi-phased in its approach; with data collection, and reflection driving the process for intervention delivery and subsequent evaluation. A dynamic approach which included some components of greater structure than was previously seen in the program, was designed for implementation. It was envisaged that this approach would serve as a model of support for students. The following chapters written in article format details the cycles of action research undertaken as part of this dissertation. The first article tells a story written for a wider audience. While the second article presents a more direct look at the implementation of the dynamic structured approach, and lessons learned through the experiential stories of the students. The dynamic structured approach is a framework which was created from a synergetic review of studies on the issues of attrition and delayed completion in graduate programs. The approach was therefore discussed in hopes that it can be used as a model in other graduate programs to ensure that students are supported in a holistic manner. Further, recommendations were made to bolster the approach based on the lessons learned from its initial implementation as well as through the reflections of the researcher-practitioner. The approach has built-in flexibility and is open to refinement and modification to suit the needs of varying institutions for future use.
ContributorsLord, Kara Tamara (Author) / Basile, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Buss, Ray (Committee member) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Bissessar, Charmaine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Schools across the nation have increasingly been required to fill social, emotional, and academic gaps for students. The cost to ensure the needs of students have been met has become challenging for many K-12 schools. Students in urban communities have faced additional adverse circumstances such as high family mobility, food insecurities, lack of adequate healthcare, and limited social capital. Community-school partnerships have played a critical, beneficial role in filling the needs of students when schools did not have the resources or capabilities to do so. Nevertheless, most school principals do not have tools and strategies to identify, recruit, and develop these partnerships. In this study, I created the Development of the Partnership Protocol for Principals (DP3) to help develop principals’ skills and self-efficacy to develop community-school partnerships. The DP3 protocol was made up of a series of four steps, which enabled principals to develop their agency to be successful in identifying, recruiting, and developing partnerships. The four-step process required principals to (a) conduct a needs assessment of the state of the school and its current partnerships, (b) strategically analyze potential opportunities, (c) develop pathways for partnerships, and (d) construct a plan to implement the partnership. In this study, I used quantitative and qualitative measures to assess principals' perceptions of their skills and self-efficacy for developing partnerships. Quantitative results showed increased skills and self-efficacy. Further, qualitative data complemented these quantitative results. Qualitative data also revealed partnerships benefitted students if the partnerships were aligned to academic or cultural gaps and needs of schools. In the discussion, I have described the complementarity of the data and connected outcomes to the intervention and the research literature. Moreover, I discussed limitations, implications for practice, implications for future research, and personal lessons learned. In conclusion, participation in the DP3 workshops increased principals’ skills and self-efficacy for developing community-school partnerships and DP3 exhibited potential as a means to develop skills for school leaders to support their efforts in building community-school partnerships.
ContributorsBolding Jr, Reginald (Author) / Buss, Ray R (Thesis advisor) / Rund, James (Committee member) / Weeks, Larry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The problem of practice addressed in this study specifically examined how teachers lack the knowledge and experience of working with Indigenous students, thus creating a lack of connections with these students. Indigenous students have unique life experiences and world views, and the lack of knowledge and experience from teachers makes it difficult to provide adequate connections for the students in Tribal Schools. One of the driving ideas behind this research was that if non-Native teachers do not understand their students, how will they be able to connect with them and teach them effectively? Connections and relationships with teachers are one of the most beneficial factors for students. Generally, teacher preparation programs within the United States do not explicitly address the unique barriers and histories experienced by Indigenous students. The goal of this study was to assist teachers of varying cultural backgrounds in the transition from their teacher education programs to being in the classroom, teaching Indigenous students. This will better prepare future educators to teach Indigenous students in a Tribal School setting.
ContributorsDumarce, Demi (Author) / Gee, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Whalen, Kevin (Committee member) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
College athletes experience college in a way that is different than their non-athlete peers. Practices, travel time, study hall, and other athletic obligations place strenuous demands on the lives and time of college athletes. As a result, college athletes have less flexible time and are often unable to engage in educationally purposeful activities including high impact practices, that promote their personal growth and development. Using Astin’s Student Involvement Theory and Rendon’s Validation Theory as frameworks, this mixed methods study examined the impact that participating in a high-impact practice activity had on the personal growth and development of college athletes. To examine how personal growth and development was impacted by participation in a high impact practice activity, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletes at the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) participated in the Leadership for Social Change seminar. To measure personal growth and development, the participants completed the Personal Growth Initiative Scale - II (PGIS-II) as a pre- and post-seminar survey. A sample of participants was also interviewed after completing the seminar to further explain the survey results. The results of the study suggest that seminar participation led to personal growth and development for college athletes. Institutions and athletic departments should promote college athletes’ personal growth and development by incorporating high impact practices into the college athlete experience.
ContributorsRoberts, Rena M. (Author) / Nelson, Brian (Thesis advisor) / Comeaux, Eddie (Committee member) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Implementation of a Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) has proven to be a ‘big hairy audacious goal’ within the literature and applied settings. Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) has utilized a similar framework and was represented under the MTSS umbrella. If implemented with fidelity, both MTSS and PBIS have been shown to have positive outcomes for learners, staff members, and school systems. To implement one component of PBIS, a coaching procedure which consisted of instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback was provided for three middle school teachers. Two Tier 1 PBIS classroom management practices were the focus of the coaching intervention—opportunities to respond and encouragement of appropriate behavior through positive points of contact. This study utilized a mixed methods approach which incorporated a single-subject design, specifically a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants, to assess the effects of the coaching intervention on the implementation of the two classroom management practices, student on-task behavior, and the social validity of the intervention. Findings indicated an increase in both practices as well as an increase in student on-task behavior, from baseline to intervention phases of the study. Additionally, all participants reported high levels of social validity of the coaching intervention. The discussion was focused on triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data, which indicated these findings were complementary. Connections of the findings to the research literature, implications for future practice and research, limitations, and conclusions have been provided.
ContributorsTurner, Katie M (Author) / Buss, Ray R (Thesis advisor) / Mathur, Sarup (Committee member) / Wood, Chandalee (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
During the last 25 years, the academic research environment has become increasingly competitive, with those seeking grants contending for over $83.7 billion, available from primarily six federal agencies. Notably, this increased competition occurred at the same time states have cut support for public universities. To deal with decreases in state support, university leaders and administrators have adopted “new managerialist” approaches that capitalized on three elements obliging early-career engineering faculty members to ‘win’ more federal funding. These three components include (a) leveraging the probationary period during promotion and tenure to stimulate grant production, (b) seeking revenue beyond tuition and operations to support the institution, and (c) augmenting faculty resources by including professional grant writers/support personnel who collaborate with early-career faculty members to mitigate challenges of increased competition for grants by providing domain and implicit knowledge to aid the engineers in grant development. The promotion and tenure process has become particularly challenging for early-career engineers because of the highly competitive federal research landscape.This mixed-methods action research (MMAR) study was conducted to examine the effects of an intervention designed to provide on-demand, online grant writing professional development using a set of five modules. The modules focused on providing information about five constructs related to grant development or grant writing, including requirements, processes, skills, attitudes, and self-efficacy. For three of the five modules, participants demonstrated modest or moderate increases in quantitative scores for the constructs based on survey data. During semi-structured interviews, early-career engineering faculty members revealed candid thoughts about the modules, grant writing, and the “need” to obtain grants as part of their professional lives. Four themes emerged from the qualitative data, including Knowledge, Online Learning, Grant Writing Process, and Winning the Next Grant. The discussion focused on connections between the quantitative and qualitative data, explaining the findings based on the theoretical frameworks, limitations, implications for practice and research, and included a summary.
ContributorsKessel, Monica L. (Author) / Buss, Ray R (Thesis advisor) / Mertler, Craig A (Committee member) / Ban, Heng (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
With increasing costs of higher education, community college pathways to baccalaureate transfer degrees are attractive student alternatives to starting at a traditional four-year institution. However, disparate student outcomes, particularly for underserved student populations, continue to be a concern when considering equitable four-year degree completion rates. Previous literature demonstrates that student satisfaction and student informational capital play key roles in the success of community college transfer students to persist to four-year institutions and attain their educational and career goals. The role of academic advising in the transfer context provides a uniquely collaborative opportunity to address factors of success and student outcomes. Via this mixed methods action research study, I utilized archival student enrollment data, a student survey, and student and advisor interviews to examine an academic advising model that I created in partnership between Cochise Community College and the University of Arizona (i.e., the Colaborativo Advising for Transfer Success Model, or CATS Advising Model), whereby I assigned a singular academic advisor (i.e., a CATS advisor) a student caseload across the two institutions in a deliberate effort to facilitate successful transfer. I used a combined framework of the Model of Student Departure, Transfer Student Capital, and Appreciative Inquiry to inform the advising intervention. I found that students who received the advising intervention were significantly more likely to a) be satisfied with their transfer advising experience, b) perceive increased transfer knowledge (capital), and c) retain through transfer and university enrollment, in comparison to their peers who received advising via a more traditional transfer advising model. Importantly, the students experiencing the advising intervention were also able to articulate their appreciation and recognition of the impact of their relationship with the CATS advisors on their transfer success.
ContributorsWieland, Sarah (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Urquídez, Kasandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022