Matching Items (15)
Description
The purpose of this study was to explore features of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) implementation at the district level. In the study beliefs, goals, and actions of district office administrators were analyzed against the backdrop of changing federal guidelines and challenges faced by SES implementers across Arizona. The case study focuses on implementation in the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 school years. The study uses the 2005 and 2009 Department of Education guidelines, survey responses from Arizona district and school implementers, as well as documents and interviews from an urban Arizona case district. The study separates the implementation activities into task areas, which are analyzed separately. Using a loose coupling perspective, the separate task areas are furthered used as coupling domains and represented in social network graphs. Results show that the case district personnel were highly focused on their primary role, maintaining district compliance with federal guidelines. The district personnel employed several changes over the case study period to centralize their control of SES operations within district. The employment and training of site level coordinators was the most impactful of the strategies. As boundary spanners, the coordinators allowed greater access to information, oversight, and influence at the site level. Despite the growing capacity and earnest efforts of the district personnel, the case district was still very far from being able to measure or assess the impact of SES on student achievement. Centralization in the scholastic task areas was relatively low, and had marginal changes over the case study period. Years into the program, there was still no avenue to accurately gauge the effectiveness. As the district personnel were chiefly concerned with compliance, they had suspended judgment on the program and focused primarily on improving their processes.
ContributorsBlankson, Gerald Kotey (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Glass, Gene (Committee member) / Powers, Jeanne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study examined the quality of professional life at a Title I school that has achieved the Arizona Department of Education's highest accountability rating of Excelling for eight consecutive years. By examining the factors that influence the school environment including teachers' attitudes and the connections within the teacher community at this school, a description emerged of the factors that influenced the quality of professional lives of teachers. This descriptive study sought to describe, "What is the quality of professional life for teachers at a Title I elementary school with a history of high levels of student achievement?" The research was conducted at Seneca Elementary school (a pseudonym) in the Seneca School District (a pseudonym). By examining the quality of professional life for teachers in a highly ranked Title I school, a better understanding of the quality of professional life may lead to recommendations for other schools with high levels of poverty on how to support teachers who work in high poverty schools. Within a theoretical framework of motivation-hygiene theory and socio cultural theory, the study identified principal leadership as a primary supporting factor of quality of professional life. The study also identified lack of input and lack of teacher control over curriculum and instruction as barriers to quality of professional life. Teachers described principal leadership, environment, social factors and teacher identity as contributors to enhancing the quality of professional life. Trust and focus emerged as additional factors that improved the workplace for teachers.
ContributorsThomas, Jeffrey J (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Fischman, Gustavo (Committee member) / Boyle, Charlotte (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study was designed to capture the conversations and practices of seven educators who navigate teaching and learning decisions in their Title 1 elementary school. This case study was conducted to answer the research question, "What are the behaviors and practices of a newly formed collaborative team of educators working within a professional learning community (PLC)?" In order to understand how this collaborative team worked together, data was collected through a survey, interviews, focus group discussion and questionnaire, observations of collaborative team meetings and artifacts generated from the team's work. The findings revealed that (1) participants spent the majority of their collaborative team time focusing on how to best prepare students for district and state standardized assessments; (2) teachers described themselves as learners who look to their colleagues to enhance their knowledge and skills; (3) members of PLCs need dedicated collaborative time to ensure all students and adults in the organization learn at high levels; (4) discussing and using student learning data can be difficult; (5) educators gravitate to colleagues who have similar philosophies and beliefs and (6) PLCs need supportive district, school and teacher leadership to accomplish their goals. This research study provides validation that the PLC process is a complex process of professional development designed to support school reform in an era of increased school accountability. The recommendations for school leaders are to create supportive leadership structures that allow all students opportunities to learn, build trusting environments, and provide clarity and focus of the vision for all stakeholders. District leadership needs to establish a priority for PLC work by embedding the processes in the vision, mission and goals of the district, examine policies to ensure they support the concepts of PLCs, provide access to resources and create a forum for critical conversations about teaching and learning. Policy makers need to ask the right questions so that they can design appropriate accountability systems that encourage collaboration.
ContributorsFourlis, Andi (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Davey, Lynn (Committee member) / Kriekard, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study explores community development initiatives and school-community partnerships that took place during the period 1998 - 2010 in Barrio Promesa, a Hispanic immigrant neighborhood within a large metropolitan area of the South Western United States. More specifically, it examines the initiatives and partnerships carried out through three main sectors of social actors: a) elected officials, public administrators and their agencies of the city; b) the neighborhood elementary school and school district administration; and c) civil society inclusive of non-profit agencies, faith-based organizations and businesses entities. This study is bounded by the initiation of development efforts by the city on the front end. The neighborhood school complex became the center of educational and social outreach anchoring nearly all collaborations and interventions. Over time agents, leadership and alliances changed impacting the trajectory of development initiatives and school community partnerships. External economic and political forces undermined development efforts which led to a fragmentation and dismantling of initiatives and collaborations in the later years of the study. Primary threads in the praxis of community development and school-community partnerships are applied in the analysis of initiatives, as is the framework of social capital in understanding partnerships within the development events. Specific criteria for analysis included leadership, collaboration, inclusivity, resources, and sustainability. Tensions discovered include: 1) intra-agency conflict, 2) program implementation, 3) inter-agency collaboration, 4) private-public-nonprofit partnerships, and 5) the impact of public policy in the administration of public services. Actors' experiences weave a rich tapestry composed of the essential threads of compassion and resilience in their transformative human agency at work within the global urban gateway of Barrio Promesa. Summary, conclusions and recommendations include: 1) strategies for the praxis of community development, inclusive of establishing neighborhood based development agency and leadership; 2) community development initiative in full partnership with the neighborhood school; 3) the impact of global migration on local development practices; and 4) the public value of personal and civil empowerment as a fundamental strategy in community development practices, given the global realities of many urban neighborhoods throughout the United States, and globally.
ContributorsBusch, Jay S. E (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Danzig, Arnold (Committee member) / Knopf, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
As students gain access to personally-owned Mobile Communication Devices (MCDs), schools have begun to embrace MCDs as mobile-learning (m-learning) teaching and learning tools. A research gap currently exists for the innovation of m-learning with student-owned devices, which this study attempts to fill by answering the following Research Question: What are the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Levels of Use of teachers at a high-performing, high SES suburban high school? To answer this question, I answered 5 sub questions: (1) What instructional decisions did BYOD user-level teachers make with regards to m-learning? (2) How did teachers collaborate on BYOD with colleagues during implementation? (3) How did teachers participate in voluntary professional development for BYOD and m-learning? (4) Was there a difference in Levels of Use between early career and veteran teachers? (5) What barriers to successful implementation did teachers at this school report? To answer these questions, I conducted a Levels of Use interview with 2-3 teachers from each academic department (n=28), at a school that was in its third year of BYOD implementation, as well as observed 18 of the teachers during instruction. I triangulated data from a first and second interview with observation data, and analyzed these data sets to profile the different Levels of Use among the teachers, and present recommendations for research and practice. I rated all participants between Level 0: non-use and Level IVB: refinement; no teachers in this study were above Level IVB. The findings indicate that teachers made instructional decisions based on their Level of Use, and although they did not participate in ongoing professional development specific to BYOD, they did work with others based on their Level of Use. Few teachers participated in voluntary professional development, and cited time as a factor. This study also finds that personal experience with technology and lesson planning for student-centered learning is a greater indicator of successful BYOD implementation than age or teaching experience. Finally, the most commonly reported barriers to successful implementation of BYOD were time, equity/access, and student behavior.
ContributorsRoss, Kyle (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Wetzel, Keith (Committee member) / Fourlis, Andi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013