Library: Education

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990 drastically changed the state’s entire educational system in ways of curriculum, governance, and finance. KERA has served as somewhat of a blueprint for reform legislation in a number of other states. A literature review revealed that traditionally the relationship between K-12 reform and higher education (teacher preparation) in the United States has not been very strong. Although the connections between the two were unclear early on in Kentucky’s reform efforts, much progress has been made in linking KERA to the teacher preparation programs ...

The problem addressed in the current study was that disruptive student behavior is detrimental to learning because quality teacher-student interaction time is reduced. The purpose of this ethnographic research study was to explore relationship between disruptive behavior of students and leadership styles of teachers, parents and school leaders. Results indicated that in some cases, an individualized approach could help the K-6 elementary student by reducing their disruptive behavior. However, it was also confirmed that as part of this individualized approach, school-wide implementation might p...

School psychologists have an ethical obligation to be advocates for students. However, the ethical principles of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) do not define what it means for school psychologists to be advocates for students, except through the inferences that may be drawn from what school psychologists must be, and do, in order to comply with the NASP ethical principles. This dissertation proposed a definition of advocacy, which was then presented to a focus group of school psychology experts, to an expert panel, and then researched through a census survey of the Col...

Women in Hawai`i graduate at slightly higher rates than men at three of the four major institutions of higher education in Hawai`i (Institute for Women's Policy Research The Status of Women in Hawaii 2006) as compared to up to seventy-three percent of men at these same Hawai'i institutions and compared to nearly eighty-five percent of women who enroll at women-only colleges. With fewer than half of all enrolled women students at the four major Hawai`i institutions graduating, it is important to understand the possible influences that may contribute to this problem -- one of which is observa...

The establishment of alternative education, private foundations, and networks linked to socio-political and spiritual advocacies distinguishes the Thai social movement in this research. This research is a qualitative study that has made use of historical accounts to associate with data gathered from extensive interviews and case studies in order to inquire as to whether alternative education represents an historical spiritual tradition of opposition to reform hegemony, and whether it has had an impact on state reform efforts. Also investigated was whether there are some historical patterns ass...

Teacher evaluation is an activity of assessing teachers' performance. It is equivalent to teacher appraisal/teacher performance management in England. This study explores the complexities of implementing Teacher Evaluation in primary schools in Taiwan. It concentrates principally on the development of Teacher Evaluation in Taiwan in the light of international research, especially that relating to the English context. The philosophical perspective with which this study is most closely aligned is constructivism. In particular, using qualitative methods of documentary analysis and interviews, it...

The purpose of this quantitative study was to discover the perceptions of school culture and correlate those perceptions with standardized test scores in elementary and secondary schools in southwestern Arizona. The intention of this study was to contribute to the field of education leadership related to student achievement and factors contributing to student achievement including organizational culture. A survey of teachers and administrators in participating schools in southwestern Arizona was completed and correlated with existing student achievement data for those participating schoo...

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the characteristics most represented in two school districts, an inner-city and a suburban district. These characteristics were related to the innovativeness of the school district and the perception of individual leadership in schools that have passed the performance criteria for state accreditation. Forty schools and 200 principals were randomly selected to participate in the study for a period of 3 to 4 months. The researcher used three instruments to determine whether differences existed between the two districts in rega...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the way and extend to which the elementary school is meeting special needs of students of gay and lesbian parents, in regard to school environment that provides support, protection, inclusive curriculum, principal and assistant principal involvement, and involvement of parents of these children in the life of the school. Methodology: The student consists of two types of research: a descriptive study and a qualitative case study. Questionnaires and semi structured interviews were conducted with elementary principals enroll...

Although the literature contains much research about reentry women in past decades, that research focused primarily on white, middle class women. It is rich with studies in mentoring, but previous studies rarely explored the crucial connections between reentry women and mentoring. This study bridges the gap by exploring the experiences of 10 multicultural, reentry women in the rural South at a small community college. The researcher conducted audio-taped interviews of all participants and collected several prose artifacts offered by participants. Initially, the typed transcripts were analyzed...