Browsing by Subject "Academic achievement--United States"
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Item The effective research-based characteristics of professional development and how they relate to the National Science Foundation's GK-12 Program(2006) Cormas, Peter C.; Barufaldi, James P.This mixed methods study investigates the effective research-based characteristics of professional development and the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 Program. A comprehensive search of texts containing effective research-based characteristics of professional development linked to student achievement and teacher behavior provided the data to perform three content analyses. After rigorous inter- and intra-reliability testing, the content analyses yielded 16 effective research-based characteristics of professional development. For reasons of validity, the characteristics were sent to experts of professional development who were later interviewed. The characteristics were then used to deductively investigate the GK-12 program; an NSF funded professional development program that supports graduate students and advanced undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and partners them with cooperating teachers in the K-12 classroom. Final evaluations from 26 of 31 GK-12 sites from the program’s inception year in 1999 were analyzed in a third content analysis. The results of the analysis demonstrate that the GK-12 program incorporates all of the effective research-based characteristics of professional development, but to drastically varying degrees. Two emergent characteristics were also derived from the third analysis and included “improves communication skills” and “has real world application”. Implications of the study posit that educational leaders need to be aware that effective research-based characteristics of professional development that are linked to student learning exist, and should be used to guide professional development endeavors.Item The effects of culturally-based computer software on the motivation and academic engagement of African American English speakers(2005) Green, Satasha L.; Sorrells, Audrey McCrayThere is a need to respond to the educational demands of African American English (AAE) speakers based on standardized measures (Carnoy, Loeb & Smith, 2001). There is also a need to fill the gaps in our existing knowledge base of the effects of culturally and linguistically responsive intervention on achievement and mediating factors, including motivation to learn and academic engagement. Otherwise, AAE speakers may receive inadequate instruction to meet their needs and may be at risk for further remediation or special education placement. Without interventions that address unique needs academically and effectively, achievement disparities are likely to continue (Gay, 2000; Harris, 1991; Perry & Delpit, 1998). Therefore, the question is What can be done to improve the academic achievement and more specifically, reading achievement of AAE speakers? According to Rickford (2001), poor performance in reading is symptomatic of a disinterest in reading and may require providing AAE speakers with instruction and evaluation that are culturally and linguistically responsive (Delpit & Perry, 1998). For example, the use of cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students may make learning more relevant and effective. Also, many educators have argued that curriculum, instruction, reading materials, and computer-assisted instruction that are based upon an Afro-centric model of education are likely more congruent with African American students ways of knowing and learning (Banks & Banks, 2001, 1995). The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a computer software program, Culturally And linguistically Responsive Reading (CARR), on the motivation of African American students’ who speak AAE motivation to read and levels of academic engagement in reading. The student participants were selected AAE speakers receiving special education services and/or “at-risk” for special education placement who are reading below grade level. The study was primarily evaluative (Gay, 1985). It involved a 12-week open-trial during which seven students were exposed to CARR. While being exposed to CARR, measures were collected of the students’ academic engagement with an additional qualitative component of interviews. The results from this study suggest that the CARR tutorial software may be effective in reading motivation and academic engagement of AAE speakers in special education and/or “at-risk for special education placement reading below grade level. Student interview responses revealed that AAE speakers in special education or “at-risk” of special education placement reading below grade level had positive perceptions about CARR. All students in the study perceived, as a result of using CARR that their reading motivation and academic engagement improved.Item Incentives in education and marriage(2008-05) Gevrek, Deniz, 1980-; Hamermesh, Daniel S.; Trejo, Stephen J., 1959-Choices pertaining to education, marriage and migration generally have profound impacts on individuals' lives. This dissertation focuses on the role of incentives in decisions involving education, interracial marriage and migration. To this end, Chapter 2 initiates a new line of research that investigates the role of self-employed parents on their children's post-graduation plans and college success. Chapter 2 reveals that self-employed parents affect their offspring's college success even after accounting for possible ability bias and controlling for various individual characteristics. While Chapter 2 focuses on the role of parental occupation on students' incentives to succeed in college, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 investigate intricate relationships among education, interracial marriage, the anti-miscegenation laws, and migration in the U.S. Chapter 3 introduces a study that links previous literatures on the migration of blacks in the U.S. during the Great Migration with anti-miscegenation laws and interracial marriage. Chapter 3 concludes that anti-miscegenation laws in individuals' states of birth affected the sorting of inter- and intraracially married black males into destination states differentially. Chapter 4 contributes to the previous literature on the determinants of black-white marriages by focusing on the impact of geographical variation of the distributions of black and white education and individual education on interracial marriage.Item Testosterone, status, and social stereotypes : implications for cognitive performance(2003-05) Newman, Matthew Lane; Josephs, Robert A.