Browsing by Subject "Student Achievement"
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Item An investigation of a professional development program using industry partnerships and student achievement(Texas A&M University, 2008-10-10) Sullivan, Helen GraceThis investigation examined the impact on student achievement of teachers who participated in a professional development program using industry partnerships. One treatment and one non-treatment school in a large urban school district served as the sites for this inquiry with teacher participation in a professional development program and the achievement data of their science students being collected during the 2001-2002 school period. The impact of a teacher professional development program with industry partnerships such as Education for the Energy Industry (EEI) on student achievement in science was determined. National and state standardized tests were analyzed using extant data obtained from administering the fourth through the eighth grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) test and the eighth grade Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. The differential influence of a professional development program for teachers on the achievement of students of diversity was determined by the TAAS scores and ITBS scores, which were partitioned by treatment condition and student ethnicity. Findings from this quantitative investigation suggest enhanced student achievement in science if teachers participated in a professional development program involving industry partnerships.Item Principals' distributed leadership behaviors and their impact on student achievement in selected elementary schools in Texas(2009-05-15) Chen, Yi-HsuanEducators are frequently faced with the challenges of politics, hostility, selfishness, and violence; it is unwise to think that the principal is the only one providing leadership for school improvement. Thus a distributed perspective of leadership urges us to take leadership practice as the focus of interest and address both teachers and administrators as leaders. The purpose of this descriptive statistical study was to explore principals? leadership practices as perceived by teacher leaders and its possible affect to student achievement. Data were collected by using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (self and observer) instrument (Kouzes & Posner, 2003) from all willing teacher leaders to determine the leadership practices of the principals in Region VI, Texas. Also, statewide assessment data available from three school years (2004-2006) were obtained from the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report. In order to answer research questions one to four, descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated for the LPI results. The distributed framework offers considerable influence for studying leadership as a schoolwide rather than individual practice. Based on the literature, six conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made regarding practice, future study and policy. First, the findings indicated that principals? collaborative working style with teacher leaders seems to have positive impact on student achievement. Second, failing to enlist teacher leaders in a common vision might have a negative affect on student academic performance. Third, the perceptions of teacher leaders in School 7, School 5 and School 16 reflected a need for the principal to take challenges and seek challenging opportunities to change and grow. Fourth, recognizing teacher leaders? contributions and celebrating team accomplishments is likely to have a positive and indirect impact on school academic performance. Fifth, schools that had higher principal self and observer LPI scores tended to have better TAKS scores. Last, the findings from the study complement studies of the effects of site-based management teams. The positive impact of ?Enabling Others to Act? and ?Inspiring a Shared Vision? on student achievement implies that distributed leadership is most likely to contribute to school improvement and to build school capacity for improvement.Item The Effects of School-Based Mentoring on Student Achievement for Junior High School Students(2014-08-26) Schnautz, Bradley MichaelThe purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the ISAGE program, a school-based mentoring program designed to facilitate the achievement of junior high school students who were deemed ?at-risk.? Participants included a total of 72 junior high school students from two separate junior high schools, grades 7 and 8, in Utopia Independent School District, a suburban school district in the southwestern United States. The 72 students were either placed in a treatment group (n = 36) using non-random selection or on a waiting list (i.e., control group) (n = 36). The dependent variables in this study are: (a) attendance, (b) discipline referrals, (c) report card grade averages in core courses, (d) TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) Mathematics scale scores, and (e) TAKS Reading scale scores. Data analyses included the use of two-way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical procedures. The dependent variable data of students in the treatment group was compared with that of students in the control group over a consecutive two school-year period. Results of the study indicated that the ISAGE program showed significant effects in the number of student?s discipline referrals along with the TAKS Math scale scores. No significant differences were observed for mentees? report card grade averages in core classes, attendance, or TAKS Reading scale scores. These findings provide preliminary evidence that school-based mentoring programs, such as the ISAGE program, may have a positive impact on students who are placed ?at-risk.? The study concludes with implications and limitations of the study, along with recommendations for future research of school-based mentoring programs.Item The impact of downsizing on student achievement as reported in the academic excellence indicator system in North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas(2009-05-15) Newman, Donna M.This study determined the impact of downsizing on student achievement as reported in the AEIS database for the 10 downsized elementary schools in North East Independent School District (NEISD). Ten existing elementary schools lost students and teachers to four new schools that opened in 2005. Conclusions have been made regarding the impact of downsizing at these ten existing feeder schools on student achievement. The population of this study were students enrolled in third, fourth, and fifth grades at the ten downsized elementary campuses. Research questions were analyzed using an Independent Sample t test and the Pearson Product Moment Correlations to examine whether there was a significant difference between the variables and student achievement and correlations between student achievement and changes in teacher demographics. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are provided: 1. Total tested student population and White subpopulation TAKS scores returned statistically significant improvement at the ten elementary campuses in the area of reading ?met standards? after downsizing. 2. The Hispanic subpopulation returned statistically significant improvement in the area of reading ?commended performance? after downsizing. 3. The overall tested student population and the Hispanic subpopulation returned statistically significant in the area of mathematics ?met standards? after downsizing. 4. The overall tested student population and the Hispanic and White subpopulations returned statistically significant improvement in the area of mathematics ?commended performance? after downsizing. 5. The African American subpopulation was the only population in this study whose student achievement mean declined from 2005 to 2006 in the areas of reading ?met standards? and mathematics ?commended performance.? 6. The African American subpopulation was the only population in this study to show a significant negative correlation between teacher years of experience and student achievement in ?commended performance? for reading and mathematics prior to downsizing.Item The impact of school facilities on student achievement, attendance, behavior, completion rate and teacher turnover rate in selected Texas high schools(2009-05-15) McGowen, Robert ScottThe purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between school facility conditions and school outcomes such as student academic achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate. School facility condition for the participating schools was determined by the Total Learning Environment Assessment (TLEA) as completed by the principal or principal?s designee on high school campuses in Texas with enrollments between 1,000 and 2000 and economically disadvantaged enrollments less than 40%. Each school in the study population was organized by grades nine through twelve. Data for achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate were collected through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) managed by the Texas Education Agency. Student achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate and their relation to school facilities were investigated using multiple regression models to compare sections and subsections of the TLEA with each of the five dependent variables. Major research findings of this study included the following: first, student achievement, attendance and completion rate measures were not found to be statistically significant in relation to school facility conditions as measured by the TLEA at the 0.05 level; second, discipline, or behavior, was found to be significantly related to the TLEA. This indicates that the subsections of the TLEA could be used to predict discipline factors for schools in the study population; third, teacher turnover rate was found to be related to the TLEA subsections of Specialized Learning Space and Support Space, with the correlation to Support Space being indirect. Literature from prior studies infers that relationships do exist between all five of the study?s dependent variables. However, this study only yielded significant findings in the areas of student discipline and teacher turnover. The researchers recommendations based upon this study include the following: administrators and designers should take into account factors such as interior environment and academic learning space when planning schools to positively impact student discipline; school design and construction should focus on specialized learning spaces and other academic areas more than administrative support spaces when striving to increase teacher satisfaction with physical working conditions.Item The relationship between vertical teaming in science and student achievement as reported in the academic excellence indicator system (AEIS) at selected public schools in Bexar County, Texas(Texas A&M University, 2008-10-10) Arteaga, Veronica HernandezThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between vertical teaming in science and student achievement. This study compared student achievement of campuses implementing vertical teaming with schools that do not practice vertical teaming. In addition, this study explored the relationship between selected demographic variables and vertical teaming using Grade 5 Science TAKS results in the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS). Campus demographic variables such as economically disadvantaged, minority students, English language learners, student mobility, and experienced teachers were researched. A call-out yielded 168 responses. With the exclusion of the 12 campuses, a total of 156 participating campuses from 18 traditional school districts remained. Campuses employing vertical teaming were self-identified on the basis of having implemented the process for two or more years. The gain in percent mastered for Science TAKS scores from 2004 to 2007 was used as the Science TAKS score variable. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in student achievement in science for campuses practicing vertical teaming and campuses that did not. The twoway ANOVA was used to measure the relationship between the independent variables (vertical teaming and campus demographic variables) on the dependent variable (student achievement on Science TAKS). The results suggested that campuses having low percentages of economically disadvantaged students statistically gained more on the Science TAKS than campuses that have high percentages of economically disadvantaged students irrespective of vertical teaming practices. In addition, campuses that have low percentages of minority students statistically gained more on the Science TAKS than campuses that have high percentages of minority students despite vertical teaming participation. Recommendations include districts, state, and federal agencies providing campuses with a high percent of economically disadvantaged students with more resources and more flexibility in using those resources. Recommendations for further study included a replication of the study that takes into account the degree of implementation of vertical teaming.