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The validity of the state of Texas assessments of academic readiness in predicting middle school's rating
Get PDFThe A – F Accountability System, which has been adopted by 33.00% of the states, is the
most widely used educational accountability system in the USA. However, it has not been
adequately examined, particularly in Texas, where the results are used to make critical decisions
for all public schools. The purpose of the study was to examine the predictive validity of
academic achievement, as measured by the percentage of students who met the criteria for
approaches or meets on the 2019 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR),
in predicting the overall school rating, which was confirmed by a series of Discriminant
Analysis. The study was delimited to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in 1,158 middle schools. The
practical significance of the findings was examined by computing the mean difference effect
sizes. The contribution of none of the subject matters, namely, reading, mathematics, science,
writing, and social studies could be ruled out; all were predictors of the overall school rating.
Due to non-experimental nature of the investigation, no causal inferences were drawn.
Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Educational Leadership, Curriculum & InstructionCollege of Education and Human Developmen
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A Design Study to Improve a Teacher Induction Program in a South Texas School District
No full textHigh levels of teacher attrition provided one South Texas school district with significant challenges in how to best support new teachers so that they would grow in the profession and want to stay with the district. This dissertation-in-practice (DiP) denotes my experiences as the Director of Curriculum with the development, implementation, and improvement of a teacher induction program in a South Texas school district. The study utilized a developmental research design as a means to improve upon the existing teacher induction program used in the district.
The study’s setting was a small school district located in the Coastal Bend region of South Texas. The district had 1,901 students, with 92 percent identified as low socioeconomic, 62 percent identified as at-risk, and had a teacher attrition rate of 33% in 2014-2015. This study was descriptive, aimed at gathering information about pre-existing conditions and the efforts to address teacher attrition through the implementation of a comprehensive teacher induction program. Methods included developmental research design, insider action research, and iterative processes.
In addressing the problem of teacher attrition, data revealed that the district in this study had challenges such as frequent leadership turnover, the absence of a guaranteed and viable curriculum, the absence of a comprehensive teacher induction program, and a lack of awareness of profound knowledge as it relates to a comprehensive system of teacher support and development. All of these factors contributed to a higher rate of new teacher attrition than the state average and led to the district facing a revolving door of hiring inexperienced teachers year after year.
As a result of the DiP, a structure of practices and processes was identified that resulted in a fundamental shift in teacher induction support. To this end, the study introduces a framework for systemic teacher induction. Additionally, the importance of having a theory of action along with a process for developing one was also discussed as it relates to helping shift mindsets and implement change around comprehensive teacher induction. Further research is warranted in districts that face similar demographics as the South Texas school district in this study to determine if this framework applies to all districts with such demographics or if the practices highlighted in this study are scalable to larger districts.Educational Leadership, Curriculum & InstructionCollege of Education and Human Developmen
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The discriminant power of academic performance domains in distinguishing among A-F accountability ratings in Texas public schools
No full textPublic school districts throughout Texas are required to be rated by the Texas Education Agency’s A-F accountability rating system, which had not been adequately investigated at the time of conducting the study. The following research question guided the correlational study: To what extent do student achievement, school progress, and closing the gaps explain the A-F accountability rating in Texas public schools? The existing data for 4,362 elementary schools, 1,658 middle schools, 1,343 high schools, and 372 schools that served both middle and high school students were analyzed to answer the research question. At the elementary and middle school levels, school progress domain received the highest score but closing the gaps domain was the strongest determinant of the rating. At the high school level, student achievement domain received the highest score, and both the student achievement and closing the gaps domains discriminated among the ratings. At school with both middle and high school students, student achievement received the highest score and was also the best determinant of the rating. The analysis of all data showed that the school progress domain had the highest score and closing the gaps domain was the strongest in discriminating among the ratings. Results were statistically and practically significant. No causal inferences were drawn, because of the nonexperimental nature of the investigation. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings, which are likely to be of importance to public school educators, policy makers, and other concerned individuals, were discussed.Educational Leadership, Curriculum & InstructionCollege of Education and Human Developmen
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Assessing the link between time spent on social networking sites and depression among adolescents
No full textSince the emergence of portable technology (e.g. smart phones and tablets) and social networking sites, increases in depressive symptoms have occurred. While there is much research regarding depression and time spent on social networking among adults, a systematic review of the literature showed very few studies focusing on younger adolescent students. The purpose of the study was to assess the link between the time spent on social networking sites and depression, as measured by cognitive vulnerability and its adverse impact on performing daily tasks, in a non-probability sample of 9th and 10th graders in an urban school district in south Texas. The inquiry was guided by the Hopelessness Theory of Depression (HTD), which states that highly desired outcomes will not occur regardless of an individual’s skill or expertise (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989). The Social Networking and Depression Questionnaire (SNDQ) was used for the purpose of data collection. Analysis of the data showed that the study’s 85 participants had experienced cognitive vulnerability about once per week with a little impact on completing daily tasks. The results did not support the a priori hypothesis, and it was concluded that there was no statistically significant association between the time spent on social networking sites and depression. A careful examination of the data suggested that the results might have not be the same if (1) the sample were heterogeneous and (2) a different instrumentation had been used to measure depression. Practical implications of the findings were discussed. The study’s findings, delimitations, and limitation were synthesized to recommend further research.Counseling & Educational PsychologyCollege of Education and Human Developmen
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Experiences of novice principals at low performing campuses in South Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFThis study is grounded at the intersection of the extant literature on leading effective schools, navigating the challenges of diverse low-performing, high poverty campuses, and supporting the needs of novice principals often hired to meet the needs of these struggling campus contexts. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological dissertation was to illuminate the voice and the perceptions of first-year principals regarding their experiences in leading low-performing campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Region One education service area in South Texas. To capture the essence of the experience of novice principals in this context, each of the six eligible participants, all of whom were also Hispanic, had to have assumed the position of campus principals in 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 on Title I Schoolwide campuses identified as Targeted Support, Additional Targeted Support or Comprehensive Support schools in 2019, were interviewed. The findings addressed the challenges novice principals experienced across these themes: (a) first impressions set the reality; (b) school micropolitics add to the unknown; (c) lack of preparation for leading struggling campuses and (d) the impact of COVID-19 compounded the pressure. The findings also included the support novice principals need to navigate through the challenges of leading their low-performing schools: (a) creating a network of support and (b) developing social justice leaders.Educational Leadership, Curriculum & InstructionCollege of Education and Human Developmen
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Digital divide in ICT literacy among teachers in South Texas school districts
No full textA dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership.The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has profoundly impacted and transformed how schools operate, teach, and learn. Those without access to new technologies are cut off from the huge dividends that ICT provides, commonly referred to as the digital divide. The digital divide is a complex and layered phenomenon, which extends beyond issues of physical access. Digital learning tools are inaccessible and underutilized by students from low-income families in South Texas and beyond. The digital literacy skills of teachers play a key role in preparing students, particularly those without sufficient access to ICT, for meaningful participation in complex digital spaces. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, predictive study was to examine the digital disparity at the second level among public school K-12 teachers in South Texas by evaluating their instructional ICT literacy based on their foundational internet skills and usage types. Using van Dijk’s causal and sequential model of access to ICT (2005) as the basis, this study focused on analyzing the digital divide among teachers along the lines of school socioeconomic status. This analysis was based on teachers' ICT access (motivational, physical, skills, and usage) and digital skills (namely operational, informational, and strategic). The research adds to the existing literature on the digital divide as well as strengthening the positional category from van Dijk's model in the field of education. The study employed two survey questionnaires—the 14-item Teachers' Literacy and Skills acquired in ICT (used to measure digital literacy skills) and the 19-item Internet Usage Types (used to measure internet skills and usage types). A multiple linear regression was performed to identify if internet usage and school socioeconomic status predicted teachers' instructional digital literacy. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of teachers' digital self-efficacy, perceived computer skills, and perceived instructional technology literacy skills in ICT, particularly for those teaching in economically disadvantaged schools. The findings from the study will help South Texas school districts and campus leaders in planning for ICT integration, staff training, and support for school technology infrastructure.Educational Leadership, Curriculum & InstructionCollege of Education and Human Developmen
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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Texas teacher retention based on principal use of influence tactics
No full textA dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership.Due to the continuous decrease in teacher retention rates in the state of Texas, it is important to understand principals’ use of influence tactics and its effects on teacher retention. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental, cross-sectional, descriptive design (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; O’Dwyer & Bernauer, 2013) study was to examine principals’ use of influence tactics on teacher retention, as well as identify differences found in gender and the total number of years within teacher retention rates. The theoretical framework used in this research was Yukle and Falbe’s influence tactic theory. The sample consisted of 50 teachers from five school districts in the greater Corpus Christi, TX area with a 784 zip code. Participants completed four demographic questions, along with the Influence Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-G). An independent samples t test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. This study included three research questions. The first research question used an independent samples t test and the following two research questions used a one-way ANOVA. Results did not indicate a statistically significant relationship comparing the mean scores of the 11 influence tactics with teacher gender in the first research question, nor was there a statistically significant relationship in the third research question that focused on the difference in a teacher’s total number of years based on a principal’s use of influence. The second research question compared the principal use of each of the 11 influence tactics from the retention rate at a campus and results showed two influence tactics with significant results.Educational Leadership, Curriculum & InstructionCollege of Education and Human Developmen
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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