Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'And school reform'

The following research highlights the impact of building a strong school culture in one successful urban Turnaround school. From changes to the environment to increased professional development, from the impact on student and parent engagement to the changes in professional expectations for staff, it seems there was no area of the school that wasn’t positively impacted by focusing on improving the school’s culture. It highlights a school that moved from being arguably the lowest performing elementary school in the state to a school that had measurable and steady improvements in student achievement over a four year span. This research presents a success story told through the lens of the culture-building that the seasoned leader prioritized and insisted was most critical to their Turnaround efforts. Despite massive reform and the pressures of accountability, the leader’s insistence on shaping the culture in every aspect of the school paid off. The staff too experienced this improved culture as critical to their Turnaround and sustained success. Given the fact that this school generated steady success in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the state, this local story has much to teach like and unlike settings. Additionally, this Principal’s ability to strengthen her school culture through the implementation of massive reform provides district and school-based leaders ways to couple culture-building and reform in effective ways. This research identifies and extrapolates the key findings that are replicable and urgently relevant to public schools everywhere that are struggling to find a balance between answering the call of heavy reform while creating school cultures that meet the needs of students and staff, and create lasting and sustainable school-wide improvement. Finally, this research provides an example of a successful leader who invested in the culture, despite pressures to focus on other urgent matters perceived to be more directly related to student achievement. This research provides an invitation to leaders who wish to build school cultures that will prove foundational to substantial and lasting success.

Reform is a common tool used by policymakers to increase student achievement. Unfortunately, reform efforts are not always successful. However, researchers have demonstrated that school culture and climate both impact student achievement (Cavanaugh & Dellar, 1997; Cohen, Fege, & Pickeral, 2009; D’ Alessandro & Sadh, 1998; MacNeil, Prater, & Busch, 2009; National School Climate Council, 2007; Peterson & Deal, 2009; Stolp, 1994; University-Community Partnerships, Michigan State University, 2004). The overarching question explores the relationships among school culture, school climate, teacher efficacy, and collective efficacy and their impact on reform movements. Secondary questions are: what is similar and contrasting among the constructs; how are the constructs interrelated; and in what ways can these constructs impact school reform efforts? For the purposes of this study, school climate is viewed as a manifestation of school culture, with teacher and collective efficacy as part of the cycle that impacts reform efforts.

Academic and behavioral success in middle school is a predictor of academic and behavioral success in high school. How best to provide a developmentally responsive education to students at the middle level is a challenge that American educators and policymakers need to address (Jackson et al., 2000). This case study provides an understanding of the unique organizational structures and school culture that contributed to a diverse school’s fostering and sustaining the goals of a middle school reform initiative designed to contribute to students’ academic and behavioral success.

Once a low-performing school with high disciplinary referrals, Crossroads Middle School is now considered exemplary because of high ratings on district climate surveys and success in increasing student achievement for all student groups since implementation of the reform strategy. Notably, during the reform implementation, three principals led the school. Given this leadership turnover, the school’s success cannot be attributed to one charismatic leader, but rather the organizational culture fostered by the instructional leadership team. Data include interviews with 19 past and present members of the instructional leadership team, meeting observations, and reviews of school documents and artifacts. This exemplary case study reveals the shared norms, values, and beliefs developed over time by the leadership team members as they designed and implemented the structures, policies, and practices needed to foster the goals of the reform.

Crossroads had and continues to have a student population that mirrors the demographics of its large diverse district. This diversity contributes to the relevancy of the findings for other school leaders in districts that have diverse student populations and who seek to improve middle level education. The results of this study may inform district leaders and school-based staff seeking to adopt a middle school model uniquely suited to developing middle school students, and seeking to develop a staff with skill sets unique to teaching students at the middle school level.

In 1983, the A Nation at Risk report stated that our educational institutions in the United States and especially in urban areas were not meeting the educational needs of our students. Since A Nation at Risk, elected school boards in urban areas were under fire from the media, parents, other civic and community leaders, and voters due to fiscal irresponsibility and poor student achievement. In selected urban cities across the nation, elected school boards were replaced in favor of mayoral control (e.g., Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC) and appointed school boards (Wong et al., 2007). In 1999, the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) was taken over by the state of Michigan in an effort to reform the district. In 1998 prior to the state takeover, DPS had 261 schools, 167,000 students enrolled in the district, and a $93 million budget surplus. In 2014 after several years of state control, DPS had 97 schools (−62%), 47,000 students enrolled (−71%) in the district, and a $232 million budget deficit (−349%). During this same time period, DPS had eight different district leaders under three different school governance models. This qualitative historical case study developed an understanding of the overall impact of school governance reform on the institutional progress in DPS from 1999–2014. Institutional Progress examines the overall functioning of a school district in the areas of: leadership, educational programs, finances, personnel, community support and political support. This study also described the external and internal barriers preventing DPS from making institutional progress. This qualitative study utilized four data sources: interviews of current and former Detroit Public School personnel (i.e., school board members, central and building administrators, teachers, parents and community activists), Detroit Board of Education meeting minutes reports, daily newspaper coverage of DPS from the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, and city of Detroit archives on the annual State of the City Address given by Detroit mayors to determine whether or not institutional progress was achieved in DPS from 1999–2014. The findings of this study were the following: 1.) there was a lack of institutional progress in Detroit Public Schools; 2.) school governance reforms in DPS did not have a positive impact; and 3.) internal and external barriers prevented DPS from making institutional progress.

The United States Department of Education supports the Common Core State Standards and new state accountability assessments. Improving student engagement, school climate, and staff and student relationships is vitally important to these national school reform efforts. This quantitative research reviews the perceptions of 187 students from four southern California middle schools to help determine if social emotional deficits in engagement, climate and relationships exist that contribute to negative civility and academic behaviors. The findings indicate the existence of social emotional shortcomings for the middle school students. There was also a relationship between student positive and negative perceptions and the demographic categories of grade, ethnicity and gender. Research consistently finds to support student civility and academic shortcomings, the implementation of Social Emotional Learning such as Civility and Ethics Instruction is beneficial. Therefore, multiple recommendations are offered to support the participant and similar middle school staff in including the social emotional intervention of Civility and Ethics Instruction within national school reform.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing middle school grading reform. The study involved all stakeholders in one middle school community. Participants were surveyed to determine which standards-based grading practices were most welcomed among middle school students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Additionally, students’ perceived motivation levels when evaluated using standards-based grading practices were quantified and the necessary support needs of middle school teachers were identified as they attempted school-wide grading reform. Many are calling for school leaders to evaluate unreliable traditional grading methods and reform grading to a standards-based approach (Guskey, Swan, & Jung, 2011; Wormeli, 2013). For this reason, the survey items used in the study were based on the positive and negative outcomes of standards-based grading found in current research. The sample groups for the study included 137 middle school students, 148 parents, 25 teachers, and three administrators. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results of Likert-style survey items and open-ended questions. Findings indicated the most accepted grading changes among all stakeholders included allowing students multiple attempts to show the learning of a concept and providing for awareness and understanding of learning objectives. The teacher survey results revealed necessary support needs when attempting grading reform include the following: making grading decisions together as a faculty, communicating grading changes with parents, and allowing for time to implement grading changes correctly.

Over the past several decades there has been a continuous stream of government mandates aimed to improve equity, access, accountability, transparency, student performance, and/or expand the responsibilities of public schools. These externally mandated school reforms have largely excluded the voice of teachers and administrators both in problem definition and in the modifications needed to address them. Further, reform literature is predominantly focused on improving or addressing urban school challenges, so little is known about the challenges and needs of suburban schools. The gaps in the literature related to teacher voice and suburban contexts in high school reform form the basis of this inquiry. Therefore, this study examines suburban teacher perceptions of four specific, popular reform ideas being introduced in high schools across the United States.

This exploratory mixed methods study gathered data from 165 suburban public high school teachers working in 20 different high schools in Massachusetts using an anonymous survey instrument. Three findings emerged from the study: 1) successful suburban teachers welcome consensus high school reform ideas that they believe to be favorable for student learning, growth, and development though they note significant challenges in regard to time; 2) suburban teachers experience anxiety when reforms alter structures or methods that they rely on to ensure all students meet high school outcomes for graduation and college entrance requirements; and 3) suburban teachers’ perceptions of consensus high school reform ideas are shaped by the ways in which the reforms impact academic disciplines. This study found that suburban public school teachers view the four reform ideas presented in this study as likely having a positive impact on teaching and learning in their school; however, they noted several implementation challenges that would need to be considered to ensure the efficacy of those reforms.

School turnaround refers to the rapid, significant improvement in the academic achievement of persistently low-achieving schools (Peck & Reitzung, 2013). Over the past decade, school turnaround has become the United States’ response to chronically low-performing and failing schools. The turnaround model has emerged as an effective strategy with potential to lead to expedient results. The research on turnaround is limited, however; in fact, most research is concentrated on numerous case studies and is often focused on descriptions of the models used in school turnaround. The overarching question is what district level leadership, school level leadership, and classroom teacher practices emerge as part of the school turnaround reform process?

Major findings of the study indicate that 1) across all turnaround survey measures, the Data Teams Process, turnaround team support, and use of data as the most helpful elements of turnaround reform; 2) while turnaround team support was considered helpful at all levels within the district, it was also considered an obstacle by turnaround school leaders and turnaround teachers; 3) while the Data Teams Process was considered helpful at all levels within the district, it was also considered an obstacle by turnaround school leaders and turnaround teachers; 4) based on turnaround school leader perceptions, there are differences between turnaround schools and emerging turnaround schools in the area of community relations; (5) based on the turnaround teacher perceptions, there are differences between turnaround schools and emerging turnaround schools in the areas of mindset, climate and culture, effective teachers, and instructional support; and (6) perceptions of collective efficacy differ based on school performance scores which, correspond to turnaround status.