Teachers--Rating of.

The purpose of this study was to determine if teachers who use thinking and
leading actions have higher student achievement as measured by the teacher’s Value
Added Measure (VAM) score. A quantitative non-experimental design investigated the
relationships between teacher cognitive and behavioral agility and student achievement.
Cognitive agility, measured through the Strategic Thinking Questionnaire for Teachers
(STQT ), refers to the leader’s ability to use their repertoire of thinking skills. Behavioral
agility, measured with the Strategic Leadership Questionnaire for Teachers (SLQT ),
denotes the leader’s ability to use a wide array of leader influencing actions. Teachers
were surveyed and the data were analyzed through correlation and multiple regressions to
determine the relationship among the variables.
Although the cognitive and behavioral agility was not correlated with a teacher’s
VAM score, the results indicate that teachers do perceive themselves as leaders in their
classrooms. Educational leadership certification, higher degrees, and years experience of a teacher did moderate the relationship between local VAM and both cognitive and
behavioral agility. The sub-scales of systems thinking and transforming of the survey
instruments also were significant to the results. Theoretically, this study contributes to the
teacher leadership literature, focusing on the classroom teacher and their effect on student
achievement. Practically, with educational accountability changing the landscape, school
districts should train teachers to engage in leadership skills, reward teachers for earning a
Master’s degree in leadership, and work to retain high quality teachers who are leaders
within their classroom. Greater student achievement could be the result.

This qualitative study described teachers’ perspectives of The Marzano Teacher
Evaluation Model during the first year of its implementation. Further, this study
examined the relationship between teachers and their administrators during
implementation. The researcher’s goal was to examine how teachers changed their
behavior as the result of the first year following the implementation of The Marzano
Teacher Evaluation Model.

According to Molnar (2014), full time virtual school education lacks a
measurement tool that accurately measures effective virtual teacher practice.
Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the current study sought to
understand the common practices among full time K-8 virtual school teachers,
the extent to which teachers believed such practices impacted student learning,
as well as the methods in which current standards, recommendations and
practices were implemented in the full time K-8 virtual school setting. The
relationship between virtual school teacher practices and their Technological
Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) was also explored. Using the
standards, practices and recommendations developed for online learning from
International Association for K–12 Online Learning (iNACOL), National Education
Association (NEA), Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) a team of focus group
members gave input on the common practices for teaching students in the full
time K-8 virtual school environment. The results included 11 general virtual
school teacher practices, 12 teacher practices relating to evaluation and three
practices relating to special needs and diverse learners. Qualitative and
quantitative findings indicated that teachers most frequently meet the established
practices through the following strategies: phone conferences, live sessions with
students, feedback on assessments, webmail communication, professional
development, collaborating with peers/teacher collaboration, professional
learning communities, curriculum based assessments on the phone,
communicating with family stakeholders, and determining students in the bottom
quartile. A framework for K-8 full time virtual school pedagogy which includes
evaluating student learning and individualizing instruction through technology
tools and collaborative methods was developed.
Finally, the quantitative findings indicated that of the three virtual school
teacher practice categories (teacher practice, evaluation and special needs and
diverse learners), evaluation was the leading predictor of teacher TPACK scores.
Specifically, collaboration, having an online voice and presence, and using data
from assessments to modify instruction were found to significantly predict a
teacher’s Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. Using virtual
school teachers’ expertise on the practices which most impact student learning
and the methods for implementing virtual school teacher practices, the
researcher created a draft full time K-8 virtual school teacher evaluation rubric.