School improvement programs

The purpose of this study was to examine non-identifying archival data from the
2012-2013 school year to assess the effect participation in the Student Success
Skills (SSS) school counselor-led classroom guidance program (Brigman & Webb,
2010) had on the behavioral and cognitive engagement of grade 5 Exceptional
Student Education (ESE) students serviced within the general education classroom
setting. Data for this study was collected at three different intervals. School
attendance data was collected on students during the 2012, 2013, and 2014 school
years when students were enrolled in grades 4, 5, and 6 respectively. Pre-test selfreport
data was collected within two weeks prior to implementation of the SSS
program. Posttest self-report data was collected within two weeks immediately
following completion of the intervention and post-posttest self-report data was
collected 30 weeks post-intervention. School counselors and classroom teachers
were trained in the SSS program. Students received five 45 minute classroom lessons delivered one week apart followed by three booster sessions delivered one
month apart. Lessons were designed to teach cognitive, social, self-management,
and test-taking skills. This study followed a randomized controlled trial (RCT)
design. For the purposes of this study behavioral engagement was measured by
school attendance data. Cognitive engagement was measured by the Test Anxiety
and Metacognitive Activity scales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning
Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990) and the Self-Regulation of
Arousal scale of the Student Engagement in School Success Skills (SESSS) survey
(Carey, Webb, Brigman, & Harrington, 2010). A series of multivariate analysis of
covariance (MANCOVA) tests were conducted to determine whether or not there
were statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups.
While no statistically significant differences were evident on the Metacognitive
Activity scale, results indicated a statistically significant decrease in absences and
test anxiety for students in the treatment group. Additionally, a statistically
significant increase was evident on the Self-Regulation of Arousal scale for
students in the treatment group. This study suggests that research-based school
counseling programs delivered in small or large groups using inclusionary practices
may be beneficial in supporting the academic achievement and social-emotional
adjustment of ESE students.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the Student Success Skills
(SSS) classroom intervention on grade 5 African American students’ self-regulation, test
anxiety and school attendance. This study analyzed pre-existing, non-identifiable student
data collected by school counselors at 30 elementary schools in South Florida. A
multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to determine differences in
self-regulation, test anxiety, and school attendance between the students who participated
in the SSS classroom intervention compared to those students who did not participate.
Statistically significant differences were found between groups in all three factors and
support the use of SSS classroom school counseling intervention with grade 5 African
American students. Effect size estimates were reported for each of the measures.

As our nation demands system-wide improvement, external providers are
challenged to scale up educational reform efforts, to implement them more widely, more
deeply, and more rapidly than in the past. Virtual high schools come at a time when
public education is being challenged by mandates for new forms of educational choice
and supplemental services. Replicating success of educational reforms on a large scale is
a vexing issue. Failure to scale them up is accredited to the absence of a practical theory
that accounts for the institutional complexities operating on changes of practice. This
research developed such a practical theory gleaning attributes from Comprehensive
School Reform, Diffusion of Innovation, and Leadership and Scale theories.
The purpose of this study was to determine the attributes that contribute to the
scalability of the virtual high school. Scalability was separated into two levels; a
traditional notion of scaling up reforms, and the more contemporary idea of going to scale. The conceptual framework suggested that scalability was dependent upon the
frequency of the attributes associated with these levels.
Content analysis was conducted on N = 270 documents pertaining to virtual high
schools. A validation subset of N = 137 documents on five specific virtual high schools
was used. An attribute checklist assisted the coding, classifying 39 attributes into five
mutually exclusive categories, along with seven contextual factors that potentially
moderated scalability. Analysis on the validation subset produced similar findings to
those of the universal sample set.
A statistical model was developed that predicted a large amount (52 %) of the
variation of scalability. When scaling up attributes are prevalent both in the innovation's
design, the communication channels, and leadership capabilities then going to scale can
be achieved O..er time. Specifically, virtual high schools should focus on three
significant scaling up attributes: (a) offering quality curriculum aligned to high
national/state standards, (b) creating networks with other virtual high school adopters,
and (c) strong management, in order to go to scale. The development of a practical theory
must include these attributes in order for the virtual high school to go to scale.

The purpose of the current outcome study was to determine the impact of Student Success Skills (SSS) classroom guidance lessons on the Academic Behaviors (motivation, social engagement, self-regulation) and Key Learning Skills and Techniques associated with college-career readiness (CCR) indicators for Grade 5 students (ACT, 2008a; Brigman & Webb, 2012; Conley, 2010; Robbins, Allen, Casillas, Peterson, & Le, 2006). School counselors in the treatment schools were trained in the implementation of the SSS classroom program and subsequently taught the material to Grade 5 students. Comparison school counselors conducted business as usual. The study applied a quasi-experimental pre/post1/post2 design utilizing student self-report instruments (Student Engagement in School Success Skills Survey [SESSS], Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire [MSLQ]), and a teacher survey instrument (Student Participation Questionnaire [SPQ]).

This study examined factors that relate to the persistence of first-generation
undergraduate students in a 4-year public university in the Southeastern United States.
Results were analyzed from a 2011 two-part survey: CARES-I (College Assessment of
Readiness for Entering Students-Intent) and CARES-A (College Assessment of
Readiness for Entering Students-Actual/Achieved. Semistructured interviews were
conducted with first-generation undergraduate persisters, administrators, and professors.
There was no statistically significant difference in persistence between
continuing-generation and first-generation students. None of the factors, with the
exception of performance goals on CARES A, were found to relate to persistence.
Significant positive correlations were found between persistence and residential status, a
learning strategies course, gender, high school GPA, and first semester in college GPA.
The learning communities program was not found to significantly relate to persistence.
The CARES surveys were found to be weak for predicting persistence. There was no significant interaction between any of the factors, persistence, and first-generation and
continuing-generation, except for performance goals on CARES I and self-efficacy on
CARES A. Findings from the interviews indicated that self-efficacy was highly important to
graduation. The students had clear academic and professional, learning, monetary, and
social outcome expectations. Student performance goals varied in amount of time, use of
learning strategies, and organizational tools. Of the organizational variables, academic
and social integration positively impacted persistence. However, the participants wished
to have had higher grades as freshmen, found the STEM courses tough, had no informal
interaction with administrators or professors, and did not use office hours enough.
Students spoke positively of institutional programs, clubs, services, and organizations
such as Supplemental Instruction (SI), the Math Lab, and Writing Center. Administrators
and professors expressed a need for more information and responsiveness to persistence
factors. Persistence was not impeded by family, friends, or work, whereas financial issues
were prevalent. Although demographic variables did not negatively impact persistence,
exo and macrosystem factors beyond the doors of the university emerged.
Recommendations and options are provided for further research and for the university to
improve persistence.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine “pockets of success”
through the voices of participant stakeholders in low socio-economic status urban high
schools and communities to identify opportunities and structures that can improve postsecondary outcomes for students. Examining those pockets of success to rise above the dynamics that obstruct pathways to success, and identifying opportunities for students to transcend their social, economic, and human condition, are the impetuses for the study. The study design is grounded in portraiture, created by Lawrence-Lightfoot and Hoffman-Davis (1997), to detail the intricate dynamics and relationships that exist in high schools. Portraiture steps outside of the traditional boundaries of quantitative and qualitative research to converge narrative analysis with public discourse in a search for authenticity. Identifying what the participants value, how they create and promote opportunities for students, the school’s role in rebuilding the surrounding community, and the community’s priority for graduates, provided the groundwork. The review of the literature reconstructs the term “opportunity” in the context of the urban high school, aligning it with the moral purposes of education. It traces the history of educational and social justice barriers for minority students, outlines the impact of leadership decision-making on the evolution of the urban high school, and addresses increasing the capacity of schools to create opportunities for students to succeed. Participants revealed the foundations for success, challenges and goals toward success, conduits to facilitate that success, and collaborations required to build an agenda to couple school-based stakeholders, civic groups, and national organizations to the creation of a national platform to improve outcomes for urban public high school students in disenfranchised communities.

The purpose of this study was to determine if schools where higher degrees of servant leadership were practiced performed better than schools that practiced lower degrees of servant leadership. Servant leadership is the understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader. The characteristics of servant leadership include valuing people, developing people, building community, displaying authenticity, providing leadership, and sharing leadership. Variables utilized to determine the relationship between servant leadership and school effectiveness included the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) test scores in writing, reading, mathematics, annual learning gains in mathematics, annual learning gains in reading, annual learning gains made by the lowest 25th percentile of students, attendance, dropout rates, and critical incidents. Additionally, contextual variables were examined to determine their relationship between servant leadership and school effectiveness. Contextual variables included principal tenure, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and school size. The primary means of data collection for this exploratory quantitative non-experimental study were obtained utilizing the Organizational Leadership Assessment (OLA) instrument developed by James Laub (1999). This study gathered data from 24 high schools (N = 24) in Broward County, Florida. Each school was provided with 46 servant leadership surveys for completion by the school principal, 5 assistant principals, 12 department chairpersons, and 28 instructional staff members. A total of 1,104 servant leadership surveys were distributed and 884 were returned resulting in an 80 percent aggregate return rate. The data were subjected to correctional analyses utilizing a .10 level of significance due to the exploratory nature of the study. The major find of this study was that positive relationships were found to exist between servant leadership and student achievement. The study also found a relationship of bipolarity between servant leadership and ethnicity. However, the study did not find any significant relationship between other contextual variables and servant leadership. In general, in schools where greater degrees of servant leadership are being practiced, students are achieving at a higher rate than in schools were lower degrees of servant leadership are being practiced. The findings lend support to the conclusion that principals who embed the characteristics of servant leadership throughout their organizations may expect high levels of student achievement, particularly in mathematics, reading, and annual learning gains.

This study explored how contextual factors influenced the effect of educational practices on student reading achievement and describes an alternative means of assessing educational programs under conditions of multiple-treatment interference and innovation diffusion. Over 1,500 reading teachers at 69 elementary schools within a large diverse district completed surveys regarding multiple aspects of the reading program, actions of their reading leaders, and instructional program coherence at their schools. Nearly 13,000 students in grades 2 through 5 were assigned to those teachers. Factor analyses were used to separately identify patterns within survey items that measured educational practices, leadership actions, and instructional program coherence. Then, the students' achievement gains were adjusted for the effects of fixed demographic and organizational variables through hierarchical linear modeling. Finally, classroom level relationships between the adjusted achievement gains, and subscales computed from the factors that were identified, were examined through a path analysis. Educational practices were found to align to six factors labeled Technology, Training Utility, Advanced Skills, Basic Skills, Grouping, and Assessment. Leadership actions were found to align to two factors labeled Relationship and Task. Fixed effects at the student, classroom, and school levels were found to have an impact on both the initial status and growth components of student achievement. In the path model, Task was found to have a significant direct effect on Advanced Skills, while the effect of Relationship on educational practices was partially mediated by Instructional Program Coherence. Both Advanced and Basic skills were found to have positive effects on Adjusted Gain when taught at the appropriate level, and negative effects, when taught at the inappropriate level.

The purpose of this study was to identify (1) the effectiveness of the Intel Essentials model of project-based learning based on student Florida Comprehensive Assessment test (FCAT) reading scores; (2) the differences in student engagement between students in classes with teachers trained in the Intel Essentials model of project-based learning and teachers not trained in the model as measured by the Beliefs about Classroom Structures Survey; (3) the level of implementation (high, average, or low) of teachers trained in the Intel Essentials model of project-based learning; and (4) any correlation between the level of implementation and the level of student engagement. A total of 32 teachers participated in the study. The teachers were split into 2 groups: the experimental group (N = 16) that participated in the Intel Essentials Training, and the control group (N = 16) that did not participate in the training. The results for this study were mixed. The students of the experimental group teachers (N = 780) had significantly higher (p < .05) FCAT scores than that of the control group students (N = 643). The control group with the exception of Motivating Tasks subscale had significantly higher levels of engagement. The correlation between level of implementation and student engagement produced a moderate negative correlation, meaning that the Intel trained teachers with the highest levels of implementation had the lowest levels of engagement.

The focus of this study is on evaluating the impact of a school counselor-led program, Ready for Success (RFS) on the academic achievement of second- and third grade students. The research question investigated in this study was: How do students in grades 2 and 3 who receive the RFS classroom intervention perform on the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) when compared to students in grades 2 and 3 who do not receive the RFS classroom intervention. This study is significant because it addresses the need for more outcome research tying school counselor led interventions to student achievement. Research based interventions for school counselors that improve academic achievement directly address the current focus on student achievement outcomes as well as the need for accountability of school counselors. The sample for this study included 240 participants, 107 in the treatment group and 133 in the comparison group. Students were selected from all second- and third-grade classes at four schools in South Florida. There were 66 participants in the second grade; 37 were male and 29 were female. There were 174 participants in the third grade; 92 were male and 82 were female. Academic achievement was measured using a standardized, objective, state-wide assessment instrument, the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI). The analysis used for this study was an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Pretest scores on the SRI were used in the study as covariates on the dependent variable to account for group differences at pretest. The statistical analysis shows that there was no significant difference between the comparison and treatment group reading achievement levels on the SRI. Upon further review of the research a significant, confounding variable was discovered. High concentration of non-ESOL students were in the comparison group as compared to the treatment group.