This basic qualitative study aimed to understand how the results of the kindergarten readiness assessments are used within the classroom for planning curriculum, connecting to learning standards, and implementing individualized instruction, along with kindergarten teachers' perspectives on the usefulness of kindergarten readiness testing. The…

Online learning at Pennsylvania community colleges increases access to education throughout the commonwealth and delivers programs of local interest to students globally. The academic technology leaders at these institutions find ways to promote and support quality online learning courses and programs, often with few or no additional staff,…

The manner and method used to evaluate teachers has evolved over time. The methods employed often reflect the historical events and politics regarding education. Effective teachers versus a poor performing teacher can have implications on students' lifetime earnings (Hanushek, 2011). In the 2013-2014 academic year, Pennsylvania adopted the Teacher…

Over the last several decades, significant pressures resulting from financial challenges, declining undergraduate enrollments, changing demographics and now the COVID-19 pandemic, have caused college and university leaders to consider interinstitutional merger for both economic and strategic purposes. However, both knowledge and methodological…

The purpose of this inquiry was to conduct a formative evaluation of a rural Pennsylvania school district's dispositional hiring practices. The review of literature includes disposition evaluation methods and summarizes the controversial nature of evaluating dispositions. Interviews of administrators who ask dispositional questions, and newly…

In Pennsylvania, Act 82 of 2012 introduced the Educator Effectiveness system and its foundational belief that student achievement is the result of teachers' high quality instruction and principals' high quality school leadership. With the heightened expectations of principal and teacher accountability for student achievement, principals positively…

With the passing of Act 82, the state of Pennsylvania has provided school districts with Danielson's Framework as a tool for principals to evaluate teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived professional development needs of Pennsylvania principals as they implemented the new educator effectiveness system. Three hundred…

Many states are in the process of adopting rigorous, standards-based teacher evaluation systems in order to address and increase teacher accountability for student achievement. In the newly adopted Educator Effectiveness evaluation system, Pennsylvania classroom teachers were evaluated through one of two evaluation protocols, both aligned to…

The No Child Left Behind Act mandated the development of statewide alternate assessments to measure the academic achievement of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. The valid assessment of all test takers is critical due to its high-stakes nature and the use of its results to inform instruction. Given the heterogeneity of the…

Clinical education provides the nursing student opportunities to learn the practice of nursing. In the clinical setting, the nursing student applies classroom knowledge to the real patient care situation. The clinical instructor facilitates this important process by assisting students to integrate knowledge into their practice, improve their…

This quasi-experimental quantitative study examines whether six general inclusion classrooms teachers treated students receiving IDEA services in the same manner as they treated general, non-IDEA students through an analysis of teacher-student interactions of praise and desisting. The study took place in six separate self-contained classrooms that…

This dissertation investigates the prevailing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate as an effective platform to improve schools. The data compiled for use in this study represented 426 high schools in Pennsylvania and were retrieved from publicly accessible, state-sponsored sources. The statistical methodologies from the Pennsylvania Value-Added…

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not Western Pennsylvania public school districts have changed their teacher evaluation forms since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Thirty-eight superintendents from the Tri-State Area School Study Council and the Forum for Western Pennsylvania School Superintendents…

The intent of this study was to identify and examine the policies and practices of Pennsylvania School Boards, and identify what relationship these might have to patterns of district-level student performance. This study utilized a sequential mixed-methods approach in collecting data. First, quantitative data were secured using surveys sent to a…

The purpose of this study is to identify the self-reported research-based instructional and assessment practices used by third through fifth grade teachers among rural school environments in Western Pennsylvania which have attained Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) pursuant to statewide assessments. Specifically, this study examines the…