Performance-based funding policies for postsecondary institutions have been enacted throughout the United States as an answer to reductions in public funding and increased accountability mandates. Institutional effectiveness, as demonstrated through metrics such as graduation and retention rates, dictates the level of funding received. Educational…

At Community Leadership High School, a pseudonym, graduation rates have consistently ranged between 95% and 100%. However, 35% to 40% of graduates, who come from low income families of color, lack the college and career readiness skills required to succeed after high school. The aim of this improvement science study was to increase the percentage…

This action research dissertation explores the role of coaching in fostering people's development within the administrative services of a small research-intensive public university. The study explores how coaching influences employee attitudes, self-efficacy, personal and professional growth, productivity, and overall organizational effectiveness.…

Teacher professional learning and development are critical to educational improvement efforts and teacher professional growth. Such learning and development can be facilitated in a range of ways, including more traditional 'workshop style' training programmes as well as coaching, mentoring, advisory support, teacher inquiry, and other activities…

This essay urges the field of applied theatre to extend its critical focus to examine how whiteness differentially shapes our institutional homes, scholarship, and creative practice. Drawing from Sara Ahmed's (2012) notion of 'institutional life', the essay takes readers into my academic home at the University of Missouri, a predominantly white…

This study examined the effect of time of day on immediate recall of motor skills (i.e., tactical behaviors in basketball) from different external visualizations. First-year students from a public university in sports science (novice practitioners, 18.96 ± 0.57 years) were quasi-randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: video modeling by…

Education leaders must identify valid metrics to predict student long-term success. We exploit a unique dataset containing data on cognitive skills, self-regulation, behavior, course performance, and test scores for 8th-grade students. We link these data to data on students' high school outcomes, college enrollment, persistence, and on-time degree…

Many instructors use a syllabus quiz to ensure that students learn and understand the content of the syllabus. In this project, I move beyond this exercise's primary function and examine students' syllabus quiz scores to see if they can predict how well students perform in the course overall. Using data from 495 students enrolled in 18 sections of…

High teacher turnover disrupts instruction continuity, hinders student learning experiences, and leads to financial and logistical burdens on schools and districts. The problem is teacher retention is a complex, critical issue affecting the education sector's stability and quality. A gap in the existing literature reveals the need for a focused…

Most student performance metrics are based on quantitative assessment from traditional test and examination scores. However, there is an apparent scarcity of exploratory qualitative studies to examine the characterization of traits, attitudes, and behaviors that may influence students' performance outcomes. Moreso because such characterization…

This dissertation in practice investigated and addressed the issue of low faculty engagement with instructional design support (IDS) office support services at a regional comprehensive university in the United States. The Performance Improvement/Human Performance Technology (PI/HPT) model used in this study is a practitioner-based performance…

This dissertation presents a qualitative case study investigating the influence of cognitive coaching on elementary international teachers within a southeastern school district. Guided by four research questions, the study delved into the experiences and perceptions of international teachers participating in cognitive coaching sessions, aiming to…

Peer coaching is a formal program whereby successful students support their peers in attaining academic and social goals. Survey results unveiled that 90 percent of coachees felt peer coaches enhanced learning, and 100 percent felt peer coaches engendered a sense of community and belonging. More than 85 percent of coachees planned to persist in…

The standards-based learning and grading movement of the past twenty years has ushered in a critical shift in assessment that demands clarity in both what is being measured and how well students are learning. Seeing the value in this evolution, a wave of schools has invested enormous effort to institutionalize the policy and practices of the…

Secondary ELA teachers use a variety of methods to engage, motivate, and teach their students literacy. Some methods include an emphasis on arts integration. One method of arts integration that has not been studied often in high school is the use of drama-based pedagogies (DBP). DBP are an innovative avenue to improving meaning-making and other…