Research indicates that teacher performance is a critical focus for school districts, administrators, and teachers. Pre-service teacher preparation, teacher retention, job satisfaction, mentoring, continuous feedback, and onboarding support for new teachers are all factors that influence teacher performance (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond,…

The purpose of this process evaluation was to evaluate how classroom teachers, campus administrators, and instructional staff differ in their perception of data usage for educational improvement in a large suburban Independent School District (ISD) in Southeast Texas. The researcher was granted permission by the superintendent of the school…

Despite the perspectives of music educators in classroom evaluation processes, the perspectives of Texas administrators using the newest teacher evaluation process, the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS), have yet to be examined. The administrators' perspectives matter because the complexity of the T-TESS process coupled with the…

This research project explores how awareness and participation in Christian spiritual disciplines increased among adults involved in Sunday school revitalization at Temple Baptist Church in Gainesville, Texas. The first two chapters include a biblical and theological basis for the spiritual disciplines and a brief historical sketch of Christian…

One of the greatest challenges for schools is to identify effective and ineffective teachers in a classroom. Teacher evaluation is an expensive process in both time and resources. It is important that evaluations provide data to improve teaching and learning. Therefore, each evaluation needs to communicate opportunities for growth. This…

Teacher quality is among the most significant indicators of student achievement. Policymakers have implemented teacher evaluation reform as the primary strategy for improving teacher quality and increasing student outcomes. In Texas, the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) is the evaluation system endorsed by the state and is…

This qualitative case study explored the use of Readers Theater through the experiences of emergent bilingual students in a first-grade bilingual classroom. Readers Theater is a strategy that has produced great results in helping the development of literacy in reading fluency, motivation, and comprehension. The research regarding the use of…

Perceived self-efficacy is an important aspect that educational leaders must possess to be successful in the public-school setting. Constant changes in legislation require principals to have high levels of self-efficacy to perform their duties as administrators. Principal preparedness programs have failed to completely prepare candidates to be…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine teacher perceptions of the evaluation process including informal walkthroughs and administrator feedback in South Texas rural schools to determine whether teachers felt that there was a connection to teacher effectiveness and student achievement. The findings of this study may assist…

With the establishment of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, communities have depended on Extension Agents to address relevant needs. Extension Agents have used different approaches such as the Texas Community Futures Forum to obtain information on issues affecting people. The problem was that Texas Community Futures Forums have never…

The purpose of this case study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of fairness under the new Texas teacher evaluation system (T-TESS). Using the theoretical framework of procedural justice, the qualitative study measured the teachers' perceptions of fairness utilizing Leventhal's six rules (1976) of representativeness, bias suppression,…

The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the Algebra I and Algebra II mathematics course curriculum documents at a local high school to determine alignment to the mathematics section of the Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) and to identify content necessary for students to demonstrate college readiness in mathematics…

Districts spend thousands of dollars on computerized teacher screeners without knowing if they are identifying the most effective teacher. Hiring quality staff is one of the most important job functions of a principal, and many times a teacher screener score may eliminate an effective teacher. The current study examined the value of teacher…

The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and understand the impact of standardized testing on educational practice in an urban, Title I school community, and to determine solutions to improve the utility of standardized testing in supporting student learning and achievement. The specific areas of focus are diagnosing…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) reading Rasch unIT (RIT) score and State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) reading achievement among English learners in Grades 8 and 9. The study also…