Educators play a crucial role in student skill development; hence this dissertation explores incentive-driven public policies and understands the effect that educators have on students. The first chapter estimates relative contributions of the subjective (supervisor observations and student surveys) versus objective (value-added) evaluation…

In recent years, the number of English learners (ELs) in U.S. public schools has rapidly grown, with Hispanic children accounting for more than half of Texas public school students, including pre-kindergarten and early childhood education. ELs continue to demonstrate lower reading achievement in comparison to their native English-speaking peers.…

Intra-district choice policy is a mechanism that provides parents the opportunity to apply to send their children to a portfolio of schools within a traditional school district in which the family resides by allowing students to transfer out of their assigned campus based on attendance zone. The impact of such policy has not been examined in the…

The relationship between quantity of instructor to student interactions in online, asynchronous, course-specific courses at the community college level is under-researched. This quantitative, correlational study examined the relationship between the weekly number of instructor-generated posts and two course outcomes within fully online history…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether English as a Second Language (ESL) Hispanic students, attendance at Title I or Non-Title I schools, and percentage of Bilingual/ESL teachers on campus impacted academic performance as measured by standardized tests. With a rapidly expanding Hispanic population in Texas, it was prudent…

Given the prominence of the transformational theory of action in major urban educational reform efforts, this study intends to describe and analyze the initial and sustaining leadership actions taken by the superintendent and his leadership team, the board of trustees and the "Dallas Achieves!" Commission in the development of the…

This purpose of the present study was to estimate minimum admission requirements using cognitive measures that will maximize candidate success on the doctoral comprehensive examination. Moreover, the present study established minimum scores on the Graduate Record Examinations (verbal and quantitative components) that will maximize doctoral student…

The purpose of this study was to examine and identify the relationship between preservice teachers' level of technology integration self-efficacy (TISE) and their level of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Survey responses were solicited from 197 preservice teachers who are Interdisciplinary Studies Majors in the Quality Urban…