In 2012, New Jersey implemented a broad change to the teacher evaluation system with the Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act which identified the Marzano Causal Teacher evaluation system as one of the prescribe models for districts to adopt. This system provides a more differentiated teacher…

Interest in one-to-one (1:1) device programs, where schools provide each student with their own computing device, has increased across the United States. The problem this study addressed was whether primary teachers' perceived usefulness, ease of use, organizational support, and technical support of a 1:1 device program is related to their…

This dissertation investigated the extent to which five dependent variables were included in the first-grade reading curriculum and whether district size played a role in their inclusion. This study's mixed-methods approach incorporated descriptive statistics, histograms, confidence intervals, and chi-squared analyses to assess curriculum patterns…

The purpose of this archival quantitative research study was to investigate the effects of relative age and eligibility for special education through third grade. This study further examined relative age as it related to gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and multilingual learner status on eligibility for special education under the…

Schools in urban neighborhoods receive less funding, have less programming, and have poorer infrastructure. Such disparities may impede academic outcomes among youth. This study used publicly available data to examine the association between school characteristics and surrounding neighborhood environment on educational outcomes across three…

Leveraging publicly available data about schools" absenteeism from the New Jersey Department of Education, the present study examined how neighborhood-level resource deprivation and violent crime related to chronic absenteeism in Passaic County's elementary, middle, and high schools. Results highlighted geographic disparities in Passaic…

The focus of this study was to examine how well Educational Leadership programs prepare principals to serve as literacy leaders. The role of a school leader is complex and multifaceted involving managerial duties and resource allocation (Jenkins, 2009). Yet, the primary role of the school leader is "…to promote the learning and success for…

The purpose of this correlational, explanatory, cross-sectional quantitative research was to determine whether teacher absenteeism and student achievement are related in rural schools. This correlational study examines the predictor variable of teacher absenteeism on academic outcomes and also is inclusive of control variables teacher mobility,…

Decades after the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" unanimous decision to desegregate schools, the ideology of Black people having equal educational opportunities has not been realized; Black people continue to lag in educational attainment. However, the inequalities in life experiences between Black and White people limit the…

As the achievement gap widens, it is even more critical than ever to examine factors that may influence the closing of that chasm. Principal leadership is one such component that needs further study. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine which leadership styles principals employ in traditional public schools in the State of New…

Student engagement refers to the behaviors that suggest whether a student is interested in the learning process. Finn (1989) developed the participation-identification model to explain the correlation between student engagement and identification with school, suggesting that increased participation leads to an increased sense of belongingness in…

Beginning teacher resilience has become a topic of international interest, as all school districts are invested in retaining talented teachers. This study builds on extant literature on the role of mentors by examining the influence of mentoring on beginning teachers' perceptions of acceptance not only in the school but in the larger community…

The present study investigated the concurrent validity of the Classroom Strategies Scale-Teacher Form (CSS-T), a multidimensional teacher formative assessment of instructional and behavioral management practices. The CSS-T is compared with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), a well-known teacher assessment of overall classroom…

This study presents the reliability and validity of the Teacher Evaluation Experience Scale--Teacher Form (TEES-T), a multidimensional measure of educators' attitudes and beliefs about teacher evaluation. Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 583 teachers were conducted on the TEES-T hypothesized five-factor model, as well as on alternative…

The present study is an initial investigation of the concurrent validity of a new assessment, the Classroom Strategies Scale (CSS version 2.0) for Elementary School--Observer Form. The CSS assesses teachers' use of instructional and behavioral management strategies. In the present study, the CSS is compared to the Classroom Assessment Scoring…