Value-added metrics or models (VAMs) are an important component of the teacher evaluation process that evaluators use to determine the value teachers add to their students' academic achievement. VAMs are used to arrive at a score that is derived from the number of the teachers' students who pass and/or fail a standardized assessment. While prior…

Perceptions of urban teachers regarding school-wide application of positive behavioral interventions and support (SW-PBIS) led to this exploratory qualitative case study of Indiana urban high school teachers' perspectives on the successful development of teacher buy-in regarding SW-PBIS. Data collection consisted of semistructured interviews with…

Teachers do not have adequate training or support to effectively address challenging behaviors exhibited by students. The purpose of this study was to obtain insight into the benefits and challenges of a collaborative relationship between a behavior analyst and educators. The framework for this study is applied behavior analysis and its three-term…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to explore the frequency of uncivil behaviors amongst teachers. The research seeks to determine leadership support and job satisfaction levels in order to relate their relationship to turnover. Fulfillment of teachers' basic psychological needs is essential for optimal performance and growth. The 2018…

This study investigates the learning of linguistic structures associated with African American English (AAE) among four non-AAE-speaking teachers of AAE-speaking students. It considers implicit and explicit learning/development of a second dialect in two novel ways. First, it focuses on the understanding of a socially-stigmatized dialect by…

Background: Teacher quality plays a key role in student learning outcomes. Yet, data suggest that elite college graduates who enter teaching are less likely to stay in schools serving low income and minority students compared to other teachers. Thus, many educators and policy makers agree that in order to equalize the playing field, recruitment,…

The purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of the dialectical journal as a tool for teaching critical thinking skills, and to assess middle school teachers' perception of critical thinking. Two groups of middle school students were split into one control and one experimental group. Both groups took a critical thinking test…

This study examined implicit and explicit attitudes of teachers toward the Emotional Disturbance (ED) label, the strength of association between implicit and explicit ratings, and the variance in attitudes between different types of teachers or among teachers in different settings. Ninety-eight teachers (52 regular education and 46 special…

This paper reports on a survey of Indiana public secondary educator perceptions of student discipline problems. An extensive list of specific student misbehaviors are rated by respondents answering the following four questions. Which misbehaviors are problems in the area of discipline? How often does each occur? How serious would it be when, or…

A companion piece of volume 1, this section of the feasibility study consists entirely of eight appendixes. Appendix A describes the objectives of the study and how they were operationalized. Appendix B consists of the information kit used to inform community members about the education voucher program and includes clippings of newspaper articles…

This study is concerned with the effectiveness of teacher aides in the eight Indianapolis Model Cities Schools as perceived by themselves and others. These paraprofessional personnel were hired for two basic purposes: (1) to provide additional help to teachers and children in the classroom, and (2) to provide career opportunities for a limited…