An essential part of novice teachers' development of pedagogical and classroom management skills in a district is a supportive induction and mentoring program (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). Novice teachers can combat the challenges that directly contribute to dissatisfaction with the teaching profession, attrition rates, and an overall teacher…

Since 1985, when Texas passed the first dyslexia law, there has been a profusion of dyslexia legislation across the country, with a rapid increase in recent years. Including Texas, which has multiple laws, 42 states have passed dyslexia legislation focused on identification, intervention, accommodations, funding, and/or dyslexia specialists. Seven…

Mathematics teacher quality has become a major focus in national education reform efforts. In addition, there is an increasing interest in the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and the undergraduate preparation of elementary mathematics teachers. Empirical evidence suggests that teacher attitudes, behaviors and values, or dispositions,…

Profile analyses were used to investigate differences in the self-efficacy growth of teachers with more and less mathematics background as the teachers participated in professional development across two summers. Professional development activities were associated with increases in teachers' self-efficacy; however, without considering mathematics…

State and federal accountability continues to be a major part of public education. The impact that federal legislation has had when working with special needs students adds another facet to public education. Both state and federal accountability play a part in how teachers perceive their attitudes when working with students with disabilities This…

Equipping teachers to use data is a critical piece of the school improvement puzzle. To help early career teachers (ECT) develop data-use acumen, some districts utilize mentoring supports. While research on mentoring in general is well-developed, research on how mentoring can or does support data-informed practice is not. To address this gap, we…

With the realities of standards-based accountability, it is imperative to model and demonstrate for students how subject areas and teaching methods transcend across traditional boundaries. In an effort to prepare future social studies educators to teach for global awareness and to meaningfully integrate critical literacy skills into their…

The change in academic achievement at B. F. Terry High School in Rosenberg, Texas, over the last four years is proudly displayed on the outside of the building with the sign that proclaims it a Texas School of Distinction, but it's the change in attitude inside of the school that's most striking. A growing majority of the school's students live in…

The "Student Evaluation of Instruction" (SEOI) was administered to all full-time and part-time faculty. Approximately 123,461 surveys were sent out in 5,516 envelopes; 86,998 surveys were returned to the Office of Institutional Research. The return rate for the SEOI packet envelopes was 97.0%. The instructors' reports were provided to…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to evaluate the efficacy of 14 Mathematics, Science and Technology Teacher Preparation (MSTTP) academies located across the state of Texas. The aim of the academies was to increase the number of highly qualified mathematics, science and technology teachers, while also improving the quality of certified…

The Texas statewide assessment of academic skills in 1997 indicated that >55 % of the student population failed to master the mathematics objectives set by the test criteria and 42 % of the mathematics teachers at the secondary level in the East Texas region were categorized as underqualified to teach mathematics at that level. The issue of…

There is a growing movement in the early childhood advocacy community to address the dual problems of quality and compensation by turning to a credential with a much different track record: the bachelor's degree. The B.A. is already the foundational degree for K-12 educators, after all, and people who have bachelor's degrees earn much more than…

The "Student Evaluation of Instruction" (SEOI) was administered to all full-time and part-time faculty. Approximately 105,475 surveys were sent out in 5,489 envelopes; 66,790 surveys were returned to the Office of Institutional Research. The return rate for the SEOI packet envelopes was 81.0%. The instructors' reports were provided to…

The Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEOI) was administered to all full-time and part-time faculty. Approximately 105,192 surveys were sent out in (5,726) envelopes; 77,886 surveys were returned to the Office of Institutional Research. The return rate for the SEOI packet envelopes was 96%. The response rate for the survey was 74%. The…

This study surveyed 103 professional K-12 educators representing rural and urban independent school districts in north central Texas concerning educational technology perceptions and its use in their classrooms. Descriptive statistics were utilized to describe participants' responses to survey items. A chi-squared cross tabulation (3X3) table was…