Browsing by Subject "School"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Classrooms without borders: the characteristics of international secondary schools that offer online courses.
    (2009-07) Fischer, David Allen
    The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of international schools that offer online courses. Secondary school principals of international schools were surveyed using a newly constructed survey instrument. Eighty three secondary school principals responded to the survey for a response rate of 61%. The principals that responded were from a random sample of international schools as well as a purposeful sample of international schools that offer online courses through the Virtual High School. The results showed that 16 of the schools, from the random sample of 60 international schools, were offering online courses. These courses were largely being offered by external course providers that are accredited and based in the United States. The main reason these schools gave for offering online courses were to offer course not otherwise available at their school and the most common type of courses they offered were elective courses. Finding from this study also showed that there was a relationship between institutional factors of international school and whether they offered online course. The strongest associations were the size of the school, interest coming from the school community, knowledge of the online course options available, and the ease of recruiting highly qualified teachers. One conclusion that could be drawn from this research is that the number of international schools that offer online courses is quite low when compared to schools in the United States. There could be many reasons for this, one of which is that many of the administrators at these international schools are not fully aware of the online course options that are available to them. It is hoped that this dissertation might better inform the leadership of these schools about the advantages of offering online courses and how these courses might benefit their students.
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    Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Educational Leaders' Reflections on Equity Behaviors in Predominantly White Schools
    (2022-04) Krebs, Joshua
    The purpose of this study was to explore school leaders’ perceptions regarding behaviors need to lead change for equity in predominantly White suburban schools. The study was carried out by interviewing 14 school leaders in predominantly White suburban schools with public statements in support of equity. The semi-structured interviews were created using the framework of Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) behaviors identified by Khalifa, Gooden, and Davis (2016) in their synthesis of the literature. Five themes emerged: (1) Communities Divided, (2) Inappropriate and Ineffective use of Data & Feedback, (3) Structural Barriers to Equity, (4) Staff Resistance, and (5) Whiteness Protecting the Status Quo. The author recommends that school leaders focus on three areas to lead toward a more equitable learning environment: (1) Improving community relations by embracing their role as a public intellectual (Khalifa, 2018), countering false narratives, information sharing, and understanding Whiteness, (2) Using data, community feedback, and student voice more effectively by investing in training, countering deficit ideologies with a focus on cultural strengths, taking direction on needed change from historically marginalized groups, equity audits, and tracking racial harm, and (3) Creating more inclusive policies and practices through professional development that is consistent and comprehensive, proactive messaging, CRSL teams for collaborative walkthroughs, and moving away from traditional grading practices to minimize or eliminate subjectivity.
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    Designing a Model Food Systems Graduate Degree Program
    (2022-07) Dryke, Jessica
    We live in a Global Society where our business and cultures are connected across communities, countries, sectors, and disciplines. That means problems are more complex than can be addressed with a single tiered approach. In a society where communities are interconnected and interdependent across local and global markets, problems do not have simple solutions and fall under the category of wicked problems. These problems require evolving multidisciplinary collaboration across sectors, disciplines, and cultures to find solutions through continual adaptation to changes in society. Issues like food waste, food insecurity, sustainability and climate change are wicked problems that need multi-pronged approaches that appreciate multi-disciplinary problems. Since wicked problems occur on a systems scale, understanding the functionality of systems is imperative. Right now, there are few professionals trained in systems that can tackle these wicked problems within our food system. A shift in higher education over the years towards specialization, linear thinking, and reductionist approaches has not only contributed the shift away from systems understanding but has also contributed to a skills shortage gap in employees entering the workforce. The shortage includes skills such as communication, building collaborative relationships, systems thinking, problem solving, interdisciplinary work, and facilitation. This thesis is based on Participatory Action Research that combines action, practice, theory, and reflection to identify problems and potential solutions within the University of Minnesota graduate system. An anthropological approach used observations, qualitative data collection, and conversations with people of differing views to understand the issues within the current academic system from the perspective of fellow students, administrators, faculty, staff, alumni, and other professionals outside the university system. This methodology and write-up further recognize and support the value of the human influence on research design and interpretation while utilizing the first-person experience. This project highlights the need for training of food systems students and young professionals to support the relevancy and impact of the nutrition discipline, in recognition of the absence of nutrition and food science in food system discussions and activities, while advocating for multidisciplinary training through the creation of a model Food Systems Graduate degree program. This complementary approach allows reductionist thinking to confluence with systems thinking to promote more wholistic training for graduate students. This Graduate degree program further supports flexibility to promote self-efficacy and interest for students, cohort-based experiential learning, and expanded levels of mentorship beyond faculty-student interaction through alumni involvement. The all-encompassing contribution of human influence, different sectors, disciplines, culture, socio-economic, and political perspectives are essential to an inclusive, holistic, and comprehensive education program, based on systems approaches. The Twin Cities is rich in food-related resources to support this Food Systems Graduate degree program. The University of Minnesota has a unique opportunity to tackle the skills shortage gap along with the decline in student motivation, given the breadth, depth, and scope of the food system to gain student interest. To achieve this goal nutrition needs to be reinserted into the food system through dialogue and action by coherently connecting all three intellectual traditions of nutrition (Biological, behavioral, ecological) based on our food system, through situational analysis and design. The all-encompassing contribution of human influence, different sectors, disciplines, culture, socio-economic, and political perspectives are essential to an inclusive, holistic, and comprehensive education program, based on systems approaches.
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    An Evaluation of the Effects of School Policies on Child and Adolescent Health and Health-Related Behavior
    (2020-03) Berger, Aaron
    School policies can potentially impact healthy youth development trajectories. This dissertation focused on evaluating two specific types of policies: 1) School district mandated start times for high schools, and 2) School food service policies that are mandated at the federal level. The first two manuscripts examine changes in health or health-related behaviors following a delay in high school start times. A cohort of students at five Minnesota high schools was followed over three years. All schools started at either 7:30am or 7:45am at the Baseline wave of data collection, when the students were in 9th grade. Beginning the year of 10th grade, and continuing through 11th grade, two of the schools delayed their start times by 50 and 65 minutes. In the first manuscript, I assessed if the delay in school start time that was implemented in two schools was associated with changes in adolescent depressed mood. Delaying school start time was not associated with changes in depressed mood score, high risk of depression, or incident high risk of depression, over two years of follow-up. The second manuscript assessed if school start time shifts affected physical activity levels, electronic screen time, or participation in organized sports or extracurricular activities. Later school start times were not associated with changes in any of these outcomes. The final manuscript evaluated whether a national school meal policy, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA), affected children's dietary quality. I used a short dietary panel study to evaluate whether participation in school meals, or the dietary effects of school meals, changed during implementation of the HHFKA. I found that children reported the same percent of calories from school meals during HHFKA implementation, compared to the years before its passage. I found that the dietary benefits from school food increased substantially, compared to before HHFKA passage. Implementation of the HHFKA measurably improved average dietary quality of all US children. Understanding the effects of childhood programs and policies is important for setting children on a healthy life trajectory. The universal, compulsory nature of schools makes them a promising setting for a population approach to health promotion.
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    How schools can effectively plan to meet the goal of improving student learning.
    (2010-02) Grumdahl, Constance Rae
    Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify the impact on achievement when schools implement a continuous improvement model using Total Quality Management (TQM) principles aligned to strategic planning and the culture of the school. Data collection and analysis: The study combined qualitative and quantitative methods and was conducted in two phases. Three elementary schools within a suburban school district were the units of analysis in this case study. The district was chosen because of the stable commitment to training in TQM and because the researcher had access to data about the district, the schools and the initiative. The sampling intentionally selected schools representing varying levels of socioeconomic and cultural diversity. Phase I involved the administration of the University of Minnesota School Culture Survey. The questionnaire addressed the implementation of TQM principles and was administered to a total of 65 teachers in three schools. The surveys were analyzed for descriptive data. Commonalities and differences from the survey were used to develop the interview questions. Phase II involved fifteen teachers and three administrators from the three schools, drawing on the survey results and probing into the day to day experience of teachers and administrators facing the initiatives of school improvement planning. The principals of these schools were interviewed again at the conclusion of the study to update the sustainability of the continuous improvement efforts. The superintendent was also interviewed at this time to give a district perspective on student achievement over time. Findings: First, TQM principles have successfully been implemented in all three schools with an emphasis on a systems approach to increase student learning. Second, principals have a critical role in holding and sharing the vision, implementing shared leadership, providing professional development and utilizing data to drive instructional decisions. Third, with the implementation of quality tools, all schools demonstrated improvement. Higher levels of achievement were attained in schools with consistent enrollment and minimal demographic changes. Fourth, the combination of TQM principles, strategic planning and supportive school culture positively impact the achievement gap. The findings of this study are useful to teachers and administrators whose main goal is improving student learning.
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    The Impact of the Four-day School Week on Travel among Households with Children in Minnesota
    (University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality, 2012) Mykerezi, Elton; Nash, Arthur
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    Minnesota Youth Poll: Youth's Views on School and School Discipline
    (Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, 1983) University of Minnesota. Agricultural Experiment Station
    In this issue of the Minnesota Youth Poll, teenagers around the state discuss their opinions and experiences with school. Our goal is to provide an in-depth look, from the adolescent's point of view, at an institution which has a pervasive and profound effect on their day-to-day lives and their futures. A wide range of school issues are explored, and these include the goals of and purposes of education, overall quality of their schools, studentteacher relationships, compulsory education, discipline and order, and school rules. This study was prompted by several factors. First, the purposes of the Minnesota Youth Poll are: (1) to give Minnesota teenagers a voice to express their concerns to adults who provide services and make decisions affecting their lives, and (2) to expand factual and theoretical understanding of youth by learning how they perceive and understand issues significant to them. The school-its climate, program, and purpose-is clearly such an issue. Second, the public debate on the quality and purpose of secondary schools is primarily a debate between and among adults. Public schools are one of the few human service organizations in which consumer participation is not encouraged. The involvement of the "consumers" of education-the students-in assessment of and policy making in schools has been sporadic, and in the past decade, has declined significantly. Yet it is hard to imagine how thoughtful and worthwhile reform can take place without the input of students. It is our hope that this Youth Poll can have a role in bringing young people into the policy discussions about the future of the secondary school. Third, in previous Youth Polls such as Friendship, and Delinquency, teenage respondents have demonstrated that they have complex and sophisticated knowledge about issues which are part of their everyday lives. Indeed, on topics of high saliency to them, teenagers are thoughtful theorists and philosophers, whose ideas can provide valuable insight to those who seek to better understand and work with adolescents. By the nature of their involvement and the length of their tenure, teenagers are "experts" on schools. We would anticipate that this expertise may lead to new insights into how to better understand and organize schooling for adolescents. This poll is divided into two parts-the first covers purpose and climate of schools, and the second focuses on discipline and school rules. Appendix A contains the specific questions on each of these topics.
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    A study of external school evaluators' competencies for grade levels 1-12 quality assessment in Thailand
    (2015-01) Roengsumran, Arisara
    Competent school evaluators may be able to identify the causes of underachieving schools and provide data that will help school practitioners to improve teaching and learning. In Thailand, a sizeable portion of the government budget has been spent on educational evaluation under the responsibility of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA), highlighting the important role that school evaluators can potentially play in improving Thai schools. This study updated two sets of competencies for external educational evaluators of school quality at grade levels 1-12 in the Thai educational context as originally developed by Guah (2004) and Piyamas (2005). To conduct this update, the researcher used knowledge from the scholarly literature on evaluator competencies and, through four extensive surveys, collected opinions and suggestions from Thai evaluation and education experts as part of the process of developing a new set of competencies for Thai external school evaluators. The Combination Job Analysis Method (C-JAM) was used as a framework to collect and analyze data. Two sets of competencies, one for training and one for selecting evaluators, are proposed along with recommendations for practice and for additional research.
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    Teacher perceptions of the influence of principal instructional leadership on school culture: a case study of the American Embassy School in New Delhi, India.
    (2009-04) DuPont, Jonathan Payne
    The purpose of this case study is to examine the influence of principal instructional leadership on school culture in the American Embassy School (AES) in New Delhi, India. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, this case study addresses three key research questions. Two existing survey instruments, the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale developed by Philip Hallinger (1987) and the School Culture Survey developed by Steven Gruenert (1998), were both used as part of one electronic survey of teachers at AES. The response rate was a high 86% with a total of 132 teachers responding. Both scales proved to be highly reliable in this international context with a coefficient alpha of .97 for the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale and .93 for the School Culture Survey. In addition, study methods included interviews, focus groups, and a document analysis to ensure triangulation. Data were from three divisions: the elementary school, the middle school, and the high school to analyze the research questions. Among major results were the following: the elementary school has strong principal instructional leadership while the high school has weak principal instructional leadership. Results for the middle school were mixed. Teachers in the elementary school viewed their school as having a positive and collaborative school culture while the middle school teachers had mixed views and the high school teachers had the least positive views of their school culture. Numerous and strong relationships were found between many instructional leadership factors and school culture factors suggesting the importance of principals using an instructional leadership approach. As instructional leaders, principals can create a positive and collaborative school culture. By helping teachers collaborate, instilling collective leadership, and communicating a shared vision, principals can contribute to developing a positive and collaborative school culture. Another finding is that forging strong personal relationships with teachers contributes importantly to school culture. This dissertation may inform thinking about how principal instructional leadership can contribute to improving student learning indirectly through a positive and collaborative school culture.
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    "To know the system and know the culture is difficult" Understanding the cultural adjustment process of teachers from China working in U.S. K-12 schools
    (2013-05) Hanson, Emily Claire
    This qualitative case study investigates the cross-cultural adaptation that teachers from China and Taiwan encounter during careers as Chinese language teachers in K-12 schools in the United States. The theoretical framework draws on Hall's (1959) integrated theory of culture and Hofstede's (2010) cultural dimensions theory to frame a review of existing literature about the growth of Chinese language instruction in the U.S. and the ways in which teachers from China and Taiwan adapt to U.S. school culture. This research highlights the extent to which cultural difference plays a role in how teachers from China and Taiwan understand and interpret U.S. K-12 school communities. Findings indicate that there are significant cultural differences between the K-12 school cultures in China, Taiwan and the U.S. The study provides recommendations of measures that can help teachers understand and adapt to U.S. K-12 school culture and become highly qualified teachers of Chinese language and culture.