Differences by certification status on urban teachers' persistence and principals' perceptions of teachers' performance

McWhorter, Hayden D University of Houston 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

With growing school-age populations, rising teacher attrition rates, and reductions in class sizes, school districts in Texas, as well as most other states, often employ teachers from various certification routes to fill classroom vacancies. Whereas university graduates once provided the majority of new teachers, alternative and post baccalaureate programs now produce over one-half of the teaching profession's new hires each year. These programs are frequently considered means to rapidly certify teachers who would have not otherwise joined the profession. The quality of teaching professional produced from alternative certification routes, though, has been a source of inquiry for researchers. Published studies considering the impact of these teachers on teaching quality, student achievement, and teacher retention are varied in their findings. This study examines principals' ratings on the eight domains of the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS) by teachers' status of certification. In addition, certification status and PDAS ratings are analyzed to determine their impact on teacher persistence in the district. Principals' ratings on the appraisal instrument reflect the level of teacher proficiency in the classroom setting as well as other professional attributes. With limited financial resources, districts must weigh the investment of hiring a new teacher in terms of the quality of instruction and student academic gains. Since the district relies on alternative means to fill teaching vacancies, sources of quality teachers are also evaluated for teaching effectiveness and skill. In the study, summative PDAS results from approximately two hundred teachers new to a major metropolitan area district in Southeast Texas were analyzed to determine differences in principals' ratings based on teacher certification. The participants held one of the following certifications: Alternative certification, experienced traditional certification, new traditional certification, other state certification, or deficiency plan. The teachers in the study were initially employed in the district for the 2001-2002 school year and allocated an academic instructional position. Differences in principals' PDAS ratings were analyzed according to grade level taught, school demographics, and school rating. In addition, differences in teacher persistence in the district were examined based on teacher characteristics, school demographics and school rating. The results of the study indicate that teachers who are certified in states other than Texas are rated significantly higher than alternative certified, deficiency plan, and newly certified teachers in Texas on the Domains I---Student Engagement, III Evaluation and Feedback, IV Classroom Management, V---Professional Communication, and VII---Policy Compliance. There are no differences in other state certified teachers and Texas experienced teachers on Domains I-VII. Other state certified teachers, however, score significantly higher than all other groups on Domain VIII---Academic Improvement of All Students on Campus. No differences were found between PDAS scores and school demographics. Teachers in the highest percentage of minority students were rated significantly higher in Domain I---Student Engagement than teachers in schools with 80-89% minority student populations. Also, teachers in Exemplary schools were rated significantly higher by principals on Domains I, II, and VII than teachers at Recognized schools. The results of the study, moreover, indicate that teachers who resigned from the district in the first and second years of teaching, were rated significantly lower than teachers who are currently with the district on Domains I-IV. Teachers who are currently teaching in the district were also rated significantly higher than teachers who resigned at the end of the first year on Domain V---Professional Communication.

Conceiving Pregnancy as Narrative(s): Transgressive Maternities and Disability in American Reproductive Politics

McWhorter, Rachel J University of Minnesota 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

"Conceptions of Pregnancy" explores narratives that articulate pregnancy beyond the bounds of "normative," American reproductive politics. By enlisting these narratives, and focusing on the narrative substance of pregnancy itself, I argue that pregnancy can be refigured as a significantly critical position by which to critique lingering ideas of the Enlightenment subject and embodiment. This dissertation covers select literary texts from the antebellum era through the 21st century that encounter significant historical contexts and, in response, re-shape pregnancy and maternity toward this radical end: slave women and transgressive motherhood in the wake of the Civil War; the "gaps in people's lacks" or marginalized "pregnancies of the southern US, spanning the years of the Great Depression through the Civil Rights era, with the particular regional and national strain of eugenic classism and racism that directed women's reproductive choices; and the Second Wave and Third Wave feminists' intersections with Critical Disability Studies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries at the site of pregnancy.

Academic Business: Professionalization and the University Business Officer

McWhorter, Lynn Price Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation examines the place of the college and university business officer in institutions of higher education across the U.S. South. In 1927, George Howell Mew, newly minted business officer at Emory University, was the driving force behind the creation of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers [SACUBO]. Over the next fifty years members of SACUBO succeeded in creating an institution which transformed the business officer from a functionary who reported bookkeeping numbers to the board of trustees into an administrator and vice-president of the university. In the process, business officers helped transformed the college and university from an individual institution working with hundreds of students into campuses enrolling tens of thousands students and managing billions of dollars. A number of forces pushed college and university business officers into a position of responding to external pressures: philanthropy in the 1920s, research grants in the 1930s and 1940s, the need to train military personnel for wars from World War I into the 1980s and the accompanying regulations, the alliance of research universities with industry, and social pressures such as race relations and student protests. Though sometimes better than others, SACUBO helped college and university business officers navigate the complexities of the modern university.

Facilitating high school student success through READ 180: Analysis of program impact using measures of academic progress (MAP)

McWhorter, Holly Walden University 2009 해외공개박사

In response to its failure to meet state mandated proficiency standards in reading and mathematics over the past three years, a rural, Title I high school (LS) in South Carolina purchased and implemented the commercially available literacy program READ 180 (R180) for the 2008-2009 academic year. While previous research reported by Scholastic, Incorporated (R180) had provided support for the use of R180 in improving literacy, these studies have been criticized recently for their lack of comparable control groups, experimenter bias and lack of data from other content areas such as mathematics. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of R180 in improving reading and math performance when compared with traditional high school English course instruction in a group of ninth grade students at LS. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Vygotsky's cognitive developmental theory which emphasizes the role of language in learning in all content areas. A group of below average reading ability students was assigned by LS to the R180 instructional class while a second group of average ability students was assigned to the traditional English course (TRAD). Both groups were pre and post tested in reading and math using the state-sponsored Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized achievement test. Dependent samples t-tests and Analysis of Covariance were used to analyze the data. The results indicated statistically significant improvements in both math and reading scores for the TRAD group but not for the R180 group. This study has implications for positive social change in the form of independent, empirically-based data to both inform the administration of LS in future decision making regarding funding for the very costly R180 program as well as contributing to the overall database on R180's effectiveness.