Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2024, Education

This mixed-methods study explored the relationship between teacher academic optimism and personalized professional learning in a rural Appalachian elementary school in southeastern Ohio. Twenty K-5 educators participated, with pre/post-surveys utilizing the Teacher Academic Optimism Scale-Elementary (TAOS-E) yielding quantitative data. Six teachers engaged in personalized professional learning (treatment group), while fourteen formed the control group. One-on-one interviews with the treatment group added a qualitative dimension, enhancing overall validity and reliability through data triangulation. Results indicated positive changes in self-efficacy, trust, academic emphasis, and overall academic optimism for both groups. Unexpectedly, the control group experienced statistically significant gains in self-efficacy, trust, and overall academic optimism, prompting further investigation into external variables. As a practitioner in the elementary school, the researcher explores these influences in the discussion section. Qualitative analysis highlighted themes of personalized learning's value, appreciation for meaningful experiences, and varied learning format preferences. The study underscores the positive impact of a four-week personalized professional learning experience. Emphasis on job- embedded learning and collaboration enabled teachers to apply new skills in real-world situations. Interviews with the treatment group revealed positive changes in mindset and practices, emphasizing themes of positivity, reflection, engagement, relationship building, trust, effective communication, and a language shift. Overall, the teachers in the treatment group perceived the personalized professional learning approach as meaningful and positive even though the quantitative results were not significant and did not indicate a relationship between their overall levels of academic optimism.

Committee: Mary Heather Munger Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Elementary Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Educational Policy and Leadership

Collective teacher efficacy, faculty trust in students and parents, and academic emphasis are school characteristics that have been found to be associated with academic achievement, even when controlling for socioeconomic status. In this study of forty elementary schools, factor analysis of survey results supported the theory that these three characteristics are dimensions of a single latent trait of schools, called academic optimism. The construct of enabling bureaucracy describes the extent to which the structures and processes of a school support teachers' work. Enabling bureaucracy was correlated with academic optimism. The study found no relationship between academic optimism and school value added gain scores, which report the extent to which students have achieved the annual test score gains they would be expected to make, based on the actual testing history of similar students. There was a relationship between academic optimism and percentages of students proficient on state mathematics and reading tests, even when controlling for socioeconomic status.

Committee: Wayne Hoy (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2007, College of Education and Human Services

This study contributes to the research foundation of academic optimism (Hoy, Tarter & Woolfolk Hoy, 2006) through incorporating the following three aims: to determine the relationship between academic emphasis, collective efficacy, faculty trust in students and parents, and academic optimism; to explore the relationship of academic optimism with state student achievement and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards; and to identify the practices in schools that demonstrate academic emphasis, faculty trust in students and parents, and collective efficacy that comprise academic optimism. Qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized to collect quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data on academic emphasis, collective efficacy and faculty trust in students and parents from teachers and principals in one high and one lower performing Midwestern high school, as identified by state and federal standard mandates. This study provides an opportunity to describe how the construct of academic optimism, also linked to student achievement, translates into practice in the high school setting.

Committee: Ralph Mawdsley (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2002, Educational Policy and Leadership

Previous research has suggested that trust in schools facilitates collaboration, school health, elementary student achievement, and school effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors of faculty trust in the principal, in colleagues, and in clients (students and parents). Moreover, it was hypothesized that because of a "trust spillover" phenomenon, each of the aspects of faculty trust would be moderately correlated with one another. The sample was composed 146 elementary schools in Ohio. Although data were collected from 4,069 teachers, the unit of analysis was the school. First, factor analysis confirmed the factor structure and construct validity of the trust scales. Then all of the hypotheses were confirmed. Enabling bureaucracy (structure) was positively related with and the best predictor of faculty trust in the principal; teacher professional behavior was positively related with and the best predictor of faculty trust in colleagues; and academic emphasis was positively associated with and the best predictor of faculty trust in clients. Moreover, each of the trust subscales, as expected, was moderately correlated with each other, as were the independent variables. The results also demonstrated that school size had no remarkable effect with any aspect of faculty trust. SES (socioeconomic status) however, was negatively associated with faculty trust in clients and the independent variable, academic emphasis. This result was not unexpected. It should be noted that while this study designated three variables as independent, each of their relationships with faculty trust is most likely bi-directional; that is, the relationships or causality are unclear and probably are reciprocal.

Committee: Wayne Hoy (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Administration

Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2009, College of Education

Although some school improvement literature has suggested that schools will improve when unions are removed from the school system, unions have rarely been isolated in the research. This study involved a mixed method case study approach to explore whether support of the local teacher union affected perceptions of school climate, as measured by the Organizational Health Inventory. The study found that teachers who supported the union had more positive perceptions on several of the organizational climate dimensions than teachers who were not supportive of the union.

Committee: Carla Edlefson PhD (Committee Chair); Judy Alston PhD (Committee Member); Howard Walters EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Evaluation; Labor Relations