Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Educational Leadership

The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) was created in response to the 2009 House Bill 1 mandate requiring the development of a state teacher performance assessment. This study examined K-12 public school teachers' dispositions toward OTES after the first year of implementation. Data were collected from 142 teachers over a 4-week period in 2015 using a 17-item survey with Likert-type responses. Findings revealed teachers' overall dispositions were considerably more negative than positive; specifically 86% of the respondents had a negative or moderately negative disposition toward the state model. With respect to specific aspects of OTES, the three most positive dispositions concerned individualized staff development, principal compliance with OTES, and walk-through observations. The three most negative dispositions concerned the amount of time required of teachers, infusing student value-added scores, and infusing vendor assessment scores. The levels of association between the criterion variable (a teacher's overall disposition toward OTES) and each of three predictor variables (gender, years of teaching experience, and grade level assignment) were small and negative. Collectively, the three predictor variables accounted for only 4.5% of the variation in the criterion variable. The findings have both professional and political implications. Most notably, negative dispositions reported in this study, especially those pertaining to the infusion of student assessments into teacher performance evaluations are highly controversial. Professionally, for example, many scholars, administrators, and teachers challenge the reliability, validity and fairness of using these measures. Politically, for example, policymakers should consider the negative dispositions in terms of improving existing policy. Accordingly, recommendations for improving OTES policy and for future research were made.

Committee: Theodore Kowalski Ph.D (Committee Chair); C. Daniel Raisch Ph.D (Committee Member); Carolyn Ridenour Ed.D (Committee Member); Teresa Thompson Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Policy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2017, Elementary Education-Literacy

Substantial research has revealed several early literacy skills are predictive of later reading achievement. The current quasi-experimental study considered a ten-week family/school literacy partnership program designed to assist families in helping their children with early literacy skills at home. The researcher was interested in determining if participation status in this literacy program made a significant contribution to learning of early literacy skills as revealed in outcomes on winter reading Rasch Unit (RIT) scores on the Measures of Academic Progress for Primary Grades (MPG) for kindergarten students who were placed on a Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plan (RIMP). One hundred and seventy-seven families were invited to participate in the partnership program. Of those, 112 participated. The remainder, 65, made up the control group. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regressions. Findings from the data indicated that scores of kindergarten students whose families participated in the program were .7 of a point higher for each week of participation in comparison to scores of those students whose families did not participate. Gender was not found to be a significant factor on overall reading RIT scores for students in the control group, but girls had significantly higher outcomes over boys in the experimental group. Minority status was not found to be a significant factor on outcomes for kindergarten students in the experimental group, but minority students scored significantly lower according to outcomes for the control group.

Committee: Lisa Lenhart PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Families and Family Life; Literacy

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

Hamilton, Ohio, located in Butler County approximately 25 miles north of Cincinnati, was for 37 years the only city of a population greater than 50,000 people lacking direct access to an Interstate Highway system. Yet this situation was not intentional; the 1958 Major Road Plan for Butler County prioritized the upgrading of an existing road to serve as a connector to what would eventually become Interstate Highway 75. The project existed in the minds of City leaders throughout the 1960's and came to the public's consciousness again in the 1970's after then-Governor James A. Rhodes visited Hamilton during an election year. The Governor stated that the road was long-overdue and that the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the area, would grant the project highest priority status. No ground was broken for the project through the 1980's although there was grass-roots support for its completion. Hamilton, Innovative legislation in the 1990's paved the way for the creation of the Butler County Transportation Improvement District (BCTID). BCTID began construction of the road in 1996 and completed it in December 1999. The aim of this research project is threefold. The first goal of this study was to gain an understanding of the causes for delay in highway construction as they specifically apply to the Michael A. Fox Regional Highway, as well as the causes that conspired to allow for its eventual completion. The second goal of research was to examine the political factors that allowed for the highway's completion. The third project goal was to gain understanding of the complex process of intergovernmental coordination as it applies to the process of highway planning, funding, and implementation. The research completed to satisfy the first and second goals of the project provides a framework of effective practices that can be applied in other planning situations.

Committee: Andrew Jacobs (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning