Browsing by Author "Lehmann, Jean, advisor"
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Item Open Access Attainment of parenting goals in an Early Head Start program(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Jameson, Julie S., author; Lehmann, Jean, advisor; Fidler, Deborah, advisorEarly childhood programs providing parenting education and support seek to enhance home environments through comprehensive services aimed at developing nurturing relationships between parents and children. The majority of programs aimed at improving child and parent outcomes utilize the home visit as the primary means of service delivery. Home visit practitioners plan activities implemented in the family home designed to enhance child development while at the same time modeling and coaching the parent in their interactions with the child. The process of impacting child and family outcomes begins with the transfer of skills from home visitor to parent who in turn utilizes the skills to improve interactions and outcomes for the child. Early Head Start (EHS) is one of the five largest programs serving young children in the United States that utilizes the home visit approach in the delivery of services to pregnant women, infants, toddlers, and their families. In the city and surrounding communities of Fort Collins, Colorado, the Poudre School District (PSD) serves as the grantee agency for the delivery of EHS services. PSDEHS programs utilize family mentors to conduct the home visit and parent education portion of the program. Family mentors are responsible for the planning, implementing, and assessing of all home visit activities. This study documented parental progress toward goals identified by the parent and PSDEHS family mentor during participation in the home visiting program to assess factors that may contribute to success in goal attainment. Fifty-three families participated in the study over 12 weeks. Family mentors utilized the method of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) at each home visit to measure parental progress on jointly identified goals. GAS scores range from a score of -2 (much less than expected outcome) to +2 (much more than expected outcome). Identified goals fell into one of six general categories: family, financial, parenting, education/job, health/wellness, and other. Participants most often set family related and parenting related goals indicating those areas as needing improvement. GAS results indicated that while the majority of families scored below the expected outcome, all families scored within the range of -1 (somewhat less than expected outcome) and +1 (somewhat more than expected outcome). GAS scores tended to increase toward the positive range with an increase in the number of home visits received. Analysis of GAS scores among the various demographic groups present in PSDEHS revealed that home-based families had slightly higher mean GAS scores (m=-.36) than center-based families (m=-.40). Spanish speaking families had higher mean GAS scores (m=.07) than English speaking families (m=-.49). Teen parented families has slightly higher mean GAS scores (-.26) than adult parented families (m=-.36). As expected, dual parent families had higher mean GAS scores (m=-.26) than single parent families (-.52). Mean GAS scores also improved as the educational levels of mother's and father's increased.Item Open Access Case study on the role of the superintendent of schools in instructional leadership and student academic achievement(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Karbula, John, author; Lehmann, Jean, advisorThe purpose of this case study was to observe a superintendent at work in order to develop insight and understanding of the superintendent's role as instructional leader and the decision making process regarding student academic achievement. This case study examined and explored the context of instructional leadership and student academic achievement through the superintendent's personal and professional interactions with intact cultural groups such as the leadership team, the school board, district staff, parents, and community members in their natural settings. Through first-hand observation and personal interviews I observed the lived realities of the superintendent and the leadership responses to the realities he encountered, thus accumulating a written record of these observations of his experiences. These accumulated observations described, explored and examined the decisions made by the superintendent that pertain to instructional leadership and student academic achievement. The role of the superintendent of schools has evolved over time since it was first conceived in the mid 19th Century. While the specifics of the role have changed, a constant is that the role of superintendent of schools has grown increasingly complex. This complexity has been exacerbated by the intense and highly public focus on student academic achievement that accompanied the passage of the federal legislation, No Child Left Behind. This case study looks at the actual life of a superintendent as he operates in the context of a school district. The school district has 2,800 students and is located in the intermountain west of the United States. The participants in this study were the superintendent and selected members of the superintendent leadership team, and district administrators, as well as the president of the board of education. As an emergent study, it examined those issues that arose from the superintendent's role in instructional leadership and the decisions made surrounding student academic achievement in the midst of the complexity of a position with numerous, often equally demanding roles. The key findings that emerged from this study are that the core beliefs of the superintendent of schools regarding honesty, integrity, openness and transparency, and a personal ethic of caring deeply for students and staff members is at the heart of all behaviors and decisions made as superintendent of schools, particularly those regarding instructional leadership and student academic achievement.Item Open Access Engineering students' and faculty perceptions of teaching methods and the level of faculty involvement that promotes academic success(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Karpilo, Lacy N., author; Lehmann, Jean, advisor; Siller, Tom, advisorStudent academic success is a top priority of higher education institutions in the United States and the trend of students leaving school prior to finishing their degree is a serious concern. Accountability has become a large part of university and college ratings and perceived success. Retention is one component of the accountability metrics used by accreditation agencies. In addition, there are an increasing number of states allocating funds based in part on retention (Seidman, 2005). Institutions have created initiatives, programs, and even entire departments to address issues related to student academic success to promote retention. Universities and colleges have responded by focusing on methods to retain and better serve students. Retention and student academic success is a primary concern for high education institutions; however, engineering education has unique retention issues. The National Science Board (2004) reports a significant decline in the number of individuals in the United States who are training to become engineers, despite the fact that the number of jobs that utilize an engineering background continues to increase. Engineering education has responded to academic success issues by changing curriculum and pedagogical methods (Sheppard, 2001). This descriptive study investigates the perception of engineering students and faculty regarding teaching methods and faculty involvement to create a picture of what is occurring in engineering education. The population was the engineering students and faculty of Colorado State University's College of Engineering. Data from this research suggests that engaging teaching methods are not being used as often as research indicates they should and that there is a lack of student-faculty interaction outside of the classroom. This research adds to the breadth of knowledge and understanding of the current environment of engineering education. Furthermore, the data allows engineering educators and other higher education professionals to gain insight into the teaching methods currently being utilized in engineering and reinforces the importance of student-faculty interaction and thus facilitating the creation of programs or initiatives to improve student academic success.Item Open Access Supervision of paraprofessionals in elementary classrooms: a descriptive case study(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Burtch, Keelee K., author; Lehmann, Jean, advisorThe purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine how teachers provide supervision to paraprofessionals in elementary classrooms. This descriptive case study examines how teachers provide supervision to paraprofessionals in elementary school classrooms. Research questions regarding the teacher's role as a supervisor resulted from Pickett's (1999) supervisory framework, which addresses five areas: planning, task delegating, role clarifying, performance monitoring, and on-the-job training and mentoring. The results of this study indicated that paraprofessionals specifically, and both special and general education teachers do not understand their roles, planning between teacher and paraprofessional in elementary school classrooms is spur of the moment, and teachers do not receive adequate training in supervising paraprofessionals. This descriptive case study offers a reality of what supervision actually looks like in two elementary schools. Recommendations to enhance effective paraprofessional supervision in elementary school classrooms include teachers and paraprofessionals know their roles; districts need to allow for planning time between teachers and paraprofessionals, colleges need to provide teacher preparation courses on supervision techniques; and administrators mandate collaboration meetings amongst general education teachers, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals.