Investigating Teacher Perceptions of Professional Development and Student Achievement in Rural Maryland
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2015
Type of Work
Department
Department of Educational Professions
Program
Doctor of Education, Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)
Citation of Original Publication
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The author owns the copyright to this work. This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by FSU for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the author.
Abstract
This dissertation addresses 12 questions related to an overall investigation
designed to determine if there is a relationship between teacher perceptions of
professional development and student achievement in rural Maryland. During an era of
federal, state, and local education reform, lessons learned could help dramatically
redesign professional development for the future. “Pedagogical Content Knowledge”
(PCK) coined in 1986 by Lee Shulman, a past president of the Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching, and the 1995 book written by Stephen Brookfield
Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher helped to form the conceptual framework of
this study. Twelve elements relating to professional development were part of the questions on the Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning (TELL) Maryland Survey of 2011 and 2013. The change in these TELL Maryland Survey teacher perceptions was
correlated with the change in student High School Assessment (HSA) senior exit exam
results for the same time period. Data were included from 79% (11,365 of 14,368) of
teachers in 80% (63 of 79) of all rural high schools in Maryland that reported HSA senior
exit exam data and responded at a 50% or higher rate on both studied years of the TELL Maryland Survey. After analyzing statewide data, disaggregated by five regions, it was determined
that three professional development elements had positive correlations and nine had
negative correlations, although none of these were statistically significant. Those
elements that correlated most positively with student achievement (with shortened titles
used in the study) were collaboration, reflect(ion), and time. The literature review
provided insight into some possible reasons for these results.