Browsing by Author "Brabrand, Scott Sorensen"

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    Honors-for-All: The Effect of Detracking on Teachers' Beliefs and Pedagogy
    Langstein, Hanna Beth Preizler (Virginia Tech, 2024-04-30)
    Tracking, having separate advanced, standard, and/or remedial classes intended to homogeneously group students by perceived or actual ability, is a frequent practice used in U.S. schools, particularly at the secondary level. To promote educational equity, close achievement gaps, and counteract the de facto racial separation between advanced and standard-level courses, some districts and individual schools in Virginia are moving to detrack their offerings and stop offering separate advanced and standard-level courses. This qualitative case study explored how a middle school's newly adopted detracking policy with an honors-for-all approach impacted teachers' beliefs and pedagogy. Data were collected from documents and interviews with six school and district personnel and analyzed using inductive coding techniques until a mutually exclusive scheme of categories had been generated. The study concluded with the discussion, implications, recommendations, and conclusion of the results. The findings identified four categories that answered the research questions: opinions on honors-for-all, defining what "honors" means, instructional shifts in an honors-for-all classrooms, and challenges in practices. Overall, the study found that: (a) teachers' beliefs on tracking and honors-level classes did not change after implementation of detracking and there was a general divide in opinions between the teachers and non-teaching faculty, (b) there were varying definitions of what "honors" means among the district, school, and staff, (c) teachers' instruction shifted to adopt new pedagogical tools and strategies to meet the diverse learning needs in a mixed-ability honors classroom, and (d) teaching in an honors-for-all classroom was challenging, especially in differentiating for students' needs, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the accelerated standards in honors mathematics courses. Implications of the study included: (a) the necessity of having teacher buy-in when implementing a new programming initiative, (b) the benefits of vertical articulation with feeder elementary schools to prepare students for the rigor of middle school honors courses, (c) the need for common language and clear definitions across the district and school, and (d) the importance of providing professional development and support personnel to assist teachers in adopting new pedagogical practices in an honors-for-all setting.
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    Virginia Principals and School Law
    Brabrand, Scott Sorensen (Virginia Tech, 2003-04-21)
    This study sought to determine Virginia Public School principals' knowledge of school law as it related to the type, length/quantity, and recency of law preparation they received. Other variables measured included how their level of knowledge was associated with their length of administrative experience and with their description of the school community in which they worked.An on-line survey instrument was designed to collect demographic and professional information and to test knowledge of court cases and federal and state statutes. Three hundred and twelve principals completed the survey, representing all grade levels and all regions in the State of Virginia. The principals' knowledge of school law was measured by a forty item true-false test that addressed four key areas of school law selected by a panel of experts: student issues, teacher/administrator issues, tort liability, and church/state relations.The data were analyzed using analysis of variance and post hoc tests. The findings of this study indicated a significant difference of the means, ά =.05, between the principals' knowledge of school law in the category of tort liability and the recency of legal preparation. Principals who received their legal preparation over 10 years ago scored significantly lower on the tort section of the test than those who received their legal preparation only 5-10 years ago. Findings also indicated that principals across all categories of school law displayed only a fair knowledge of school law, earning a mean score of 29.359 out of 40 or 73.3%. The principals' weakest area of school law was in the category of church/state relations. These findings would provide valuable information for the design of principal preparation programs. They would also encourage state educational policymakers and local school divisions to strengthen the professional development of principals on legal matters.