University of Arkansas, College of Education
Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Foundations
Course: EDAD 6503
Topics in Educational Research for School Administration
Faculty
Mary F. Hughes, Ph.D.
238 Graduate Education Building
Fayetteville, AR 72701
mhughe@uark.edu
(479) 575-7019 (w)
(479) 582-3857 (h)
Description
Application of educational research in the school setting by educational administrators. Emphasis placed on
the use of state and local school or district data, data analysis, interpretation, and reporting, hands-on
experience with SPSS, and the formal process of writing a research report. Prerequisite: advanced graduate
standing.
Course Goals
The goals of this course are to provide advanced graduate level students in educational administration with
practical applications of educational research in the school setting; hands-on experience with state and local
school data sets, SPSS, data analysis, interpretation of results, and reporting. Students will apply previous
research course work to questions at the state and local school or school district level, find and incorporate
the appropriate data in SPSS, analyze and interpret the data results, and write a research report.
Upon completion of the course, the student will have had hands-on experience with:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Applying research to school related questions (SP-1, SP-4)
Writing the literature review (SP-1, SP-4)
State and local school or school district data sets (SP-7)
SPSS (SP-1, SP-2)
Data analysis (SP-1, SP-2)
Interpretation of data results (SP-6)
Reporting the research findings (SP-5)
Writing a complete research report (SP-1, SP-2)
Text
Emil J. Haller and Paul F. Kleine, Using Educational Research: A School Administrator’s Guide (New
York: Addison Wesley Longman, 2001). ISBN: 0-8013-1635-9
Academic Honesty
The application of the University of Arkansas Academic Honesty Policy, as stated in the Student
Handbook, will be adhered to in this course.
Written Work
Written work will be graduate level quality, grammatically correct, with proper sentence structure and
usage, punctuation and correct spelling. The instructor encourages the use of a recognized paper or thesis
guide such as the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
(APA) or the Chicago Manual of Style.
1
Schedule
Week 1:
Introduction, Student Information Forms, and Discussion of Course Content, Format and
Requirements
Chapter 1: What is Research in Educational Administration? Using Educational
Research: A School Administrator’s Guide
Computer Lab: Order education statistic documents from NCES using their web site.
http://www.nces.ed.gov/edstats/
National Center for Education
Statistics
Assignment: Select three research questions that you might want to explore at the state,
local, or school district level.
Week 2:
Chapter 2: Research and Practice: The Case of EEO
Discuss your research questions. Discuss the first section of the research report
(Introduction, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Research Question,
Justification for the Study, Methodology (Procedure) and Limitations.)
Computer Lab: Explore AR Statistical Report (ASR)
Simple data analysis: expenditure per pupil, assessed property value per pupil, studentto–teacher ratio, ranking, correlation, etc.
Assignment for Week 3: Read Chapter 3: Finding and Using Research to Address
Educational Problems. Critique one journal article related to public school education that
contains elementary statistics and a literature review. Purpose: What does good writing
look like?
Week 3:
Chapter 3: Finding and Using Research to Address Educational Problems
Discussion of critiqued articles and the reporting of literature.
Assignment for Week 4: Choose a topic in your school that you would like to explore
using the AR Statistical Report or school level/school district level data. For example:
expenditure per pupil and student achievement; the relationship between expenditure per
pupil and property values (wealth of the school district); free and reduced lunch students
and achievement vs. other students and achievement.
Week 4:
Chapter 4: Evaluating Research
Discussion of school topic. What you want to explore; how you will explore; what
literature review that you will need to conduct before exploring the topic; what data will
you need; what statistical analysis would you conduct. How will you start? Research
question?
Computer Lab: Overview of SPSS. Hands-on experience. Importing Excel data into
SPSS.
Assignment for Week 5: School level data for research question. Start literature review
on area of interest.
2
Week 5:
Trip to the University Library for seminar on literature review research mechanisms.
Assignment: Complete the literature review to hand-in on Week 7.
Week 6:
Chapter 5: Class Size in Irontown: Large-Scale Experiments in Education
Computer Lab: Import spreadsheet data or input school data into SPSS. Create charts,
graphs, tables, and other descriptive data.
Assignment: Describe charts, graphs, tables, and other descriptive data. Due Week 8.
Week 7:
Chapter 6: Cooperative Learning, Statistical Significance, and Effect Size
Computer Lab: Continue with charts, graphs, and tables.
Week 8:
Chapter 7: Teacher Empowerment and Qualitative Research
Discussion: Charts, graphs, and tables in the text.
Week 9:
Chapter 8: Quasi-Experimental Research designs, External Validity, and the Matter of
School Discipline
Computer Lab: Statistical analysis of the data.
Analysis of the data. How to analyze the data. What do you have? Reporting the results.
Week 10:
Chapter 9: Correlational Designs, Parental Involvement and the Question of Causality
Discussion: Writing the research findings.
Assignment: Write the research findings. Due Week 11
Computer Lab
Week 11:
Chapter 10: School Climate and the Matter of Measurement
Computer Lab
Week 12:
Chapter 11: In Conclusion
Computer Lab:
Week 13:
Writing the research report
Week 14:
Presentation of the Research Report
Week 15:
Presentation of the Research Report
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Appendix A
URL
Description
School Law
A
www.arkleg.state.ar.us
http://arkedu.state.ar.us
http://courts.state.ar.us/index.html
www.state.ar.us/online_intro.html
http://lawsource.com/also/
Arkansas Code
Arkansas Department of Education
Arkansas Courts
(see Research Links)
Arkansas online
American Law Sources on-line
C
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/
http://www.mcn.org/a/celr/
http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/law.html
http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/other.html
http://www.ccsso.org/
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces190.html
http://www.lawinfo.com/links/federal/constitution.html
http://www.law.emory.edu/LAW/refdesk/subject/const.htm
http://www.law.cornell.edu/
http://www.nsba.org/cosa/
http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/cjlinks/
California Code
California Department of Education
California Courts
California Education Law Report
Cecil Greek's Searchable Law Sites Homepage
Cecil Greek's Other Law Sites Homepage
Chief State School Officers Council
Congressional Documents and Debates
Congressional Record and Legislative Information
Congressional Record Index- via GPO Access
Constitution documents
Constitution Law Links
Cornell Law School/Legal Information Institute
Council of School Attorneys
Criminal Justice
E
http://www.edlaw.net/
http://www.law.emory.edu/LAW/refdesk/toc.html
http://eric.uoregon.edu/trends_issues/law/index.html
http://www.fontana.k12.ca.us/burton/expulsion.html
EDLAW Center
Emory University Electronic Reference Desk
Eric Clearinghouse/Trends and Issues: School Law
Expulsion
F
http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/index.html
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces002.html
http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/f.htm
http://california.lp.findlaw.com/
http://lawcrawler.lp.findlaw.com/
Federal Register/Public Laws/National
Archives/Records Administration
Federal Register- via GPO Access
50 States Statutes and Legislation
FindLaw California
FindLaw - Law Crawler
J
http://www.fontana.k12.ca.us/burton/
John Burton's Cyberspace Bookmarks
L
http://www.lawguru.com/search/lawsearch.html
http://www.law.com/
http://www.lawinfo.com/links/
http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/legislative/bill.html
Law Guru: search engines and tools
Law News Network
Legal research links to Federal, State and
International resources
Legislation: Bills, Amendments and Laws/A Library
of Congress Internet Resource Page
4
http://lcweb.loc.gov/
Library of Congress
N
http://www.lawsites.com/
http://www.ed.gov/NLE/
http://www.ljextra.com/nlj/
National Law Net
National Library of Education
The National Law Journal
O
http://www.oc.ca.gov/lawlib/
Orange County Law Library
U
http://uscode.house.gov/uscode.htm
http://www.law.emory.edu/1circuit/
http://www.law.emory.edu/4circuit/
http://www.law.utexas.edu/us5th/us5th.html
http://www.law.emory.edu/6circuit/
http://www.law.emory.edu/7circuit/
http://www.law.emory.edu/10circuit/
http://www.law.emory.edu/11circuit/
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/Fed-Ct/cafed.html
http://www.law.emory.edu/6circuit/
http://www.ed.gov/
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/IDEA/the_law.html
http://www.kywd.uscourts.gov/
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html
http://oyez.nwu.edu/
http://www.lawinfo.com/supremesearch.html
http://www.fourmilab.ch/ustax/ustax.html
http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
U.S. Code database/Office of the Law Revision
Counsel
U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, D. C. Circuit Cases
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit Geographic
jurisdiction: Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and
Tennessee
U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Department o f Education/Disabilities
Education Act
U.S. District Court/Western District of Kentucky
U.S. Founding Documents
U.S. House of Representatives internet Law
Library
U.S. Supreme Court Database
U.S. Supreme Court Opinion
U.S. Tax Code
U.S.Supreme Court Decisions-Full Text of Issued
between 1937 and 1975
U.S. Supreme Court Decisions—1990-present and
others
School Safety
A
http://ericir.syr.edu/Qa/hottopics/safety.html
AskEric Hot Topics
C
http://www.nassp.org/index1.html
http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/
Civil Rights Implications of Zero Tolerance
Programs /Statement of The National Association of
Secondary School Principals
Collection of resources/National Association of
Attorney General and National School Board
Association
5
E
http://nces.ed.gov/edstats/
http://eric.uoregon.edu/index.html
http://eric.uoregon.edu/trends_issues/safety/index.html
Educational Statistics
Educational Management- Clearinghouse,
College of Education · University of Oregon
Eric Clearinghouse/Trends and Issues: School
Safety and Violence Prevention
N
http://www.nasro.org/
http://www.nssc1.org/
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/news.html
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/annrept00.pdf
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/schools/homepage.htm#law
National Association of School Resource Officers
National School Safety Center/statistic review and
school safety surveys
News updates
2000 Annual Report on School Safety
School safety, laws and legislation
O
http://www.americanschoolsafety.com/forums.html
Online discussion forum
R
http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/
Resources
Of Interest
National Center for Education Statistics
http://www.nces.ed.gov/edstats/
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe
Educational Management Eric Clearinghouse
http://eric.uoregon.edu/index.html
http://www.ed.gov/
http://www.ed.gov/NLE/
http://airweb.org/links/
USDOE
National Library of Education
Internet Resources for Institutional Research
ftp://165.29.215.34
Arkansas Statistical Report (ASR) & Data
http://adedata.k12.ar.us:8080/developer_note.ade?year=
03_04
Arkansas School Data
6