TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THE BEST CHORAL REPERTOIRE FROM THE GREAT COMPOSERS: MASTERWORKS AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE, FREE ACCESS FROM THE CHORAL PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARY

Studying the choral works of the great composers of the past is always a worthy endeavor. For those aspiring to create an excellent high school choral program, it is critical to a student's musical foundation and heritage. Choral educators who teach high school are often bombarded with the most recently published new choral works, when they have a trove of excellent pieces right at their fingertips through websites like the Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), all available at no cost. This project will explore the pedagogical reasons why this canon of public domain choral music should be taught at the high school level. A thorough guide to CPDL and an anthology of 200 works available on CPDL will provide the conductor with resources for programming this music. Though choral music in the public domain is free to all, publishers still publish this music and adhere copyright claims. This can create mistrust of legitimate editions on CPDL; why are they available at no cost when publishers are claiming copyright on similar editions? These issues will be thoroughly discussed in this project. For any given work on CPDL, there may be multiple editions available on the site. Choosing the right edition requires knowledge about basic editorial principles, especially for works written during the Renaissance period. A detailed discussion of these principles will provide the conductor with the tools needed to choose the best edition for his or her ensemble.

SCHOOL DISTRICT GOVERNANCE AND KNOWLEDGE-FIT IN DECISION RIGHTS: HOW DISTRICTS RECRUIT AND HIRE SCHOOL LIBRARIANS

This study examines the organizational structures and decision-making processes used by school districts to recruit and hire school librarians. For students to acquire the information and technology literacy education they need, school libraries must be staffed with qualified individuals who can fulfill the librarian’s role as leader, teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. Principals are typically given decision rights for hiring staff, including school librarians. Research shows that principals have limited knowledge of the skills and abilities of the school librarian or the specific needs and functions of the library program. Research also indicates that those with specific knowledge of school library programs, namely school district library supervisors, are only consulted on recruiting and hiring about half the time. School districts entrust library supervisors with responsibilities such as professional development of school librarians only after they are hired. This study uses a theoretical lens from research on IT governance, which focuses on the use of knowledge-fit in applying decision rights in an organization. This framework is appropriate because of its incorporation of a specialist with a specific knowledge set in determining the placement of input and decision rights in the decision-making processes. The method used in this research was a multiple-case study design using five school districts as cases, varying by the involvement of the supervisors and other individuals in the hiring process. The data collected from each school district were interviews about the district’s recruiting and hiring practices with principals, an individual in HR, library supervisors, and recently hired school librarians. Data analysis was conducted through iterative coding from themes in the research questions, with continuous adjustments as new themes developed. Results from the study indicate that governance framework is applicable to evaluating the decision-making processes used in recruiting and hiring school librarians. However, a district’s use of governance did not consistently use knowledge-fit in the determination of input and decision rights. In the hiring process, governance was more likely to be based on placing decision rights at a certain level of the district hierarchy rather than the location of specific knowledge, most often resulting in site-based governance for decision rights at the school-building level. The governance of the recruiting process was most affected by the shortage or surplus of candidates available to the district to fill positions. Districts struggling with a shortage of candidates typically placed governance for the decision-making process on recruiting at the district level, giving the library supervisor more opportunity for input and collaboration with human resources. In districts that use site-based governance and that place all input and decision rights at the building level, some principals use their autonomy to eliminate the school library position in the allotment phase or hire librarians that, while certified through testing, do not have the same level of expertise as those who achieve certification through LIS programs. The principals in districts who use site-based governance for decision rights but call on the library supervisor for advisement stated how valuable they found the supervisor’s expertise in evaluating candidates for hire. In no district was a principal or school required to involve the library supervisor in the hiring of school librarians. With a better understanding of the tasks involved, the effect of district governance on decision-making, and the use of knowledge to assign input and decision rights, it is possible to look at how all of these factors affect the outcome in the quality of the hire. A next step is to look at the hiring process that school librarians went through and connect those with the measurable outcomes of hiring: school librarian success, retention, and attrition; the quality of school library program services, outreach, and involvement in a school; and the perceptions of the success of the school librarian and the library program as seen from students, teachers, administrators, parents, and other community stakeholders.

Perceptions of New Principal Mentoring Programs in a Large Urban School District

The principalship has changed significantly over the past 20 years. Today’s principals must be effective instructional leaders, managers of large facilities, and experts at analyzing data to successfully meet the accountability demands of high-stakes testing, along with state, and federal mandates. The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how 43 first- and second-year sitting school principals perceived their mentoring experiences and the degree to which a principal mentoring program—offered by their large urban school district—was effective in building their leadership capacity. A second purpose of this inquiry was to understand these principals’ perceptions of the most beneficial aspects of the mentoring program. The study used quantitative data gathered via an online questionnaire distributed during Fall 2015. The results indicated that respondents perceived that the components of the large urban school-mentoring program were generally effective in training principal mentees to become highly-effective school leaders. This study enriches the literature on mentoring by providing the voices of first and second year school leaders to add depth to the characteristics of successful mentoring programs.

THE EFFECT OF A PROGRAM OF PORTABLE ELECTRONIC PIANO KEYBOARD EXPERIENCE ON THE ACQUISITION OF SIGHT-SINGING SKILL IN THE NOVICE HIGH SCHOOL CHORUS

The problem was to determine whether a method of aural and visual vocal training that included a program of portable electronic piano keyboard experience would be more effective in teaching sight-singing skills to novice high school chorus students than a method that included only aural and visual vocal training. A sub-problem was to determine whether novice chorus students enjoyed playing electronic keyboards in chorus as a reinforcement experience in sight-singing training. Students were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, tested with the Musical Aptitude Profile, Tonal Imagery, part A, and then trained separately. The experimental group sang repetitions of melodic patterns and utilized techniques associated with the Kodály Method while simultaneously playing keyboard. The comparison group received a similar treatment without using keyboards. The students were pre- and post-tested in sight-singing using the Vocal Sight-Reading Inventory. Results of the Analysis of Covariance using MAP scores as the covariate revealed no significant difference (p<.05) between post-test scores of the two groups. Improvement was noted in 96% of students from pre-test to post-test regardless of grouping. The repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant relationship (p<.006) between aptitude group and post-test score. High aptitude students in both groups were found to benefit more from the training than low aptitude students. High aptitude keyboard group students achieved an average gain score that was 8.67 points higher than the comparison group. Of the total experimental group, 92% enjoyed playing keyboards in chorus. It is recommended that future research be undertaken to study the use of keyboards with advanced high school choruses and with uncertain singers in the high school chorus. Research is also needed to develop graded, valid, and reliable sight-singing tests for use in high school chorus. Techniques of the Kodály Method should be further investigated for use in high school sight-singing training.

The Design and Implementation of an Educational Computer Game and Its Study as a Motivational Tool for Middle School ESOL Students

Gemstone Team ILL (Interactive Language Learning)

Elementary Principals' Perceptions of a Leadership Development Training Program

Research indicates that school leaders are crucial to improving instruction and raising student achievement (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008). As such, educational reforms such as the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and Race to the Top (2009) have sparked an accountability movement where principals are being held accountable for students' academic achievement and educational outcomes. The shift towards greater accountability has placed new attention on the ways principals are trained. Researchers have noted that organized professional development programs have not adequately prepared school principals to meet the priority demands of the 21st century (Hale & Moorman, 2003; Murphy, 1994). Murphy (1994) stated, "Traditional preparation programs - usually pre-service programs based in colleges or universities, that awarded certification and advanced degrees - rarely concentrated on the leadership challenges that principals actually face in real schools" (p. 4). As a result, many school districts are seeking ways to develop leadership development training programs that will prepare principals for their job responsibilities as a school leader. In spite of the additional training principals receive, researchers suggests that there is an obvious gap between the readiness of administrators to be instructional leaders and the demands for accountability that school administrators face (Hale & Moorman, 2003). This quantitative study examined elementary school principals' perceptions of their leadership development training program. Guided by four research questions, the study examined principals' perceptions of their overall training and how well their training prepared them to deal with school and classroom practices that contribute to student achievement; to work with teachers and others to design and implement a system for continuous student achievement; and to provide necessary support to carry out sound school, curriculum, and instructional practices. Data for this study was collected by way of survey responses from a total of 46 elementary school principals. The results from the study revealed that more than half (58.7%) of participants perceived their training as excellent. While principals' perceived that their training adequately prepared them to work collaboratively in teams, set clear visions and goals, and to use data to improve students achievement, many respondents reported a lack of training in being informed and focused on student achievement. Principals also suggested that they were not effectively trained in finding effective ways to obtain support from central office or community members.