Date of Award

Winter 12-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Organizational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Phillip Pendley, Ed.D

Second Advisor

Dr. Gregory Bass, Ed. D

Third Advisor

Dr. Ramona Bishop, Ph.D

Abstract

Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, there has been an urgency in the overall academic accountability for all students nationwide. Since then the state leadership and experts in the state of California have made it a priority to educate and hold schools and students accountable through standards based instruction and assessments. To date this has not been the case for continuation high schools in the state of California.

The purpose of this mixed methods Delphi study was to identify appropriate assessment methods for California continuation high schools, to rate the respective effectiveness of the identified methods, and to identify appropriate assessment tools that effectively measure academic achievement for each assessment method.

This study was centered on the research question “What are appropriate assessment methods that should be used in California continuation high schools to accurately assess student academic achievement and success according to experts in California continuation education?” This question was answered using a policy Delphi research method employing three rounds of questions with experts in continuation education.

In the first round experts identified best state assessment methods which were rated using a Likert scale in the second round. In the third and last round the same experts took the top six methods rated and answered open ended questions related to (facilitators, barriers, and implementation strategies).

Based on the findings of this study, the experts found consensus in that it would take a team of experts from the classrooms, school sites, and state leadership to effectively develop an appropriate assessment method. There was however a strong lack of confidence in state leadership (legislators, California Department of Education, and CBE), however among the experts there is a wide range of ideas related to indicators, or what the assessments should look like.

Recommendations made from this study were centered on gathering a team of experts from the Education Options Council and the California Continuation Education Association to design the assessment process. This team should have representation from teachers, and administrators, and the process should include the input of state leadership.

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