Article Notice – Mandated Learning Administrators’ Perceptions of Unfunded Mandates in Online Education

The first of two articles that scrolled across my electronic desk over the past few days.

Mandated Learning Administrators’ Perceptions of Unfunded Mandates in Online Education

• July 2023

• DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25611.67369

• Ronald Hennen

Description – Online education has become a solution for many states to facilitate the growing requests from state legislatures to lower educational costs while meeting the academic needs of students. Legislation from Florida provided the impetus for this study, after Florida CS/CS/HB 7197 mandated that all students enroll in an online class for 1 credit as a graduation requirement. While the rationale for such legislation may be cost savings, for most school districts, implementation may be viewed as an unfunded state mandate. The purpose of this study was to examine administrator’s perceptions of mandated online teaching as an additional financial burden on school districts. This quantitative study explored administrator’s perceptions of online learning and the relationship of these perceptions to unfunded mandates requiring online coursework. While no significant relationship was found in administrator perceptions of online learning and perceptions of unfunded mandates, administrators generally agreed that unfunded mandates impact almost every aspect of their professional role and responsibilities as an administrator, including work conditions, and work satisfaction. This study took place during the global pandemic; however, the intent of this study was not to research the effects of the COVID -19 pandemic on education. Recommendations for future study and implications are included.

Article Notice – COVID-19 AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN TURKEY: INVESTIGATION OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ (COVİD-19 VE TÜRKİYE’DE UZAKTAN EĞİTİM: ORTAOKUL ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN AKADEMİK BAŞARILARININ İNCELENMESİ)

The second of two items that scrolled through one of my open scholarship networks over the past few days.

COVID-19 AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN TURKEY: INVESTIGATION OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ (COVİD-19 VE TÜRKİYE’DE UZAKTAN EĞİTİM: ORTAOKUL ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN AKADEMİK BAŞARILARININ İNCELENMESİ)

• December 2021

• DOI: 10.46291/ZfWT/130320

• Sezgin Elbay

Abstract – During the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey, distance education applications were introduced at all levels of education. However, it has been determined that research on the effect of distance education applications on academic achievement has not been carried out. Therefore in this research it was tried to determine the effects of synchronous distance education applications on student achievement and opinions. Explanatory mixed method design was used to accomplish the purpose of the research. In this context, first of all, quantitative method; then a qualitative method was used to explanatory quantitative data. Quantitative data of the study, Independent Samples T-Test, and qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis. As a result of the analysis of quantitative data, it was determined that synchronized distance education process did not have a statistically significant effect on the academic achievement of students at the level of 05 (p>,05). At the same time, it was concluded that the average score of the students was low (<50). In addition, it has been determined that students faced various and different types of educational problems in synchronous distance education processes. When these results are evaluated collectively, it can be said that synchronous distance education cannot be used effectively in increasing the academic achievement of students in Turkey. (Türkiye’de Covid-19 pandemi sürecinde tüm eğitim kademelerinde uzaktan eğitim uygulamalarına geçilmiştir. Ancak uzaktan eğitim uygulamalarının akademik başarı üzerindeki etkisine ilişkin araştırmaların yürütülmediği tespit edilmiştir. Bu nedenle araştırmada, eşzamanlı uzaktan eğitim uygulamalarının öğrenci başarısı ve görüşlerine etkisi belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Araştırmanın amacını gerçekleştirmek için açıklayıcı karma yöntem deseni kullanılmıştır. Bu bağlamda öncelikle nicel; daha sonra nicel verileri açıklamak için nitel bir yöntem kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın nicel verileri, Bağımsız Örneklemler T-Testi ve nitel verileri tematik analizle çözümlenmiştir. Nicel verilerin analizi sonucunda, eşzamanlı uzaktan eğitim sürecinin ,05 düzeyinde öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir etkisinin olmadığı belirlenmiştir (p>,05). Aynı zamanda öğrencilerin puan ortalamasının düşük (<50) olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Bunlara ek olarak öğrencilerin eşzamanlı uzaktan eğitim süreçlerinde çeşitli ve farklı türde eğitimsel sorunlarla karşı karşıya kaldıkları saptanmıştır. Bu sonuçlar toplu olarak değerlendirildiğinde, Türkiye’de öğrencilerin akademik başarılarının artırılmasında eşzamanlı uzaktan eğitimin etkin bir şekilde kullanılamadığı söylenebilir.)