The purpose of this study was to examine the claim that 70 to 90% of youth ministry participants abandon the church after high school graduation. Chapter 1 examines the current statistics related to the church retention of young adults. The research questions used to guide the study are introduced. In order to accomplish the goal of the study, Shields' Youth Ministry Retention Questionnaire (YMRQ) was used to compare the youth ministry commitment of Christian high school graduates with their current levels of church involvement. Chapter 2 reviews the critical literature to this study. The issues of the role of church and the calling for Christians to be together, understanding who is defined as a young adult, and Protestant schooling in America are explored. Chapter 3 describes the process by which the data for this study was gathered. Graduates from the four types of Christian high schools (covenantal independent, covenantal church-related, open-admission independent, and open-admission church-related) were invited to participate in the YMRQ survey. All of the respondents were graduates of ACSI member schools. Chapter 4 reports the analysis of the data from the completed surveys. The data was analyzed using Chi-Square tests and ANOVA tests to determine the statistical significance between the two variables. For all levels of youth ministry commitment, these young adults maintained a low to high level of involvement with a church after graduating high school. Bridging the language of statistics and the language of the practice of youth ministry, a clearer retention rate of Christian school graduates is 82.9%. This percentage represents those students in the moderate and high levels of church engagement as young adults. The final chapter presents the conclusions based on the findings of this study. Any variances in the data and the reasons for their existence are also explored. Based on the results of the research, applications are made for Christian schooling and local church youth ministry.

This project involved an analysis of the theoretical foundations for Indianapolis Prep; an alternative school for about 50 students ages 14 to 18 years who are on probation with the Juvenile Court of Marion County, Indiana. The accepted purpose of Indianapolis Prep is to prepare students to make a successful transition from the Juvenile Center through a transition academy and through a semester of success in a regular high school to high school graduation. For the population involved, the traditional path to a high school diploma is not viewed as the best alternative.Indianapolis Prep is part of the national “Cities in Schools” project; a project which appears to have the potential for making a substantial impact on the future direction of American education.The outcomes of the project were documented in various forms since the traditional format of preparing one large piece of writing with an introduction and a conclusion was inadequate. The process of the study served as an effective means for shaping the documentation of outcomes. The writer kept a journal of observations of Indianapolis Prep as well as one on reflections regarding her participation in the school. Compiling these writings into a summary produced an interesting anecdotal document of Indy Prep’s development in theory and in practice. This anecdotal record developed into an anthology of choice writings, proposals, reports, and poems and prose, all narrated and tied together with summarized journal writings.The following components were included in the creative project report:A statement of the creative project.A handout used by the “Cities in Schools” project to introduce and explain Propinquity, and organizational concept of interagency services.A description of the plan, implementation, and outcomes of the Sophomore Academy, a forerunner to Indy Prep.Examples of students’ poems and prose as well as writings of the investigator.An evaluative report of Indy Prep’s participation in the Ball State University staff development project. This report was compiled from observations, interviews, and notes on weekly SDP conferences and meetings, as well as information from monthly Ball State conducted workshops. Examples of contracts developed through the staff development program were included.A component of several essays in which thoughts and theories derived from various readings along with the writer’s experiences and study of Indy Prep were formulated and/or systematically organized.The final component was a bibliography of readings.

TITLE: Private and alternative schools in the Czech Republic SUMMARY: The thesis describes current status of private and alternative schools whereas private schools are considered as an alternative to the public school system as well. It tackles the specific aspects of alternative pedagogical programs, describes common and distinctive features and sees into the positives and negatives of the choice of alternative education for parents and pupils. The theoretical part focuses on private schools. It inquires into the qualitative difference between private and public schools and deals with the conditions of education for both pupils and teachers. The empiric part consists of two case studies complementing the study of the private schools sector. KEYWORDS: Basic schools, private schools, alternative schools

Em 2012, foi promulgada a Lei Federal nº 12.711 (popularmente conhecida como Lei de Cotas), que instituiu a reserva de 50% das vagas nas Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior (IFES) para estudantes que tenham cursado, integralmente, o ensino médio em escolas públicas. Assim, considerando a mudança trazida pela Lei, o objetivo desta pesquisa é discutir se ela tem contribuído para uma migração de estudantes da rede particular de ensino para cursarem o ensino médio nas Escolas Técnicas Estaduais (ETECs). Foi realizado levantamento quantitativo sobre a origem escolar dos estudantes matriculados em cinco ETECs do interior paulista, entre os anos de 2008 a 2017. Os dados indicam crescimento do percentual de estudantes da rede privada nessas escolas. Discute-se se a chamada Lei de Cotas tem contribuído, de fato, para o surgimento de novos eleitos ou se pode estar colaborando para a manutenção de desigualdades / In 2012, Federal Law No. 12,711 (popularly known as the \"Quota Law\") was enacted, which established a reserve of 50% of vacancies in the Federal Institutions of Higher Education (IFES) for students who have completed a high school in public schools. Thus, considering the change brought by the Law, the objective of this research is to discuss whether it has contributed to a migration of students from the private school to attend secondary school in State Technical Schools (ETECs). A quantitative survey was carried out on the school origin of students enrolled in five ETECs in the interior of São Paulo between the years 2008 to 2017. Data indicate growth of the percentage of students in the private network in these schools. It is discussed whether the so-called \"Quota Law\" has in fact contributed to the emergence of new elected officials or may be \"collaborating\" to maintain inequalities

O presente estudo situa-se no âmbito da História da Educação e tem como objetivo central demonstrar como se desenvolveu o ensino secundário na cidade do Rio Grande/RS a partir da segunda metade do século XIX, de forma a abarcar outras demandas para além da formação para o ingresso no ensino superior. Desse modo, utilizamos como corpus documental os anúncios dos colégios e aulas particulares publicados na imprensa local, sobretudo, no jornal Diario do Rio Grande de 1848 a 1890, juntamente com Relatórios, Ofícios, Mapas, Estatutos, Catálogos, Anuários e Almanaques da Província, entre outros documentos. O intuito desta tese é comprovar que o ensino secundário rio-grandino estabeleceu um novo paradigma para a educação formal, consolidando-se como uma alternativa viável para a formação intelectual de outros grupos sociais que não almejavam o ingresso no ensino superior. O ensino secundário nesta cidade diferenciava-se justamente por redimensionar a sua finalidade neste período, possibilitando que outros públicos ascendessem socialmente por meio da instrução secundária Para corroborar com a presente tese analisamos a significativa oferta de instituições de ensino secundário presentes na cidade, ao longo do período analisado, sinalizando a existência de uma demanda local oriunda de determinados grupos sociais que tinham como objetivo manter certa situação de classe que seria responsável por consolidar e sustentar os interesses das gerações anteriores e, que também estavam voltados à ascensão social através da educação formal. Identificamos que esta formação intelectual, proporcionada pelo ensino secundário, não estava somente voltada ao ingresso no ensino superior, mas, sobretudo, a uma formação cultural e profissional que o ensino primário não contemplava e que precisava ser amparada através de novas ofertas de ensino que o setor público não conseguiu abarcar, e nem mesmo, rivalizar. Desse modo, conseguimos identificar, através de diferentes indícios, que a instrução secundária, de caráter laico e particular que se desenvolveu ao longo do período imperial, consolidou-se em função de diferentes necessidades da sociedade rio-grandina que não incluía apenas a preparação para os exames de preparatórios, mas também, a formação para atuar no comércio, na política e na docência. / The present study lies within the History of Education scope and aims to show how secondary education was developed in the city of Rio Grande / Rio Grande do Sul State from the second half of the nineteenth century so as to cover other demands beyond training towards higher education entrance. For that purpose, school and private class announcements published by the local press, especially in the Diario do Rio Grande newspaper from 1848 to 1890, together with Provincial Reports, Official letters, Maps, Statutes, Catalogs, Yearbooks and Almanacs, among others, were consulted. This thesis aims to prove that the Rio Grande high school system established a new paradigm for formal education, consolidating itself as a viable alternative for the intellectual formation of other social groups that did not intend to follow higher education studies. Secondary education in this city was differentiated precisely by reshaping its purpose in this period, allowing public at large to ascend socially through high school In order to support this thesis, a significant supply of secondary education institutions in the city during the aforementioned period was analyzed, signaling the existence of a local demand by some groups that sought to maintain their social status, which served the purpose of consolidating and maintaining the interests of previous generations and which were also aimed at social ascent through formal education. This identified intellectual formation provided by secondary education was not only directed towards entering higher education, but provided, above all, cultural and professional formation that primary education did not contemplate and needed to be supported by new educational offers that the public system could not and did not rival. In this way, and through different indicators, secondary education of secular and particular character that was consolidated during the imperial period due to different needs of the Rio Grande society, including not only preparation for preparatory exams but also training in trade, politics and teaching, was identified.

This ethnography takes place at four of northern India’s most renowned, all-girls’ private boarding schools, established in reference to the British Public Schooling model mainly during the tail ends of colonialism by Indian queens and British memsahibs on the sub-continent. It is a story told from the points of view of founders, administrators, and teachers, but primarily from that of students, based on fieldwork conducted from July 2013 through June 2014. Schools heralded as historic venues of purported upper-caste girls’ emancipation, this study interrogates the legacies of this colonial-nationalist moment by examining how these institutions and their female students engage in newer processes and discourses of class formation and gendered empowerment through schooling. For one, it considers the dichotomous (re)constructions of gendered and classed personhoods enacted through exclusionary modernities, particularly in terms of who gains access to these schools, both physically and through symbolic forms of belonging. It then examines the reclamation of these constructs within (inter)national development discourses of girls’ empowerment and the role of neoliberal privatization in reconstituting elite schooling experiences with gender as its globalizing force. Here, seemingly paradoxical relationships between such concepts as discipline and freedom, duties and rights, collective responsibility and individual competition are explored, arguing that the pressures of academic success, tensions over the future, and role of high stakes examinations and privatized tutoring are contributing to student experiences of performative or fatiguing kinds of empowerment. Through such frames, extreme binary constructions of empowerment are complicated, demonstrating how female Public School students exist more within middling spaces of “betweenness,” of practiced mediation. Empowerment in this sense is not an achievable status, nor unidirectional process, but a set of learned tools or skills deployed in recurring moments of contradiction or in difficult deliberations, whereby students variously buy in, (re)create, opt-out of, or reject proposed models of “successful” or “legitimate,” female personhood. Overall, this ethnography problematizes assumed relationships between empowerment and privilege, questions the alignments between school and the (upper-)middle class home, and suggests that as the reproductive capabilities of elite schooling are challenged in the face of newer venues of capital, these all-girls’ Public Schools and their students are finding unique ways to remain or become the elite of consideration.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of describing the secondary school principalship as perceived by selected principals and teachers in Bangkok, Thailand. The purposes of this study are (1) to collect selected demographic data about the secondary school principals and teachers in government and private schools, and (2) to measure and determine the relative effectiveness of principals of government and private secondary schools in Bangkok, Thailand, as perceived by secondary school principals and teachers. The conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) principals in government and private secondary schools appear equivalent in professional preparation as measured by highest degree held, (2) principals in government and private secondary schools earn equivalent salaries, (3) teachers in private secondary schools have less professional preparation than teachers in government secondary schools, (4) teachers in government schools are better paid than teachers in private schools, (5) principals in both government and private secondary schools perceived their effectiveness as higher than did the teachers in those schools.

The top leader of an organization influences the organizational culture, and the organizational culture influences the leader. Strategic thinking on the part of the leader is a result of organizational culture and/or will impact organizational culture. This qualitative study is a comparative multiple-case study that examines the relationship between leaders and organizational culture and what the leader’s strategic decision-making and organizational changes indicate about the relationship between leadership and organizational culture. The organizational context of private schools is used to better understand the dynamics between leadership and organizational culture. This study uses an interview protocol with CEOs of private schools, a macroculture in the United States, to solicit the leaders’ perspectives on their school’s organizational culture and their perspectives on the specific strategic decisions made by those leaders in the context of that organizational culture. This study focuses on six different schools in Virginia, all approved through accrediting procedures by the Virginia Council for Private Education -- a shared organizational context. Individual focal points for data collection and analysis include individual school websites, published school documents, and required accreditation documents as well as structured interviews with the CEOs of each school. This study examines the cycle of influence that the leader has on the organization through strategic thinking and the influence that the organizational culture has on the leader. Three findings expressed how the leader influences the organizational culture. There were also three findings on how the organizational culture influences the leaders. Two additional findings are on what change indicates about the relationship between the leader and the organizational culture. These findings reveal that a focus on relationships in the school, a willingness to target specific growth for the individual school, and goals that were expressed spiritually as well as academically are key to the leaders. The study also found that the school cultures identified strongly and positively with that of being a family, spiritual focus operationally distinguishes the school cultures, and spiritual identity is also expressed as the relationship the school has to church. Two findings were identified relating to strategic decisions and change; these findings were that evidence of change should be visible and explicit within the organization and organizational change relates directly to focus for growth from the leader. These findings from this study support the conclusions that 1) Christian school leaders have a direct influence on the values and direction of the school’s organizational culture; 2) the Christian school’s organizational identity has a direct influence on the focus of the leader, and 3) changes targeted in Christian schools reflect the focus of the leader on growth. Findings from this research suggest that organizational culture is highly contextualized and as a result strategic thinking and decision-making on the part of the leader are also highly contextualized. Contextualization increases as the leader seeks to grow the organization or to change the organization. Understanding contextualization that exists, and how organizational culture changes as strategic decisions are made by the leader, has implications for further research in effective leadership, effective change, strategic thinking, and growing effective organizational cultures including private and public institutions of higher education and public and private corporate institution.

The aims of this study were to define an Australian boarding school, provide a summary of international and Australian boarding school literature, and complete a small-scale qualitative investigation of students' views in a co-educational boarding school. At first glance, it appeared that contemporary Australian boarding schools were a reproduction of the influential public boys' schools of Great Britain. Although there have been a number of histories of Australian independent schools, the boarding element has often been portrayed as Dickensian and remains an overlooked area of educational research. In particular, the literature available about Australian residential schooling over the past 20 years has been limited to a handful of significant studies by Cree and Trimingham Jack. In this study 45 Australian and overseas students were asked to write memoirs of 4-5,000 words about their boarding experience emphasising their thoughts, feelings and aspirations. The limitation was that all respondents were full-time boarders for at least one year when the questionnaire-survey was completed. The memoir-based humanistic approach of the Polish- American sociologist Florian Znaniecki, as developed for the analysis of personal and group social systems in the culturally diverse context of Australia by J. J. Smolicz, was employed to interpret the memoir data. The memoir method has been well documented in Australia, as a means of collecting and analysing concrete and cultural facts, mainly in relation to the study of minority ethnic groups and their cultural actions. The humanistic approach emphasized that the researcher must accept cultural phenomena from the viewpoint of its participants and not from that of an outside observer. In the present study, this approach permitted the researcher to understand the experiences and attitudes of individual students towards an Australian co-educational boarding education through their own eyes. The memoirs analysed were generated from 26 concrete questions, which revealed place-of-birth, ethnic identity, and languages spoken at home. This provided the researcher with verifiable information about the everyday lives of the respondents. The second half of the memoirs required response to 23 questions - these yielded cultural data. These questions required students to reflect on their situation, attitudes and experiences of boarding as a system of education. This information could only have been provided by the participants themselves and gave the researcher direct access to the memoir writers' individual and group consciousness. The study discovered that a number of the students were in the process of re-evaluating and re-interpreting the advantages and disadvantages of boarding school as a social system transmitted to them by parents, friends, family, and teachers. The respondent's personal statements revealed that the relationships among students and among students and staff in the boarding House tended to be primary in nature, in that they were personal, informal, and involved the entire human personality. From these data, it appeared that the success of a boarding school was determined by the personal atmosphere, support, and comfort of the boarding House. Consideration of the empirical data found that 43 of the 45 respondents' memoirs believed that their overall experiences at the research boarding school were positive. Negative observations stressed the pressures of homesickness, tedium of school life and a lack of freedom thereby supporting Goffman's view of a "total institution". The majority of students' memoirs were ambivalent towards religion at the research school. Nevertheless, 11 stressed its significant implication in their day-to-day lives. The memoirs suggested that an education at the research boarding school was a crucible that forged students through a variety of experiences, positive and negative, individual and collective, for life. Overall, the memoirs support the observation that boarding school acts as a social system for the acceptance of new cultural values, such as the cultural diversity respondents' experienced in their lives at boarding school. The study revealed an attitudinal shift in the group that welcomed the cultural pluralism of the school and recognised the cultural monism of the home. These memoirs revealed that boarding school was a significant factor in fostering independence and embracing cultural diversity as experienced in the crucible of the boarding school. These findings challenged the popular maxim that an Australian residential education was an anachronistic, inflexible, colonial-British model and suggested that it has the potential to act as a system of education that prepares its students for the challenges of life. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Education, 2004.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 107-117). Also available in print.