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School quality and school choice are two hotly debated issues within current academic research, and the two topics are not wholly disconnected from one another. School quality literature includes debates over the most accurate definition, or definitions, of what constitutes school quality. Research addressing school choice often includes references to issues of school quality, albeit with different conclusions about the level of importance school quality plays in actual school choice decisions. In order to understand families' decisions about schools, one must recognize not only the ways in which perceptions of quality influence choices, but also that school quality and school choice are, at the same time, conceptually distinct topics. Therefore, the primary question guiding my research asks, is there a relationship between families perceptions of quality education and the school choices they ultimately make. More specifically, my research first explores how families determine what constitutes a quality school, and second, how that informs the schools they select for their children. I examine six distinct types of school choice options families may choose for their children: private, neighborhood public, magnet, charter, non-neighborhood public, or homeschooling. I investigate whether or not family assessments of quality vary along racial or socioeconomic lines and whether such variation explains some differences in families school choices by these sociodemographic characteristics. I explore families behavior during their search for their children school to determine if any racial or socioeconomic variation exists in how different families conduct this search. I also examine factors that may prevent some families from actualizing their ideals of school quality in their choices. In other words, are there obstacles to particular school choices for families from diverse social backgrounds? Data in this study comes from the Pennsylvania and Metropolitan Area Survey, collected with the Philadelphia Indicators project and Temple University Institute of Public Affairs. This survey includes households within five Pennsylvania counties; Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties as well as four counties in New Jersey: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem counties. This sample includes only households including at least one school aged child (enrolled in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade) proving a sample size of N = 589 households. My findings demonstrate that significant variation by race and class exist in families perceptions of school quality, in specific school characteristics they report represent the most important indicator of school quality, in the number of school choice options families consider during the process of school choice decision making, in specific factors families report as most important for school choice decisions, and finally in the actual school choices families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds make for their children education. Research about how families choose schools and how this decision making process differs by race and socioeconomic status can serve to inform discussions about increasing the amount of public choice schools such as magnets, charters, non-neighborhood public school transfer programs. This research has the potential to assist policy-makers in determining whether expanding such choice options may result in either an increase or a decrease in the ability of racial minorities and those with fewer financial means to attend quality schools. This research may also help determine whether current levels of school segregation along racial and class lines will improve or worsen as families ability to choose schools for their children expands. In Chapter 5 of my study, the unit of analysis for my sample size changes from families (N = 589) to the total number of school choices those 589 families made for their children, resulting in a sample size of N = 655 choices used only in Chapter 5. / Sociology

The purpose of this study was to identify what high school principals indicate are effective strategies and interventions to reduce chronic student absenteeism. Research has shown chronic student absenteeism is highest among high school students (Stronge and Associates, 2019; U.S. Department of Education, n.d.), and effects may include low academic achievement, possible high school dropout, and poor outcomes in adulthood (Elias, 2019; Ready, 2010; Stronge and Associates, 2019; Virginia Department of Education [VDOE], n.d.). Chronic student absenteeism is one measure of school performance in Virginia and therefore, a responsibility of the school principal to monitor, maintain, or improve (VDOE, n.d). This study sought to answer the following research questions: 1. What strategies and interventions do high school principals indicate they utilize and implement to reduce chronic student absenteeism? 2. What are the perceptions of high school principals regarding the effectiveness of strategies and interventions they utilized and implemented in order to reduce chronic student absenteeism? This study included a survey of 8 Virginia high school principals whose school experienced a reduced rate of chronic absenteeism between 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018- 2019. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) reported chronic absenteeism as a measure of school accountability beginning in 2016. Additionally, this study included semi-structured interviews with 3 of the high school principals. The survey and interview questions aimed to determine various strategies and interventions high school principals implement to reduce chronic student absenteeism, along with the effectiveness of each. Principals in this study reported communication, involving school stakeholders, creating a positive school culture, and utilizing accountability practices as means to reduce chronic student absenteeism. Principals perceived communication and engaging instruction to be effective strategies or interventions utilized in order to reduce chronic student absenteeism, while data collection and management were considered to be least effective. The study suggests principals could engage in those practices perceived as effective in reducing chronic student absenteeism, but also school divisions could provide job embedded professional development to enhance the knowledge and skills of principals related to the topic. / Doctor of Education / The purpose of this study was to identify what high school principals indicate are effective strategies and interventions to reduce chronic student absenteeism. This study also explored how effective principals perceived each strategy or intervention was in regard to reducing chronic student absenteeism. The study included Virginia high school principals whose school experienced a reduced rate of chronic student absenteeism between 2016-2017, 2017- 2018, and 2018-2019. Principals participated in a survey and individual interview; the survey and interview instruments were designed by the researcher (see Appendix G and Appendix H). The study results indicated high school principals are utilizing communication as a strategy or intervention to reduce chronic student absenteeism. Additionally, principals also reported involving various school stakeholders, creating a positive school culture, and utilizing accountability practices in order to reduce chronic student absenteeism. Principals perceived communication and engaging instruction to be effective strategies or interventions, while data collection and management was perceived to be least effective. Future actions could include principals' continued efforts to engage families in practices to reduce chronic absenteeism. Principals could also monitor and support teacher instruction for student engagement. Additional implications and future research to decrease chronic student absenteeism are shared.

Chronic absenteeism is a growing concern nationwide. Millions of students are absent from school, with the number summing to one month's worth of absences per student per year. As a result of Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA), many states have included chronic absenteeism as part of their school quality indicator. For the 2018-2019 school year, attendance was included in standards of accreditation. Reducing chronic absenteeism has long been a goal for many public principals at each grade level nationwide. The purpose of this study was to identify what interventions and strategies principals were implementing to decrease chronic absenteeism. This study further identified principals' perceptions of the interventions and strategies with the greatest and least effect on decreasing chronic absenteeism. A qualitative research design was used with semi-structured interviews to determine principals' perceptions of interventions and strategies to decrease chronic absenteeism. Participants were principals from secondary schools in one urban school district, located in the Southeastern region of Virginia. Findings from the research revealed that principals in this district are implementing interventions and strategies that include: positive behavioral interventions and supports, parent contacts, community partnerships, district supports, and professional development to decrease chronic absenteeism. The findings also suggested that interventions and strategies that help build relationships between the school, students, and parents are being most effective in decreasing chronic absenteeism in this district. Implications for continued decrease in chronic absenteeism at all level of practice are recommended and suggestions for future research / Doctor of Education / The purpose of this study was to identify what interventions and strategies principals were implementing to decrease chronic absenteeism. This study further identified principals' perceptions of the interventions and strategies with the greatest and least effect on decreasing chronic absenteeism. The study included principals from secondary schools in one urban school district, located in the Southeastern region of Virginia. Principals were interviewed using interview questions designed by the researcher (see Appendix E). The research findings identified principals are implementing positive behavior interventions and supports in their schools to decrease chronic absenteeism. They are also implementing parent contacts, community partnerships, district supports, and professional development. The interventions and strategies principals find most effective in decreasing chronic absenteeism are interventions and strategies that help build relationships with students and parents. Future interventions and strategies should include additional efforts to contact parents, an increase in staff to make home visits and students being able to recover or buy back time lost from school due to absenteeism. Implications for practice in the continued decrease of chronic absenteeism are recommended, as well as suggestions for future research.

Thesis advisor: Matthias von Davier / Children internationally are entitled to quality education. International education initiatives monitor education system quality through complex evaluations, historically relying on academic benchmarks operationalized by robust comparative achievement data. However, quality in schooling is evolving to comprise development beyond academic abilities – it should support emotional, social, and psychological development. Valid systems-level evaluations of these features internationally require well-defined benchmarks for school conditions suitably supportive of this development. Emerging international initiatives, such as UNESCO’s Happy Schools Framework, define frameworks for non-academic facets but have not been empirically tested. This study defines school climate health as the intersection of the Happy Schools Framework, existing literature on school climate and wellbeing, and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) Context Questionnaire. This research aims to provide a first step towards defining benchmarks by exploring an international dataset to define existing patterns of interrelated school context variables. This study is responsive to empirical literature and relevant theoretical frameworks for evaluating social systems (systems evaluation, ecological systems theories). An exploratory multilevel latent class analysis (MLCA) of 22 variables is conducted for the 58 participating countries to define four school clusters and three country classes defining the composition and distribution of school climate health internationally. Combining response variables from students, teachers, principals, and parents is a novel application. Characteristics of each school cluster and country class are described. Secondary analyses investigate possible confoundedness of school demographics and possible relationships between school-level average achievement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Education.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the extent to which educational attainment, school quality and numeric competency influence individuals’ employment and earnings prospects in the South African labour market using data from the 2008 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). While NIDS is one of the first datasets to contain concurrent information on individual labour market outcomes, educational attainment levels, numeric proficiency and the quality of schooling received in South Africa, it is also characterised by limited and selective response patterns on its school quality and numeracy measures. To account for any estimation biases that arise from the selective observation of these variables or from endogenous selection into labour force participation and employment, the labour market returns to human capital are estimated using the Heckman Maximum Likelihood (ML) approach. The Heckman ML estimates are then compared to Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates obtained using various sub-samples and model specifications in order to distinguish between the effects that model specification, estimation sample, and estimation procedure have on estimates of the labour market returns to human capital in South Africa. The findings from the multivariate analysis suggest that labour market returns to educational attainment in South Africa are largely negligible prior to tertiary levels of attainment and that racial differentials in school quality may explain a significant component of the observed racial differentials in South African labour market earnings. Neither numeracy nor school quality appears to influence labour market outcomes or the convex structure of the labour market returns to educational attainment in South Africa significantly once sociodemographic factors and other human capital endowment differentials have been taken into account. Though the regression results vary substantially across model specifications and estimation samples, they are largely unaffected by attempts to correct for instances of endogenous selection using the Heckman ML procedure. These findings suggest that the scope for overcoming data deficiencies by using standard parametric estimation techniques may be limited when the extent of those deficiencies are severe and that some form of sensitivity analysis is warranted whenever data imperfections threaten to undermine the robustness of one’s results. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek in watter mate opvoedingspeil, skoolgehalte en numeriese vaardighede individue se werks- en verdienstevooruitsigte in die Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsmark beïnvloed. Die studie gebruik data van die 2008 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). Alhoewel NIDS een van die eerste datastelle is wat inligting oor individuele arbeidsmarkuitkomste, opvoedingsvlakke, numeriese vaardighede sowel as skoolgehalte bevat, word dit ook gekenmerk deur beperkte en selektiewe responspatrone rakende skoolgehalte en die numeriese vaardigheidmaatstaf. Die arbeidsmarkopbrengs op menslike kapitaal word deur middel van die Heckman ‘Maximum Likelihood (ML)’-metode geskat om te kontroleer vir moontlike sydighede wat mag onstaan weens selektiewe waarneming van hierdie veranderlikes of as gevolg van endogene seleksie in arbeidsmarkdeelname of indiensneming. Die Heckman ML-skattings word dan vergelyk met gewone kleinste-kwadrate-skattings wat met behulp van verskeie modelspesifikasies en steekproewe beraam is, om sodoende te bepaal hoe verskillende spesifikasies, steekproewe en beramingstegnieke skattings van die arbeidsmarkopbrengste op menslike kapitaal in Suid-Afrika beïnvloed. Die meerveranderlike-analise dui daarop dat daar grotendeels onbeduidende arbeidsmarkopbrengste is op opvoeding in Suid-Afrika vir opvoedingsvlakke benede tersiêre vlak, en dat rasseverskille in skoolgehalte ’n beduidende deel van waargenome rasseverskille in arbeidsmarkverdienste mag verduidelik. Indien sosio-demografiese faktore en ander menslike kapitaalverskille in ag geneem word, beïnvloed syfervaardigheid en skoolgehalte nie arbeidsmarkuitkomstes en die konvekse struktuur van die arbeidsmarkopbrengste op opvoeding in Suid-Afrika beduidend verder nie. Terwyl die regressieresultate aansienlik tussen die verskillende modelspesifikasies en steekproewe verskil, word die resultate weinig geraak deur vir gevalle van endogene seleksie met behulp van die Heckman ML-metode te kontroleer. Hierdie bevindinge dui daarop dat daar net beperkte ruimte bestaan om ernstige dataleemtes met behulp van standaard parametriese beramingstegnieke te oorkom, en dat die een of ander vorm van sensitiwiteitsanalise benodig word wanneer datagebreke die betroubaarheid van die beraamde resultate nadelig kan raak.

The focus of this thesis is to seek and observe the patterns of economic development around local public schools of varying quality. The Greater Richmond Region (consisting of the City of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico) were used as the basis of the study. The scores for the schools were derived from an equation that took into account some of the main quality aspects. The factors that went into the equation were graduation rates, dropout rates, standardized test scores and AP (Advance Placement) enrollment. The basis of the economic development evaluation is based on a set of indicators published by the King County (Washington) Department of Planning. These indicators include real wages per worker, poverty rate and high school graduation rate. Using GIS, these two data sets were observed for patterns and trends. The findings of this study show that not only do the economic development indicators change based on quality but also on geographic location. This study ends with recommendations for cities to improve both their education systems as well as their economic development opportunities.

The primary objective of the study is to identify the extent to which the current school choice policy in New Orleans has afforded students in underserved neighborhoods or city planning districts the opportunity to attend quality schools elsewhere in the city. Though all students in New Orleans have access to schools outside their neighborhood, more than two-thirds (68%) of public school students attended a school within their planning district or in the adjacent planning district in the 2011-12 school year. In staying close to home, just one-fifth (22 percent) of students attended a quality school. A clear relationship existed between a planning district’s service level and its socio-economic and racial make-up as well as the performance level of its students’ schools. The results of this analysis suggest that the lack of quality schools in low-income and minority areas significantly limits those families’ access to quality schools even under New Orleans’ far-reaching school choice policy.

Research on variables that are related to student academic proficiency has intensified due to the increased emphasis on high achievement for all students. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relative strength of the relationship between the school's learning environment and student achievement, and a literacy benchmark assessment and student achievement. Schools in the state of Utah that administered the Indicators of School Quality (ISQ) survey during the 2010-2011 school year and the Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessments during the same school year were included in the study. The study examined a combination of measures to determine the extent to which an assessment of literacy skills and stakeholder reports regarding the school's learning environment predicted student learning. Results from the ISQ descriptive study showed that students' perceptions of the school climate were more favorable in all domains (parent support, teacher excellence, student commitment, school leadership, instructional quality, resource management domain, and school safety) than the perceptions of parents and teachers. ISQ scores were correlated with the DIBELS results to determine the predictive power of the ISQ and the DIBELS for the Utah Criterion-referenced Test (CRT), the end-of-level, summative assessment used to determine progress toward Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The relationship between literacy skills and academic achievement was statistically significant at the p > .05 level. However, the strongest relationship was between the conditions for learning, a component of the school's learning environment, and academic achievement. This relationship was statistically significant and robust, remaining strong even when the influence of social and economic risk and literacy skills were statistically controlled. These findings suggest the importance of considering the school's learning environment, and possibly other factors, in the instruction and school improvement process.

In recent years, the responsibility for the desegregation of American public schools has transitioned from federal court mandates to school board programs and policies. There is widespread belief that this has resulted in the resegregation of schools across the country. One popular policy that is purported to provide the opportunity for voluntary integration, along with accountability for academic quality, is school choice. The purpose of this study was to consider the implications of such a policy in one large school district. There is an extensive body of research exploring who participates in school choice, how they make their choices, and why they choose the schools their children attend. In contrast, this study was designed to investigate the actual choices made by parents and the impact of those choices on the elementary schools in the district. This quantitative descriptive study examined the racial and socioeconomic composition of students in one district’s elementary schools during the 2009-2010 school year, and explored the extent to which the student populations in these schools would differ if all students had attended their attendance area schools, rather than participating in the district’s voluntary choice plan. The actual 2009-2010 demographics were compared to “counterfactual” demographics for each school. The researcher generated the counterfactual data by removing the students who chose to attend the school and adding back the students who chose to exit the school. These actual and counterfactual demographics for each school were used to compare dissimilarity indices calculated for the district’s elementary schools as they actually were, and as they theoretically would have been without the school choice program. Additionally, the quality of the schools parents chose was investigated. The results showed that, in this district, the school choice plan did not impact the level of integration in the elementary schools. The schools were moderately segregated with the school choice plan in place, but were also moderately segregated based on the counterfactual demographics that represented the district without school choice. Most parents (60%) chose high quality schools, as identified by the state’s accountability plan. However, parents who chose low achieving schools were disproportionately black and poor. Further research is warranted to determine if the mechanics of the school choice plan could be manipulated to improve the level of integration in the district, and to better understand the decisions made by some parents to send their children to low performing schools.