The past decades have witnessed the evolution of the standards movement from a focus on basic graduation requirements to robust curriculum efforts, standardized testing, new standards for teacher qualifications, and emphasis on monitoring student learning. National attention on the performance of public schools has triggered a growing interest in data use as a means to change school practices to meet the demands for new standards. Both federal and state mandates and standards imposed on schools are intensifying the pressure to have all students learn at high levels. Leaders are being asked to work in different ways, using different tools. Education policy has shifted leadership expectations from an emphasis on management to one of accountability and responsibility for student academic performance. Using evidence to make decisions is the expectation for principals today. This study examined the principal as an instructional leader within the context of effective data use. The research investigated data principals use, barriers and facilitators they encounter when using data, and structures they create to promote data-informed instructional decisions. The case study employed a mixed-method approach, using quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus groups, and surveys. The framework for data analysis was the constant-comparative method guided by six recursive steps. Data were subjected to several levels of descriptive analysis, whereby the emerging categories become the basis for the organization and conceptualization of the data. Findings identified that data use among principals was fragmented within the district. Overall, there was no apparent sense of urgency regarding data use across most of the schools in the study. With the exception of a few schools, no systems or processes were in place for data use. If data use was embedded in the culture of the school, it was due to the skill of the individual principal and the structures he or she developed within the school to support data use. The variations in data use brought attention to the autonomy found in the loosely coupled organizational structure of schools in the study. Lack of a district-wide vision for data use allowed principals significant freedom in determining which data to use as well as how to use data. This study illuminated the need for a district-wide plan to guide the schools in data use as well as the need to develop a collaborative effort between the district office and schools to promote and support principals in an effort to become effective data users. / text

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This study was purposed to extract, collate, and statistically format data contained in the national Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) Longitudinal Study: 1996-2001 database that pertained to persistence and attainment rates of GED recipients who began their postsecondary education at a community college during the 1995-96 academic year. The primary objective was to reckon the attrition rate of GED recipients during their first year of enrollment (FY 1995-96), and to measure degree or certificate attainment rates of that particular cohort of GED enrollees at the end of a 6-year study period (FY 2000-01). Several significant findings related to the academic prowess and characteristics of a cohort of GED students who enrolled in public 2-year educational institutions during the BPS:1995-96 study period are presented in this study. One of those findings is that the attrition rates of the GED recipients and the high school graduates who concurrently enrolled full-time at community colleges during the 1995-96 academic year were closely proximate by the end of their first year of enrollment (52.6% HS dropout rate versus 54.8% GED dropout rate). Another interesting finding is that accumulated GPAs of GED recipients who participated in the BPS:1996/2001 and who persisted through their first academic year as full-time enrollees in community colleges were slightly higher than their counterpart BPS:1996/2001 cohort of high school graduates who concurrently enrolled at community colleges. The statistical data reported in this study were garnered from a database administered by the US Department of Education; however, because this study presents its findings in the form of raw, unweighted data, it does not statistically reflect national representativeness. / Graduation date: 2004

This study looked at the environmental factors present during testing for the spring 2004 administration of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in an attempt to quantify some of the factors that were previously only qualitatively reported. Five factors were examined for their ability to predict passing percentages of students on the CASHSEE at the school level. The results indicated that socioeconomic status was the only significant predictor.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education