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Concurrent with the public outcry of recent years to improve the quality of America's schools, has come a demand for accountability in public education. This study employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a measure of technical efficiency in the allocation of limited resources in eighty-one non-rural public elementary schools in Western Massachusetts. Three major research questions guided the study: (1) How do the selected elementary schools differ as to the degree of inefficiency when compared with each other? (2) What factors may account for differences in expected achievement among relatively efficient schools? (3) What factors may account for differences in relative efficiency scores? Data were collected for four outputs representing student achievement and for sixteen inputs representing a balance of school, student and teaching resources. Preliminary analysis reduced the number of inputs to eight. DEA results indicated that of 81 schools, 37 (or 46%) were found to be efficiently utilizing their resources and 44 (or 54%) were found to be inefficient to varying degrees. DEA provided for each school a relative efficiency index, an identified peer set of efficient schools, optimal weights assigned to inputs and outputs, and estimates of the augmentations in outputs and/or the reductions in inputs (i.e., slack values) that could be attained if efficiency were to be achieved. Since the DEA analysis results identified the sources and degree of inefficiency, the factors could be adjusted to remove these inefficiencies and thus the variables which influenced student achievement could be determined; four inputs were found to be significant. Five inputs (representing three areas of resources) were identified as contributing most to differences in relative efficiency scores by being overconsumed, or underutilized, in a significant number of schools. The study concludes that the strength of DEA lies in its ability to identify empirically-based sources and amounts of inefficiencies in a multiple outputs-multiple inputs settings. Limitations exist primarily in the availability of data for outputs and inputs. Finally, DEA can add significantly to renewal at the school level by providing school decision makers with the tools to make valuable and effective choices.

After a decade dominated by studies and rhetoric about school reform, a national report card released on January, 1990, indicated that children showed no improvement in writing. The purpose of this research was to determine if by using the Cumulative Writing Folder Program, a mandated Program, with the additional use of sentence combining as a revision strategy urban fifth graders would improve their writing in the six areas of topic development, organization, supporting details, sentence structure, word choice, and mechanics. This study fit in with the existing knowledge and research in the field. It focused on the writing habits of fifth grade students and examined a program that improved their writing skills. This study used concrete strategies in a well-defined writing program to improve revision processes for students which added to the current research in this area. John Collins' Cumulative Writing Folder Program was incorporated in the design of the study. Both the experimental and control groups utilized the Cumulative Writing Folder. The experimental group used sentence combining as a revision strategy. The teacher instructed this group on the techniques of sentence combining and instructed them to use this strategy to revise their writing samples. In September and June the two groups produced writing samples which were analytically scored by independent scorers. An analysis of the comparison of the pre and post scores of the experimental group with the control group in the six variables was given. Results showed that the overall writing performance of the experimental group showed improvement at a significant level. In the variable of topic development, there was a level of significance. The five variables which showed no level of significance were organization, mechanics, supporting details, sentence structure, and word choice. The study suggested that a well defined writing program with the revision strategy of sentence combining did provide overall improvement in the quality of writing over the course of the school year. The study further suggested that more research and subsequent solutions to the problem of the inferior quality of writing at the elementary level needed addressing. It indicated clear directions for further study.

This study investigated the concept of teacher empowerment and its relationship to school structure and teacher motivation. The focus of the study was on elementary classroom teachers of kindergarten to fifth grade level. The sample (N = 192) was drawn from 21 selected schools representing eight different school districts in southeastern Massachusetts. The researcher utilized a survey questionnaire to test two basic hypotheses: (1) Teachers' perceptions of school structure influence the degree of teacher empowerment evidenced in the school; (2) a school structure based on the teacher empowerment concept enhances teacher motivation. Those teachers who perceived their school structure as democratic reported the presence of more teacher empowerment elements in the school environment and demonstrated greater teacher empowerment than did those teachers who perceived their school structure as autocratic or laissez faire. Teachers who perceived their school structure as democratic indicated that their teaching motivation is provided from a greater variety of sources than do those teachers who perceived their school structure as autocratic or laissez faire. Based on the research findings, the researcher concluded that teachers who perceive their school structure as democratic report more opportunities to exercise teacher empowerment and consequently, evidence greater empowerment than do those in a perceived autocratic or laissez faire structure. The researcher also concluded that a democratic school structure is a facilitating environment for teacher empowerment and enhances teacher motivation by providing a wide range of motivational sources for teachers.

Against a backdrop of pressure for change in teacher education (Carnegie Forum, 1986; Holmes Group Report, 1986; United Kingdom White Paper, 1983) Feiman-Nemser and Floden (1986) produced a comprehensive review of research in the area of teacher education. Amongst other issues, they identified three broad areas of teacher development--"A model of changes in teacher concerns, a model based on cognitive-developmental theories, and a style of inservice education emphasizing teachers' own perceptions of their needs." (Feiman-Nemser and Floden, 1986, p.522). Since the first two approaches seemed to possess some common characteristics in that Fuller's (1969) stages of teacher concern were similar to cognitive-developmental stages, it was decided to try to establish whether there was any relationship between cognitive-developmental stage level, and the levels of concern expressed by teachers. As this study was regarded as an initial exploration of the topic, and as empirical studies in the area had produced confusing results, it was seen as an appropriate project for a qualitative approach to research. Accordingly, two groups of volunteers (12 experienced teachers from a Massachusetts elementary school, and 10 education seniors from the School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) were administered David Hunt's (1978) Paragraph Completion Method (PCM) and George's (1978) Teacher Concerns Questionnaire (TCQ). On the basis of Conceptual Level scores, four students and four teachers were chosen for follow-up interviews, and the interview data collated and analyzed. The results of this analysis showed that cognitive-developmental level does affect the profiles of concerns of teachers, and it can be inferred from the study that it also affects the patterns of change of teachers' concerns. The results also cast some doubt on the validity of the TCQ instrument.

The purpose of this study was to assess the Stages of Concern of southeastern Massachusetts elementary administrators and regular classroom teachers toward cooperative learning. Of the eighty school districts surveyed, thirty-four systems indicated that they were using cooperative learning. A stratified random sample of twenty-four school districts was selected using the Massachusetts Department of Education's kind of community classification system. Forty-six elementary administrators and eighty-five classroom teachers participated. Two data-gathered instruments were used: one to measure the seven hypothesized Stages of Concern about cooperative learning and one to gather personal information. The Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) was used to gain insight into concerns of elementary administrators and teachers about cooperative learning. The dependent variables in the study were scores assigned by administrators and teachers to each of the 35 items on the SoCQ. Independent variables came from the Demographic Survey Instrument and included: role, gender, training, age, education level, and experience. Eleven null hypotheses were developed using a.05 level of significance criterion. Five hypotheses of difference were constructed around role, gender, and training. The t-test was used to evaluate each hypothesis and all five null hypotheses were accepted. Six hypotheses of association were built using age, education level, and experience. The Pearson r test was used to make a decision regarding each hypothesis and all six null hypotheses were accepted. Descriptive analysis revealed that 57.5% of the school districts have not initiated cooperative learning programs at the elementary school level. Systems using cooperative learning revealed that more than 70% of the respondents' highest concern scores were located at the early development Stages. The following conclusions were reached: (1) some students are being deprived of cooperative learning, (2) the majority of administrators and teachers have immature concerns about cooperative learning, and (3) leaders need to initiate actions or events that will resolve professional concerns about cooperative learning.

This study reported on a teacher training project designed by the District of Columbia Public Schools (D.C.P.S.) to develop a cadre of exemplary teachers from an indigenous population of D.C.P.S. graduates and outstanding educational aides. The context of the study reported on university collaboration with the public school system to improve its teacher training program and described the Systematic Teacher Preparation Program (STPP) based on the perceptions of the teacher trainee toward the program. Data for the study were collected through two basic tools of qualitative research: interviews and document analysis. The case study subjects were students who were elementary and secondary majors in the teacher education program at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and were participants in the STPP. Case study subjects were randomly selected from first, second, third and fourth year elementary and secondary STPP participants. The sample group consisted of fifteen STPP students. The design for the study was a single case study action research format. A one hour interview was conducted with each subject based on a general interview guide with an open-ended format. The researcher concentrated on the subject's reason for selecting education as a major, the supports that sustained the subject in the program, and the subject's work experience in education. The subject was asked to reflect on what teacher training experiences meant to him or her. The impact of the practicum experience over a four year period compared to a twelve week traditional student teaching period was explored. The findings and conclusions of this study revealed that teacher trainees: (1) selected education as a major because of a desire to work with young people, (2) were influenced by a family member to major in education, (3) sustained an interest in education through the STPP staff, the clinical experience, and local school faculty, (4) needed increased involvement of program monitors, (5) were satisfied with STPP, (6) performed excessive non-instructional activities, and (7) were taught a traditional teacher education program at UDC.