This study investigated the perceptions of 11 successful elementary school principals from seven school districts in southern Arizona. The principals were identified by their district superintendent or assistant superintendent as exemplifying the eight characteristics of successful principals described by Joekel, Wendel and Hoke (1994). Qualitative methodology was used to inductively analyze and describe response data collected through in-depth interviews. These interviews consisted of open-ended questions regarding: effective leadership, school culture, vision, school improvement, empowerment, staff motivation, shared decision making, teacher instructional leadership, conflict, the changing nature of the principalship, and educational administration pre-service education. These perceptions were then compared to descriptions of effective practice as described in current literature on transformational leadership, leadership standards accepted by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration, and current literature on educational administration pre-service reform efforts. The following are some findings that emerged from this study. These successful principals placed the needs of students in the center of all their decision making. This appeared to be the prime transformational behavior that awakened intrinsic motivation among staff members. Moreover, they demonstrated transformational leadership behaviors that included meeting intrinsic needs of followers, visionary leadership, building collaborative school cultures, and putting teachers in roles of instructional leadership. However, despite the presence of these behaviors, it appeared that they had a poor objective understanding of the transformational epistemology. Specific recommendations were made to better prepare school leaders to be the transformational leaders that researchers believe are necessary to successfully lead schools as we approach the turn of the century. The principals in this study believed their pre-service educational administration program was inadequate in preparing them for their role as principals. They believed pre-service programs need to define a body of knowledge and create a cohesive curriculum to teach the skills that administrators need to know to be effective leaders in their schools. Specific recommendations were made to improve educational administration graduate programs.

The purpose of this study was to examine the discourse of six selected Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA) session transcripts for effective and promising procedures, questions and discussion strategies. Data sources consisted of session transcripts and interviews to determine how the RMA team's discourse accomplished their intended purposes across six RMA sessions with a fourth grade reader. Phases of the analysis included (1) verifying the existing data sets, (2) selecting six RMA sessions from the set of eleven, (3) conducting and analyzing interviews with the RMA team, (4) structural analysis of sessions, (5) speech act analysis of discourse moves, (6) sequential analysis of question cycles, (7) categorization of patterns that emerged in the data. Three broad discourse themes, based on the RMA team's stated purposes for the RMA sessions, guided the categorization of team members' talk: (1) discourse moves providing revaluing, (2) discourse moves providing instruction, and (3) discourse moves encouraging the reader's strategy use. The structural analysis of the RMA sessions generated elements of the instructional sequences and phases that made up each session, and a profile of RMA session procedures. Findings revealed: the RMA team used a wide range of question types to analyze miscues; discourse patterns involved in instruction and revaluing involved a variety of question cycles, position statement and 'you-statements' about the readers' reading strategies; problematic discourse sequences stemmed from problematic questions, responses and belief structures involved in interactions; by analyzing other readers in comparison with his own reading the reader's self-concept increased.

This study utilized a correlational research design to investigate the relationships between facilitative, transformational and transactional leadership behaviors in elementary school principals. Quantitative data was collected on elementary teachers' perceptions of their building principal's leadership behaviors and leadership outcomes using two reliable and valid survey instruments, The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 1995) and The Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 1995). One hundred forty-six elementary teachers completed the complete Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and a portion of The Leadership Practices Inventory that included only those questions that were designated by Kouzes and Posner (1995) to measure the construct enabling others to act. For the purposes of this research, facilitative leadership was operationally defined as enabling others to act, defined by Kouzes and Posner (1995) as fostering collaboration by promoting cooperative goals, strengthening others by giving power away, providing choice, developing competence, and offering visible support. Pearson's Product-Moment Coefficients were used to examine the relationships among principals' leadership outcomes and each of the three leadership constructs. Three multiple regression analyses were completed, one for each dependent variable of leadership outcomes, to determine which, if any, were significant predictors of a dependent variable. Facilitative leadership was the strongest predictor of each of the leadership outcomes of the principals' effectiveness (65% of the variance), the teachers' satisfaction with the principal (70% of the variance), and the teachers' willingness to put forth extra effort (63% of the variance).

With a representative sample of 487 elementary schools serving 3 rd grade and 490 elementary schools serving 5th grade in Arizona, this study examined the relationship between student mobility and student academic achievement. Controlling for student family background and school characteristics, multiple regression analysis revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between mobility and academic achievement for math, reading and language in 3rd and 5th grade. This negative effect was pronounced for high SES schools. For all regression analyses performed, a key finding was that much of the variation in standardized test scores for math, reading and language in both 3rd and 5th was consistently explained by mobility, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Separate analyses were conducted for low SES, middle SES, and high SES schools. A comparison of the means reveals a stark reality. Low SES students in Arizona have higher mobility rates, are more likely to be Hispanic or other minority ethnicity, are poor, and are taught by teachers with less experience and education compared to high SES students. However, regression results show that mobility was not significantly related to academic achievement for low SES students; rather an unexpected consistent statistically significant negative effect on achievement was observed across all subject areas for 3rd and 5 th grade for high SES students.

Purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship that exists between school culture and school safety. The principle school culture subscales measure (1) Collaborative Leadership, (2) Teacher Collaboration, (3) Professional Development, (4) Collegial Support, (5) Unity of Purpose, and (6) Learning Partnerships. The safety subscales utilized were (1) Valuing Influence of Teachers and Staff, (2) Feelings of Fear and Lack of Safety, (3) Stressors and Daily Discomforts, and (4) Positive Attitude Toward School Environment and Community. This relationship was surveyed using the School Culture Survey (Gruenert & Valentine, 1997) and the Inviting School Safety Survey (Lehr & Purkey, 1997) among seven metropolitan elementary schools in one Southwestern section of the United States. Procedures. The study included seven elementary schools. Teachers in each school were surveyed on numerous aspects of culture and safety. Teacher data were collected through surveys. Two hypotheses were tested using Pearson-Product Moment Correlation to determine if any of the six subscales of culture from the School Culture Survey correlate with the four safety subscales of the Inviting School Safety Survey. Ordinary Least Squared Regression was used to identify school culture factors that predict school safety factors. The six subscales of culture from the School Culture Survey were used as predictor variable for each of the four Inviting School Safety Scales. Findings. A high level of correlation was found between teachers' perceptions of school culture subscales with School Safety subscales when controlling for the variables of SES, percent of special education students, mobility rate, and number of students. A statistically significant predictive relationship was found for the School Culture subscales with each of the School Safety subscales. Low correlation and low predictive relationships was found for the six School Culture subscales with the School Safety subscale of Feelings of Fear and Lack of Safety. If schools are to be safe for all students, school leaders must change the culture of their schools.

This study involved a sample of 66 regular classroom teachers, grades K through 5, from a local school district. Subjects were given a measure of preference for two types of cooperative interventions designed to meet the needs of mildly handicapped students in the regular classroom (collaborative and consultative interventions). The results indicate that the teachers had no preferences of one type of intervention over the other and that the two variables measured were positively correlated. These results seem to indicate that those teachers who are willing to cooperate with special education personnel were flexible in the approach used, while others did not support either type of intervention. Respondents' comments reflect a strong concern for large class size and fairness to non-handicapped students.

This thesis presents theory and rationale for an arts-based curriculum for literacy in regard to philosophical, psychological, and sociological questions in curriculum design. A conceptual framework for an arts-based curriculum model is described in terms of structure, content, community, organization, and implementation. Planning features and formats are presented. Criteria and instruments for assessment of the model and child response to implementation are described and interpreted. The arts-based curriculum model was implemented in a classroom during the 1986-1987 school year. Observations were recorded and selections are presented in narrative form. The observations are discussed in relation to concerns of children, literacy learnings through art concepts, application of arts and language arts skills, and classroom management. Recommendations for implementation of the model and for further research are included.

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<p> In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) identified scientifically based reading instructional practices in the five key areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency vocabulary, and comprehension. The purpose of this study was to determine the strength of the relationship between the degree of implementation of scientifically based reading instruction in K-3 and Grade 3 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) Reading achievement in school districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA). Research indicates that throughout the past decade, these same instructional practices were found to be effective. As educators in K-3 worked to prepare students for high-stakes testing in reading, the degree of implementation of these instructional practices were being examined. In this quantitative study, 132 K-3 classroom teachers in 20 schools completed the Revised Teacher's Implementation of Scientifically Based Reading Instruction (TISBRI) survey to determine the school-wide level of implementation of scientifically based reading instruction. Teacher experience within each school was also studied. The results of the survey were compared to the 2012 Grade 3 PSSA Reading mean scale score for each school. Inferential statistics determined that no correlation existed between the level of implementation of scientifically based reading strategies and Grade 3 PSSA Reading achievement. There was a correlation between years of teaching experience and level of implementation of scientifically based reading strategies. The study also concluded that scientifically based fluency instruction correlated to scientifically based reading instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.</p>