<p> The Davis Teachers Association has asserted that the Davis Joint Unified School District&rsquo;s (DJUSD&rsquo;s) beginning salary steps are lower than the starting salary steps of districts that the district competes against for the same pool of qualified teachers, and that, as a result, the DJUSD is unable to recruit high-quality teachers. Complicating this matter, the 2007&ndash;2012 recession significantly decreased the number of college graduates entering the teaching profession in California; the resulting teacher shortage makes the recruitment and retention of teachers very competitive among school districts. Viewing this issue within the context of starting salary and career earnings magnifies the need for districts to be creative in the way they advertise their salary schedules. </p><p> To assist school districts with the creative presentation of their salary schedules, this study develops the cumulative salary index (CSI). Simply defined, CSIs calculate total salary earnings for a specific block of time. Within that context, the aim of this study is to understand how beginning and ending salary differences between DJUSD and 12 other Sacramento-region school districts influence long-term earnings for teachers. From that standpoint, I ask two research questions. First, how do specific steps on the Davis teacher salary schedule compare to similar salary steps of 12 other Sacramento-region school districts that compete for the same beginning and veteran teachers, before and after integrating health benefits? Second, do districts that offer higher first and final salary steps have greater CSIs than those that offer lower first and final salary steps? I also examine the influence(s) that school site and district environmental conditions may have on teacher recruitment and retention. </p><p> I use a straightforward methodology to answer the research questions. To address the first research question, I compare specific salary steps for each of the 13 study districts, before and after the integration of health benefits. To answer the second research question, I develop educational pathway scenarios and five-year block scenarios to measure and compare the 13 districts&rsquo; various CSIs. The findings show that DJUSD&rsquo;s overall salary ranks pretty low across a variety of cells and CSIs in comparison to the other study districts. The findings also reveal that the integration of health benefits into the teacher salary schedule either positively or negatively influences how a district&rsquo;s salary ranks. Additionally, CSI comparisons between the 13 study districts reveal that just because a district has the lowest starting salary does not mean that its teachers will have the lowest career earnings. Finally, findings from this study provide additional evidence to the body of literature demonstrating that teachers are willing to compromise wages in exchange for favorable environmental conditions at school. </p><p> Based upon the observations made from this study, I recommend that school districts implement policies and practices that improve environmental conditions for teachers. As a way to provide a more comprehensive view of teacher salary, I also recommend that school districts create, promote, and utilize various CSIs when recruiting teachers.</p><p>

<p> An increase in the property tax rate of a school district creates an increase in local revenues for the district (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. [MODESE], 2017). The overarching question becomes: Do increases in the local tax levy compare to improved student performance? The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the difference between property tax rates of Missouri public school districts to student performance as viewed through the lens of benefit tax theory (Duff, 2004). Secondary data were obtained via the MODESE which included property tax rates and information from the Annual Performance Reports for public school districts for academic years 2014&ndash;2015, 2015&ndash;2016, and 2016&ndash;2017. The categories examined from the Annual Performance Reports were: academic achievement, subgroup achievement, career and college, attendance, and graduation. Public schools with higher tax rates were found to have the best attendance rates and the highest graduation rates. Overall, public school districts with higher tax rates realized higher Annual Performance Report scores.</p><p>

<p> As a local education agency, school districts play an important role in providing instructional support for teachers and school leaders, making instructional goals, and allocating financial and human capital resources in a rational way to promote overall students&rsquo; learning outcomes. Studies on school districts that look to find reasons or characteristics related to school district success are known as <i>district effectiveness research </i> (DER). Previous quantitative research in DER using longitudinal dataset has assumed that all school district effectiveness (SDE) changes in a common pattern through a traditional ordinary linear regression or a hierarchal linear model while ignoring the probability that there might exist distinct subgroups of school district effectiveness trajectories. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of different SDE trajectories and how school district demographic variables and financial expenditures affect classification of SDE groups using a growth mixture model (GMM) with a national longitudinal dataset containing all public school districts in all 50 states and Washington D.C. from 2009 to 2015 (<i>n</i> = 11,185). The results indicated that (a) there are three different classes of school district effectiveness growth trajectories, which can be named as a constant SDE group (3.66%), a decreasing SDE group (34.16%), and an increasing SDE group (62.18%); (b) school district demographic characteristics such as a percentage of free lunch students and general administration expenditure per pupil are significantly associated with the probability of a school district being classified to a specific group; and (c) the longitudinal effects of school district demographic covariates and financial expenditures within each class such as school district locations (e.g., urban, suburban, etc.) are associated with the growth factors (intercept and slopes) in different ways. </p><p>

<p> This quantitative study sought to investigate the differences in the electoral outcomes of school bond elections in Missouri from 2009-2016 based on election timing. The researcher utilized election timing theory as a framework for the study. Data from Missouri school bond elections was compiled from online databases, the Missouri State Auditor&rsquo;s office, and archived newspaper reports. Results suggest that differences exist in electoral outcomes for school bond issues based on election timing. The study concludes with recommendations for Missouri school administrators, designed to aid in the successful passage of school bond issues.</p><p>

The purpose of this study is to determine the transferability of the Quality Improvement Process Model implemented at Lively Area Vocational-Technical Center, in which a survey instrument was developed to assess employees' perception of the institution's culture which includes: (1) administrative leadership, cohort relations, general satisfaction; and (2) ability to satisfy various quality standards utilized by business, industry, and other schools, as well as the ISO 9000 Series Registration Program. The survey was administered to approximately 50 percent of this school's personnel. / A second instrument, developed to assess employee perception of the Quality Improvement Process currently being implemented at the school, was a questionnaire administered, one-on-one, to approximately 44 percent of the non-surveyed school personnel. The findings of this questionnaire and the above mentioned survey were triangulated against two other standardized instruments. / This case study has determined that each school must adopt and implement nine basic tenets in the educational setting to successfully implement a Total Quality Education (TQE) improvement process. These nine tenets are: establish a clear and concise "Quality Improvement" mission statement, create a "quality" cultural transformation within the institution, define what quality is according to your customer, educate and train all personnel in "quality" concepts and procedures, work as a team, always place the customer first in the process, establish all personnel's accountability within the "Quality Improvement" process, constantly measure improved processes, and establish a policy for continuous quality improvement. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-05, Section: A, page: 1595. / Major Professor: H. B. Thomas. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

<p> This qualitative study focuses on the duality of the principal-agent relationship experienced by elected community college trustees in the California Community Colleges system; i.e., their roles as principal to the agent role of employee unions, and the quasi agent role in the districts association with the state. It examines this relationship through the lens of the unintended consequences of Proposition 13, including the centralization of school finance at the state level, the de facto change of the property tax from a local tax to a state tax, and the removal of the power of taxation from local boards. The study includes interviews with nine current or former elected trustees whose service began prior to the 1978 enactment of Proposition 13. Four of the nine trustees still held elective office when the interviews for this study were performed in fall 2014.</p>

<p> This study examined strategies teachers are implementing for personal finance instruction in answer to the state financial-literacy mandates in Central Texas. One-on-one interviews, focus groups, and document analysis found that teachers are relying on personal experience, community resources, and Internet resources to instruct in personal finance in absence of personal finance curricula. No data emerged that school districts were providing resources; however, administrators are willing to provide resources if they were available. Teachers are using a variety of creative methods to enhance personal financial literacy in the classroom. Sporadic in-service/professional-development opportunities were available to train teachers in personal financial-literacy instruction; however, many teachers opted not to participate in those events, selecting to depend on their own personal experiences as background. Data from this study also found that there was no evidence of teachers being involved in the curriculum-change process for personal financial-literacy education. </p>

This study is designed to examine senior student affairs officer (SSAO) perceptions of restructuring and budgetary changes experienced by their institutions of higher education. A critical postmodern lens is applied to explore the meaning of SSAO discourse on the context for restructuring of their divisions, on strategies they have chosen to utilize and possible affect on students, staff and student affairs as a profession. This study utilizes two distinct sets of data to examine these issues. First, phone interviews were conducted with 30 senior student affairs officers from public research institutions to gain an in-depth understanding of their discourse surrounding and strategies utilized during restructuring and/or budget decline. Second, a NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators) survey with a return from 389 senior student affairs officers, designed in part from the phone interviews, was utilized to gain a broader perspective of restructuring in various types of institutions. Findings suggest that in response to general higher education restructuring (1) there are clear patterns of strategies utilized by senior student affairs officers; (2) that student affairs officers have responded in some ways that are likely to be beneficial to students and in some ways problematic; (3) that some student groups such as low-income, minority and female students may be disproportionately affected; and (4) that student affairs professional roles are changing to accommodate new responsibilities for fund-raising, increased revenue producing activities and reengineering of job responsibilities to continue serving student needs.

Community colleges are unique among higher education institutions in their potential access to local appropriations as well as state funding. Twenty-six states reported to the Education Commission of the States in 2001 that community colleges in their states received some share of local funding. In research question one, using data for 781 public community colleges, we explore the implications of resource dependency theory for mission differentiation between dual-funded and state-funded colleges. Research question two studies the influences of state demographics, economics, politics and college governance on state and local appropriations. We examine how these factors similarly and differently influence the two streams of public funding as well as how the two interact. We also investigate the question of whether local appropriations "pay off" for community colleges. This work extends prior research that has focused on funding for higher education in the aggregate or for four-year colleges and universities.

In the past five to ten years, state financial support for public colleges and universities has been reduced in relative terms. As direct state funding has declined, colleges and universities have sought alternate forms of support to replace the lost funds, mostly through an increased emphasis on securing contracts and grants. This increased grant seeking behavior has been accomplished through individual departments, the main economic and administrative units within higher education. Administrators at all levels actively encourage faculty members to seek out external sources of funding that will support research directly and sustain departmental administrative functions indirectly through overhead charges. Pfeffer & Salancik's (1978) resource dependency theory is the conceptual framework used to examine whether changes in departmental revenue support patterns affect undergraduate education at major public research universities. Specifically, whether faculty undergraduate productivity is reduced in proportion to the amount of external research financing acquired by academic departments. Resource dependency might explain the behavior of faculty in this regard, revealing that external agents of resource supply and rewards have a significant impact on undergraduate instructional production. To test the theory that resource dependency can explain variation in departmental undergraduate instructional productivity, data from the 1994 survey results of the National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity (NSICP) is examined. This sample data contain information on 27 Research I and II institutions, 93 departments, and 955 data points. Traditional statistical procedures explore the interrelationships between research spending and student credit hours/class sections taught on a per faculty member basis. The primary finding is that the resource dependency framework linking separately budgeted research expenditures (a proxy for external resource provider influence) and faculty undergraduate instructional productivity (a proxy for internal organizational behavior) is not supported. Other factors not evaluated by this study, such as faculty training, faculty and departmental culture within higher education, departmental power and influence, and internal reward structures of departments may hold greater weight in determining faculty undergraduate instructional productivity.