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Ed. D.

Ed. D.

The present investigation took place in the State of Virginia, where the instrument of Statewide change was the Standards of Quality (hereafter SOQ). For the first time in the history of Virginia, performance standards for education were prescribed by the State constitution. The State Board was directed, subject to the ultimate authority of the General Assembly, to prescribe Standards of quality for the Commonwealth's school divisions. It was the goal of the study to define those SOQ factors and processes that affected quality education and to determine to what extent State policy influenced quality education. Inherent in the perception of improved quality of education was the assumption of the academic advancement of students. Correlations and hierarchical (stepwise) analysis methods were used to analyze the effects of SOQ policy implementation school divisions in Virginia from 1972 to 1980. The composition of the total variance in the regression equation was examined to identify the effect of the independent variables, i.e., SOQ policy standards, SOQ financial policy - - per pupil cost and classroom teacher salary, the five year planning process and environmental factors on student achievement in reading, mathematics and language arts as measured by the State standardized testing program. A summary of some significant conclusion of the study follows: 1. State test score norms did improve substantially over the period of implementation of SOQ policy. There was some justification from research findings that SOQ policy contributed somewhat to improved achievement, but non-school factors such as percentage of minorities in the community, family income and student ability were found to have the greatest impact on student achievement. 2. Implementation of SOQ policy did not promote equity in teacher salaries, operational cost per pupil and student achievement in local school divisions in Virginia. If the intent of SOQ policy was the implementation of educational policy throughout Virginia, it must be judged to have been effective in getting localities to meet specific program and personnel quantity standards. Yet, SOQ policy fell far short of assuring equal opportunities for academic achievement for students among the school divisions in Virginia. / Ed. D.

M.S.

This study examined the process of integrating special education students into a regular education program. The study focused on needs, successful strategies, role changes, supervision of teachers, and outcomes of the integration process for a school engaged in transition from more restrictive toward more integrated placement for students in self-contained special education classes. Qualitative interviews were used to elicit self-perceptions of the director of special education, county task force members, principals, teachers of regular and special education, and ancillary staff. These interviews were triangulated with relevant documentation and observations of activities during school days. The study found two distinct styles of supervision in place: 1) a bottom-up approach used by the special education director to guide the county task force as it developed district guidelines; and 2) a top-down approach used by the principal to guide implementation of increased integration at the school level. The study found that progress in implementation of integration was impeded by the fact that teachers of regular education were not represented on the county task force. Other factors which contributed to and impeded integration during the first year of implementation were: 1) a lack of a clear definition of integration at the school level; 2) a perception that positive outcomes of integration are primarily social benefits for students in both regular and special education; and 3) a premise held by all study participants that full inclusion was not feasible in their school. These findings from the local setting are generally consistent with findings from key studies in the literature. Other suggestions were made by participants to formalize integration procedures, to allow teacher choice in acceptance of students with disabilities, to mix classroom placements within the school, and to give a smaller class size to teachers who integrated students into their class. One further recommendation reducing the wide range of abilities within each integrated classroom, was found in the literature reviewed to be a barrier to integration success. / Ed. D.

The summary of the data was presented in five major divisions: 1. The summary of the background data. 2. The summary and conclusions of the extent of the turnover. 3. The summary and conclusions on the location on the turnover. 4. The summary and conclusions of the effect of marital status and sex on the turnover. 5. The summary and conclusions of financial, administrative, teaching experience and certification, health and normal advancement, and miscellaneous other reasons for the turnover. In summarizing the data and drawing the conclusions the writer adhered to two considerations: (1) The questions of the problem should be clearly answered from the data analyzed. (2) The summary and conclusions should reveal clearly to others the result of methods and questions used in this study, which might prove beneficial in future studies of this kind. / Master of Science

M.S.

The Problem.- To determine occupations entered by Agricultural Education graduates of Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1948 through 1958, their financial advancement, and relationship of undergraduate success to success, after graduation. Purposes.- To determine fields of employment, beginning salaries, number who have changed jobs, reasons for job changes, educational advancements, relationship of quality credit average and co-curricular activities to occupational choices and advancement, and curriculum changes graduates thought desirable. Method.- Study was based on student records and on objective questionnaire which was mailed to each of the 333 living individuals to secure additional data. Returns were received from 272 (81.7 percent) of the graduates. Findings.- The 236 Bachelor's degree graduates entered 24 different occupations immediately after graduation, but in 1958 they were employed in 50 different occupations. Beginning salaries for all occupations averaged $3,211, while the 1958 salaries averaged $5,235. Salaries averaged $3,076 for 144 beginning teachers of vocational agriculture. In 1958, 82 teachers of vocational agriculture received salaries averaging $4,643. One hundred and ninety (69.9 percent) graduates changed jobs one or more times since graduation. Better opportunity to advance and to obtain a higher salary were the major reasons for not teaching vocational agriculture and for leaving the profession. Less than 15.0 percent of the graduates earned advanced degrees. There was no definite relationship between quality credit averages or participation in co-curricular activities and fields of employment, but an apparent relationship existed between these factors and success and advancement. Six areas of increased course offerings were suggested. / Master of Science

In a twenty year period beginning in 1935, Virginia college and state officials reacted to increasing pressure from internal and external forces of change. The movement to desegregate public higher education was a major portion of that pressure. The defenses established by the state during these years reflected the interrelation of these forces and the Democratic Machine's attempt to balance all the forces so as to retain the maximum degree of segregated education at the minimum social, fiscal and political costs. Thus the state leaders used, what I have termed "minimal resistance" to the desegregation of their graduate and professional schools rather than the "massive resistance" that followed Brown v. Board of Education. In the 1930s and 1940s, the state did all it could to retain segregated graduate and professional schools for whites with tuition grants to out-of-state schools and the cost-effective growth at Virginia State College. When these were declared insufficient by the U.S. Supreme Court, Virginia joined with other Southern States in joint educational ventures. By 1950, the Virginia officials realized that segregated higher education was all but a lost cause. They became conciliatory to the forces of desegregation in hopes of saving segregation in primary and secondary education. From 1950 to 1955, a period I call "limited desegregation" existed. During these years, the state's white graduate and professional schools admitted a very small number of black students under the "separate but equal" doctrine. The "Machine's" ability to control press and public debate on desegregation, together with contemporary political events and the attitudes of Virginians, account for the sequence of desegregation events in the state. / Master of Arts