Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-177). Also available via the Internet.

The purpose of this research is to give a historical account of the educational developments for black students in Fairfax County, Virginia. The research will first address a brief history of education in Virginia. The second and third chapters will respectively address education for black students in the state and pre-Civil War education in Fairfax County. Chapters four and five will focus on the formation of post-Civil War public education in Fairfax County and the education of black students within the county. The author will fit the education of Fairfax County's black students into the context of education within the state of Virginia. Comparisons and contrasts can then be made regarding the quality of education offered to black students in Fairfax County. As with many southern communities, the growth of public education was affected by complacent attitudes, agrarian life styles, poor quality roads and lack of transportation. Fairfax County was no exception. Although numerous private and free schools existed prior to the Civil War, few received black students. The education of the black child, then, was left to the mercy and interest of those around him who chose to teach him basic reading and writing. Alexandria, for example, boasted of a large free black population--many of whom were educated in Alexandria when it was a part of Fairfax County. Both philanthropic and missionary agencies supported education for black students. After the Civil War other schools existed such as the Freedmen's Bureau schools. These schools functioned until 1871. By this time free public education was a reality in Virginia and the issue of placing both black and white children in the same school became the major topic of educational discussion. In an effort to avoid integration black students were sent outside of Fairfax County to Manassas and Washington. After years of struggle, Luther Jackson School was built within the county to educate Fairfax County's black students. Other schools were gradually built to accommodate the educational needs of the county's black students. Even though schools were built to educate black students, there were many disparities in terms of the quality of facilities within the buildings. Following the 1954 Brown Decision outlawing de jure segregation school assignment was not based on race for black or white children. As a result, parents could have a voice in school selection. In reality, the Brown Decision offered black parents more voice as these parents often sent their children to the formerly white schools. The general belief by whites was that black schools were inferior. Many of the formerly all-black schools eventually became administrative offices for Fairfax County Public Schools and black students began attending schools in their home districts. / Ed. D.

1. This is a study of 60 white teachers of vocational agriculture in Virginia to determine the desirable content of a farm power and machinery course for vocational agriculture in the high schools of Virginia. The purposes of the study were: a. To determine the nature and content of farm power and machinery units being taught by teachers of vocational agriculture in the high schools of Virginia. b. To determine the teaching units in farm power and machinery that should be included in the high school vocational agriculture course. Based on the teaching experience of the teachers included in this study, it is concluded that the practices being used and recommended by a majority of these teachers should be considered as acceptable guides for all teachers to follow in organizing and conducting their instructional program in farm power and machinery. The recommended teaching units include a study of: determining the place of power and machinery on the farm, preventing accidents on the farm, tractors, transportation equipment, tillage implements, seeding equipment, lime, manure, fertilizer distributors, harvesting equipment, crop processing equipment, clean, grading equipment, spraying, dusting equipment, pumps, rams, miscellaneous farm equipment, and storing equipment. / M.S.

Critical teacher shortages in special education have led to revisions in certification and licensure policies in some states and implementation of initiatives to attract special education teachers in other states. Some of these revisions have allowed unendorsed teachers to be assigned to special education classrooms. The reliance on unendorsed teachers to fill special education vacancies means those working with students with the greatest educational needs may have the least amount of training or teaching experience. However, there have been no investigations of unendorsed special education teachers. / Ed. D.

There is little agreement regarding the identification procedures, characteristics and the definition of emotional disturbances even though the child-serving agencies often share the same clients and the same mandates. Because of these commonalities, a broad range of services are duplicated, lack coordination, and are provided by scarce personnel. The net effect may be no one receives services (LaCour, 1982). Interagency collaboration, touted as a management tool, is a vehicle by which lack of service delivery may be eliminated. According to state and federal mandates, interagency collaboration is to be used, whenever and wherever, services are needed to effectively serve students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed (SED). The purpose of this study was to identify the current level of interagency collaboration available to students within the Commonwealth of Virginia for students labeled seriously emotionally disturbed, ages 5-18, as perceived by special education directors and teachers serving students labeled seriously emotionally disturbed. A School Personnel Perceptions of Interagency Collaboration for Students Identified as Seriously Emotionally Disturbed survey was developed to measure the current level of interagency collaboration for this study. Items included were based on a review of the literature; information generated from informal interviews with special education administrators, special education teachers, and professionals in related fields; and, comments from expert reviewers. Questionnaires were mailed to a sample of thirty six school divisions, which translates into a total of 80 surveys sent to directors of special education and teachers of students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed. The sample was determined by: 1) designating school districts within the Commonwealth according to their Average Daily Membership into large-, medium-, and small- sized districts, and 2) selecting a sample from each size school district. Directors were then contacted and asked for the names of teachers within their school district currently teaching students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests and one way analyses of variance. Post hoc tests were used to determine which means were significantly different from each other. Major findings include: 1) special education directors and teachers of students identified as SED agree that availability of a variety of services is very important to the success of their students. Few significant differences between directors and teachers were found; however, differences did occur with services that focus on the family rather than the child. Teachers found these services to be more important to the success of their students than did directors. 2) While directors and teachers across school district sizes indicated a variety of services were currently available to students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed, there was little agreement between directors and teachers within district sizes as to how much any one service was currently provided. 3) Teachers and directors indicated that, in many cases, they did not know whether or not a certain agency provided a specific service to students identified as in need of services. / Ed. D.

Using transcript analysis as a research methodology, this study investigated student course-taking patterns in general education at three community colleges in Virginia. The sample included three groups: completers and non-completers of associate degree programs and non-curricular students. A panel of experts determined which courses in the curriculum could serve as general education. One purpose of the study was to discover the number and kind of general education courses actually taken by community college students. This was accomplished by identifying the proportion of students' programs taken in general education; the curricular areas of general education in which students concentrated their course-taking; and the types of general education courses taken (basic skills, advanced skills, breadth, integrative, and laboratory or field study). Another purpose was to determine whether course-taking in general education was independent of sex, race, age, and enrollment status (part-time or full-time; daytime or evening). The data indicated that general education was not the"disaster area" described by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1979 in terms of the number of courses taken by students in the sample. However, the programs of many students were out of balance, specifically lacking in mathematics and science. Two types of general education were evident in student transcripts: one kind of general education course was taken by the occupational-technical student; another, by the transfer student. The number of courses taken in different curricular areas of general education was generally related to enrollment status, age, and sex; comparisons across types of students were drawn and recommendations were made. / Doctor of Education

The objective of this thesis was to identify and measure the effect of factors that influenced income earnings of former agricultural students. Data were obtained from a questionnaire mailed to former Virginia Tech students, all of whom were enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences during 1977. An analysis of the 243 respondents was conducted with emphasis on educational profiles, labor market entry and participation, and personal characteristics. Models based on human capital and labor market principles were developed to explain differences in individual incomes. Earned income models were estimated for the first job after leaving college, for the job held in 1985, and for the 1985 job in a lagged formulation. Analysis of covariance was used to estimate the empirical models. Model results for the first job starting income indicated positive returns to education and the provision of profit sharing benefits. Significantly higher starting incomes were also found for males and for those who considered pay as important or very important. In contrast, the year of job entry exhibited an inverse relationship with starting income. No significant differences in first job income were found for college major, type of placement services used, state location of the job, nature of the job (whether agricultural or not), and provision of housing benefits. Model results for the 1985 income, as in the starting income model, indicated positive returns to the provision of profit sharing benefits. Significantly higher incomes were also associated with married respondents, urban residents, and those who ranked oral communication skills as much needed or essential. In contrast, lower incomes were associated with those who ranked a technical skill to be much needed or essential and with those who held more previous jobs. Insignificant variables in the 1985 income model included level of education, college major, state location of the job, nature of the job, personal assessment of the importance of pay, provision of housing benefits, ranking of the need for knowledge of agricultural policy, and gender. Results for the lagged formulation of the 1985 income model were similar to results for the 1985 income model. In addition, prior income was found to be a positive and significant determinant of 1985 incomes. Implications for academic support areas, curricula, and students were presented and discussed / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to determine the professional development needs of business educators in Virginia. An instrument was developed to assess priorities for leaders in business education in Virginia and the Virginia Business Education Association. The priorities were analyzed according to geographic region represented, and demographic factors of the respondents were compared to the priority rankings. Business educators attending regional conferences throughout Virginia during October, 1990 participated in this study. Two hundred and fifty usable instruments were received. A descriptive statistical analysis was used to determine the rank order, mean and standard deviation of the priorities; the same analysis by break-variable was used to determine the mean rankings for each geographic region. Correlations were run to determine relationships between the demographic factors and the priority rankings. Conclusions resulting from data analyses performed and reported in this study are as follows: (1) business educators are concerned with keeping business education relevant to workforce needs, and they are aware of the importance of integrating business education into the academic curriculum; (2) business educators desire their professional organization to act as their advocate at the local and state levels, as well as provide them with regional professional development opportunities; (3) business educators from all geographic regions agreed on their priority rankings for business education leaders and the VBEA; and (4) business educators with advanced degrees and/or more years experience do not differ significantly in their priority rankings from those educators without advanced degrees and fewer years of service. / Master of Science

One of the earliest and most comprehensive elementary school guidance and counseling programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia is located in Roanoke County. An integral component of every elementary school guidance and counseling program is evaluation. The purpose of this study was to design and conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the Roanoke County Elementary School Guidance and Counseling Program in order to determine program effectiveness. Data was collected through questionnaires disseminated to samples comprised of 261 students, 34 teachers, 13 principals, and 280 parents of children in the program. Additional information was gathered from focus interviews conducted with counselors, teachers, and individual interviews with principals. The findings indicate that the guidance program is effective in meeting stated objectives as well as student needs. It was also concluded that program effectiveness could be jeopardized in the future due to the growing number of students and responsibilities required of the counselors. In addition, the data indicated that all populations exhibit a favorable attitude toward the program. / Ed. D.

Staff development, which is designed to help individuals grow personally and professionally in a supportive environment, is an important responsibility of supervisors in state and local education agencies. For teachers entering the field, staff development is particularly important since beginners often find the first years of teaching difficult and overwhelming. However, research related to the training needs of beginning special education teachers is limited. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify competencies which beginning and experienced teachers of students with mild disabilities (emotionally disturbed or ED, educable mentally retarded or EMR, and learning disabled or LD) perceive as being necessary for effective special education teaching and (b) determine differences in training needs among beginning and experienced special education teachers. Survey methodology was used to gather information to answer the research questions. A staff development questionnaire was developed that contained 80 items under 7 broad categories: assessment/diagnosis, individual educational programs and planning, integration and collaboration, curriculum, instructional strategies, behavior strategies, and advocacy issues. The questionnaire was based on Virginia certification requirements, the professional literature, teacher interviews, and expert reviews. Teachers were asked to judge the relevance of the 80 skills to their teaching positions and to rate the extent to which they felt a need for additional training in each of the skill areas. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,056 ED, a EMR, and LD teachers in Virginia. Six hundred two teachers responded for a response rate of 57%. Data were analyzed* using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Major findings of the study include the following: (1) special education teachers perceived that the 80 competencies were extremely relevant to their jobs; (2) both beginning and experienced teachers indicated moderate training needs in the seven areas; (3) beginning LD teachers rated the need for IEP skills higher than experienced teachers; (4) experienced EMR teachers perceived that 5 of the 7 broad categories were more relevant than did beginning EMR teachers; and (5) EMR teachers rated need for training in curriculum higher than LD teachers. Implications for educational agencies, such as information on training priorities and teacher preparation programs are discussed. / Ed. D.