Large school districts face a number of challenges due to their sheer size. One of these challenges involves staffing the role of the principal. With Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, large school districts, especially those experiencing growth, have to fill numerous leadership positions. In order to fill these positions efficiently and effectively, many school districts are beginning to develop and implement succession planning programs to expand their internal pool of leadership candidates. Succession planning strategies have been utilized in the business world for years and the education realm is beginning to realize their value. This study explores three large school districts in a southeastern state and their efforts to implement effective succession planning systems. While all three districts have a variety of strategies in place, none of the districts have a comprehensive, written succession plan and corresponding evaluation. Other similarities across the three districts include administrator certification programs, coaching programs, the predominant use of self-selection into succession planning initiatives, the principal position as the focal point, and the value of utilizing the cohort concept. Some differences across the three districts are the departments and positions responsible for succession planning initiatives, the categorization of some strategies as succession planning, and an additional position as a secondary focal point.

The concept of âvisionâ in the principalship is simultaneously extremely important yet surprisingly vague in its definition and practical application. This phenomenological study investigates the ways that principals understand and use the concept of vision in their daily work and their approach to school leadership. The study examines the ways that principals understand and use vision in the daily work of the principal, considering questions of genesis of vision, cultivation of vision, and frameworks for understanding vision. The researcher conducted interviews with five recent Principals of the Year from an urban school district and concludes with a framework for a phenomenological understanding of vision based upon the metaphors used by these principals.

The time is well past for the American people—especially those that deal with our school aged children on a day-to-day basis—to see what is happening to our children and by extension to our society. If public education is to become truly effective in this time of alienation—both of race and class—then a more caring, nurturing, and trusting approach to the profession of educational administration must be encouraged and engendered. The purpose of this study is to examine the middle school administrator as a caregiver by examining the perceptions of the role by teachers and the principal. This study focused on the perceptions of the principal as a caregiver in a selected East Tennessee school. This exploratory descriptive case study included thematic development and verification based on data obtained through qualitative means: interviews, observations, and document analysis. The research questions posed at the beginning of this study include: (1) How does this East Tennessee middle school principal respond to the developmental needs of middle school students?; How does this East Tennessee middle school principal respond to the developmental needs of the teachers who support learning for middle school students?; and (3) How does this East Tennessee middle school principal respond to the developmental needs of the middle school as an innovating entity? A theoretical framework based on the work of Brown and Anfara (2002) and Anfara, Roney, Smarkola, Ducette, and Gross (2006) was used to focus the study’s design, and the data collection and analysis, and the reporting of the findings. Subsequently, the conclusions that were developed in this study describe the perceptions of the role of the caring middle school principal. The first major conclusion is that the developmentally responsive middle school principal responds to students and staff with care. The second conclusion is that the developmentally responsive middle school principal actively practices caring leadership. The final conclusion affirms that the developmentally responsive middle school principal uses the team concept to develop in staff and students a sense of ownership of the school and its programs.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to analyze collaborations involving three teams of educators participating in a school-university partnership, the "My Place, Your Place, Our Place: Integrating Education for the Neighborhood and the World" project. The three groups of educators included the Tennessee team (a school-university partnership), the Bulgaria team (a school-university partnership), and the setting created by the combination of both (a cross-cultural integration). The conceptual framework for this research was based upon Sarason’s (1972) work, The Creation of Settings and the Future Societies. Due to the intercultural nature of this project, Hofstede and Hofstede’s (2005) five dimensions of national culture were used to understand the challenges to collaboration within the combined team. This qualitative case study focused on two research questions. First, what were the challenges in creating collaborations within the three teams of educators involved in the “My Place, Your Place, Our Place (MYO Place)” project? Second, what were the similarities and differences in challenges across these three teams? Data sources included interviews with nine participants from the Bulgaria team and nine from the Tennessee team, a variety of project documents, and field notes. The qualitative software program, Ethnograph Version 5.0, was used to analyze data using the constant comparative method. The principal investigator served as a participant observer. The challenges to collaboration within and across the three settings of the MYO Place project were consistent with Sarason’s (1972) theory, but differences in findings across the three teams were greater than similarities as a result of national cultural distinctions between Bulgaria and the United States. When comparing the Bulgaria and Tennessee teams, the similarities in challenges included the reality of professional role differences, lack of time, the reluctance to establish norms to deal with inevitable conflict, and the lack of resources. In terms of differences, the unique struggles experience by the Tennessee team included a lack of consensus on values and goals, deficiencies in conceptual understanding, and the challenge of achieving shared leadership and ownership. For the Bulgaria team, their distinctive challenges to collaboration included dependence on their partner, meeting the expectations of a foreign partner, and the language barrier. The challenges to collaboration for the combined team were time, distance, language, and primarily the differences in culture. The most significant findings of this research were the challenges to collaboration created by the cultural differences. This study concludes with recommendations for further research and implications for educators engaged in creating collaborative partnerships. This research supports prior knowledge of the difficulty of creating collaboration within new settings and the multiplied complexity when partnerships involve different national cultures.

With increasing pressures to improve student performance, schools are in need of ways to positively affect student achievement that they can control. The concept of organizational health, which includes academic emphasis, teacher affiliation, collegial leadership, resource influence, and institutional integrity, offers educators an opportunity to gauge the climate of their building and in turn positively affect academic outcomes. Using Hoy and Tarter’s (1997) concept of organizational health in elementary schools as a conceptual framework, this study undertook a mixed method approach to examining the relationship between organizational health and student achievement gains in elementary schools. The Organizational Health Inventory-Elementary Version, a 37 item four-point Likert survey, was given to a sample of 25 elementary schools from a southeastern metropolitan school district. The results of the survey were analyzed with value-added student achievement gains using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Quantitative analysis revealed inverse relationships between organizational health, the subcategory academic emphasis, and student achievement gains. A direct relationship was found between organizational health and institutional integrity. Interviews and observations were performed at four of the schools, which were selected through purposeful sampling. These schools were selected based on their survey results and value-added achievement scores. Data from the interviews and observations were analyzed according to Merriam’s (1998) constant comparative method. Qualitative data served to verify and expand upon the quantitative findings.

Schizophrenia is a complicated, serious mental illness that affects about 1% of the population. In addition to the behavioral issues they must contend with, the patients often have other problems including medical illness, substance abuse, noncompliance with treatment and medications, and those involving basic skills. The cost of treating this disabled population is very high, but patient education could be a cost-effective intervention to break the “revolving door” phenomenon of recidivism and rehospitalization. This study examined the readmission rate (recidivism), length of stay, and the intervals between admissions for 279 male and 183 female patients with chronic schizophrenia who either did or did not participate in psychosocial education over a nine (9) year period to determine whether there was a difference between the groups. The findings showed that both the number of patients and return rate (recidivism) for the years following the initial intervention was considerably lower for patients who had the educational intervention and the patients who had the educational intervention had longer intervals between admissions. However, due to uncontrolled-for confounding variables, the average LOS for the intervention group for 4 of the 8 years was greater than the control group.

To the teacher the prospect of the participation of parents in the educational process carries a wide range of emotions. From satisfaction to fear and loathing, the novice teacher to the teacher nearing retirement never seems to be totally satisfied with the product. The parent sees the child not quite being taught to the high expectations they desire, and the teacher sees a student that was not at a level where he should have been when he/she first received them. This study focused on the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on parent involvement in selected East Tennessee Title I schools. This mixed methods case study included both thematic development and verification based on data obtained by both qualitative and quantitative means. The research questions posed at the beginning of this study include: (1) How has NCLB influenced the views of administrators, parents, and teachers regarding the roles of parents in schools?; (2) How has the implementation of NCLB impacted the aspects, characteristics, and components of parent involvement?; and (3) What are the reasons parents of students in East Tennessee Title I schools cite for their involvement or lack of involvement? A theoretical framework based on the work of Epstein et. al. (2002) was used to focus the study’s design, and the data collection and analysis, and the reporting of the findings. Subsequently, the themes that were developed in this study describe the role of leadership in the school and the transmission of information. Also, parents and teachers, cite their lack of knowledge of what the NCLB Act contains about creating opportunities for parents, and the inability of schools to structure roles for parents at the school to enhance parent involvement. A third major theme was the changing culture’s impact on parenting and the realization that the society of the new millennium has caused all contributing parties to look at involvement or lack of involvement from a new perspective.

High academic achievement by students in high-poverty schools is unusual throughout the United States. East Tennessee is no exception. However, there are some schools with high percentages of low socioeconomic student populations, which do excel in helping students reach high academic performance. This study looks at four high-performing, high-poverty elementary schools in East Tennessee to determine how they have overcome the tendency to accept low student achievement as inevitable. By studying the high-achieving, high-poverty schools that exist in East Tennessee to find not only the characteristics that are associated with these effective schools, but also, more importantly, the practices used by educators in these schools, we can begin to provide some answers that will help all schools improve the academic performance of economically disadvantaged students. This mixed-method, multi-site case study involved four elementary schools in East Tennessee that were selected because of high test scores and value-added scores on the Annual Report Card issued by the state of Tennessee. Using quantitative data (The More Effective Schools Staff Survey) and qualitative data (interviews with the principal and at least two teachers at each school along with observations), this study sought to answer the following two research questions: (1) Which of the characteristics of Effective Schools do high-performing, high- poverty schools in East Tennessee have in common? (a) How do these characteristics correspond to those identified in the Effective Schools Research? (b) How do the characteristics differ from those identified in the Effective Schools Research? (2) What underlying conditions (i.e., values, beliefs, and culture of the school) or distinctive practices must be present for the Effective Schools practices to exist? A clear school mission, high expectations for success, instructional leadership, frequent monitoring of student progress, opportunities to learn and student time on task, a safe and orderly environment, and a positive home-school relationship – the seven correlates of the Effective Schools Research – were all found to be present in the four schools studied. The underlying conditions or distinct practices included strong commitment of teachers and staff members at each school; teachers were held accountable for teaching and students for learning; a positive, caring atmosphere existed where staff relationships were strong and a deep understanding of the local community was evident; and staff development and training were provided to support and consistently improve a wide variety of programs.

BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY The need for a study of school bus transportation in McMinn County, Tennessee, was first called to the attention of the writer in 1948. This was further accented by attendance at a number of school board meetings, and by hearing discussions of the routes that buses were traveling at that time. It was believed that some improvement of the routes could be made. The writer discussed the transportation problem with the county superintendent of McMinn County. He urged the writer to give some thought to the problem as a thesis. The problem was later discussed with some of the officials of the College of Education at the University of Tennessee. Encouragement to study the problem was also given by these men. A McMinn County Survey Group was organized in September of 1949 under the guidance of some of the professors of the College of Education. This survey group set up the following objectives: 1. Survey of the present physical conditions of buildings and grounds 2. Survey of the school plant utilization 3. Survey of population status and trends 4. Survey of transportation system 5. Statement of education objectives and needs 6. Survey of financial status of the county 7. Recommendations concerning the present school program and building needs. The writer selected the transportation problem as part of his contribution to the survey group. The survey group held a number of meetings during the past school year and it plans to continue these meetings through the summer. Weekly meeting approximately five hours in length were the pattern for the school year. Some leaders in the College of Education as well as a large number of educators and laymen participated in these meetings.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Educational Administration" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Feb. 23, 2007.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.