Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-94). / It has been shown that black students are generally not finding the academic success in South African universities that would confirm a truly equitable educational system. In response to this, universities in South Africa have taken several different measures to bridge this gap and provide the support needed for these students to thrive through various programmes that provide supplementary support and extended degree programmes to educationally disadvantaged students.

Few studies focus on the voices of students of color and their insight and recommendations for school leaders wishing to transform their schools into socially just and equitable institutions. This dissertation bridges the gap in the literature by giving voice to three Latina women who attended the same predominantly White high school within a ten-year period. The purpose of the study was to understand how the participants described their ethnic racial identity, and how they experienced schooling, within a predominantly White educational space. Further, the study offers concrete suggestions for school leaders wishing to transform their schools into culturally responsive institutions. Narrative storytelling was the chosen methodology, with the expressed goal of honoring the participants’ lived experiences navigating a predominantly White educational system. Three in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. By voicing their challenges, strengths, and resiliency, this study provides three counter-narratives through which educational leaders may come to better understand the needs of Latino/a students. Key findings of this study included an examination of the exclusionary treatment experienced by the participants and an analysis of the ways in which these experiences impacted their ability to fully access or benefit from their education. Within each narrative, I grouped the participant experiences under two categories: Identity and School Experience. Themes and sub-themes emerged within each category. These were included to provide deeper, richer narratives. The theme of the critical role of family emerged under the first category, Identity. Under the second category of School Experience, three overarching themes emerged. These included the participants’ experiences of exclusion, support, and empowerment in school. Within exclusion, the girls reported experiences related to racism and discrimination, dominant discourse/White privilege, institutional barriers, belonging, disengagement, discipline/unequal treatment, physical/emotional mistreatment, and silencing. Under support, sub-themes were identified around adult allyship, relationships with staff, and parental attitude toward education. Finally, within empowering experiences, the sub-theme voice—particularly the use of voice to speak out against inequities—emerged. The combined voices, told through the participant narratives, provide valuable insights for educational leaders wishing to reform their schools into more inclusive, socially just institutions.

The decisions that administrators make can ultimately enhance or impede theculture of a school setting. When faced with situations, whether simple or arduous, the decision-making should be done in an ethical manner that brings about productive results. On a day-to-day basis, there may be situations that arise that require administrators to problem solve quickly or on the other hand requiring time to include reflective practice. How an administrator responds is the central focus of this project. This phenomenological study explored how administrators in a large city problem solve when faced with difficult decisions. According to Mertens (2015), phenomenological research seeks the individual’s perceptions and meaning of a phenomenon or experience. I learned a great deal from the participants’ decision-making practices. In particular, there were various parts of the multiple ethical paradigms aligned to the decision-making practices of the ten principals interviewed in this study. In particular, the ethics of care and profession were evident in each of the difficult decisions that all ten principals shared. Out of the twenty difficult decisions shared, the ethic of critique was evident in seventeen scenarios and the ethic of community was evident in fourteen out of the scenarios shared. Although the ethics of care, critique, profession, and community were prevalent in this study, the ethic of justice was not. This was an unexpected outcome of this study that will be discussed further. / Educational Administration

Over the last 30 years, the nation has endured frequent news stories about school shootings. In many of these incidents it has been discovered that a member of the school community was responsible for the act, leading the community to ask if these incidents could have been avoided. Students, faculty, and staff have the expectation that their educational communities will be safe spaces to learn, live, and work. In addition, there is an expectation that support will be provided to those within the community who may be struggling . In response, educational institutions have implemented Behavioral Intervention Teams in order to assess risk around student behavior. Research conducted up to this point about threat assessment and behavioral intervention has focused on the teams themselves, including their composition and training. There is little information available about the effect of the actual interventions that are applied. This study examined the way in which one behavioral intervention team, from a large public institution in the northeastern part of the United States, engaged students, specifically looking at the types of interventions applied, and how these interactions affect student persistence. The study was designed to look for a relationship between the interventions applied and the student’s ability to succeed academically one semester after their referral to the intervention team. The study showed that on average there was improvement in students’ GPAs one semester after referral to the Behavioral Intervention Team. However, results did not show a significant difference when considering age, gender, and student GPA. In addition, there was no significant relationship between the level of intensity of the intervention applied and academic persistence one semester after the intervention. / Educational Administration

The Crumpton School District (CSD) is a high performing school district in suburban Philadelphia that has expended a great deal of energy and work to close gaps in the achievement of its Black students. Despite these efforts, 2016 standardized test data reflect a reading achievement gap of 28 percentage points for Black boys attending four of the CSD schools with the largest percent of Black boys enrolled. This qualitative study was designed to provide the CSD with implications for practice to continue and improve its work related to increasing the reading achievement of Black boys. More specifically, this study examined educators’ perceptions of the effectiveness of strategies and conditions in place to close the reading achievement gap of third grade Black boys. This study also examined the roles of CSD administrators in their efforts and plans for closing the reading achievement gap of third grade Black boys. Individual interviews of 11 third grade teachers, seven reading specialists, four special education teachers, four curriculum specialists, three principals, one assistant principal, one supervisor of special education, and one supervisor of communication arts, as well as the review of principal’s school improvement plans and goals, were the sources of the qualitative data. Detailed analyses of the qualitative data collected provided recommendations for teachers and educators of CSD to improve the manner by which they provide Black boys with equitable opportunities to achieve in the area of reading. These recommendations, hopefully, could benefit similarly situated districts in the state and nation. / Educational Administration

Theoretically, the benefits of decentralization include the enhancement of democratic participation and managerial efficiency, and the reduction of financial deficiencies. Empirically, however, there is little consistent evidence supporting this premise. The consequences of reform vary in accordance with country-specific conditions: they appear to be successful, mixed, or failed. This study seeks to shed light on how the goals, strategies, and consequences of decentralization interact with each other. It focuses on educational governance reform in China and Korea, which have different historical, economic, and political backgrounds. Two main themes are identified in this work: how different problems were addressed by the same policy instrument, decentralization, and how the results differed depending upon environmental conditions. This led to three areas of investigation: the motivating forces for the decentralization of education, the manners of actuation, and the consequences in China and Korea between 1985 and 1995. A comparative approach was used involving a mixture of longitudinal (vertical) and cross-sectional (horizontal) analyses, which had been proposed and developed subsequent to the work of Bereday, Hilker, and Noah. These longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses identified several isomorphic and idiosyncratic aspects of the educational governance reforms in China and Korea. The major similarities found include: (1) the economic and political crises as motivating forces, (2) the establishment of legal infrastructures, and the utilization of the incremental and asymmetric vi approaches in the manner of reform actuation, and (3) some positive consequences of reform such as increased educational funds and local educational autonomy. However, coupled with these similarities were three important differences: (1) the key objectives to be solved: the financial problem in China versus the political problem in Korea, (2) the major actuation strategies: restructuring fiscal authority by decentralization and diversification in China, versus rearranging political power for public education between the central and local governments in Korea, and (3) the main consequences of educational decentralization: improved fiscal efficiency in China, versus enhanced political autonomy in Korea. Both countries experienced some side-effects or limits of decentralization such as financial disparities in education among regions in China, and rhetorical decentralization and citizen apathy regarding local educational autonomy in its early stage in Korea.

This study in the field of School-Based Management was initiated to determine under what conditions a School-Based Management/Shared Decision Making (SBM/SDM) Organization might be considered a viable alternative to a traditional (top-down) school structure. The primary focus of this study sought to discover the extent to which school principals and teachers can and should participate in making educational decisions within an urban school system. To ascertain this information, open-ended structured interviews were developed and conducted with five randomly selected principals. In addition, a close-ended questionnaire was designed and distributed to teachers. In order to ensure broad-based definitive conclusions, participants represented all four school zones and each educational level. Methodological limitations include a survey of two hundred and sixteen school-based teachers with a response rate of fifty-three percent. Findings identify six key elements to be considered when implementing a SBM/SDM structure. The six key elements are money, trust, training, accountability, participative decision making, and union involvement. Recommendations involving the implementation of School-Based Management are offered in addition to suggested future studies. Results of this study indicate that both principals and teachers have a strong desire to actively participate in budget, personnel, and curriculum decisions effecting their schools.

The role of the school principal over the last century has experienced a complex evolution. Today, a principal's position is a multifaceted job revolving around demands from students, faculty, parents, community members, and state officials. Educational leaders have the opportunity today to move forward and work on a vision which will reform schools and our society in ways which will improve the world. Principals must build a group vision, develop quality educational programs, provide a positive instructional environment, apply evaluation processes, analyze and interpret outcomes, and maximize human resources. Some principals have found ways to share a vision and encourage and empower faculties to reflect and analyze the status quo. Articulation and communication of a shared vision is imperative if schools are going to move forward toward reform. This dissertation will study how principals empower their faculties to create reform. The purpose of the study is to answer the following questions: (1) What qualities must a school principal possess to be a change agent and foster reform in schools? (2) How does the presence of an educationally reform minded principal encourage faculty participation in educational reform? (3) How does an educationally reform minded principal encourage the involvement of students and parents? Four principals were nominated by their peers countywide as principals who were models of creating and fostering school reform. This study interviews the four principals and faculty, parents, and students from each of the principals' schools. Studying principals who are models of school reform will inspire and educate other principals toward taking risks toward reform. This study will provide important information as to exactly how principals can create and foster educational reform.

This study examines the status of alternative certification policies for school administrators in the United States using a descriptive research methodology. The research questions guiding this investigation were designed to discern the reasons alternative certification policies were implemented, to discover how policies differed from one state to another, and to develop a demographic profile of school administrators certified using an alternative certification route. The study's population was certification directors or their designee in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Two questionnaires, documents, and follow-up telephone calls were the sources of data. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia participated in the study. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia indicated that they did not have alternative certification policies for school administrators. Of these states, two indicated that they had alternative policies for school administrator and discontinued them, and one state indicated that they were considering implementing a policy. Twelve states indicated that they had alternative certification policies for school administrators. Each of these states also have alternative certification policies for teachers. Seven of these states are located in the Northeast, and four are in New England. Eight states implemented their policies between 1986 and 1992. Four alternative certification models are being used by states: individualized evaluation, provisional certificate, special certificate, and a variation of the traditional certificate. Demographic data about those using the alternative certification route were limited and not reported in a uniform manner. These factors limited the analysis and generalizations made about the demographic profile of certificate recipients using the alternative route.

The failure to adequately educate urban children is a shortcoming of such magnitude that many people have simply written off city schools as little more than human storehouses to keep young people off the streets. With a lack of positive climate, the students quickly recognize this and react accordingly. In September of 1987, a new administrator came to the Donald McKay Elementary School in East Boston, Massachusetts, and immediately took insight to the multitude of problems which existed in the school. She immediately realized that the school tone was a major problem and began to revamp the climate in the school so that the quality of education would improve. The solution to the problem was of immense magnitude and required that both long- and short-term goals had to be immediately stated in an attempt to make the necessary changes so that these students would not become another statistic. This administrator knew that she had to maintain a strong leadership style which would produce students who value their school and monitor their own behavior as opposed to the administrator which she replaced who produced students that placed no value in their school and demonstrated irresponsible behavior patterns. Also, her leadership style had to change a negative attitude to a positive one with all teachers, support personnel, and parents. This administrator knew that she had to set and control the direction of he educational program in her school. She had to convey to her staff that each and every pupil can, must, and will learn. She knew that a principal either breaks or makes a school and that a turnabout in the decline in the school would only take place if she was a risk-taker who would not be afraid of rocking the boat and at all times would be personally inspiring. Strong leadership has produced a path towards an effective urban school at the Donald McKay Elementary School. Such was accomplished through team dedication which was culminated by a visit by the Massachusetts Commission of Education, Harold Raynolds, who visited the school in the spring of 1989 to observe a school in which the commitment to excellence in education is being achieved by a dedicated administration, faculty, students, and parents.