In the last several years a high number of school litigations have been lost by school administrators. Especially those cases related to the "Due Process of Law" which has to be followed by school administrators when they pursue the dismissal of a teacher or the suspension of a student. The litigations have had a negative impact on school budgets and on the school work environment as well. Thus, this paper discusses why school administrators lose on due process related legal cases in courts and recommends remedies. A survey research method among local school district administrators is used, as a sample to measure school administrator's familiarity with due process, and the impact of that knowledge on the outcome of discipline cases. The survey questionnaire has two parts. The first part presents several due process attitudinal multiple choice questions. These questions are related to U.S. courts due process statements; statements with which some school administrators agree and others disagree. The second part has several due process questions. The questions regard due process accepted standards that courts and legal authorities point to as common denominators in due process procedures. A third part has two questions related to when principals last took a legal educational course or refresher workshop, and if they would consider a "due process" handbook helpful to them. Each item, part, sub-parts totals of correct responses were computed and compared using percents, the mean and standard deviation. The findings show a considerable absence of knowledge and a poor attitude toward due process of law; the attitude of the respondents toward due process for students was the most negative. In addition, it was found that the better the due process knowledge, the better the attitude toward due process; also, the more recently a principal has taken a legal course, the higher their correct responses.

The evaluation of the teacher is one of the first steps in the evaluation of the learning process. This evaluation can be of great help to educational systems if it is understood as cooperative and if it is collaboratively planned. It can help to motivate, give satisfaction, reveal a teacher's weak and strong points, make better use of every teacher's potential, and keep open lines of communication and common effort. The modern conception of the word "evaluation" and the necessary data should determine the alternatives that will serve as a guide in making decisions about education. In this exploratory study, the main objective was to analyze the attitudes of school supervisors from a target public school district in the northeastern part of Puerto Rico toward the evaluation process as related to the clinical supervision process. The target population was 45 school supervisors, of whom 35 responded--25 (71%) female and 10 (28.6%) male. Their ages ranged between 20 and 50 years. The independent variable in this study was the evaluation process as based on clinical supervision. The dependent variable was the attitude of the school supervisors targeted concerning fairness, flexibility, moral support, efficiency, simplicity, patience, cordiality, autonomy, and self-evaluation. The general null hypothesis was rejected. This hypothesis claimed that the percentage of supervisors having a positive attitude towards the focus of the clinical supervision process is not significantly higher than theoretically expected. It was expected that only 50% would show a positive attitude. The design used in this study is descriptive. The objective is to describe what exists with reference to the variations and conditions of a situation. A questionnaire divided into six parts was used, composed primarily of "Yes/No" questions plus an intensity scale following the Likert model. In order to analyze statistically the results of the findings, the average frequency and percentages were used and expressed in tables and figures. To summarize, the population made up of the school supervisors showed a very positive attitude toward the clinical supervision process since, in each premise, when it is expressed in percentages, more than 80% of the population showed a positive attitude toward the evaluation process as related to clinical supervision.

This dissertation documented the process of developing, implementing, and assessing a low-cost staff development project in an urban elementary school. The purpose of this study was to plan a staff development project that would improve the interactions between instructional staff (teachers) and non-instructional professionals (psychologists). An action research methodology was utilized focusing instructional and non-instructional professionals on the topic of support services in the Roosevelt Schools. The flexibility of this method encouraged collegial interaction and connected participants to the larger issues of change and school improvement. Twelve workshops were collaboratively planned with twenty voluntary members of the Ulysses Byas staff. Needs assessment and formative evaluation tools were utilized to obtain feedback from participants and organize workshops. School climate, bureaucratic structures, the process of change, staff development, and issues of race and equity appeared to impact on staff interactions. Workshop sessions provided an opportunity for instructional and non-instructional professionals to grow both personally and professionally and to develop mutually agreed on goals for support services. The results of this project indicated the following: (1) The instructional staff was interested in improving support services in The Ulysses Byas School. (2) Misunderstandings that occurred between instructional and non-instructional professionals erected territorial boundaries, and the participants recognized the necessity of breaking through the barriers and establishing new relationships. (3) The collegial atmosphere of the workshops was a step in breaking down negative, defensive attitudes toward colleagues. (4) The instructional staff had skills, expertise, motivation, and interests that were essentially untapped and could be utilized for the benefit of children. (5) Instructional and non-instructional professional staff would benefit from trusting, caring, cooperative relationships. In conclusion, low cost staff development activities were an appropriate direction for schools to begin the process of change vital to school improvement. In addition, staff development was a viable means for struggling, urban districts to provide additional training for staff.

This study examines the effectiveness of a site-based staff development program as one component of a Chapter I Schoolwide Project. The study utilizes and fully implements an Action/Descriptive research model, a participatory model which implements self-reflective cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The setting of the study is an elementary school in Quincy, Massachusetts with over ninety percent of the children from predominantly white low income families. A large proportion of the children are at-risk. The purpose of the Schoolwide Project is to upgrade the entire educational program of the school. The most important feature of a Schoolwide Project is that Chapter I personnel, as well as educational hardware and software, can be utilized by all children, not only those qualifying for Chapter I remedial services. Other instructional initiatives to enhance the program of at-risk students also were utilized. A review of the "Effective Schools" literature was accomplished in order to determine the essential key ingredients necessary for a staff development program for upgrading the entire educational system. The key ingredients for effective schools from the literature are: Leadership, Environment, Curriculum/Instruction, Teachers and "Total School" ingredients. Reactions to Effective Schools research was also included. The study's purpose was to establish a school-based staff development effort, based upon the "key ingredients" for Effective Schools, for total school improvement. The measurement instruments used in the study included the: Parent Opinion Inventory, Effective School Battery, Measuring Stages of Concern About an Innovation, Open-Ended Stages of Concern Questionnaire, and an Informal Student Survey. The study details the variables of an educational environment and provides suggestions for improving the total educational setting.

This study is motivated by the fact that pedagogy has become a major political issue in this decade. State and Federal Governments, Boards of Education, School Systems, and Educators at all levels are trying to come up with strategies to put education on the right track and to recapture the interest of young people. Financial problems, drugs, lack of interest from parents and students, and poorly motivated personnel, may be some of the factors affecting the teaching process in school environment resulting in the lowering of the quality of instruction. Among the factors that might be affecting the teaching process in the schools are poorly motivated instructional personnel, who play so important a role in creating a successful school environment. If a teacher is not well motivated, student achievement will be negatively affected and the schools can still fail. Even if one works in a new building with modern facilities, with the best instructional materials, selected students, flexible schedules, is fairly well paid, and has competent colleagues, there are no guarantees of success if teacher motivation is low. If a supervisor detects that the staff is not well motivated for whatever reason, a solution must be found. Through this study, I reviewed various styles of supervision that instructional supervisors can use as models for assessing classroom teachers. The study focused on five of the most common models used in different school districts within the state. (1) Cooperative Supervision; (2) Self-directed Supervision; (3) Clinical Supervision; (4) Oriented Monitoring; (5) Differentiated Supervision. The study was conducted among teachers in a Western Massachusetts Public School System. A questionnaire was administered to collect the data. The collected data answered the following questions: (1) Is the teacher evaluation process contributing to the teaching-learning process in the classroom? (2) Are supervisors providing information about the options that teachers have to be evaluated? A theoretical model based on Clinical Supervision and Administrative Monitoring was prepared by the researcher as an instrument that supervisors can use to evaluate teacher effectiveness.

Participative decision making has been identified as a crucial aspect of current American public school restructure efforts. The calls for school improvement through collective decision making by the educational team (i.e., principals and teachers) have been frequently referred to as an effort toward teacher professionalization through empowerment. Given central office support, principals have been cited as playing a major role as potential change facilitators who can enable or sabotage meaningful participative decision making in their schools. Subsequent to being identified by their school superintendents as having initiated participative decision making in their schools, this study investigated a stratified random sample (based on the Massachusetts Department of Education "kind of community" descriptors) of seventy-three (73) southeastern Massachusetts elementary school principals. Their feelings (concerns) regarding participative decision making in their schools were examined using the central instrument from the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (C-BAM): Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ). It also contained a comment section to allow for further clarification of feelings or concerns. Additionally, a customized demographic survey was included as two basic research questions were asked: (1) What are the perceived stages of concerns of a stratified random sample of southeastern Massachusetts elementary school principals who have initiated participative decision making within their schools? and (2) What are the relationships among these elementary school principals' selected demographic variables and intensity of concerns toward participative decision making in their schools? The SoCQ data analysis, noting relative intensity of concern, indicated the participants' highest intensity of concerns as follows: 53% in the "Awareness" stage; 16% in the "Personal" stage; 12% in the "Informational" stage; 8% in the "Management" stage; 11% in the "Consequence," "Collaboration," and "Refocusing" stages. Among conclusions from the data analysis, indications were that the majority of (mostly male) principals are non-users, or in a very early developmental stage. Further, number of years as principal at a school showed correlational significance. The theoretical underpinnings of change, concerns theory, and the practice of participative decision making are included in the review of the literature. Concluding chapters provide a review of methodology, data analysis presentation, summary, recommendations and conclusions, and further research ideas.

The dual focus of attracting and retaining teachers in classroom positions and encouraging them to improve has been central to the school improvement literature. Review of research in teacher retention and improvement finds results consistent with a theory of employee motivation developed by Frederick Herzberg--the two-factor theory. The same factors that lead to dissatisfaction in other jobs seem to dissatisfy teachers; likewise, the satisfiers that encourage improvement in other settings motivate teachers as well. Previous research on middle school organization has suggested that team membership provides some of the satisfiers suggested by Herzberg's work and it would appear that team leadership could provide more of them. In order to explore the role of team leader, eighteen teachers from three suburban Massachusetts middle schools were interviewed in depth to determine what they expected to gain from team leadership, the benefits and frustrations from serving in the role, and the conditions in the schools that were related to the benefits and frustrations. Although there were differences among the schools, results indicate that teachers seek the position in order to have more influence over how the teams function. Some have specific practices they want to change, others simply want to guide the team. The most identified benefits are having influence on policies of the team and the school, receiving additional money, and being "in the know." The major frustrations are resistance from team members and lack of time to perform the duties of the job. The duties and responsibilities of team leadership are most related to the benefits and the frustrations. Serving as the liaison between teachers and principals either informally or through team leaders meetings, coordinating team meetings and the team process, and coordinating interdisciplinary activities are benefits when the process goes well. These same duties lead to frustration if there are difficulties engaging team members or insufficient time to complete the tasks involved. The study concludes with an examination of the results in terms of the two-factor theory, some reflections, suggestions for middle school organization, and directions for further research.

The purpose of this study was to define equal access to educational opportunity for Mexican American children. The study described three actions of the Federal Government seeking to protect the right of Mexican American children to an education free from discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. The three actions were: (1) the issuance of the Memorandum of May 25 by the HEW Office of Civil Rights; (2) the San Felipe-Del Rio School District consolidation case, and (3) the El ♦ Paso Independent School District May 25th Memorandum compliance case. Additionally, the study described a conceptual framework for effecting institutional responsiveness to the educational needs of Mexican American children.

Many policymakers have sought greater levels of success in schools by implementing new and more distributive models of leadership. The problem is that many have not achieved desired outcomes. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to discover what happens within a school organization as it moves from a traditional leadership model to a district mandated distributive leadership (DL) model. DL is an egalitarian balance of leadership among multiple individuals rather than simply administrators within an organization. The method used in this study was grounded theory (GT) which was selected to illustrate events, situations, and conditions from the perspectives of teacher participants involved in the implementation of the new model. To answer the research question regarding teachers' perspectives of the DL model, a series of 30 teacher interviews were conducted; constant comparative analysis was used to develop themes and relationships. Results suggested the emergence of a theory of distributing leadership that has four main categories: building a plan, barriers, distribution, and recounting the story. Comprehensive and ongoing training was seen as the key to implementing a true and successful DL model. The theory of distributing leadership may be a useful tool for initiating and developing plans of actions for any school or district interested in implementing the DL model. Positive social change can be realized through the use of distributing leadership theory to create communities of learning and support among educational stakeholders that enhance organizational outcomes in school.

The purpose of this study was to determine how middle school students, parents, teachers, and community members perceived acts of violence. It focused indirectly on how a small community was impacted following a hostage situation. The theoretical framework for this study draws from the theories of violence as described by Aisenberg and Ell, Canady, Gottfredson and Hirschi, and Miller. In this qualitative study the research questions focused on perceptions of school violence acts and potential influences' on the participants in this study. The participants consisted of 6 middle school students, 4 middle school parents, 4 school officials, and 4 community members. The results of the interviews were analyzed using a color-coded system to find patterns within each group. These patterns were then compared to determine similarities and differences. Four common themes emerged from the interviews: (a) the main causes of school violence were bullying, substance abuse, low socioeconomic level, and a bad home environment, (b) peer pressure and lack of communication were perceived to lead to school violence, (c) the most frequent occurring acts of school violence were fighting, arguing, teasing, and hitting (d) the most serious acts of school violence were holding people against their will, fighting, and bullying. Findings confirmed that a difference emerged within three of the groups pertaining to who was to be held responsible for the safety of students. As a result of random acts of violence, two beneficial changes occur. First, the adult community is forced to collaborate and communicate about a topic never experienced before. Second, the students learn to rely on each other for support. Social change implications include changes in county policies and practices by establishing new measures related to school safety that protects school children.