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The purpose of this study was to analyze the current school board policies within the Commonwealth of Virginia to determine if they were consistent with the federal judicial system's interpretation of the Establishment Clause. Twenty-four federal district, circuit and Supreme Court cases were analyzed to determine the court's interpretation of the Establishment Clause as it relates to the public schools. Twenty-one criteria were developed from this analysis and the criteria were used to evaluate the school board policies of Virginia school divisions. The criteria were separated into five categories to provide greater clarity and organization. The five categories include general, prayer, Bible reading, release time programs and equal access. Approximately 91 percent of the schools in the Commonwealth responded to this study. Approximately 55 percent of the schools returned policies which governed at least one Establishment Clause issue. Approximately 36 percent of the schools responding to this study declared that they had no policies relating to any issues as defined by this study. The data from this study demonstrated that the majority of school board policies throughout the Commonwealth are not consistent with the judicial system's interpretation of the Establishment Clause. The policies which were returned and evaluated satisfied only 35 percent of the criteria within the general category; 12.83 percent of the criteria within the prayer category; 24.34 percent within the Bible reading category; 16.58 percent within the release time category; and 21.05 percent within the equal access category. Overall the policies which were analyzed satisfied only 22.74 percent of the entire set of criteria. The most successful school division satisfied only 52 percent of the criteria and over 61 percent of the policies failed to satisfy more than 27 percent of the criteria. / Ed. D.

In 1979, the West Virginia Supreme Court remanded to the trial court the highly controversial <i>Pauley v. Bailey</u> decision. Subsequently, the trial court judge, Arthur Recht, following the specific instructions of the Supreme Court, ruled the public school finance system unconstitutional. Justice Recht ordered the West Virginia Legislature to develop a state system for funding the public schools that would comply with the constitutional mandate to provide a system of public schools that was "thorough and efficient" (West Virginia Constitution Art. 13 Section 1). Thus, West Virginia joined six other states that have ruled their state systems for financing public schools violative of their respective state constitutions. The purpose of this study was to identify the historical circumstances affecting the public school finance system which ultimately led to the <u>Pauley</u> decision. In addition, the study traced and chronicled the legislative and judicial attempts to implement <u>Pauley</u> through the end of the West Virginia Legislature in 1984. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

The purpose of this study was to examine provisions of the Constitution of West Virginia, enactments of the West Virginia Legislature, decisions of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, policies of the West Virginia Board of Education, opinions of the Attorney General, and interpretations of the State Superintendent of Schools to ascertain the legal status of West Virginia public school personnel with respect to their employment rights. Federal Constitutional provisions, statutes, and court cases were also cited when of overriding importance or when West Virginia legal references were found to be inadequate. Legal research of the employment process and rights of public school employees focused on the following areas: nomination for employment, discrimination, substantive and procedural due process, certification, employee classifications, probationary and continuing contracts, assignment and transfer, suspension and dismissal, resignation, employment term, and compensation. Other legal provisions reviewed in relationship to West Virginia public school personnel included academic freedom, assignment of duties, personal leave, leaves of absence and other absences, workmen's compensation, unemployment compensation, insurance benefits, retirement, seniority, reductions in force, grievance procedures, employee organizations, and collective bargaining. / Ed. D.

This study investigated the presence and content of school policies used by Virginia school divisions to address issues arising from educators' use of social media. The study also explored Virginia school divisions' policy implementation practices and resolutions for educators' social media use issues. Survey response analysis and policy review are combined to define: 1) Virginia school divisions' experiences with educators' inappropriate use of social media, 2) how Virginia school divisions are addressing educators' social media dilemmas and 3) the characteristics of school policies used to address social media issues in Virginia. The findings indicate that while 90% of respondents are concerned about the dilemmas created by educator social media use, 89% report having effective policies in place to address these issues. Responding Virginia school divisions are using Acceptable Use Policies (98%), Code of Conduct policies (54%) and Social Media policies (32%) to address educators' social media issues. The most common reported infractions are unprofessional comments. Most teachers sanctioned for online conduct are disciplined through reprimand (written and verbal) by school system administrators. / EDD / Social media has become a part of daily life for many people. People communicate about life events, daily happenings, and personal thoughts through various forms of social media (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter). When educators share personal or work related news through social media there can be professional consequences. When social media sharing gains negative public attention school divisions act to protect the school community. This study surveyed all school division superintendents in the Commonwealth of Virginia to find the types of social media issues that have occurred with educators and how such matters are handled. Survey responses were received from every region in the Commonwealth. Nearly every responding division had experienced issues with teacher use of social media. Most social media incidents creating issues occurred when teachers made comments on social media that the school divisions found inappropriate or unprofessional. School divisions generally reacted to social media issues through written or verbal reprimands to educators. A large majority of divisions relied on Acceptable Computer Use Agreements between the school system and educators to regulate and manage issues that occurred. Most school divisions reported that their school policies (including Acceptable Computer Use Agreements) were effective in handling educator social media issues.

This study investigates the involvement of teacher unions in the implementation of the Employment of Educators Act (Act 76 of 1998) at school level. Union involvement at school level is still characterized by controversy when it comes to the filling of promotional posts and the redeployment of educators. The inappropriate involvement of unions by ignoring their observer status, may lead to the infringement of educators’ rights if it goes unchecked by the DoE. This may consequently result in poor performance by educators who may feel discriminated against during the redeployment and the filling of promotional posts. Teacher unions have the responsibility to ensure that educators are not victimized. If unions abdicate this responsibility and attend to only key union members when promotional posts are filled, they will cease to be effective unions. Unions who protect non-dedicated and unqualified educators from redeployment will lose the respect of the teaching fraternity, and eventually their membership numbers will dwindle. This was a qualitative and exploratory study based on the grounded theoretical approach. It was conducted in Districts 11 and 12 of the Gauteng Department of Education using focus groups and one-on-one interviews with the various stakeholders from the Department of Education, and leaders of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, and the National Association of Professional Teachers’ Organizations in South Africa. The findings indicate that during the filling of promotional posts, the unions tend to use undue influence to have their members promoted, to the detriment of deserving and better qualified educators. During the redeployment process they protect their members against principals who declared them in excess. It was reported that principals make use of the redeployment processes to get rid of educators who are often absent from school because of union work during school hours. If the Department of Education does not seriously take control of the situation in respect of the filling of promotional posts and the redeployment of educators, then the teacher unions will take over. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between Education Acts and learner dropout at public schools within the South-Central education region of Botswana. Policy-related dropout Theories of Social Class and the hidden curriculum of work, as well as the Inclusive Education Policy were selected as suitable framework-settings for investigating the research problem. A comprehensive review of the literature revealed that the strategies used to implement the Basic Education Act, the Examinations Act, and Policies on Inclusive Education in Botswana diverge from their set stipulations and the current international trends in this regard. The research design used was a mixed-methods approach. Mixed paradigms of the positivists’ and the constructivists’ beliefs were used to conduct a concurrent empirical investigation. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire instrument (non-demographic variables 1-26) was .985 (close to 1). All the measuring tools were pilot-tested. The sampling technique was stratified for the questionnaire, and was comprehensive for the qualitative instruments. Ethical issues were observed during the course of the study. The scores on the questionnaire showed that 68% of the 75 teacher respondents perceived that the improper implementation of the above-named Acts contributed to learner drop-out. The content analysis transcripts further indicated that 66% of the 28 interviewees linked learner drop-out to the improper implementation of the Acts. Additionally, 84% of the Biology teachers linked the teaching strategies being used to policy decisions. The interpretation of this study has to take note of the limitation discussed in the report. The conclusion drawn from the foregoing research findings is that the teaching-learning process in the public schools is defective in relation to its relevance to the learners, and the education goal. The study therefore recommended dropout tracking strategies by means of a greater synchrony between all the departments of the Ministry of Education Skills and Development (MOESD) as well as further comprehensive research to improve education practice towards curbing learner dropout. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

The problem of this study was the investigation of the development of H.B. 235 and its impact upon the role of the high school principal in Texas, as perceived by high school principals, superintendents, and selected professors of educational administration. The purpose of the study was twofold. First, it analyzed the development and provisions of H.B. 235, and second, it tried to determine the impact of its implementation upon the role of the high school principal in Texas.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of identifying and assessing degrees of influence of environmental conditions and actors which influenced the passage of House Bill 72 by the Texas legislature. The two methods used to collect this data were personal interviews of key actors in the legislative process and a questionnaire administered to all members of the 68th Texas legislature.

This study was concerned with determining the awareness of secondary public school teachers, in the Lewisville Independent School District, regarding the laws which relate to their profession. Fifty-nine true or false statements, involving nine areas of public school law, were administered. The study compared teachers' knowledge in areas of school law based on their personal background. The thesis was divided into five chapters. These chapters included the Introduction, Review of Literature, Procedure, Analysis of Data, and Summary and Recommendations. The findings of this study indicated the majority of teachers and administrators had an average knowledge of school law. Areas with lower incorrect responses included students' rights and the copyright law. A recommendation was made to plan an inservice meeting with emphasis placed on the most frequently missed responses