Countless research has identified that a good leader is crucial to the success of an organization. This is no different when looking in the school setting. Good leaders are paramount to the success of schools. In schools, the absence of good leadership, and more specifically a consistent leader itself, can be detrimental to the achievements of students, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders. Even though schools across the nation and the world are experiencing frequent principal turnover, there is little research into how this turnover is perceived by the stakeholders. This study focuses on the frequent turnover of leadership in one rural middle school where there had been eight principals in the past ten years, and how stakeholders made sense of this turnover. Framed by Turbulence Theory, this study details the importance for incoming leaders to recognize the impact that turnover has on stakeholders of the school. The study also identifies the need to identify and find ways to work with the stability factors present during a period of frequent turnover. / Educational Administration

The purpose of this study was to investigate the practices of elementary, middle, and high school principals that are associated with the Standards of Learning accreditation status of schools in Virginia. A number of factors that discriminate between Accredited with Warning and Fully Accredited schools were investigated. Questionnaires were administered to 142 principals and 567 teachers. Items in the questionnaires were associated with sub-domains that affect the accreditation status of schools. Characteristics of principals, teachers, and schools were collected in a demographic section of each questionnaire. A principal components analysis was applied to reduce the number of sub-domains to a smaller set of meaningful measures. A combination of predictor variables was used in the final analysis. They are factors derived from the characteristics of principals'principal's years of experience, principal's years of experience in his or her current position, gender of the principal, principal's highest degree (master's or less or more than master's); and principal's school level assignment (elementary, middle, or high); characteristics of schools' percentage of children receiving free or reduced-price lunches and school setting (urban, suburban, or rural); and principal practices--providing instructional assistance and support, establishing infrastructure, implementing the curriculum, and being sensitive to students. The overall Wilks' lambda (λ=.69) was significant (p<.00) indicating that the predictors discriminated between the two groups. Discriminant function analysis indicated that the best predictors of accreditation status were percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches, school setting urban v. other (suburban and rural), principal assignment middle v. other (elementary and high), and principal assignment elementary v. other (middle and high). When classification analysis was applied, 79.5 percent of the cases for Accredited with Warning and Fully Accredited schools were correctly classified. Schools Accredited with Warning had higher mean scores on the percentage of children receiving free or reduced-price lunches. These schools were more likely to be in urban settings than suburban or rural settings, and they were more likely to be middle schools than elementary or high schools. Fully Accredited schools were more likely to be elementary schools than middle or high schools. None of the principals' practices--providing instructional assistance and support, establishing infrastructure, implementing the curriculum, and being sensitive to students--discriminated between the two levels of accreditation status of the schools. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to identify common elements in the experience of exemplary interdisciplinary teams in middle level schools, to assess their value in team progress as perceived by teachers, to determine to what degree the results support current theory, and to identify variations in exemplary teams' practices. In this study, an interdisciplinary team is a group of two to five teachers responsible for instructing a common group of students in the core subjects--mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts--during a four or five period block in the daily schedule, with two planning periods daily--one for team planning and the other for individual planning. Interdisciplinary team organization is one system widely acknowledged as a method of promoting collaboration for teachers and small social groups for students. However, to benefit teachers and students, these teams must operate effectively. Erb and Dada (1989) have proposed a complete model of team development measures, including four domains of teaming--organization, attention to students, shared responsibility and growth, and instructional coordination-- and factors which promote team growth. Teachers' perceptions of these factors' importance can help persons developing effective teams. Team members at twelve Virginia middle level schools were surveyed and observed. Sixteen teams from small, medium, and large schools serving a variety of socioeconomic groups qualified as exemplary teams by their activities on all four domains. Analysis of team practices revealed that coordination with non-team teachers, use of uniform discipline policies and scheduling guidelines, and observing peers' teaching and proposing staff development programs were activities conspicuous by their absence on exemplary teams. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that exemplary teams concentrated on one of three different areas--administration, curriculum, or change to new activities--and that some teams might use collaboration to perpetuate poor pedagogical practices. Teachers valued training, support, and activities in their teams' development, but reported school organization and decision making structure as less important. Analysis includes a model relating nearly 60% of the variation in team expertise to team members' respect for individuality in the context of strong team identity, and whole-school work environment. / Ed. D.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 was established to improve student achievement among all public schools. This federal legislation sets a proficiency goal of 100% for all students by the 2013-14 school year. Each state is required to provide parents and others interested in the public schools with information about school, district, and state-level data in a number of areas. The United States Department of Education requires that each state's report card include information pertaining to assessment data, accountability, and teacher quality. The state has an option to include other information such as: school attendance rate, average class size in each grade, and incidences of school violence, drug abuse, student suspensions, and student expulsions. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to determine if there was a difference between grade span configuration with respect to achievement scores of eighth grade students in four eastern states who attended 6-8 public middle schools and those who attended K-8 public schools, as evidenced by their state's 2009-2010 achievement data. The data from the four eastern states was obtained from each state's Department of Education and includes public schools that are configured with a K-8 or 6-8 model. The population in the quantitative study was one thousand one hundred and fifty-eight public schools from Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, and North Carolina. This included 144 K-8 schools and 1,014 middle schools. The overriding research questions were: (1) what is the difference, if any, in English and mathematics pass rates on the Standards of Learning in Virginia for school with different grade span configurations? , (2) what is the difference, if any, in English and mathematics pass rates on the Maryland School Assessment in Maryland for schools with different grade span configurations? , (3) what is the difference, if any, in English and mathematics pass on the Palmetto-Assessment of State Standards in South Carolina for schools with different grade span configurations?, (4) what is the difference, if any, in English and mathematics pass rates on the ABC's End-of-Course tests in North Carolina for schools with different grade span configurations?, (5) if differences do exist in English and mathematics pass rates for schools with different grade span configurations, are the results consistent in all four states? Eight t-tests were conducted to examine academic performance of eighth grade students in K-8 and 6-8 schools with a pre-determined alpha of .05. The results indicated mixed findings. Results from Virginia and South Carolina revealed that there was no significant difference in the pass rates between K-8 and 6-8 schools in English and mathematics. In North Carolina there was a significant difference in the pass rates, with K-8 schools obtaining a higher pass rate in both English and mathematics. Outcomes from Maryland disclosed that there was a significant difference between K-8 and middle schools, with middle schools obtaining a higher pass rate in both English and mathematics. / Doctor of Education

The transition between elementary and secondary school occurs wholly as a function of grade level and not necessarily on the basis of specific developmental achievements. Researchers have found that a significant decrease in grade-point average occurs during this process, and that interpersonal changes may occur as well. The present study sought to determine (a) whether this decrease is fairly standard across students, or whether there are clear differences in student adjustment to secondary school; (b) whether changes also occur with regard to attendance and behavior; (c) whether students who make a poor academic transition continue to perform poorly in their second year of middle school; and (d) whether it is possible, based on interpersonal measures (locus of control, assertion, and popularity), teacher behavior ratings, and a family learning environment measure, to predict the pattern of students' transitions. Subjects for this study were 265 students attending one of two middle schools in southwestern Virginia. Results indicated that (a) there is a significant difference in grade-point average between the final year of elementary school and the first year of middle school, and that there are dramatic grade-point adjustment differences across students; (b) there are nonsignificant differences between elementary and middle school attendance and behavior, but differences in these areas across students; (c) in general, students who make a poor academic transition continue to perform poorly in their second year of middle school; and (d) previous level of functioning in each area is generally the best predictor of subsequent functioning, but significant differences were found between "good" and "poor" transition students when data was analyzed by gender, academic level, and previous level of functioning. These findings were viewed as a first step toward identifying students at-risk for poor transitions, and were discussed in this context. / M.S.

Authors of some research studies and other concerned citizens have questioned the relevance and appropriateness of the teaching of science as it is currently done for the transescents in the middle schools. Some suggest that teachers merely attempt to teach scientific facts without regard for students' characteristics, needs, interests, and input. The premise that student input is desirable suggested the need for this investigation of the sixth grade science course. The purposes of this study were: 1. To determine the degree of interest expressed by students in ·topics and in specific items within topics, 2. To determine differences in the degrees of interest expressed by students of different teachers, 3. To determine differences in the degrees of interest expressed by male and female students in the topics taught, 4. To determine if student interest in science is related to achievement as indicated by final grade in science, and 5. To determine teachers' perceptions of their students' interests in topics and specific items within topics. A survey was conducted with an instrument that listed all of the science topics covered in the sixth grade course. Beginning seventh grade students were asked to express their interest in each concept and indicate whether they thought they were taught or not taught in sixth grade. They rated each concept as definitely interesting, of some interest, or not interesting. Appropriate statistical procedures were used to analyze the data and the following conclusions were drawn: 1. Students were generally interested in the sixth grade science program„ However, for most of the concepts students indicated "some" interest as opposed to "definite" interest. 2. There were significant differences among the levels of interest of students taught by different teachers on five topics: Classifying Animals with Backbones; Classifying Animals without Backbones; Elements and Compounds; Sources of Energy; and Atmosphere, Climates of the World, and Natural Cycles. 3. There were significant differences in the levels of interest between male and female students only on two topics: Life Cycles, Heredity, and Living Things; and Sources of Energy. 4. Student achievement and interest were significantly related only on the topics of Classifying Animals without Backbones; Properties of Light; Sources of Energy; and Electricity and Magnetism. 5. Teachers perceived all the science items to be of "definite" or greater than "some" interest to the students. / Ed. D. / incomplete_metadata

No description available.

The three basic purposes of this study were (1) to determine relationships existing between academic achievement in middle schools and academic achievement in traditional junior high schools, (2) to determine the relationships existing between personal adjustment in middle schools and personal adjustment in traditional junior high schools, and (3) to determine the relationships between academic achievement and personal adjustment in both middle schools and traditional junior high schools.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of La Verne, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-128).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of La Verne, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-128).