Parent involvement is essential if students are to succeed in school. In fact, "parental involvement is more important to student success, at every grade level, than family income or education" (Starr, 2004). Yet many schools struggle to effectively engage parents in the education of their children as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 now requires. The purpose of this study was to explore parents', administrators', and guidance counselors' perceptions of parent involvement at a Title I elementary school and a non-Title I elementary school, both of which are located in the southern Appalachian region of the United States, to identify successful parental involvement practices, and to determine the perceived impact of parent involvement on student achievement and school improvement. Specifically, this study explored the strategies employed within the 2 elementary schools to encourage parent involvement, identified effective practices of highly involved parents at the 2 schools, and determined barriers to parental involvement at the 2 elementary schools. The findings of this study suggested that parents in both elementary schools have very similar perceptions of parent involvement. Parents from each school reported that they feel welcome in their children's school, communicate regularly with school personnel, engage in parent-child learning activities, and serve on decision making bodies within the school. Surprisingly, parents in both schools expressed a desire for more parent involvement and perceived some parents as not having an equal opportunity to participate in school functions. School personnel identified barriers to parent involvement and described the manner in which they were working to overcome challenges in their respective schools. While principals articulated the desire for greater parent involvement, they perceived their schools as providing opportunities for all parents to be actively engaged in the educational process. Recommendations from the study include providing parents with a specific definition of parent involvement so there is a clear understanding that parent involvement encompasses more than "physical presence," and establishing parent-to-parent outreach programs to mentor those who are reluctant or new to the school.

Using the states' paraprofessional requirements, this study explored the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) on the paraprofessionals' ability to assist in instruction as seen through the perceptions of paraprofessional and teacher teams. The literature review discloses data regarding the implementation of NCLB paraprofessional requirements into the accountability plans of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Tables synthesize the assessments used by states to meet NCLB paraprofessional requirements. The Council for Exceptional Children performance-based standards for paraeducators provides the framework for the development of two survey instruments, which measured the perceptions of paraprofessionals and cooperating teachers on the training, knowledge, and skills utilized during instruction. Two survey instruments were developed to gain insight into the perceptions of paraprofessional and supervising teacher teams. The perceptions of the teams were compared to those among the paraprofessionals themselves. There were significant statistical differences between both the teams and the paraprofessionals with two or more years of higher education or those with a high school diploma or equivalency. The differences between the paraprofessionals and the teachers suggested that supervising teachers perceived both groups of paraprofessionals were lacking in training, knowledge, and skills. Paraprofessionals with higher education perceived a similar lack in their own abilities. However, paraprofessionals with high school diplomas perceived their ability as greater than that perceived by the teachers.

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions that central Florida public high school principals had regarding the Florida School Indicators Report (FSIR) and its usefulness. The FSIR, published by the Florida Education, was designed to be a comprehensive, single source document for parents, lawmakers, and school administrators to compare key performance indicators to similar schools or districts state wide. It provided information on 74 different indicators of school or district performance. A total of 70 public high school principals from 13 central Florida school districts responded to a postal survey and provided their perceptions regarding the importance of indicators in the FSIR, how they used the FSIR at their schools, and what barriers they felt affected the ability of their administrative staffs to collect and analyze data on the FSIR indicators. Eighteen of the 70 principals participated in follow-up telephone interviews. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the postal surveys and interviews revealed the principals perceived FSIR indicators related to Florida's mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as the most important indictors in the FSIR. The indicators FCAT Results and FCAT Writes were ranked first and second respectively in priority by the participating principals. This finding demonstrated the importance that principals placed on the state's high-stakes test. Other categories of FSIR indicators are were also ranked in the findings reported in this study, along with how the principals used the FSIR at their schools. The data collected from the postal survey revealed there was a statistically significant relationship between the priority principals assigned to the FSIR indicators and their ability to collect and analyze data related to them. In addition, survey data allowed development of multiple regression models that could be used to predict the priority principals assigned to several FSIR categories of indicators based on the ability to collect and analyze data. The study findings indicated that principals perceived lack of time for data analysis as the biggest barrier they faced when evaluating the FSIR indicators. After the lack of time, principals rated lack of administrator training in data analysis as the second biggest obstacle to using the FSIR. The findings indicated that principals felt the availability of data and technology were not significant barriers to their staff's ability to conduct data analysis on the FSIR. The conclusions drawn from the study were that central Florida high school principals perceived the results on the state's mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) to be the most important indicators in the FSIR. In addition, the research identified that the lack of time was the single greatest barrier principals encountered when it came to collecting and analyzing data on the FSIR. A lack of training programs in data collection and analysis for administrators was also noted in the findings.

In the last two decades, ignoring the bulk of educational research findings, policymakers shaped educational policy into a standardized testing movement that now dominates education. Now, to comply with No Child Left Behind, teachers and administrators shape curriculum in a way that maximizes student achievement measured by these tests. Recently, business and educational leaders initiated a reform movement to broaden curriculum, narrowed by this inadequate standardized testing movement, so that necessary 21st century learning skills can be practiced through project-based learning. The Federal Government’s enforcement of power over education created the climate that defined the current educational policy that gave birth to the standardized testing movement. In this climate, this reform to boost 21st century learning skills does not gain practical traction that results in changed policy, because it is impossible for standardized testing to assess most of these skills and this type of learning due to the limitations of bubbled-multiple choice questions. Instead of shaping policy to foster these 21st century learning skills, policymakers push another reform, through TAP (The System for Teacher and Student Advancement) and Value-Added Assessment. This reform attempts to improve instruction through teacher merit pay--a device that has failed many times in educational reform history. Unfortunately, most TAP systems use standardized tests as the only student achievement measurement, so almost all student achievement gains involving 21st century learning skills and project-based learning are not officially measured. Efforts to use portfolios and authentic assessment, the measurement tools that should be used to measure these higherlevel skills, are not supported by policymakers, because the lack of standardization requires more trust in the assessment ability of local school districts and communities. Consequently, a massive disconnect exists where standardized testing is being reinvigorated instead of de-emphasized, and this comes with the potential price of many teachers and administrators not embracing 21st century learning skills and project-based learning as much as they could if they were not bound by standardized test results. Ultimately, these two reforms that contradict each other involve larger issues of jurisdictional power over education at federal, state, and local levels, and ideological challenges to teacher job security and teacher representation.

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. This sweeping legislation brought reform to every area of public education by establishing seven performance-based provisions. Supplemental Educational Services is a core aspect of NCLB, designed to meet two of the seven goals: improving academic performance of disadvantaged students and promoting innovative programs. SES tutoring is provided free of charge to parents for students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch and that attend a Title I school that has not made Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, for three or more years. The aim of this tutoring is to ensure that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, have access to tutoring to help improve their academic scores. The purpose of this research was to examine the practices of SES providers in a large metropolitan school district to examine the pedagogical practices, the qualifications of SES providers, and the accountability measures in place to ensure maximum student academic gains. Through an anonymous online survey taken by SES providers, as well as interviewing the SES coordinator in the target district, I was able to gain a clearer understanding of the SES system. My findings are consistent with other key studies across the nation (Munoz, Potter, & Ross, 2008; Rickles & White, 2006); that is, that little accountability among SES providers to districts could result in questionable student academic gains. Because of research such as this, new federal legislation is currently being drafted to issue states waivers from the restrictions of mandatory NCLB Title I budgets, wherein 5 to 15% were allocated to SES tutoring (McNeil, 2011).

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This case study examined the extent to which the No Child Left Behind mandate has contributed to principal stress, specifically in middle schools who have achieved annual yearly progress through the use of confidence intervals when measuring sub-groups. A secondary question relating to how principals were coping with the law from an academic/personal point of view was also addressed. The primary data source were interviews with ten principals from urban, suburban and rural school districts surrounding the Philadelphia area. Review of data sources provided by the principals, use of educational databases as well as observations were used to study this phenomenon. The NCLB statute and it's myriad of consequences for schools that do not make AYP have created a more stressful, testing -driven environment for all stakeholders. Principals, teachers, parents, and most importantly, students have all been affected by this statute. Schools that are classified as corrective action 1 and 2 because of low sub-group scores continue to rise in Southeastern Pennsylvania; nowhere is this more dramatic than at the secondary schools level. Principals in these buildings face stiff pressure from internal and external forces. Nationally, recent research has borne out an increase in principal turnover across the country in the last 5 years. According to the statute, every student that attends public school in the United States will be proficient in math and reading, regardless of sub-group, by 2014. The purpose of this qualitative study was to illuminate an area of research pertaining to principals of schools whose subgroups achieved AYP through the use of a confidence interval, and to collect effective instructional data (interventions ) that could theoretically help student sub-groups achieve AYP. There is also an understanding among principals that if they do not meet the AYP goal each year, eventually they can be removed from the leadership positions at their schools. This punitive sanction does not take into effect a school's overall score, but is reflective of all its' subgroups. Results from this study show that principals, although aware of the law and its' sanctions, chose to focus on designing positive interventions that help all students achieve, while at the same time offering instructional supports to their respective staffs. The principals agreed that the NCLB law was good for public education, but stated that sub-group inclusion is unfair to the students it was designed to protect. All principals reported a moderate level of stress connected with the implementation of the statute, but not enough for them to consider leaving their jobs for another occupation. The premise that principals worried about losing their jobs as a result of AYP failure was refuted in this study. All principals reported major changes at their schools in curriculum delivery, interventions for sub-groups, and the use of data assessment systems to drive instruction. An emerging theme from this study is the concept that the NCLB statute over the past five years has become the " great equalizer" between urban and suburban school districts. As more suburban schools fall under NCLB sanctions, they no longer can dismiss AYP failures as a purely urban phenomenon, but actually look to partner with urban schools in order to create effective instructional programs for their students. The research about the impact of the NCLB law on principal stress remains inconclusive. As the law continues to move toward 2014, barring any dramatic changes all public schools in the United States will be under some type of corrective action. There is a large research gap about how principals will survive in this particular environment. This study has started to address that gap by focusing on what schools do when they are an under-performing sub-group away from NCLB sanctions. This study also begins to document the changes that have been occurring in schools as a result of NCLB, along with principal perceptions of stress since the law's advent in 2002. / Educational Administration