Decision-making processes are among the most important activities within human organizations. This dissertation is a case study of decision-making in the review of high school graduation standards in an urban school district. The review process lasted three years and was terminated before any decision was reached concerning graduation standards. The purpose of this study is to answer three questions: Why would a decision-making process be terminated before any results are achieved? Under what circumstances do decision makers choose to let the process die? What do such decision making processes reveal about the organization? This case study employs the rational choice model, the process model, and the organizational decision-making model. These three models are constructed within the theoretical frameworks of systems science, sociology, and political science, and also draw upon the literatures of education reform and organization theory. Define a NDR (non-decision-reaching) decision-making process as one which produces no outcome. The rational choice model suggests that the NDR outcome in this case was the best alternative under the circumstances. Two obstacles, insufficient resources and external uncertainties, were identified as important factors which led decision makers to choose the NDR outcome over other alternatives. The process model suggests that a decision outcome may not be necessary in many organizational decision-making processes, as the process itself is often significant and sufficient. The process accommodates, to some extent, the interests of the decision makers even without a definite outcome. The organizational decision-making model posits that organizational rules and procedures dictate decision-making processes, and that organizational interests will determine the nature and the outcome of such processes. In this model the NDR outcome is the result of organizational interests that no decision be reached. The conclusions of this case study indicate that a loose structural relationship among the decision makers was a major cause of the NDR outcome. In addition, the decision makers had never fully reconciled their differences regarding the nature of the decision problem. The changing environment of public education is also identified as a factor leading to the NDR outcome.

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This study was undertaken to produce a "snapshot" description of shared decision making in elementary schools in a large suburban public school system in Virginia; to identify schools for participation in in-depth studies; and to provide examples and information to others who may wish to engage in shared decision making. The research questions guiding the study were: How do elementary school principals perceive shared decision making in their schools? How do principals, teachers on the decision-making team, and teachers not currently serving on the decision-making team in selected schools perceive participation in shared decision making relative to context (a. structure, b. purpose, c. function, d. training, and e. obstacles) and outcomes (a. teacher satisfaction, and b. organizational effectiveness)? What similarities and/or differences in participation in shared decision making relative to context (a. structure, b. purpose, c. function, d. training, and e. obstacles) and outcomes (a. teacher satisfaction, and b. organizational effectiveness) appear to exist among principals, teachers on the decision-making team, and teachers not serving currently on the decision-making team, within each selected school and across the selected schools? Major findings revealed that there was much less shared decision making going on in elementary schools in the school system than what was claimed by the principals. Although the context of the shared decision-making committees at each of the three schools studied in depth varied, some outcomes across the three schools were similar. The predominant indicator of teacher satisfaction reported by twenty of the twenty-one principals, team members, and teachers interviewed was increased/improved collegiality. The researcher concludes that the shared decision making committees provided opportunities for principals and teachers to come together to discuss issues, give input, and make decisions, and as a result, collegial relationships began to form. The predominant indicator of organizational effectiveness reported by nineteen of the twenty-one principals, team members, and teachers interviewed was satisfaction with the decisions that emerged from the committee. The researcher concludes that the shared decision-making committees provided opportunities for teachers to join principals in making decisions, so for the most part, teachers had positive perceptions about the decisions that were made. / Ed. D.

Community participation has increased over the last twenty years. The states of California, Florida, Hawaii and South Carolina have mandated representative community advisory councils. The purpose of this study was to investigate on a national level the attitude of local school board members toward community participation-community control within the selected areas of curriculum, finance, personnel and student affairs, and the relationship of this attitude to selected demographic and personal data. The population for this descriptive research was school board member subscribers to The American School Board Journal. A stratified random sample of 17% received the National Questionnaire on Attitudes of School Board Members. Responses were analyzed according to frequency distribution and crosstabulation procedures to determine significance between respondent's attitude and demographic and personal variables. Respondents reported that there were six areas in which the community should be involved, are presently involved, and to which they would be willing to delegate decision-making responsibility. These areas were: Education Objectives; Construction, Renovation or Closing of Schools; Curriculum Evaluation; Determination of Local Tax Rates; Student Discipline; and Expenditures for School Operation. The respondents differed in attitude toward the six areas mentioned above across demographic and personal variables. / Ed. D.

Public Administration / (M. A.( Public Administration))

This study explored how contextual factors influenced the effect of educational practices on student reading achievement and describes an alternative means of assessing educational programs under conditions of multiple-treatment interference and innovation diffusion. Over 1,500 reading teachers at 69 elementary schools within a large diverse district completed surveys regarding multiple aspects of the reading program, actions of their reading leaders, and instructional program coherence at their schools. Nearly 13,000 students in grades 2 through 5 were assigned to those teachers. Factor analyses were used to separately identify patterns within survey items that measured educational practices, leadership actions, and instructional program coherence. Then, the students' achievement gains were adjusted for the effects of fixed demographic and organizational variables through hierarchical linear modeling. Finally, classroom level relationships between the adjusted achievement gains, and subscales computed from the factors that were identified, were examined through a path analysis. Educational practices were found to align to six factors labeled Technology, Training Utility, Advanced Skills, Basic Skills, Grouping, and Assessment. Leadership actions were found to align to two factors labeled Relationship and Task. Fixed effects at the student, classroom, and school levels were found to have an impact on both the initial status and growth components of student achievement. In the path model, Task was found to have a significant direct effect on Advanced Skills, while the effect of Relationship on educational practices was partially mediated by Instructional Program Coherence. Both Advanced and Basic skills were found to have positive effects on Adjusted Gain when taught at the appropriate level, and negative effects, when taught at the inappropriate level. / Technology was found to facilitate Basic Skills instruction overall, with greater benefits seen at the upper grades. It was concluded the rates of use seen for Advanced and Basic skills instruction were similar at the three types of schools examined because of poor differentiation due to innovation diffusion. Teachers who perceived their leaders as supportive, tended to rate their schools as more coherent and training requirements as more appropriate, and used technology and assessment more often, leading to gains in student achievement. / by Steven M. Urdegar. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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This qualitative case study explores how Maude, a female principal, leads her school and reaches decisions on a daily basis. The study took place in a private, Catholic all girls' school in an urban setting in the province of Quebec. Over the course of the four months spent in the research site, data was collected through observation, interviews and the collection of artefacts. / The findings of this study suggest that Maude played three distinct leadership roles to which metaphoric labels were associated. She was a peacekeeper when assuming a socio-political stance, a gatekeeper when establishing and preserving the instructional standards of the school and a gardener when tending to the health of both individuals and the institution. / Few studies have investigated how female principals lead their school and reach decisions. Much of the literature on leadership has focused on the male perspective. Only recently have researchers acknowledged the androcentric bias found in the leadership literature. This study provides an other perspective on leadership, a female perspective. As such, the emergent educational leadership framework takes into consideration the influence values, mainly attributed to women have on both leadership and decision-making. The framework proposed outlines the fluidity associated with leadership and decision-making when seen through a gendered filter. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)