The problem of this study was to evaluate the quality of service and the adequacy of financial support by the State of the Texas public school transportation system and to indicate what improvements, if any, are needed in order to met ideal standards.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) organization promotes distributed leadership as the ideal leadership model for implementation of all of its 4 programs, and researchers have noted that this leadership model in private international schools with multiple IB programs has been vital to school wide success. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how distributed leadership influenced the implementation of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP) in a public middle school that has been successful in meeting academic goals. Spillane's distributed leadership model served as the basis for identifying the organizational structures, routines, and tools that influenced the implementation of the IBMYP and improvement in students' academic achievement. Data included interviews with 2 administrators, 3 teachers, 2 support staff, and 1 coordinator, and documents collected from participants, a district leader, and the school's website. Data analysis entailed coding to identify emerging patterns and themes. Findings from this study indicated that distributed leadership had a positive influence in the implementation of the IBMYP. Major themes included effective distributed leadership practices of positional and informal leaders; collaboration amongst faculty members; positive relationships between administrators and others; shared academic vision; effective organizational structures, routines, and tools; shared learning; and students' behavioral challenges. Positive social change may come from providing leaders in the IB organization, as well as district leaders, strategies for distributing leadership that were found in this study that may increase successful implementation of the IBMYP in public schools and improvement in student academic achievement.

This thesis is a historical case study of the Ute Indians of eastern Utah. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how federal Indian education policy is implemented at the local level. Ute children attend school in the Uintah and Duchesne county school districts. The thesis traces Ute experiences in public schools during crucial transitions in federal policy. From 1900 to 1930, the federal government sought to enroll Indians in public schools in order to teach them white ways. Indian enrollment increased in the 1940s and 1950s when federal funding made the attendance of Ute children lucrative to the school districts. After the reservation boarding school closed in 1952, nearly all of the Ute children attended public schools and faced a school system that was hostile to their culture. A key transition occurred in the 1970s when federal policy shifted to one of self-determination. The Indian Education Act of 1972 made mandatory the direct participation by Indian parents in the implementation of federally funded programs. Many parents failed to grasp the new opportunity. The Ute Tribal Education Division became heavily involved in running Ute history and language classes in the public schools under Title IV of the Indian Education Act of 1972 and under Title VII of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Despite the existence of a policy that advocated self determination, Utes were not really allowed to determine how federal money was spent. The 1972 Indian Education Act established an advisory role for parents rather than an administrative one. Local school districts still controlled the purse strings. Programs run under this act were not integrated into the core curriculum of local schools. Federal Indian education policy changed from decade to decade but local attitudes remained essentially the same, blunting each policy's effectiveness. When the federal government desired assimilation, local residents and Indians fought that goal. When the federal government switched to a policy of self-determination, misunderstanding and outright hostility kept it from fulfillment at the local level. In addition to problems associated with local attitudes, federal legislation also proved unworkable because it gave Indians no real power to make the school districts listen to them.

This thesis is part of a series of coordinated research projects undertaken by the College of Education at the Utah State University. The series was under the general direction of Dr. Walter R. Borg working cooperatively with the State Department of Public Instruction and the superintendents of Utah's forty school districts. The superintendents of the state of Utah in recognizing the importance of improved selection systems tor administrators and upon noting the lack of any standard procedure tor selection, asked the Utah State University to accept the problem tor further research. The initial evaluation of the entire problem resulted in studies being undertaken in three separate areas.

Retaining qualified teachers is critical to the long-term success of students who receive special education services. Special education teacher retention is particularly important during the middle-school years, as this time is a marked period of transition between elementary and high-school that may place increasing demands upon teachers. Further, teachers in their first five years of working may be especially vulnerable to leaving their positions. I sought to identify the factors that contribute to public middle school special education teachers desire to leave teaching. Correlational analyses conducted on self-report data from 446 current public school special education teachers indicated classroom behavior, academic achievement, family involvement and communication, salary, potential for job advancement, and work attitude were significant predictors of whether teachers considered leaving. Based on the findings from the quantitative data, the original intent on focusing the research on middle-school became problematic as the statistical significance was not measurably different across grade levels taught. The qualitative information from open ended responses supports the quantitative results. The implications of these findings, future directions, and possible remediation strategies to improve retention are discussed. / Educational Administration

This study aimed to discover the possibilities of using the board as an agent because of the position of the board numbers in relation to the school and the community. The study provided summary of findings.

No description available.

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine if the foundational constructs (student engagement and ethical care) were experienced by the 8th grade students that participated in a morning tutoring program: Future Problem Solvers. A mixed methods design was adopted for the purpose of this study including raw data, survey data, informal observations, and face-to-face interviews. The goal was to determine if the 28 participants (male and female) demonstrated academic success on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (Science). The study was also conducted in order to explore the level of student engagement and the development of reciprocating relationships based ethical care between the teacher and the students. The findings from the quantitative analysis using the Mann Whitney U indicated that the FSP participants did make academic gains on the FCAT (Science) test to a higher degree than non-participants: Non-Participants (Mean Rank = 182.37) and Participants (Mean Rank = 332.96). The significance was established where p = .00. The quantitative analysis using frequency data also revealed that the majority of the participants reported that they were engaged in learning and made strong efforts when doing and completing their schoolwork. They also participated in class, as well as school based activities. Furthermore, they reported that they felt a sense of belonging and were supported by the staff. The findings from the qualitative analysis indicated that the teacher did model care to the students. He engaged them in dialogue about caring relationships and confirmed and encouraged the best in them. The responses on the interviews completed by the teacher and the principal, as well as the students give evidence that strong relationships developed between the students and the teacher. Moreover, that these reciprocating relationships were built on trust and care. The discussion and interpretations emphasizes the need for professional development, and the need for policy that strives to support student engagement and ethical care above high stakes testing.

No description available.

This study was conducted to analyze the effect of implementation of Texas House Bill 72 on budgets of selected Texas public school districts and to ascertain educational benefits to students derived from implementation of the bill as perceived by superintendents. Questionnaires were sent to superintendents of the Region 10 Education Service Center to determine perceived educational benefits to students. A demographic data sheet provided information for classifying respondents by educational experience, superintendent experience, and district enrollment classifications. Sixty-two districts responded. Official public school budget data for each district were analyzed for fiscal years 1983 through 1986 as were data from the questionnaire. Overall statistical information was gleaned through CONDESCRIPTIVE. Mean total expenditures, mean total tax rate, and state fiscal aid data were compiled, tabulated, and reported for each enrollment classification and entire sample. In addition, a t-test between the difference of two independent means at a probability level of .05 was applied. The two independent means were the averages of data for the two years prior to and after implementation of the law for expenditures, tax rates, and state fiscal contributions. Data comparing local and state expenditures were compiled, tabulated, and reported for each group to compare local and state fiscal effort prior to and after implementation. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare demographic variables with perceived educational benefits. Item and factor analyses were applied to establish reliability.