This dissertation is on the history of the development of schooling in Alleghany County, and the cities of Clifton Forge and Covington, Virginia. Studying the past can provide a clearer perspective of the present and suggest courses for the future. Rather than focus on a topic as broad as education, this paper concentrates on the principal method used by government to educate its citizens; schools. In relating the events affecting school development in this area, actions by local, state, and federal governments, as well as the influences of individuals and events, are studied and discussed. The efforts of education associations, societies, and philanthropic institutions are included where they had a direct bearing on local educational policies and practices. Secondary sources provide most of the historical information about trends in education and schooling on a state and national level. Primary documents and sources provide the specifics relating to this locality. Reports of school commissioners and government officials and records of school boards provide much of the information as well as newspapers of the period. Personal letters and interviews also provide a perspective on the topic. The purpose of the dissertation is to document one aspect of local heritage, the development of schooling, and preserve various facts of history in a readable form. There is also a desire to focus attention on education and the local public schools in the hopes that both awareness and support will increase, thus leading to a system of schools that are not only adequate but exemplary in all respects. The contribution of this study to the field of education in general and school administration in particular is a more in-depth understanding of schools and their development. / Ed. D.

The prevailing purpose of this dissertation is the preparation of an historical account of public schools in Roanoke County from 1870 to 1920. The primary focus rests with the cultural, economic, political, and geographic factors that affected the evolvement of public schools in Virginia relative to Roanoke County Public Schools, a system in southwest Virginia. Within this framework the system is described as part of a valley-wide setting, where citizens, educators, events, funding, curriculum, and other components played an integral part in the shaping of the current system. The methodology employed in this study is qualitative in approach and utilizes recognized historical and ethnographic techniques. The Guba model, which allows for periods of discovery followed by refinement and verification, is suited to the nature of this study. The researcher initially conducts inquiry designed to discover data and generate ideas. After the initial inquiry period, the researcher refines and corroborates data. The cycle of broad inquiry followed by more critical analyses of specific occurrences can repeat itself several times. Verification is accomplished through the validation of sources based on triangulation, a method of cross-checking in which three or more sources are used to corroborate findings. Data is collected in an eclectic fashion, using the nature of the research questions to determine appropriate techniques. Primary sources are used when available, supplemented by secondary sources. Outcomes have not been predetermined but evolved as the research progressed. General interview guidelines have been used, but remained felxible enough to allow for probing and expansion of relevant topics. It is anticipated that the history of Roanoke County Public School from 1870- 1920 will -provide an accounting of historical developments within this time frame; -enrich the legacy it leaves to future generations; -develop an appreciation for the obstacles and trials that people overcame; -create as accurate an interpretation as possible from available data; -develop a sense of the past as a precursor to the present; -provide an avenue for practical use of this knowledge in developing a better future plan; -provide an historical account of public school education in Roanoke County that has heretofore been meager; -contribute to a broader body of historical information on Roanoke County / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to examine principal evaluation as conducted in the public school divisions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Specifically, the study (1) described principal evaluation policies and procedures currently in place in the school divisions, (2) compared those policies and procedures with "state of the art" ” recommendations in literature, and (3) made recommendations that should prove helpful in the development of principal· evaluation policies and procedures for school divisions. Data for the study were collected from the school divisions of Virginia in two ways. A questionnaire was sent to the chief personnel officer in each division and written policy and procedures were collected from each division. The findings indicated there is a need for updating principal evaluation policy and procedures in many of the public school divisions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Recent revisions in principal evaluation policy and procedures reported by some of the public school divisions do not evaluate effective leadership. However, it is not necessary for the Virginia Department of Education to develop a principal evaluation prototype since there are a number of excellent principal evaluation programs presently in existence in the school divisions. / Ph. D.

Experts have suggested that a restructuring of the organization of schools is one way to improve the teaching profession. One way to bring about such a restructuring is to allow teachers the opportunity to build collegial relationships. Advocates of peer coaching believe that it can be used to bring about this opportunity to build collegial relationships and allow for the restructuring of schools in order to create a more professional working environment in which teachers work and learn together. This restructuring should decrease isolation of teachers by creating a working environment of trust and allowing for greater resources sharing among the teachers. In turn, teachers' levels of job satisfaction should increase which ultimately should result in better teaching. However, there is little, if any, empirical support for this claim. Administrators who are interested in restructuring schools need information about the implications of building such collegial relationships on the profession of teaching and the working environment of the school. In order to provide this information, 565 teachers in a large suburban Virginia public school system that had implemented peer coaching for a two-year period were surveyed. A questionnaire was used to document the ‘teachers' levels of job satisfaction and perceived usefulness of peer coaching, as well as their perceptions about the degree to which trust and sharing of resources (interactions) existed in their schools. The data collected from the questionnaire was entered into a computer using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS^x). Specifically, descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and Pearson product-moment correlations were used to describe selected variables and V explore interrelationships between the variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine to what extent differences existed between elementary, middle, and high school teachers on the selected variables in the study. Based on the results, the teachers agreed that peer coaching was useful and that they trusted each other. Their participation in resources sharing tended to be more infrequent than frequent. They were satisfied with their teaching jobs. Further, it was found that pairs of the variables were positively and moderately correlated except for a weak correlation between resources sharing and job satisfaction. This meant that, on the whole, the more useful teachers found peer coaching, the more satisfied they were with their jobs, along with perceiving greater degrees of trust and resources sharing. No differences were found to exist among the three levels of teachers on the A usefulness of peer coaching or job satisfaction. All levels differed on the degree of trust that existed in their school. Middle school teachers differed from elementary on the frequency of resources sharing. In conclusion, peer coaching appears to have reduced isolation among the teachers and provided teachers the opportunity to learn about their teaching on the job. Further training in feedback skills and group process skills along with more opportunities to observe one another are recommended as ways to further reduce isolation and create conditions in which teachers are more able to collaboratively solve problems. / Ed. D.

The Fairfax County Public Schools and neighboring business/industry have perhaps one of the oldest and most satisfactory school/business partnerships in Virginia. A case study was made of the Fairfax County Public Schools School/Business Partnership to identify factors that make a partnership work and to provide information to assist a school system or business/industry interested in the establishment of a partnership. The population for this case study research was made up of school system and business/industry persons who had first-hand knowledge of the partnership. To begin the study a document search of the files and program was made. This document search resulted in a set of interview schedules which were then administered to the stakeholders. Data resulting from these schedules were coded and reported in narrative form. Results indicated that commitment from top level management from both the school system and business/industry to the partnership, a project of major proportion, and a program designed in a way to permit mutual pursuit of the goals of the partners are important if the partnership is to work. / Ed. D.

M.S.

M.S.

M.S.

Master of Science

The study was designed to investigate the intervention program, PEP-UP, in the Richmond Public Schools in Richmond, Virginia, and to determine if significant differences occurred in the academic achievement and self-concept of the program participants. Data for the study were obtained from SRA Achievement Test scores of the subjects participating in the study and from questionnaires given the participants. The subjects were 15 classes of PEP-UP students who were retained in the second grade on the basis of test scores, and 15 classes of control students composing the lower level reading groups of the third grade. Permission was granted by the Superintendent of Schools to utilize the test scores from school records and to administer the questionnaires to the subjects. The data were analyzed by use of the analysis of covariance with the signicance level set at .05. Major findings were: (1) There was a significant difference in the reading achievement after seven months of instruction between the experimental and control groups; (2) the mathematics achievement scores were similar for both groups and no significant differences were found; (3) the Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) did not indicate a significant difference between the groups, even though a slight increase in scores was evident for the PEP-UP students; (4) a significant difference in teachers' ratings did occur between the experimental and control groups. / Ed. D.