The problem of this study was to analyze the effect that a legislature-mandated quarter system was having on certain selected middle schools in the State of Texas, Some educators have claimed that the quarter system makes it possible to add flexibility to school programs. This study, therefore, was an attempt to find out if local school districts were taking advantage of this opportunity. A second goal of the study was to determine how principals, teachers, and curriculum directors felt about the manner in which schools were implementing certain teaching strategies which experts in this field have recommended for use in middle schools. It was concluded that the schools were not taking advantage of the quarter system in order to more nearly approach the middle school concept. Educators do not seem to be against the innovations proposed by middle school authorities so it would seem that the time is right for a full commitment to the area of schooling for the middle years. The support of the general public then will be a key factor in the success of the middle school. Educators must make an effort to keep the public better informed about the way children learn and grow if this support is to be forthcoming.

Includes bibliography. / This study examines the role of time in the working lives of teachers in the Western Cape in the years 1989 and 1990. The study is based upon interviews with twelve teachers, all of whom were currently teaching or who had been teaching in the recent past. The interviews explored the attitudes and practices of the teachers regarding their timetables, free periods, extra-murals, marking practices and lesson preparation, meetings, homework practices, tests and examinations, and professionalism, in so far as these were affected by considerations of time. The study argues that conflict in schools is produced by the struggle for autonomy, particularly in the classroom practice of teachers, and that this struggle takes the form of competition for control of time. In particular, the study suggests that there are rankings of power and priorities in schools and that these can be better understood by examining the relationships between time, conflict and autonomy.

This thesis presents a methodology for determining faculty/course assignments based on preferences for the goals faculty members feel are important and seek to attain in selecting the courses they would like to teach. The heuristic procedure seeks to maximize faculty goal and preference attainments for the courses. Several operations research techniques have been used to solve this problem, but the limitations of the techniques minimize their usefulness. A discussion of these techniques and their sources of information are given. The assignment model uses faculty preferences for courses based on course-specific goals, faculty availability, and maximum teaching load as constraining factors. The model was implemented using three Advanced BASIC programs with interactive capability. The model was tested in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Virginia Tech. System analysis was performed utilizing pre-test measures of satisfaction with the teaching assignments determined by the current scheduling system and post-test measures of satisfaction with the teaching assignments determined by the proposed scheduling system. An analysis of the results is included. / Master of Science

Historically, scheduling has not been a major concern for elementary school principals but has been viewed by many as the task of the secondary principal (Canady, 1985). Recently, however, more attention has been given to the merits of scheduling for several reasons. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of parallel scheduling upon classroom instructional time and the scores of elementary students in language arts and mathematics. Parallel scheduling was defined as the structuring Of the school day by the principal to ensure that specialist schedules (art, music and physical education) and the support schedules (special programs for selected students) enhance rather than fragment the instructional day. This scheduling design ensured that all children received direct teacher instruction without interruption to attend a pull-out program. It also reduced the number of students in the classroom during direct instruction in reading and mathematics allowing the teacher the opportunity to provide direct instruction to 12-15 students without the presence of the remainder of the students in the classroom. This encouraged efficient and effective use of instructional time during each school day. This study was designed to address the following questions: 1. What impact, if any, does the use of parallel scheduling as compared to a regular elementary schedule have upon elementary students? 2. Does the performance level of elementary students in parallel scheduling interact with student achievement? 3. Does parallel scheduling impact classroom instructional time? To accomplish this purpose, a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was used as the researcher was unable to randomly assign the participants to the pilot and control groups. Data was collected from an assigned pilot school and a control school, that had been matched based on socio-economic level, size of school, and standardized test scores. All students in grades two, four, and five in the pilot and control schools served as subjects for the study. A pre and post-test, the Metropolitan Achievement Test, was utilized to measure growth and achievement of the elementary students. Analysis of covariance was the statistical method used to determine the relationship of parallel scheduled schools and regular scheduled schools with regard to reading, language and mathematics achievement. Secondly, the Classroom Check List, designed by Jane Stallings (1977), was used to collect data relative to the type of activities that were occurring in the classroom, the size of the group involved in their activity, and whether students were working directly with the teacher or independently. The Chi-Square test was used to determine the relationship between classroom activities, size of groups, and whether students worked directly with the teacher or independently. It was determined from this study that there were significant differences in the vocabulary, word recognition, total reading, math computation and post total battery achievement scores of children in parallel scheduling as compared to children in regular scheduled schools. No relationship could be established between classroom activities, the size of student groups, nor the direct interaction with teachers and parallel scheduling. Therefore, no relationship could be established between parallel scheduling and classroom instructional time. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the seven-period day schedule implemented at Abingdon High School and to judge the feasibility of implementing a comparable schedule in all Washington County high schools on a permanent basis. In order to facilitate the evaluation, several areas of inquiry were identified. Questions of interest included: Did the students take advantage of the additional opportunities to take courses? If so, what courses were selected? Did an extended day create problems for students and/or faculty? If so, what kind of problems/concerns were encountered? Was students' performance affected? Did students' behavior change? Did the lengthened school day increase stress or otherwise affect teachers' performance? What about cost? Finally, administrators in the region were asked to comment on the possible impact (advantages and disadvantages) of a seven-period schedule as an addendum to the data collected at the school. Data pertinent to the evaluation of the seven-period day were obtained from various offices at Abingdon High School and the Washington County School Board. Data regarding perceptions of faculty and students were obtained from two 13-question surveys, one given to 76 faculty members with 58 responses and the other given to all students with 977 responses. There were subjective qualities involved in the study such as newness of the seven-period day or change itself. These qualities cannot be measured quantitatively and may have affected the results of the study. Aside from these considerations, no evidence was revealed by the research that would indicate the seven-period day was less effective than the six-period day. The results of the study indicate that students would take additional courses if given the opportunity with no apparent negative effects. The cost of the seven-period day was less on a per course basis than for the six-period day. / Ed. D. / incomplete_metadata

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the common planning time for a team of middle school teachers by comparing the standardized test scores of middle school students selected from two school districts located in North Texas. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) 2 * 4 design was utilized to measure the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) math and reading scale score for 7th grade students from the test administered in spring 2005. The data for this study were compared by the variables of school, gender, and ethnicity. The measuring tool utilized in this study determined the ratio of the amount of variance of the scores for individuals of between-groups as opposed to the amount of variance of within-groups, indicating if there were a statistically significant difference on the scores in any one particular variable compared to the variances of scores for the other variables in this study. The statistical results indicated that there were no statistical significant differences in the scores of students attending a middle school where the teachers received a common planning time. However, there was a noted difference in the percentage ratings on the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report published by TEA for the African American students who attended the school with the common planning time. These students had higher scores on the TAKS reading test. The TAKS math scores did not indicate any notable differences.

This study analyzes the effect of three different high school scheduling options on the delivery of biology instruction, on student achievement, and on student perceptions of their instructional activities. Participants were biology students and teachers from twelve high schools in a north Texas urban school district of 76,000. Block classes had 11 to 18 percent less instructional time than traditional classes. Texas Biology I End-of-Course Examination achievement results for 3,195 students along with student and teacher surveys provided information on instructional activities, attitudes, and individualization. Using an analysis of variance at a j i< .01 the following results were found; student achievement was significantly different for each of the scheduled comparisons groups, test score means were not statistically significant between the scheduled comparison groups for different ethnic groups, economically disadvantaged students, and magnet students. No significant differences were found between the science learning activity index for each of the scheduled groups. Student response data when disaggregrated and reaggregrated into program groups found a statistically significant higher index of science activity at a p. < .01 for magnet students when compared to both the regular and honor students. Regular program students had a significantly higher index of individualization than honors program students. Accelerated and rotating block classes were found to hold a significantly more positive attitude about their science learning conditions than did the traditional students. These data suggest that during the first two years of block scheduling, the initial impact of block scheduling, where total time for science is reduced, results in lower student achievement scores when compared to traditionally scheduled classes. Yet, block scheduled student attitudes and perceptions about science learning are significantly more positive than the traditionally scheduled students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of school schedule on student achievement and attendance of ninth and tenth grade students in metropolitan area Texas high schools (n = 22) and campus dropout rates. High schools that were analyzed in this study made a transition from A/B block scheduling in the 2003-04 school year to a traditional school schedule in the 2004-05 school year. Academic achievement, attendance rates and dropout rates were gathered through the archived files of the Texas Agency through the Academic Indicator of Excellence System (AEIS). Academic achievement was measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics standardized tests. This study compared the mean scores of ninth grader student achievement, attendance, and dropout rates from the 2003-04 school year to the mean scores of the tenth graders from the same schools from the 2004-05 school year, after the schools converted from an A/B block schedule to a traditional class schedule. Each independent variable was divided into four subgroups; campus mean results, minority student results, limited English proficient (LEP) student results, and low-socioeconomic student results. Students under the A/B block scored significantly higher in reading achievement than when they were instructed the following year under a traditional schedule. Paired sample t-tests were conducted to analyze the data for each subgroup, and showed there was a statistically significance in reading / language arts student achievement scores for all subgroups. Statistical significance was determined with a ninety five percent confidence level (p < 0.05). Statistical analysis revealed varied results in mean scores for math academic achievement and attendance rates, but no statistical significant difference. Comparison of data showed a slight increase in mean scores for dropout rates in traditional schedule, however the results were not significant.

The purpose of this study is to measure and compare the degree of personal and social adjustment which high school girls exhibited during a "split semester" and a "continuous semester."