Purpose. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to assess the progress of affirmative action employment programs in selected California school districts to increase the representation and utilization of racial and ethnic minority groups and women in all areas of the certificated workforce; and, (2) to ascertain environmental factors that affect the implementation of affirmative action employment programs in California public schools. Procedures. Seven school districts' hiring goals were assessed for compliance based on the intent and spirit of the district and state policies on affirmative action. Additionally, one-hundred affirmative action officers were sampled via questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to solicit information on factors that may have affected the implementation of affirmative action employment programs in California public schools. Findings. Some of the major findings were: (1) Disparity existed in the student/teacher ratio for Hispanics and relative parity existed for American Indians, Asians, Filipinos and Blacks. (2) Most school districts failed to increase the representation and utilization of minorities and women in educational administration. (3) Proposition 13 and student enrollment declines were two environmental factors that impeded the implementation of affirmative action employment programs. (4) The Bilingual Education Act facilitated the implementation of affirmative action employment programs by increasing the representation of minorities in the certificated workforce. (5) Lack of total commitment to this concept was conveyed by policy implementors. Conclusions. State legislation such as the state Bilingual Education Act of 1976 seemed to have facilitated progress toward a reasonable racial and ethnic parity with the student population for most groups. Significant disparity still exist for the Hispanic population in all categories of employment. In educational administration employment such negative environmental factors as Proposition 13 and declining student enrollments appear to have been most influential. Successful implementation of affirmative action employment programs in some school districts and some categories may have been curbed by lack of total commitment to the realization of this concept by policy implementors. Recommendations. Some of the major recommendations are: (1) Replicate the first part of this study over a longer assessment period, with a larger sample. (2) Analyze and assess school districts' affirmative action employment program procedures for compliance determination. (3) Compare school districts with and without bilingual education programs with respect to affirmative action employment progress.

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to collect information that describes characteristics of Asian American women administrators in California public school system and to examine barriers to their career aspirations in educational administration. Procedure. A thirty-one item survey was mailed to 131 Asian women administrators for potential inclusion in this study. Ten items reflected Asian cultural influences and twenty-one items were from Pacheco's Perceptionnaire. Findings. Of the 118 respondents, seventy-seven were eligible to participate. They included Asian American women superintendents, associate and assistant superintendents, secondary and elementary principals, directors, supervisors, coordinators, community college administrators, and others (advisors, consultants, specialists, and managers). Description of an Asian American administrator in California public school system included the following characteristics: (1) she may be Chinese or Japanese, first or middle born, second or third generation with a non-traditional or moderately traditional cultural orientation; (2) age forty or older, married; and if she has children, they are not likely to be in age category of zero to five years; (3) employed in education ten or more years with three or four career ladder steps prior to administrative placement; (4) has masters degree or higher; (5) interested in upward mobility; (6) family is considered the most important influence on educational and career endeavors; and (7) employed in larger school districts with 10,000 average daily attendance or more. While barriers to career aspirations were identified, those items reflecting Asian cultural influences were not considered barriers. External barrier items were perceived as more serious obstacles than internal barrier items. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in perceptions of barriers between Chinese and Japanese, among respondents with differing cultural orientations, between line and staff administrators, or between those with and without further leadership aspirations. Recommendations. Future studies to include: (1) Asian American women administrators who have participated in intervention programs to recruit minorities and women into educational leadership roles and the impact of such programs on their realizations; (2) both Asian males and females in educational administration and the differences, if any, of their perceptions to leadership aspirations; (3) Asian males and females who have administrative credentials but are not in administrative positions and the reasons for their non-participation in administrative roles.

Problem. The Young Men's Christian Association and Boy Scouts of America have been in operation for 125 and 70 years respectively. As society has changed and become more complex, the roles of staff members have changed. There is not now general agreement on what competencies an entry-level professional should possess in order to be effective. This and other factors have lead to staff turnover approaching 70% by the end of a four-year period, a factor which is of concern to agencies which derive their financial support from the community through donated dollars. Identification of entry-level competencies was an area of study requested by the Regional Directors of the two agencies as a way to improve the selection process, inform prospective employees and aid in the development of pre-employment training programs. The effects of differences in perception by agency respondent, local agency size, sex and job classification were identified as a variable which need to be analyzed for possible differences. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the competencies needed for effectiveness in an entry-level position with the Boy Scouts of America and Young Men's Christian Association. Procedure. A survey questionnaire was used as the data gathering instrument. Twenty percent of the staff members of the two organizations in the western United States were the sample which was stratified by local agency size, sex and job categories. Of 120 competency statements, the "most" and "least" important were identified by item median responses. The Chi-Square test of independence across groups and item response categories was made using the subprogram CROSSTABS of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences to test the hypothesis of independence between. The Pearson product moment correlation between item medians for groups, agency size, sex and job category were computed to determine overall similarity of the responses to all items collectively. Respondents listed competencies which would be important in the next decade for entry-level success. Findings. It was found that a common list of needed competencies, as seen by professionals, could be developed. Organization grouping, local agency size, sex and job category were not found to alter the rankings of the competency statements. There was no relationship between the rankings given to the eleven general competency categories by staff members of the two agencies. Respondents identified fiscal management, fund raising, business management skills, personnel management, working with volunteers in more creative ways and the use of computers as skills which would be even more important in the next decade. Recommendation. (1) Further study of this kind be conducted in other regional areas of the United States by these two organizations to test the validity of the findings on a national scale. (2) That other youth and human service organizations undertake study of this type to define commonalities and differences for entry-level effectiveness between agencies. (3) That the perceptions of entry-level staff and female staff members in these two organizations be studied further. (4) Study be undertaken to better define ways in which the competencies identified can be provided by academic institutions and agency in-service training opportunities.

The purposes of this study were to describe and compare California elementary school principals' and assistant principals' perceptions of the assistant principals' levels of responsibility for selected duties and activities and their perceptions of the importance of these duties and activities, and to describe selected personal and professional characteristics of assistant principals. Questionnaires for principals and assistant principals were developed and distributed to administrators in 119 randomly selected California elementary schools in which there were full time assistant principals and a K-5 or K-6 grade configuration. Over 59 percent of the possible paired responses were returned, and several non-paired responses were received from both assistant principals and principals. Findings were based on analysis of data resulting from application of appropriate statistical procedures, including deviations, and paired t-tests. Assistant principals generally believed they had more responsibility for administrative activities than principals believed they had. Differences between their perceptions were significant (p $\leq$.01) for five activities. Assistant principals perceived the majority of the selected activities to be more important to the school's educational program than principals did. Administering student discipline, counseling pupils, and evaluating teachers were the three activities perceived by both principals and assistant principals as those for which the assistant principal had the most responsibility, those most important to the school's educational program, and those on which the assistant principal spent the most time. The majority of assistant principals respondents were female, 45 years of age or younger, and desirous of becoming principals. Most respondents indicated that the duties of the assistant principal were determined by the principal or jointly by the principal and the assistant principal. Three recommendations were proposed. Assistant principals should be given more responsibility for activities perceived as important by principals and assistant principals. School boards should adopt policies to clarify the function of the assistant principal. Assistant principals should be given an increasing amount of responsibility for activities as they spend more time in the position.

Purpose. The major purpose of the study was to describe the procedures for identifying culturally-different gifted and talented children. Other goals were to: (a) identify how the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs are administered; (b) investigate the enrollment of GATE programs from the general and different cultures; (c) determine the similarities and differences of perceptions of GATE programs among administrators and teachers; and (d) contrast identification procedures and administration of the programs in the seven GATE districts that had the highest number of culturally-different gifted and talented students and the seven GATE districts that had the lowest number of such children. Procedures. Ten California counties with school districts offering GATE programs were selected as samples for the study. Two questionnaires were developed, the first sent to 124 administrators and teachers and the second to 14 districts that had the highest or lowest number of culturally-different gifted and talented students. Findings. Teacher recommendations were the key criteria during the identification process. Psychological services were contributors to the identification process. A school site study team was utilized and was the most unique feature of the districts that had the highest number of GATE culturally-different students. Tests and instruments most utilized were nationally-published which included Stanford-Binet and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS). The elements of giftedness that were tested most often were intelligence and high achievement. The program approaches most often offered were acceleration, special day classes and cluster grouping. The percentage of White students in the GATE programs was higher than their percentage in the overall district enrollment. Conclusion. The identification processes of culturally-different gifted and talented students appear inadequate; thus they are underrepresented in GATE programs. Recommendations. Research is needed as to the means of increasing the participation of culturally-different gifted and talented students in GATE programs. The recommended areas for study include: increasing the use of elements of giftedness such as creativity, leadership, and visual and/or performing arts; raising funds or identifying the best use of limited funding; improving identification tests; identifying approaches to meet the needs of GATE culturally-different students; clarifying GATE teacher attitudes and promoting effective staff-development; and examining learning styles and cognitive strengths of students from different cultures.

Expansion of higher education. In California, as elsewhere throughout the nation, higher education is faced with increasing numbers of students. By their sheer numbers, the applicants seeking a college education will bring perplexing problems to the colleges and universities. The pattern of expansion of higher education is a crucial question today; a continuing demand by the American people for education for their children seems to leave little doubt but that continued expansion must surely come

Problem. Whether high school department heads were stimulated by professional journals to effect classroom change was an unanswered question. Needed was description of the effects of journal literature on the practice of leader-teachers in high school classrooms. Purpose. The study had companion purposes. The first was to discern the impact of journal reading on classroom practice as perceived by the high school department head practitioners themselves. The second was to describe the characteristics of the high school department heads whose practice had been influenced by the journals. Procedures. One thousand two hundred sixty-four California high school English, mathematics, physical education, science, and social science department heads were identified for a stratified random sample surveyed by mail by means of a forty-item, pilot-tested questionnaire originated by the investigator. Two subsamples were randomly selected for comparison, a subsample consisting of heads of other departments and a subsample composed of non-respondents to the original mailing. Data were coded, electronically processed, and tabulated. Data analysis employed descriptive procedures for the most part. Inferential treatment was the one-way analysis of variance and the Modified Least Significant Differences Test at the .05 level of significance. Findings. The 549 completed questionnaires (43.4 percent of the sample) enabled the study's questions to be answered and hypotheses to be tested, comparisons of findings with research literature to be made, and conclusions to be drawn. The influence of education journals on the classroom practice of high school department heads was found to be modest, with slightly more than a fifth of the department heads reporting journal influence on their practice. Science department heads exhibited somewhat more journal-influenced classroom change effect than did other department heads. Social science heads reported least. Journal-influenced changes cited were chiefly in the areas of curriculum design and techniques of teaching, as contrasted with other areas reported, such as discipline, motivation, instructional grouping, materials of teaching, public information, etc. Nearly all reported changes could be classified as practical rather than theoretical. Department heads cited the journals of their own disciplines as having most direct, practical value in their classroom practice. The journals of science showed the highest mean of attributed influence for any subject matter journals. Other journals influencing practice both directly and indirectly included the publications of the educator advocacy organizations. Department head membership in journal-publishing professional organizations appeared to be associated with reported changes in practice. Department heads most favored discussion as their mode of curriculum information sharing with colleagues; they least favored for this purpose the circulation of copies of journal articles. Most cited colleagues as their main source of information about curriculum. Characteristics of the journal-influenced department head included journal influence as the dominant change stimulus, relative recency in leadership, a high degree of innovativeness, good to excellent self-assessed reading ability, and membership in subject matter professional associations and educator advocacy organizations. Subsamples provided no contrasting data. Recommendations. (1) The processes should be studied by which journal-influenced classroom change is implemented; (2) editors of journals should conduct periodic needs assessments of professionals in the fields served by the journals; and (3) colleagues and their information sources on whom department heads and other teachers apparently rely for much of their curriculum information should be identified and their communication patterns within schools analyzed and characterized.

Teachers have long struggled to be recognized as professionals and to achieve autonomy. Key obstacles that influenced their perception of powerlessness, such as professional isolation of teaching staff, low teacher participation in decision making, and systems of supervision irrelevant to instructional improvement, were even scrutinized in national reports. The criteria suggested for the selection of a teacher supervision training model was based on a sound theory of education supported by research. It provided teachers the latitude for decision making that was congruous with the professional treatment of inservice teachers and that was acceptable to teachers receiving supervision. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of peer clinical supervision on teacher empowerment. The participants were 21 urban elementary school teachers located in southeast Washington, D.C. They along with their principal volunteered to be trained in clinical supervision using an adaptation of Cogan and Goldhammer's Five-Step Clinical Supervision Model. Pre- and post program questionnaires, a perceptual inventory, interviews and field notes were used to report the study's findings. The study concluded that training in peer clinical supervision had a positive impact on teacher empowerment when the results were associated with the six Empowerment Indicators: (1) increased receptivity toward supervision, (2) increased receptivity toward change, (3) decreased feelings of isolation, (4) increased evidence of collegiality, (5) increased participation in the decision-making process at the building level, and (6) increased peer classroom observations. Appendices present an outline of the training model used for this study with sample instruments.

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the influence of mentors in dyadic relationships on the leadership development of women college presidents. To fully understand the influence of mentoring on leadership development, a case study approach was used to originate empirical data to provide additional knowledge about women's leadership development. The case study was conducted through in-depth interviews with three women college presidents, their mentor(s), and their protégés. A process model of cross-generational leader development was generated from the empirical findings of the study and the model includes three specific mentoring strategies—Modeling, Challenging, and Supporting as well as two key bonding stages—Developmental and Peer Bonding.

The Charnes Cooper Rhodes ratio DEA model ("CCR") is used, with panel data from a large sample of Massachusetts' school districts, to test three propositions concerning the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 ("MERA"). First, did the degree of positive correlation between Socio-Economic Status ("SES") and educational outcomes decrease, secondly did educational opportunity become more equal among towns in Massachusetts, and finally were education standards raised overall? The CCR model is a Linear Programming method that estimates a convex production function using Koopmans' (1951) definition of technical efficiency and the radial measurements of efficiency proposed by Farrell (1957). It has been widely used in Education Production Function research. The pursuit, through state and federal courts, of equitable funding, allied to the belief that smaller class sizes improve outcomes, has made K-12 education expensive. The belief that outcomes are in constant decline has led to calls for "Accountability" and to "Standards" reform. Standards reform was combined, in MERA, with reform of state aid formulas and additional state funding, to ensure a minimum basic level of education pursuant to the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in McDuffy v. Robertson. The one certain relationship revealed by decades of research is a strong positive correlation between SES and outcomes. If MERA ensured a higher basic level of education, then the correlation between SES and outcomes should have weakened as the education of less well SES-endowed children improved. The CCR model was used first to measure "correlation" between multiple input and multiple output variables. Strong positive correlation was shown to exist and it appeared to strengthen rather than weaken. Next the CCR model was used to determine if there were changes in the distribution of per pupil expenditures and, lastly to determine whether outcomes improved between after MERA. The analysis suggested that the distribution of expenditures improved but that outcomes deteriorated. This deterioration seems to be closely related to the changes in the proportion of all students, in a grade, actually taking the tests. There is little evidence that MERA achieved anything and no basis upon which to argue that it achieved nothing.