The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between five factors: teacher efficacy, teacher beliefs, cultural responsive classroom management, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity among African American, European American and Hispanic American elementary school teachers. The five factors were part of eight factors originating from the Cultural Awareness and Belief Inventory (CABI) given to Pre-kindergarten through Grade 12 teachers in an urban public school district in Houston, Texas during the 2005-2006 school year. A MANOVA using SPSS was conducted for the sample of 208 teachers from grades kindergarten through fourth to assess whether differences exist between the ethnic groups. The five factors served as the dependent variables and the ethnicities of the teachers were the independent variables. A further analysis was conducted of the elementary schools which participated in the CABI for two purposes. The first purpose was to ascertain the number of teachers with strong efficacy beliefs, and the second purpose was to identify common and distinctive characteristics among those schools. Results were analyzed using standardized test scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) as well as Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS). The results of the MANOVA revealed a significant difference among the teacher ethnic groups only with Cultural Sensitivity. Further tests revealed the difference in Cultural Sensitivity, which could be explained by ethnicity, was relatively small. While African American teachers obtained slightly higher mean scores on some of the items related to the factors, the three teacher ethic groups had similar mean scores in the majority of the items. Each of the teacher groups demonstrated an overall optimism for the five factors, reflecting positive beliefs about African American students and their capabilities to achieve in school. Each of the five urban schools had similar but also distinctive characteristics. The analysis of the schools with high teacher efficacy revealed them to have a high number of economically disadvantaged students. The only other commonality was very high retention rates among the schools. The high retention rates were inconsistent with practices of effective schools.

Science achievement of U.S. students has lagged significantly behind other nations; educational reformers have suggested science engagement may enhance this critical measure. The 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was science-focused and measured science achievement along with nine aspects of science engagement: science self-efficacy, science self-concept, enjoyment of science, general interest in learning science, instrumental motivation for science, future-oriented science motivation, general value of science, personal value of science, and science-related activities. I used multilevel modeling techniques to address both aspects of science engagement and science achievement as outcome variables in the context of student background and school characteristics. Treating aspects of science engagement as outcome variables provided tests for approaches for their enhancement; meanwhile, treating science achievement as the outcome variable provided tests for the influence of the aspects of science engagement on science achievement under appropriate controls. When aspects of science engagement were treated as outcome variables, gender and father’s SES had frequent (significant) influences, as did science teaching strategies which focused on applications or models and hands-on activities over-and-above influences of student background and other school characteristics. When science achievement was treated as the outcome variable, each aspect of science engagement was significant, and eight had medium or large effect sizes (future-oriented science motivation was the exception). The science teaching strategy which involved hands-on activities frequently enhanced science achievement over-and-above influences of student background and other school characteristics. Policy recommendations for U.S. science educators included enhancing eight aspects of science engagement and implementing two specific science teaching strategies (focus on applications or models and hands-on activities). Focused implementation of these research findings could enhance both science engagement and science achievement of U.S. students. I identified five key limitations of my research project: the age of the dataset, the lack of racial/ethnic identifiers, the low proportion of student-level variance accounted for by multilevel models with aspects of science engagement as outcome variables, the lack of class-level measures, and the lack of inclusion of students’ epistemological and fixed/flexible beliefs. These limitations provide opportunities for further investigations into these critical issues in science education.

This thesis constitutes a study of a Catholic secondary school in the State of Victoria, Australia, in the year 2001. It addresses the issue of the nature and purpose of Catholic schools in situ, the focus of the research being an in-depth analytical description of the participant school. Consequently, the findings are of potential relevance to those interested in the issue of the nature and purpose of the Catholic school in situ from a general and holistic perspective. Specifically, given the concern of the research with the nature and purpose of a Catholic school in situ, two anticipated areas of focus for the study were identified. These were the defining features of the school, in relation to the concern of the study with the nature of the school, and the ends of the school, in relation to the concern of the study with the purpose of the school. The study was thus governed by 2 two-part general research questions. 1. What are the defining features of the school, and how are they maintained? 2. To what ends is the school oriented, and how is this orientation sustained? In the form of an ethnographic study, the research describes and interprets the participant school from the perspective of those who constitute the day-to-day community. The findings of the study are located within a contextual understanding involving historical and prescriptive perspectives for, and literature pertaining to, the contemporary Catholic school. Given the concern of the ethnography with the development, as opposed to the verification, of theory, data gathered from five major sources over the period of a school Section headings for the Introduction through to the References have necessarily been deleted for electronic presentation. Likewise, page numbers have necessarily been deleted for electronic presentation. year were focused and analysed, through the method of grounded theory, to arrive at the findings of the study. These five sources were participant-observation, in-depth interviews conducted with a number of the school personnel, observation of various school meetings, school documents, and a survey of the student body. The findings of the study, in their descriptive and analytical dimensions, are presented in four chapters. Specifically, these are presented in Chapters Five through to Eight, in relation to four main organising principles pertaining (a) to the description of the school, (b) to predominant perspectives on the school from within its day-to-day community, (c) to the prevailing characteristics upon which the perspectives of the day-today community turn, and (d) to the theoretical construct consequent upon the description, the predominant perspectives, and the prevailing characteristics. As with the descriptive aspect, to which the first two organising principles predominantly pertain, the interpretive dimension of the findings is largely undertaken in two chapters. The first of these chapters (i.e., Chapter Seven), pertaining to the delineation of the prevailing features evident within the perspectives of the day-to-day community, provides an interpretation of the descriptive findings in terms of an autocratic hegemony, a managerial administrative focus, and a bureaucratic organisational culture. Thus, this chapter signifies the primary analysis of the findings of the two previous chapters through completion of the descriptive dimension. The second of these chapters (i.e., Chapter Eight) places this preliminary analysis of the descriptive findings within a theoretical construct pertaining to concepts of disparity and congruity, opposition and compliance. The concepts of disparity and congruity relate to the school's adherence to ideological and primitive imperatives respectively. Those of opposition and compliance relate to the degrees of consonance, within the day-to-day community, in terms of assent to the prevailing order within the school. Consequently, it is to be observed that the elements of description and interpretation, essential to the in-depth analytical description demanded of the ethnographic methodological approach, decrease and increase, respectively, across these four chapters. Section headings for the Introduction through to the References have necessarily been deleted for electronic presentation. Likewise, page numbers have necessarily been deleted for electronic presentation. The study concluded that the nature and purpose of the school were consequent upon its prevailing autocratic hegemony, its pre-eminently managerial administrative focus, and its profoundly bureaucratic organisational culture. These interconnected elements of the school's practices, disparate from the ideological imperatives advocated for the Catholic school, were found to effect a latent opposition within the school community, principally in relation to the teaching personnel, masked by the overall compliance of the day-to-day community with the prevailing order.

Can the promotion of organic rice at school arouse the attention of the society to traditional rice industry?What do the parents of the students of the schools that promote the organic rice industry think? This study is based on both the view of promotion of school characteristic courses and local industry; regard local identity and cognitive benefits of local industrial development as the factors that are assumed to impact, and try to find out if parents agree with it and further more to explore the support (recognition) between characteristic rice curriculum of organic rice industry. And the problems which the combination of school characteristic organic rice curriculum and development of organic rice industry may encounter. The parents of the students of the schools located at Meilung Township that promote this study are the subjects of research.The scope of this study is the organic rice industry located at Meinung Township.Empirical methods of mining survey is adapted. The research findings show: (I) personal background trend to influence the parents¡¦ cognitive degree to the characteristic curriculum through local identity and cognition of effectiveness of local industries. (II) There¡¦s a distinct connection between the background of parents and the local identity. (III) There¡¦s distinct difference between the basic background of parents and the elements of recognition of development of local industry. (IV) There¡¦s a distinct difference between the local awareness of parents and that of the effectiveness of the development of local industry. (V) There¡¦s distinct difference between the local acceptance of parents and the support (recognition) of school characteristic curriculum. (VI) There¡¦s distinct difference between the recognition of effectiveness of local development and the degree of support of school characteristic curriculum. The research prove that the rise of both the local identity of parents or the recognition of the effectiveness of the development of local industries will influence the degree of support of characteristic curriculum of the parents positively. The implement of characteristic curriculum of organic rice will also affect the development of local organic rice industry positively. Research also proposed how to promote the combination of curriculum of school characteristic organic rice and the development of local organic rice industry

With data describing 110,520 eighth grade students from 592 junior high (middle) schools in China, a three-level hierarchical linear model was developed in this study to create a multivariate multilevel environment to examine (a) the effects of student-level and school-level variables on science achievement in four subject areas (science inquiry skills, biology, earth science, and physics) and (b) the consistency or stability of academic achievement across the four subject areas among students and among schools. Results indicated that (a) student characteristics, including gender, parental SES, time spent in learning, and the type of family separation, were related to high academic achievement in each of the four science subject areas, (b) no school characteristics were found to be significant factors to affect students’ academic performance in any of the four science subject areas, (c) both students and schools with high academic achievement in one subject area also showed high academic achievement in other subject areas, and (d) the consistency or stability of science performance over the four subject areas did not depend on student characteristics and school characteristics.

This study aimed to explore the characteristics of successful primary schools in the province of Izmir. In this study, qualitative research technique is employed through the perspective of multiple case studies. It was conducted in 9 distinguishingly effective primary public schools located in various districts of Izmir. The participants of the investigation were school administrators and teachers of the investigated schools. Reviewing the relevant literature of the field, a model of school effectiveness characteristics (consisting of five factors) was exploited in order for conceptualizing the research. This frame of effectiveness characteristics were identified as achievement &ndash / oriented policy, orderly and secure climate, strong educational leadership, maintaining parental support and thorough monitoring of pupil progress. Throughout the study, multiple case study method was adopted, and semi-structured interview technique was employed as the main data collection instrument. Content analysis technique was utilized to unfurl the data gathered through the interviews. The results of the research revealed that achievement orientation, strong educational leadership, school climate, monitoring students&rsquo / progress, parental support, and supportive physical environment are among the identified characteristics for school effectiveness.

This paper analyses and describes sorne importan! characteristics of families and the school affecting the students both in their psychosocial development and their school performance. It also emphasizes the characteristics of anxiety that can be trigger by the school and that together with sorne family anxiety peculiarities can increase the number of children who are at risk of having a low school performance and school failure. This paper suggest that in order to improve student's psychosocial development together with school performance, it is important to have an efficient intersystemic communication between the family and the school. It is also importan! to apply reliable strategies, as those contained in the Chilean Educational Reform so as to achieve these goals. / El artículo analiza algunas particularidades familiares y de la escuela que contribuyen a la aparición de estados ansiosos en los alumnos, que afectan tanto su desarrollo psicosocial como su rendimiento escolar. Enfatiza las características de los estados ansiosos que pueden ser provocados o exacerbados por la escuela y que junto con algunas peculiaridades familiares ansiogénicas pueden aumentar el número de niños en riesgo de bajo rendimiento y de fracaso escolar. Sostiene que tanto a través de una comunicación intersistémica eficiente familia-escuela como en el desarrollo de los Objetivos Fundamentales Transversales contenidos en la Reforma educacional chilena, es posible aminorar la sintomatología ansiosa, con el consecuente beneficio tanto para el desarrollo personal afectivo, como en el rendimiento escolar de los alumnos.

Under the guidelines of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), all students with disabilities must be provided a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This includes students who violate the law in regards to possession of a weapon or drugs, or students whose behaviors pose a threat to themselves or to others. Therefore, each school district must develop an Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) where students can continue to receive a FAPE, where the goals and objectives of their Individual Educational Program (IEP) can be met, where they can continue to progress in the general curriculum and where their behavior can be addressed through assessment and positive behavioral interventions. The purpose of this study was to understand how the experience of placement in an IAES affected students’ behaviors and attitudes. The study examined the effectiveness of the research-based interventions used in the IAES from the perspectives of students, parents and staff and how the various interventions related to the characteristics of the program. Data were collected from students, parents and staff at the IAES through a series of semistructured interviews designed and conducted by the researcher. The findings from this study have a number of implications for improving the programs designed for students attending the IAES and for the operation of the program. Recommendations included providing opportunities for parents to gain educational experience and seeking out and involving more community organizations, agencies and citizens in order to develop a more functional and meaningful curriculum. Finally, it was recommended that the district reconsider the status and role of the district’s IAES in board policy. By restructuring Bayfront Preparatory School (BPS) as an accredited alternative high school, the school could receive funds from district, state and federal sources, which would allow the development of a comprehensive academic, vocational and counseling program. This would increase the opportunities for all students attending BPS to complete their high school programs and successfully transition to post-secondary education, training, or work.

Bullying is a universal problem affecting the emotional, social, and physical wellbeing of school-age children worldwide. Individual level correlates of bullying have been well-documented; however, there is limited research identifying variables at the school level which contribute to bullying involvement, especially among high school students. In this dissertation, school characteristics associated with bullying were investigated using an ecological systems framework. In the first paper, a comprehensive review of the bullying literature was conducted. Research in the following areas were summarized: definitions of bullying, measures of bullying, individual correlates, influences of cognitive development and social context across age groups, contextual variables (family, school, and community), evidence-based interventions, and bullying from a socio-ecological perspective. In the second paper, research findings are presented for an original study investigating school level predictors of bullying involvement across Kentucky high schools. The study used aggregated data from a survey of 9th to 12th grade students in 26 high schools across the state, combined with existing school datasets, in order to examine: (1) the prevalence of bullies, victims, and bully-victims across Kentucky high schools and (2) school characteristics associated with elevated rates of bullying involvement. Results revealed important differences in school bullying incident reports and student reports of bullying experiences, as well as unique differences between school environments with high and low rates of bullying involvement. Overall, academic performance and parent involvement were the strongest predictors of bullying involvement at the school level; however, the relationships between these variables and prevalence rates were not as expected. In several analyses, individual level findings from the bullying research did not translate to the school level as hypothesized. Overall, these findings have important implications for researchers when using multilevel analyses in the school context, when investigating the impact of bullying interventions at the school level, and when investigating how the school environment contributes to bullying. Results also provide important information for schools developing or revising bullying data collection procedures.

學校經營發展的歷程中，可看到各縣市都有許多老舊學校面臨必須創新或轉型的危機，是否能夠因應教育改革，積極迎向改革趨勢幫助學校轉型，其實是決定一個學校浴火重生或漸趨沒落的關鍵；個案學校在這一波教育改革中，跟隨教改政策重新定位，秉持優質的教育理念，發展學校特色，堅毅地領先群倫，以致逐年增班，獲得新生。本研究旨在瞭解個案學校轉型的內、外在因素，探討個案學校轉型的實施策略、發展特色為何？進一步地，以1999年為個案學校轉型分隔點，比較個案學校轉型前後的差異，並為個案學校轉型紀實。 本研究為個案研究，利用文獻探討、訪談、文件資料分析等方法進行資料蒐集，探討、詮釋及思索一所國民中學轉型之歷程、策略及促成因素。經研究後獲致以下結論： 一、個案學校轉型的因素 （一）外在因素：校長遴選制度、師資多元化、教師任用制度、九年一貫課程、宣傳行銷、新校舍的啟用、環境變遷等。 （二）內在因素：校長領導、教師年輕、組織氣氛、自然領域中心、科學資優班、學習型組織、公共關係與資源、家長的支持等。 二、個案學校轉型的實施策略 （一）研訂校本發展。 （二）遴聘優質人力。 （三）結合課程發展。 （四）運用社區資源。 （五）學生多元展能。 三、個案學校轉型前後在「學校行政」、「學校教學」、「學校氣氛」、「學校環境」等四個層面，都有長足的進步，學校效能有明顯的提升。 最後依據研究結果與結論，提出具體建議，以作為國民中學、教育行政機關、個案學校以及未來研究的參考。 / During the process of a school management development, we could find that many old school faced the crisis of innovation and transformation. Whether a school could cope with the education reform and used the trend to help the transformation is the key point of its survival. The case school followed the policies during the education reform and insisted the excellent education ideas to develop the school .It steadily increased the class numbers year by year, and got the rebirth. The research focused on the factors of the case school transformation and discussed its strategies and development characteristics. In addition, the researcher took the year of 1999 as the transformation seperation point to compare the differences between the case school’s “before transformation” and “after transformation”. The researcher also recorded details about the transformation of the case school. The research was a case study, and the researcher used literary reviews, interviews, and data analysis to gather the information in order to explain the process of a junior high school’s transformation. The conclusion were listed as follow. 1.The factors of the case school’s transformation (1) The external factors: the system of the principal selection, multi-teacher education, teachers hiring rules, the nine-year curriculum, advertising marketing, the use of the new school buildings, the environment’s transit (2) The internal factors: the principal’s leadership, young teachers, the organization climate, science center, science gifted education, learning organization, public relationship and resources, parents’ support. 2.The strategies of the case school’s transformation (1) Plan the school-based development (2) Choose the great teachers (3) Combine the curriculum development (4) Use the community resources (5) Let the students develop their abilities in many ways 3.The case school had much progress in four areas, which are “school administration”, “school teaching’’, “school climate” and “school environment”. At last, according to the result and the conclusion, the researcher offered concrete suggestions to be the references for junior high schools, education administration institutions, the case school, and the future researchers.