The dissertation examines the effects of equalization on Arizona unified school districts. Data was collected from three time spans, 1979 to 1981, the period of time before the passage of equalization legislation; 1982 to 1986 the period of time that equalization took place; and 1987 and 1988 the period after equalization was to have been fully realized. The study uses six measurements of equalization. The Range of Revenue per student was found to indicate a slight in inequality. The Federal Restricted Range Ratio also indicated a slight trend toward inequity. Inequity has decreased from 1.79 in 1979 to 1.47 in 1988. The data became erratic during the period of time that equalization was taking place. Both the Range of revenue and the Federal Restricted Range Ratio are relatively invalid measurements of equity. The Coefficient of Variation, a much better measure, indicated on overall trend toward increased equity. The Coefficient of Variation was.35 in 1979 and.29 in 1988. The McLoone Index, a widely used measure of equity, indicated that the State of Arizona has had a high degree of equity throughout the study; it was.92 in 1979 and.91 in 1988. The Lorenz Curves that were produced and the Gini Coefficients gave further indication that the State has had substantial equity throughout the study. In 1979, the Gini Coefficient was.04 and.03 in 1989. The results of the data indicate that there was little effect on equalization of unified districts in Arizona from the passage of HB 2013 in 1980. Immediately after the passage of the law, the data became more erratic, but equity did not increase substantially. The reason there was little effect on equity is thought to be because the degree of equity as measured by the Coefficient of Variation, McLoone Index, and the Gini Coefficient was so great that any increase in equity would be very difficult. The McLoone Index indicated equity was within 12% of perfect equity and the Gini Coefficient indicated equity was within from 1% to 4% of perfect equity.

The purpose of this study was to determine the community power structure and its influence on the outcome of bond elections in four selected school districts in the State of Texas. The investigation of the following subproblems was necessary: 1. To determine the involvement of power structure in the decision-making process of the school district. 2. To determine the community people who have exercised the greatest influence in school matters. 3. To determine the educator's need to become cognizant of the nature of power structure. 4. To determine to what extent leaders in school bond elections are also leaders in non-school issues.

This primary purpose of this thesis is to explore the progression of education within Ellis County. The first two chapters focus on how the county was founded, the first settlements, the formation of towns and economic developments. The rest of the paper gives the history and development of education, specifically the early schools of the county, the beginning of public schools, and the more recent trends of education.

Based on the position that perceptions about roles and functions within organizations affect the operational goals of those organizations, this study vas conducted to determine differences in perceptions among educational personnel in large Texas school districts as to the operation of purchasing departments. The data generated by the present study support the conclusions stated below: 1. All employee groups questioned feel that there is a significant discrepancy between current and ideal practices in purchasing departments. 2. Any tendency to protect the status quo appears to be limited to those involved with the purchasing system in its design and operation. 3. Being more closely associated with classroom operations causes a greater discrepancy in how purchasing department practices are viewed. 4. Secondary Teachers were either more intensely in favor of change or more willing to express opinions. 5. There exists the tendency to lose rapport with teachers the more removed one is from the classroom. 6. Communications gaps exist between purchasing departments and those in classroom operations.

As a local education agency, school districts play an important role in providing instructional support for teachers and school leaders, making instructional goals, and allocating financial and human capital resources in a rational way to promote overall students’ learning outcomes. Studies on school districts that look to find reasons or characteristics related to school district success are known as district effectiveness research (DER). Previous quantitative research in DER using longitudinal dataset has assumed that all school district effectiveness (SDE) changes in a common pattern through a traditional ordinary linear regression or a hierarchal linear model while ignoring the probability that there might exist distinct subgroups of school district effectiveness trajectories. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of different SDE trajectories and how school district demographic variables and financial expenditures affect classification of SDE groups using a growth mixture model (GMM) with a national longitudinal dataset containing all public school districts in all 50 states and Washington D.C. from 2009 to 2015 (n = 11,185). The results indicated that (a) there are three different classes of school district effectiveness growth trajectories, which can be named as a constant SDE group (3.66%), a decreasing SDE group (34.16%), and an increasing SDE group (62.18%); (b) school district demographic characteristics such as a percentage of free lunch students and general administration expenditure per pupil are significantly associated with the probability of a school district being classified to a specific group; and (c) the longitudinal effects of school district demographic covariates and financial expenditures within each class such as school district locations (e.g., urban, suburban, etc.) are associated with the growth factors (intercept and slopes) in different ways.

Researchers have documented that supporting student needs, particularly their social-emotional learning, is critical to their success in the classroom. However, little research has been done to explore how district and school leaders make decisions about allocating resources (funding, personnel, curricula, and infrastructure) to student support services, especially during times of fiscal constraint. This study explores the ways that some of the largest high-needs districts in the United States decide to provide the needed resources to maintain social-emotional learning and other student supports in schools as well as the effects of these policy decisions on resources and schools. It examines district leaders’ rationale and the bounds that shaped these decisions using bounded rationality theory. It focuses on a seven-year period from the 2006–07 school year to the 2013–14 school year, the time period before, during, and after the 2008 Recession. This study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. Through a series of fixed-effects analyses, the study explores funding trends and the impact of student support services (SSS) funding on student support service staff as well as academic and non-academic outcomes. These analyses were conducted in two phases. First, the study explores the impact of SSS funding on the outcomes across the seven-year study period for the 120 largest districts in the United States as a reference and, then, conducts the same analyses exploring the impact within 48 large, high-needs, districts. Following these analyses, the researcher conducted a series of interviews with district leaders in 5 high-needs districts to learn how they were supporting the needs of their students and what considerations shaped the decisions to allocate resources to these support areas. Like the fixed-effects analyses, the interviews focus on the seven-year study period, though context beyond these years is included. The findings indicate that changes in student support services funding are related to changes in student support services staff and high school completion outcomes. The experiences of high-needs district leaders provide additional insight into the decision-making process around student support services funding and the observed variation. District leaders expressed various levels of challenges stemming from changes in federal, state, and local budget reductions as well as challenges in specific years like those that followed the 2008 Recession. These reductions coupled with other limitations and considerations led to different decisions across and within these districts. The constructs of bounded rationality aided in better understanding these limitations, district decisions, and the consequences for students and schools.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2018. / School Improvement Plan is introduced to improve learner performance in South Africa. This plan is integrated within the whole School Evaluation so as to enhance the quality of education in the country. Malegale Circuit of Education in Limpopo Province is central to the investigation. In terms of the Whole School Evaluation (WSE) schools are required to annually develop and implement a School Improvement Plan (SIP). As part of a SIP, a school should plan to monitor and examines at regular intervals, whether its practices and learner achievement are undergoing changes.SIP maps out the actions needed to bring about improvement. It is compiled annually after School Self-Evaluation (SSE). The focus areas used by school management teams to draw their School Improvement Plan (SIP) are: basic functionality of the school; leadership, management and communication; governance and relationships; quality of teaching and educators development; curriculum provision and resources; learner achievement; school safety, security and discipline; school infrastructure; and parents and community. It outlines the school’s strategies for improvement and sets clear targets of action. All the schools are obliged to draw their School Improvement Plan (SIP) in the curriculum of every subject. The programme helps in assisting towards improving performance in terms of quality of teaching and learning, educator development, curriculum provision and resources, learner achievement and school infrastructure. The study provides insight into the research design, qualitative case study which includes Semi-structured interviews, Document review, Field notes and Observation and quantitative in the form of questionnaires research paradigms, purposeful sampling, site selection, the participants, and data analysis. The members of the school management teams should be encouraged to implement School Improvement Plan in an effective and professional manner. The members of the school management team should be encouraged to appoint qualified physical science teachers to enhance the impact of whole school evaluation on school improvement plan. Government officials should be encouraged to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the whole school evaluation and school improvement plan, so as to enhance the teaching of Physical Science.

This qualitative study examined organizational change including the necessary steps that a large school district took in planning and implementing a reform effort. This project told a story of one school district's experience. The study covered a five year period from 1990 to 1995 in the 30,000 student Salem-Keizer School District of Salem, Oregon. The examination included a description of school board action in 1989 where a staff recommendation to reform middle schools and move sixth graders to middle schools with a seven-eight grade configuration was denied. The study then continued with an examination of the change process during which sixth graders were moved to middle schools, reforms were implemented, three new schools were opened and five schools were remodeled to accommodate the new programs. This reform, however, was not without problems. Those issues were discussed in the study. The retrospective part of the study reflected upon the project through the analysis of district documents and the results of nine field interviews of middle school principals using a set of seven questions designed to reveal the principals' perceptions of the process. The study then triangulated the results of the interviews by examining information from a focus group comprised of Salem-Keizer curriculum directors and staff development specialists who were asked the same seven questions. The study answered the questions: "Did the district do what the community asked it to do in creating middle schools that afford students a more effective educational program?" and "What are the implications for the district in undertaking a major reform effort?" Themes that emerged from the study included the following: organizational change is highly personalized; change should have a literature and research foundation; stakeholders must participate in the change process; communication must be consistent and must be "two way"; one person must be the individual in charge of the change; a change process requires vigilance, constant reevaluation and refinement; staff development is crucial in a change process; and if a district wants new thinking, then new people must help in organization change. / Graduation date: 1997

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 27, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Paul Baker (chair), Dianne Ashby, Jeffrey Nelson, William Rau. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-213) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Instructional Systems, Leadership, and Workforce Development. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.