M.Ed. / This research project forms part of a group project that involves three factors of effective management: • normative management; • open democratic management; and • accountable co-operative management. This mini-dissertation deals with normative management as a factor of effective school management. Chapter one explains the aims and objective of the research. The main objective is to determine the role normative management plays in the effective management of schools with diverse academic results in the 1999 senior certificate exam. This chapter further explains the research method, quantitative research, used for this research. Finally the researcher makes important assumptions in this chapter that should be taken into consideration for the mini- dissertation. Chapter two is in the form of a detailed literature study of the topic. The concepts, effective management and normative management as a factor of effective management, are explained in full. This chapter also deals with concepts from the questionnaire. Chapter three discusses the research instrument, the questionnaire. This chapter also explains the items of the questionnaire that forms part of normative management and the research group. Chapter four deals with the empirical study of the data from the questionnaires. In chapter five the researcher comes to certain conclusions from the study. Firstly the moral of educators influences school effectiveness. Secondly a common vision and mission will improve school effectiveness. The importance of the role of the principal is thirdly explained. Fourthly it is stated that parents should be involve to improve school effectiveness. Fifthly the curriculum in schools is dealt with. Curriculum 2005 is also discussed. Finally the importance of providing in the basic needs of children to improve school effectiveness is explained. In conclusion the researcher states that the educator should ask him/herself the following question when doing or saying something involving the learners: "Will this benefit the learner?" If the answer to this question is 'yes', the action will improve school effectiveness.

The Ministry of Education of Turkey changed the national education programs in accordance with recent approaches in education as part of the educational reform that covers basic and secondary levels of schooling in 2005-2006 academic year. This educational reform that was proposed to change the formerly traditional, behaviorist, and teacher-centered programs into constructivist and student-centered programs will obviously have effects on millions of students, educators and families. Its long-term influence is expected to be seen on the whole society in coming years. The purpose of this study is to describe how school culture, values on professionalism, perceptions on the new programs, and organizational structure and leadership of schools will ease or impede with the implementation of the new national educational programs. A pure qualitative research design was used to study this problem. Multiple case study was carried out with semi-structured, face-to-face interviews as the method of data collection. The data sources for the interviews were teachers and administrators from four schools of different socio economic regions in Istanbul, one of which was a private school. Some of the official documents of the Ministry of Education were also used as supportive evidence to the data collected through the interviews.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight and identify the effects of sociocultural context on the administrative processes of an American Elementary / Middle School in Spain. In this single-case study, a multicultural educational organization, Sevilla Elementary / Middle School was examined using qualitative data which were collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis. Upon identification of the problems of interest, sociocultural context in relation to administrative processes and common problems faced by administrators in multicultural school settings were examined. The school&amp / #8217 / s administrative processes including motivation, educational leadership, decision making, communication, and organizational change proved to be influenced by the sociocultural context.

This study aimed at exploring the school effectiveness characteristics of two high schools, one with high (School A) and one with low (School B) levels of placement ratio in &Ouml / SS for their graduates, to observe their characteristics as perceived by their stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, school administrative staff and managers). In this study, a comparative pre-structured case study method was employed. The study was conducted in two private high schools in the province of Ankara, Turkey. The participants were 10 students, 10 teachers, 10 parents, 2 non-academic staff and 3 administrators from School A, and 10 students, 10 teachers, 7 parents, 3 non-academic staff and 2 administrators from School B. A framework drawn by the researcher as a result of review of relevant literature was used to conceptualize the study and to guide the interview schedules to collect data. According to this framework, six general areas in effective school literature were explored. These areas were academic emphasis, organization and administration, school climate, home-school relations, teaching staff, and physical and financial resources. The data collected through semi-structured interviews were analyzed using content analysis technique. The findings revealed that two case schools had major differences almost in all areas explored. The only major similarity between two schools was in the leadership and leader qualities under organization and administration area. The effective school characteristics of the school with high levels of placement ratio in &Ouml / SS, in all six areas explored were added to the conceptual framework drawn at the beginning of the study.