This research examines the difficulties public school administrators face while attempting to support the special education population with the knowledge they have gained through traditional university preparatory programs. In addition, this research examines past and current trends of those legally appointed to support the educational progression of disabled students. The purpose of this study is to analyze public school administrators' special education preparation that work in Los Angeles County, California. The researcher developed a survey to be sent out to one hundred public school administrators, to assist in describing the special education preparation of K-12 public school administrators throughout Los Angeles County, California. The data generated from the survey was coded and analyzed to find commonalities.

This Northern California single case qualitative study used Critical Race Theory as a framework for examining the perspectives of African American administrators on improving graduation rates of African American male public high school students in San Joaquin County. Barriers to graduation completion in San Joaquin County public high schools continue to leave stakeholders looking for solutions to change the status quo for African American male high schools students. Ten San Joaquin County African American male and female administrators (identified by pseudonyms) from various public elementary, middle, and high schools were interviewed individually. Participants' responses were categorized into themes according to their answers for each question. Contrary to explanations for low graduation rates of African American male students, as predicted in the literature review of this study, the participants' perspectives rarely indicated that discipline, or lack of parental involvement was a prevailing reason for low graduation rates for African American male students. Low teacher expectations, lack of role models and advocates, and the failure of the school systems to implement successful strategies to improve the graduation rates of African American male students appeared to be the most common themes as discussed in the literature review. Participants perspectives suggest public high schools in San Joaquin County struggle to make positive connections with African American male students. All of the participants claimed that teachers, administrators, and school staff struggle to build and maintain healthy relationships with African American male students. Some of the recommendations from the participants of this study suggest that stakeholders can assist African American male students in overcoming barriers and improving their graduation rates by: starting African American male charter schools, operating mentoring programs in schools, and recruiting more African American teachers and administrators.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to use the systems theory as the analytic framework to examine student conduct systems (SCSs) in Chinese colleges and universities. analyze environmental factors that influence SCSs. and explore administrators' recommendations for improvement of SCSs. Ten public universities were randomly selected from twenty-nine four-year universities in Zhejiang province. Documents related to student conduct systems from ten universities were analyzed, and thirteen administrators and one school counselor from nine universities were interviewed. While the findings of this study supported the previous research on many points, this study differed from the current literature in three important ways. First, this study provided insight into perceptions of administrators and counselors working at the forefront of SCS at Chinese universities regarding the educational purposes of SCSs and how the campus community members attempted to make the student conduct system work to achieve those purposes. This study also provided administrators' understanding of tension between educational roles of SCSs and damaging effects of formal punitive sanctions on students. Second, this study illustrated how administrators and counselors dealt with the educational and legal nature of SCSs while handling student conduct issues. This study first showed that student rights the investigated Chinese universities accorded exceed what laws and regulations require. Meanwhile, this study suggested that administrators appeared inure practical in dealing with student misconduct: they were trying to make a balance between complying with the basic legal requirements and handling student conduct issues more effectively and efficiently. The study showed that the majority of disciplinary cases were handled through informal resolution and administrators tended not to complicated the disciplinary processes. Third, this study explored environmental factors that affected SCSs in China. This research uncovered many aspects of the social environment that influenced SCSs, including laws and regulations, traditional culture, societal change, practices of peer universities and parents and public opinion. Factors within the university system included: university administrative systems, governance practices, educational objectives, university traditions especially those involving SCS historic and current practices, and the quality of student body.

Teacher evaluation has the ability to greatly support increased student achievement. However, existing literature on the topic finds evaluations are not meeting the intended purpose. Since principals are responsible for the implementation of the process at their school site, their perceptions of current processes is of value if evaluations are to be of value. Therefore, this study investigated K-12 principals' perceptions of teacher evaluation practices in an urban northern California school district. Data were collected through the administration of a survey. Of the 79 surveys distributed to school principals, 52 were completed and returned. Upon receiving the surveys, frequencies, percentages, means, and dependent sample t-tests were employed to analyze the data. The inductive analysis approach was used to code open-ended responses. The results illustrate that principals find formative and summative evaluation approaches are more effective for non-tenured teachers. However, they find the evaluation process is more supportive of tenured teachers when only formative approaches are applied. Principals find the process time intensive and lacking a clear purpose. Additional barriers ranged from teacher unions, to a lack of district support and inconsistency of implementation among principals. Principals seek reform in teacher evaluations where all parties find the process meaningful despite tenure status. Furthermore, principals seek a more comprehensive process that includes both formative and summative approaches. It is recommended that further research be conducted on the impact of time, school structures that support principals as coaches and evaluators, and how credentialing programs and districts provide training to principals in evaluation processes and barriers.

This study explores African American women elementary school principals and how their race and gender impact their decision-making practices as they relate to suspension. Principals are faced with deciding how to implement a variety of policies, including curriculum and instruction, student safety and other district initiatives. Special attention is given to suspension because it impacts the average daily attendance funds that schools receive, and if students are not attending school due to suspension, their academic achievement suffers. In addition, there is an increasing national rate of suspension (Ferges, E. & Noguera, P, 2010) that is leading to heightened responsibilities as it relates to discipline. Sacramento County in California was selected as the site of this study due to its diverse population of elementary students. The research question for this study was: How does the intersection of race and gender impact the decisions related to suspensions for African American women elementary school principals? The theoretical framework used to answer this question is Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000). Through in-depth interviews, the women revealed how double consciousness and the dual oppression of race and gender impacted their decisions regarding suspension. Black feminist thought focuses on the marginalized status of African American women and places their experiences at the center of the discourse. With this in mind, the data yielded findings in the following areas 1) race, 2) race and gender, 3) suspension, 4) networking, and 5) mentoring. The intent of this study was to contribute to the field by researching African American women elementary school principals. The focus of suspension practices was selected because of the troubling relationship between academic achievement and suspension. The discourse on African American women in educational leadership has historically been silent, as both a gendered and racialized group (Dillard, 1995). This study attempted to expand the majority of research literature on educational leadership, which has primarily focused on the experiences of White men and women (Bell & Chase, 1993). In addition, this study contributes to suspension scholarship as it considers the elementary school context and the role of race and gender in suspension decisions.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA, has invested ample resources to boost and enhance the environment and the outcome of its educational system. Using AlGodorat and AlTahsili, standardized tests used to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills, as a measurement to find discrepancies between girls and boys performance on these tests. This study investigated class size, tutorials, physical education and professional development as possible ways of improving the performance of Saudi Arabian girls. Further, the study conducted a survey targeting girls’ high school teachers in Saudi Arabia to get more prospective, opinions, and inclinations toward implementing these methods. Moreover, the study included recommendations for policy makers and leaders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study found the majority of teachers were in favor of implementing these methods. Furthermore, we were able to find a correlation between teachers’ ages, locations, and experiences and their prospective toward these methods of improvement.

Children of incarcerated parents are a hidden and growing population in schools. Currently in California, no systematic collection of data is gathered regarding prisoners' children. In 2000, approximately 9% of school-age children had a parent involved in the criminal justice system. Parental incarceration is a risk marker school personnel can use to trigger a concern that multiple risk factors are most likely present in the life of a student. Many of these children struggle academically and socially. Sixteen interviews were conducted with adults who as school-age children had a parent incarcerated. Only one of these adults earned a high school diploma through traditional means. Schools can begin to address this population's struggle to achieve academically by providing alternative opportunities. The underlying theme found threaded through the responses was the participants' need to feel normal. Strategies exist that school personnel can use to help these children understand that they can become resilient in the face of adversity and achieve a sense of normality. Most staff development programs do not directly address the needs of this population. This research identified many of the needs of these children and some promising practices that school personnel can use when working with children of incarcerated parents.

This study investigated the effectiveness of Library Information Literacy 1, on the academic performance of San Joaquin Delta College (Stockton, CA) students in their subsequent online courses. Four research questions compared successful completion of online courses by students who completed Library Information Literacy 1 and those who did not across gender, ethnicity, and number of online courses taken by students. Successful completion of Library Information Literacy 1 at San Joaquin Delta College does not appear to improve students' abilities to succeed in subsequent online courses. Success rates are almost the same for the experimental group and the randomly selected control group when comparing percentages. When controlling for gender, females who are successful in Library Information Literacy 1 do slightly better in subsequent online courses than females who do not take Library Information Literacy 1. However, males who are successful in completing Library Information Literacy 1 do worse in subsequent online courses than male students who did not take the course. When controlling for ethnicity, Caucasian students did just as well in online courses, regardless of whether they had passed Library Information Literacy 1. In addition, Black, Hispanic and Asian students had lower rates of success in online courses than Caucasians, with Black students having the lowest level of successful completion. For the two other ethnic groups, Hispanics and Asians, there are no real differences in successful completion of online courses when comparing students in the control group and experimental group. Curriculum revisions are offered as a way to improve online student learning outcomes for completers of Library Information Literacy 1. Community college administrators of instructional or student services might also use this information to encourage counselors in advising students who plan to take a large number of online courses to enroll in Library Information Literacy 1.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop categories of work meaningful to elementary school principals that are significant at the beginning of one's career and after ten or more years on the job. A total of 15 public elementary school principals were interviewed. Using grounded theory, the interview data were analyzed and coded for topics that represented work concerns in beginning and later career. The results were interpreted within the Dreyfus model of learning to identify the principals' levels of performance and through the Greenfield model to identify the areas of principal work that presented continuing challenges for both novice and veteran principals. The analysis of the data revealed that principals confronted by time management issues such as the pace and multiplicity of demands in the first year of work have difficulty gaining control over their jobs, primarily in the Managerial and Social Interpersonal Dimensions. Veterans continue to incorporate changes in the Instructional Dimension that is the focus of educational reform initiatives. Data also suggested that the performance and behaviors of principals in their first two years indicated that they are functioning as learners at the Novice and Advanced Beginner levels of the Dreyfus model. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that the work of principals is learned primarily through job experience, with little or no formal help. Feedback in the form of clear expectations and guidelines for calendaring and district procedures will enhance principal learning and make them more efficient managers of their time; opportunities for guided reflection will provide ongoing support for continuous learning on the job.

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