This study aimed to determine the relationship between school culture and student achievement. Elementary school teachers (N=574) from 27 schools in suburban Seminole County, Florida completed the School Culture Triage Survey to generate a school culture score. The participating schools were ranked and placed in categories representing the top 33% (N=9), middle 33% (N=9), and bottom 33% (N=9) of the population based on their culture score. School culture data were analyzed and correlated with third grade student achievement data, as measured by the 2007 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Reading to determine if there were any relationships between (a) school culture and student achievement; (b) the three key components of school culture (collaboration, collegiality, and self-determination/efficacy) and student achievement; and (c) principal tenure and school culture. Additional data analysis served to determine if there were any experiential or demographic differences among the teachers from the schools falling in the top, middle, and bottom 33% on the School Culture Triage Survey. To learn more about principal beliefs with regard to school culture and student achievement, principal interviews were conducted with some principals (N=8) from the participating schools. Through a review of the research results and related literature, the researcher concluded that a relationship between the overall school culture and student achievement did not exist. Further analysis revealed that there were no relationships between student achievement and collaboration, collegiality, and self-determination/efficacy, or between school culture and principal tenure for the schools participating in this study.

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After implementing a statewide standardized testing program in 1998, the Virginia Department of Education realized that some schools were making great gains in student achievement while other schools continued to struggle. The Department conducted a study to identify the practices used by schools showing improvement. Six effective practice domains were identified. The current study was a follow-up to the research conducted by the Virginia Department of Education. A questionnaire measuring the six effective practice domains: (a) curriculum alignment, (b) time and scheduling, (c) use of data, (d) professional development, (e) school culture, and (f) leadership was administered to teachers in 148 schools in Virginia; 80 schools participated. Two questions guided the study: (1) How frequently do schools use the Virginia Department of Education effective practices, and (2) what is the relationship between the use of the effective practices and school pass rates on the 3rd grade 2005 Standards of Learning (SOL) reading test? Descriptive statistics, linear regression, and discriminant function analysis were applied to explore the relationships between the predictor variables (percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch and the use of the effective practices) and the criterion variable (school pass rate on the 2005 SOL 3rd grade reading test). Academic culture and the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch accounted for significant amounts of the variance in school pass rates. The remaining five effective practice measures were not related to school pass rates. The measures may have affected the results. In most cases, one person was used as the proxy for the school, and this person may have provided a biased assessment of what was happening in the school. / Ed. D.

The study's purpose was to examine large and small high schools in Virginia to try to understand if the high school student population size influenced the student achievement of eleventh grade students based on identified predictor variables. Several studies were identified and included in the literature review. From the literature review, the predictor variables of socioeconomic status, student attendance, minority status, and teacher quality were identified to aid in the development of the main research question and five guiding questions. The main research question investigated if there was a relationship between a high school student population size and student achievement when statistically controlling for selected predictor variables. From the literature review, the main research question, five guiding questions, and a methodology were developed that would best aid in the analysis of the data. Data were collected from the Virginia Department of Education for the 2012-2013 school year that consisted of eleventh grade Virginia Standards of Learning assessments, socioeconomic status, student attendance, minority population, and teacher quality. Hierarchical multiple regression was the statistical method used to analyze the data for the research questions. The results of the study indicate there is a relationship between socioeconomic status and student achievement. However, when student population size was introduced, the result was not significant. The overall conclusion regarding socioeconomic status and student achievement is that the issue is not rooted in the size of a high school population. When student attendance was accounted for, a relationship existed between high school student population size and student achievement. When student attendance was accounted for, an indication existed that the high schools in the study with both large and small student populations had a higher percentage of student achievement when students attended on a regular basis. When the size of a high school student population, whether it was large or small, was taken into account, student achievement declined if a high school had a large percentage of minority students. Teacher quality was found to have a relationship with student achievement when high school student population size was taken into account. Overall, results of the study indicate that there was a relationship between a high school student population size and student achievement when statistically controlling for isolated variables. / Ed. D.

As the responsibilities of principals become more complex and as accountability becomes more evident in K-12 cultures, it becomes increasingly important that high school principals be trained to empower teachers. This paper examined the research concerning the conditions of the empowerment of teachers. More specifically, it measured high school teachers' perspectives concerning their levels of empowerment by their principals based on the four domains of empowerment: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. This quantitative study was designed to answer three questions. First, how do high school teachers perceive their level of empowerment by their principals based on the four school conditions of empowerment: principal training, principal leadership, teacher leadership, and school culture? Second, what are high school teachers' perceptions of the degree to which they are empowered based on their understanding of the domains of empowerment: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact? Third, how do the conditions of empowerment relate to the domains of empowerment? The study modified an existing survey developed for measuring the level of empowerment of workers in corporations. The survey was used in this study as the basis for determining the perceived level of empowerment of high school teachers in three schools in a Mid-Atlantic suburban/rural school division. Analysis of the responses revealed that school culture was rated significantly higher than the other three empowerment conditions. High school teachers rated themselves significantly higher in the meaning and competence domains of empowerment. None of the four domains of empowerment related significantly to the meaning domain. The principal training condition was the only domain significantly related to the competence domain, and the condition of school culture was significantly related to self-determination. Additionally, the teacher leadership condition was significantly related to the impact domain only. / Ph. D.

Character education has increased over the past years to build student character in such a way that students are more successful and teachers spend maximal time for classroom instruction as well as minimal time with behavioral concerns. If a student experiences positive character traits and practices success in earlier grades, then it is logical to assume that the positive habits he or she establishes will transfer into the upper grades. However, very few studies have determined whether positive habits established in early grades will continue to bring success in subsequent grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the success of students in subsequent years after they were taught character traits and 21st-century skills in elementary school using The Leader in Me program. Previous research indicates a lack of studies that measure results after students leave the program setting. The main question for this study was the following: Do middle school students who have received instruction in The Leader in Me program for two years during elementary school show more improvement on selected measures of student behavior and academics than students who have not received such instruction? In order to determine the success of the program, the researcher reviewed discipline referrals, attendance records, and cumulative grade point averages (GPA) for reading and math students in grades six and seven. Independent samples t-tests were performed on the data sets to find relationships between the treatment population who had received The Leader In Me instruction for two or more years during elementary school and the control population who had not received any instruction in The Leader in Me during elementary school. Descriptive statistics showed fewer discipline referrals for the treatment group, but the numbers were not statistically significant. The results of the study showed a significant difference in attendance between the two groups. The students who had been instructed in The Leader in Me missed significantly fewer days than those who had not been instructed. Reading and math GPA did not show a significant difference for either group. / Ed. D.

Teacher retention rates are staggeringly low across the United States. Nearly 20% of public school teachers leave their position from one year to the next, a majority of schools have a turnover rate of 50% every three years, and over 50% of teachers leave the education field within the first five years of employment. This retention problem impacts all type of public school systems—urban, suburban, and rural school districts. This study examined teacher retention in elementary and secondary schools in three rural school districts in eastern Kentucky. Review of district and school documents about teacher retention informed the selection of participants. School districts and specific schools in rural eastern Kentucky with higher retention rates than the average teacher retention of public schools in Kentucky were study sites. Data were collected through individual interviews with superintendents and principals and through focus-group interviews with teachers to gain their perspectives about what influenced the higher teacher retention. Analysis of data identified themes for high teacher retention. The findings suggest that a strong familial school culture among teachers and with school administrators positively impacts teacher retention. High teacher retention is also influenced by Appalachian culture and teachers' desires to contribute to the local community beyond the school building and have a positive impact on the future of the local community’s youth.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att belysa hur pedagoger tänker kring och arbetar med genus på fritidshemmet. Frågeställningarna behandlar även hur genusordningen på skolan och skolkulturen påverkar verksamheten ur ett genusperspektiv. Som empirisk grund för arbetet har vi gjort fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med pedagoger som arbetar på fritidshemmet på två mångkulturella skolor i Stockholm samt på en svensk skola i ett spansktalande land. Med hjälp av genusteoretiska perspektiv visar resultatet av studien att pedagoger på fritidshemmet tänker och arbetar olika med genus i verksamheten. Vi har sett exempel på att pedagoger bidrar till upprätthållandet av stereotypa könsdefinitioner genom att till exempel tala om flickor och pojkar som två olika enhetliga grupper. I resultatet har vi även sett hur pedagoger kan möjliggöra elevers identitetsskapande genom att inte göra skillnad på elever grundat på föreställningar om kön. Det har också framgått att det råder olika kulturer på varje skola och gemensamt för alla tre skolor i undersökningen är att skolkulturen påverkar hur pedagoger tänker kring och arbetar med genus i verksamheten. / The purpose of this study is to illustrate how educators relate to gender in after-school programs and how school culture affects educators and students. Our questions also deal with gender order in school and how cultural factors affect the gender perspective in after-school programs. As empirical basis for our study we did four qualitative interviews with educators at two multicultural schools in Stockholm and one Swedish school in a Spanish-speaking country. The results of the study show that the educators at the after-school programs relate different to the students in school from a gender perspective. We have seen examples of educators maintaining stereotyped gender definitions by talking about girls and boys as two different uniform groups. The results also show how educators can create possibilities for students to find different identities by not making any differences between the students based on gender. It has also emerged that there are different cultures at each school and common to all three schools in the survey is that the school culture affects how educators think about and work with gender.