Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-274). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership (California State University, Fresno and University of California, Davis). / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web. (Restricted to UC campuses).

Not available / text

This is a case study of school improvement factors at a Southwestern Middle School where the researcher examined the demographics of the Southwest Unified School District and Southwest Middle School, the school's academic performance history, school leadership, teachers and the school improvement process it was mandated to follow for five years. Also, there included a discussion of the reasons Southwest Middle School moved into school improvement, the number of years it remained in school improvement, the leadership during these years, and the mandates imposed on the school from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation and the Arizona Department of Education state mandates. The mandates were determined by the school's level of improvement. In this case study Southwest Middle School had been at a serious level of improvement for the previous five years 2008 - 2013. Therefore, a visit from a team of Arizona Department of Education school improvement experts called the Solutions Team was initiated. This initiated visit was to be an evidenced based inquiry that generated four school improvement recommendations to be followed as a framework for continuous school improvement. Also, the researcher examined the documentation generated through the Solutions Team visit and the impact it made on the Southwest Middle School improvement process. Quantitative outcomes in the area of student achievement are presented in this case study that shown continuous decreases in the standardized test results generated from the State mandated test known as the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS Test) results until the school remained open till spring, 2013. Interviews with personnel involved in the school improvement efforts showed differing perceptions of success in efforts before the school closure. There was some evidence that test scores had begun to improve at Southwest Middle School but, it was too little, too late and the school closed in Spring, 2013. Unfortunately, in spite of increased efforts, it was too little, too late, and the improvement was minimal, forcing the Southwest Unified School District to close Southwest Middle School in spring, 2013. Following were identified factors that facilitated or hindered the implementation of plans aimed at school improvement.

The purpose of this study was to research the role the development appraisal teams, namely the staff development team and development support group play in developing educators in schools. The objectives of this study were to understand the problems or challenges faced by schools in developing educators. Provide training for the School Management Team, Development Support Group and Staff Development Team to enable them to perform their roles of educator development. Evaluate and monitor the development appraisal system and educator development. The literature reviewed for this study examines key concepts of appraisal across the globe that would help me understand the South African educator appraisal system and critically evaluate it. This was done by firstly, looking at the following concepts in both business and education: performance management, performance related pay and staff development. Secondly, educator appraisal systems of a few countries are examined, to establish the background and purpose of educator development appraisal in those countries. Why such appraisal systems were introduced? What effect they had on educator development and school improvement? The study also looks at the challenges those countries faced in the implementation of educator developmental appraisal and how they dealt with those challenges. Thirdly, the guiding principles of the South African developmental appraisal system and the processes of the development appraisal were researched to compare with existing practises at the research sites. Furthermore the study explored the role and responsibilities of developmental appraisal teams, namely the Development Support Groups (DSG), the Staff Development Team (SDT) and the School’s Management Team (SMT), to establish how these teams’ contribute to educator development. The methodology used in this study is qualitative in nature. The study takes the form of a case study of 2 schools in the Pinetown district. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 participants from each school. The findings and recommendations of this study reveal 3 strategies that are needed to give schools the support to overcome their difficulties. Firstly, develop strategies to support the development appraisal system at schools. This can be done by developing training mechanisms at schools to train school management teams, staff development teams and development support groups to enable these teams to perform their developmental roles. Secondly, develop strategies to evaluate and monitor the development appraisal system. This can be done by empowering all school’s management teams and staff development teams to be able to monitor and moderate all evaluations taking place during a cycle and asking for documents that support or justify each assessment. Finally, develop strategies to compensate for the challenges faced by each school, based on each school’s context. This can be done by assessing each school’s context prior to assessment being conducted and factoring these contextual issues into each of that school’s educator’s scores. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Doctor of Education (EdD) / Increasingly the Australian educational environment in which schools find themselves is one where schools are expected to achieve successes for their students and furthermore allow their successes or lack thereof to be compared with ‘transparency’ against the successes of other schools. The overriding principle expected from the politicians and society in general is one of providing parents with the best information possible on which they will be able to base their decision as to which school will be the best for their children. This notion is noble and honourable, one at which little criticism can be levelled. However, as researchers in the ‘Effective Schools’ and ‘Improving Schools’ research fields have discussed for decades, measuring the effectiveness of schools is not an easily achievable goal. It is far too easy to fall into the trap of using simplistic and narrow measures that supposedly allow easy comparisons. This study takes the view, as does most research to date, that univariable measures of school effectiveness are fatally flawed. The current trend in many western nations to simply compare the academic success of schools, however that might be measured, does little to measure the effectiveness of schools. What is most concerning is the growing trend of creating league tables of comparison and in some educational systems to use such tables to determine school funding. Equally disturbing is the amount of research that seeks to examine what students consider important in an effective school. There is a great deal of research on what characteristics parents, teachers, politicians and other key stakeholders consider an effective school to have but extraordinarily there is comparably very little research on what students consider important. This study seeks to somewhat address this inadequacy by measuring what students in their senior years of schooling in a single independent school in New South Wales, Australia perceive to be appropriate and useful measures of effective schooling. In so doing this research also examined if in the students’ minds their current school is effective and most significantly examines why students hold the views they have concerning effective schools. In order to achieve this aim, this study took a qualitative research approach to discover Student Perceptions of Effective Schooling. The theoretical orientation adopted was to both verify current theory of effective schooling as well as suggest possible developments, modifications and improvements to current theory in light of the students’ perceptions. As such both inductive and deductive analysis of the data took place. The data was collected using a range of methods from traditionally quantitative research tools, such as surveys, through to the qualitative research tool of focus groups. The results of this study demonstrated that while the current research has developed a good multivariable approach to measuring school effectiveness there were significant areas the students believed needed greater or lesser emphasis. The importance of technically good teachers, separate from the need for good and caring teachers, as well as the need for schools to be safe places were all important measures of effective schools. The ability of the school to engage students outside the classroom and provide a relevant and diverse academic curriculum was also considered essential for effective schooling.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-73)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tennessee Technological University, 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 45-48.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-118).