The research in this document provides a comprehensive investigation of public K " 12 funding in Virginia over the time period from 1974-75 to 2002-2003. No previous examination has been conducted for the Commonwealth of Virginia that has comprehensively analyzed the data over the life of the current finance formula. Over this approximate thirty-year time period, the trends in fiscal equity among school divisions were determined. The purpose of this research was to provide a better understanding of the current status of funding equity for the Commonwealth of Virginia and to document information that could be used in future litigation concerning the issue of both fiscal equity and educational adequacy. To conduct this study, research studies and information pertaining to national funding issues, as well as Virginia funding issues, were collected and analyzed. This information, as well as prior litigation, was obtained from searches on ERIC, the Internet, and Westlaw. Next, fiscal and student data were obtained from the Virginia Education Association (VEA), the United States Department of Education, Bureau of Federal Impact Aid, and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) for the funding periods from FYs 1975 to 2003. These data included information regarding state expenditures, local expenditures, state sales taxes, federal revenue, and other fiscal and non-fiscal data pursuant to each of the approximately one hundred and thirty-five school divisions in Virginia. The study also provided an analysis of the evolution of fiscal equity litigation during this time period. Further, the data obtained from the VEA and VDOE were examined to determine whether the funding disparities among school divisions have become more evident or less evident over this time period. In order to determine this, a series of statistics were applied to comparable data to determine the level of fiscal equity achieved by the Commonwealth for each of the selected fiscal years. The Verstegen-Stevens Fiscal Equity Statistics software was used with permission to apply the generally accepted equity statistics. / Ed. D.

The "Draw to Learn" study was undertaken to determine if a combination of drawing and writing in a high school language arts setting would enhance creativity and self-expression. The intervention described in this study took place in a 9-12 high school in Hartford, Connecticut, during April and May of 1993. It consisted of six classroom lessons and four measurements: the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (T.T.C.T./non-verbal), the Sheridan RESCORE writing analysis test, an opinion survey questionnaire and a three-judge panel review of randomly selected student journals. Outcomes were mixed. Results from the T.T.C.T. and the RESCORE were the opposite of expectations. The T.T.C.T. creativity index dropped significantly after the intervention and the RESCORE results measured no general increase in writing between the first and last sessions of "Draw to Learn." Other results were more promising. Anecdotal material from RESCORE, data from the opinion survey questionnaire and the judges' responses indicated some enhancement of creativity and self-expression from the intervention, with a noticeably stronger performance in drawing than in writing. It was speculated that time constraints could have been involved in producing both this discrepancy and the negative results from T.T.C.T. and RESCORE. The possibility that the data were reflecting a population undergoing change was also raised. Several areas of further research are suggested by the study, including uses of the model with other populations, different kinds of drawing activities, and longer time frames.

In a study by a high school guidance counselor in the Burr School District, one factor identified as having a positive correlation with students leaving school before graduation is being over-age for grade as a result of being retained or participating in a pre-one program. This research on over-age middle school students in a rural community in Northwest Rhode Island: (1) identifies the 36% of the student population who are over-age for grade, (2) reports the reasons for not being grade appropriate in terms of being retained or having participated in a transitional program, (3) through school records, identifies which members of this population are not attending school regularly or succeeding academically and behaviorally, and (4) through responses from a questionnaire and interviews, gained insights from students as to their attitudes toward school and their perceptions of the relationship of school to success in later life. The information gained through this research assisted the District's Administrative Council and Middle School staff in identifying, developing, and implementing interventions. An evaluation of student academic and behavioral success indicates that some change is taking place. Additional strategies are being developed to increase the extent to which all students feel cared about and have the desire and ability to succeed.

This study was undertaken to discover which determinants led Massachusetts regional vocational technical high school students to choose nontraditional occupations by examining two populations: (a) all of the nontraditional students enrolled in the 26 Massachusetts regional vocational technical schools, of which 19 schools participated, and (b) one of each student's parents or guardians. Two survey instruments were used of which the first 15 items were questions directed to the nontraditional student or the parent/guardian. The last 10 items were reasons that may have led the student to a nontraditional choice, the importance of which were determined by the student and the parent/guardian. All the responses were subjected to a frequency distribution analysis, and the last 10 items were subjected to the chi-square test to determine relationships existing between variables of the student and of the parent/guardian to each of the reasons. The student variables were gender of student, vocational experience of a student's sibling/s, and participation in an exploratory program. The parent/guardian variables were educational level, employment status, and economic status. Findings revealed that the following determinants were important to the nontraditional choice: career opportunity of the program, interest in the subject, and exploratory programs and their teachers. There were significant positive relationships (p = $\leq$.01) between the student variable "Participation in an exploratory program" and the following: "The exploratory program made me interested in the career" and "Teachers in the exploratory program were great." There was only one significant relationship between the parent/guardian variables and their view of the importance of the reasons for the nontraditional choice, and it was a positive relationship (p = $\leq$.05). This variable was "Employment status" and the reason for the choice was "The program seemed easy." Regardless of the employment status of the parent or guardian, most respondents believed the reason was not important to the nontraditional choice. Based on these findings, it was concluded that exploratory programs for all the courses offered by the schools should be presented to every new student and that the teachers of these exploratory programs should be chosen with great care.

This ethnographic study of an American community of high school poets frames poetry 'ideologically,' focusing on the tensions faced by students who were members of a particular community of poets as they constructed social identities in relation to poetry writing. The study begins in the public high school poetry writing classroom at the center of their school poetry writing community and moves outward to include community contexts for poetry writing beyond the classroom--a poetry club and poetry conferences--and the contexts of the students' homes. Seven students who were members of the poetry writing community were followed in depth, and their experiences with poetry writing from family stories of literacy and personhood to circumstances for the writing of particular poems are analyzed in relation to 'ideological' tensions around poetry writing and social identity. Portraits were constructed of each of the seven students to show the connection between poetry writing and social identity. In each portrait, the data analyzed includes: (1) a description of the particular stories linking personhood and literacy in the student's family; (2) what social tensions these represented for the student as a poet writing to fulfill classroom assignments; (3) how in their choices about writing particular poems, students sought to resolve these social tensions; and (4) how students seemed to have positioned themselves as poets of greater or lesser status by the standards of poetry as art in resisting or embodying particular topics or conventions of language. Five types of tensions are identified: (1) those involving the low status of poetry as art in the school (2) those involving the definition of poetry in detached terms which differed from the students' experiences with poetry in contexts outside of school; (3) those stemming from a perception of poetry as an 'effeminate' social practice of literacy; and (4) those involving the use of male-authored texts as models in the classroom, despite primarily female membership in the poetry community. Implications of the study for developing an 'ideological' model of poetry instruction are discussed.

The problem in this investigation has a three-fold purpose; namely, (1) to reveal, by means of comparison, the likenesses and differences in the personalities of elementary and secondary education majors of N. T. S. T. C.; (2) to determine to what extent the individual is adjusting himself to the problems and conditions confronting him, and how these problems are affecting the development of a normal, happy, and socially effective personality; (3) to interpret the data collected correctly, in order that better adjusted personalities may be developed.

The purposes of this research study were to determine: (a) how educational technology resources are being used to support student learning and achievement and (b) if secondary school principals credit educational technology with having influenced student achievement gains. The five research questions that guided the study addressed: (a) the educational technology methods and strategies that secondary school principals perceive as effective means to improve student achievement, (b) the extent to which a relationship exists between a school's use of educational technology and student achievement, (c) the difference in student achievement between secondary schools that have technology plans and those that do not, (d) the difference in student achievement between secondary schools that have on-site technology related professional development and technical support and those that do not, and (e) the difference in student achievement between secondary schools in which there is a principal support for technology implementation and those that do not have principal support. Data were collected using a survey instrument that contained 20 questions designed to elicit information that addressed the research questions. The surveys were mailed to the principals of 214 randomly selected secondary schools in three southeastern states: Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and t-tests were used to analyze the data for each independent variable. In addition, data were collected from open-ended questions on the survey instrument. Results indicated that most of the respondents approached technology implementation through a formal planning process. A majority of respondents reported that a school technology plan existed in the form of either a stand-alone document or as part of the school improvement plan. Significant results were obtained indicating that student achievement was higher at schools where a formal technology plan was in place. Although the research revealed that the principal's role was critical to the successful implementation of technology, the results of this study indicated that there was no significant correlation between the principal's participation in technology implementation and student achievement. There was, however, a correlation between technology assets and principal involvement and a correlation between accepted educational technology practices and principal involvement. The implications for policy and procedure drawn from this study were: (a) a written technology plan is essential to successful technology implementation, (b) the technology plan must be continually reinvented to adequately address student achievement goals, (c) principals may wish to consider how to accomplish a general infusion of technology applications that contribute to student achievement.

This study has undertaken to determine the characteristics of a sound guidance program and its place in the secondary school.

The purpose of the study is to analyze and evaluate the soundness of a guidance program in its introduction and development in a secondary school.

This study investigated stakeholders’ views of multicultural policies and practices in multicultural secondary schools in Sri Lanka and a comparator school in England, in order to elicit what new insights could be gained that could lead to educational improvements in Sri Lankan schools. Specifically, students and staff in five Sinhala-medium secondary schools in the Colombo region, all with reputations for good multicultural education practice, together with local community leaders and national policy makers, were interviewed. A series of questionnaires was designed to examine a wide range of stakeholder perspectives across these five schools, using as a conceptual framework Banks’s (1986, 1989 and 2004) international work on multicultural policy and practice in schools and teacher education. A similar interview schedule and questionnaire were used to elicit views and experiences of multicultural education in a comparator school in an urban area of the East of England. There were a number of reasons for this. The modern school system of Sri Lanka had its beginnings during the British colonial administration. Now that there is peace in Sri Lanka after a long period of civil war, the government is focusing on ways to develop the curriculum to integrate multicultural education into its peace education curriculum in order to foster intercultural understandings. England has a longer tradition in multicultural education and policies in its education system. Using Banks’s work (op. cit.) for analysis, there may therefore be lessons to be drawn from the Sri Lankan schools identified as having good multicultural practice and the English experience that are of use in Sri Lanka. Major findings from this research project include the need for careful consideration of ways to foster greater multilingual competence among both teachers and students if Sri Lanka is to reach its goal of greater intercultural understandings and communication between the various ethnic groups. It seems from this study that, in Sri Lanka, whilst there were some differences in the strength of perception of different ethnic groups of students, overall they felt comfortable and safe in school, which is a testament to government efforts to achieve harmony in schools and, thus, social cohesion in society. However, some groups of students are more advantaged than others in the same schools in their access to the acquisition of languages and, therefore, access to the curriculum and to further and higher education and future enhanced life chances. The teachers acknowledged that language was a major concern in multicultural classrooms, partly because some students could not communicate effectively in Sinhala medium, and partly because they themselves were not always fluent in both national languages. Further, despite central government policy that all secondary teachers in Sri Lanka should be trained to degree level and should be qualified in their profession, the highest qualification that nearly one half possessed was A-level General Certificate of Education. All teachers in both Sri Lankan, and the English comparator, schools expressed a wish for training in multicultural practices.