The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of administrative discipline procedure, teacher/student relationship, student achievement, student attendance, and student conduct on the decision by students of Stephens County High School to drop out of school. Results indicated that teacher/student relationship does influence the decision to drop out. Further, these teachers are more likely to be female. Administrative discipline procedure can affect the decision to drop out. While student achievement does not directly affect but plays an important role in decision making to drop out, attendance will hinder the motive to continue. Student conduct had no effect on the decision to drop out. Gender, race, and socioeconomic status were confounded in the results.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the perceptions of trained instructional evaluators' ratings relate to those of student evaluators in assessing the classroom performance of high school teacher. Methods and Procedures The sample utilized for this study consisted of 30 classroom teachers, 30 trained instructional evaluators, and 120 students from a population that was selected from a metropolitan high school in which the staff and student body represented a diverse make-up. Results The results of this study were statistically insignificant because there were demographic differences, perceptual differences and affective differences among the classroom teachers, trained instructional evaluators and student evaluators. Therefore, data indicated that there was no significant relationship between the ratings by trained instructional evaluators and student evaluators on the classroom performance of high school teachers. Conclusions and Recommendations 1. Ratings of students could be utilized by teachers as feedback for classroom instruction. 2. Trained instructional evaluators may need to observe classroom teachers for a full class period rather than a 15-minute period of observation. 3. Design an Instructional Improvement Council to include teachers and students to explore areas of students' concerns at the affective level. 4. Provide informative sessions for classroom teachers to discuss the teaching tasks on the Georgia Teacher Observation Instrument.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the instructional assistant principal in a large metropolitan Atlanta school system, with an ultimate purpose of devising a uniform job description for the system. The sample consisted of twenty-three principals, twenty-two instructional assistant principals, and fifty-eight teachers. They were given a questionnaire consisting of twenty-six job tasks and asked to specify the degree of responsibility which the instructional assistant principal in their school exercised and the degree of responsibility he should exercise in the performance of the task. The findings indicated that principals, teachers, and instructional assistant principals have similar perceptions of what the instructional assistant principal does and should do. Of the twenty-six items on the questionnaire, twenty-five were included in the resultant job description, and these included tasks in budgeting, evaluation, supervision of students, orienting faculty and staff to the school, working with the master schedule, producing the school handbook, coordinating testing, disseminating information about test results, disseminating information about current trends in education, preparing documentations for inspections and reviews, and planning for parent meetings.

This study examined whether or not the school's mean reading score could be explained by the teachers' perceptions of the principals' supervisory behaviors and teachers' characteristics and whether each student's reading score can be explained more by the principals' supervisory behaviors or by the students' perceptions of the fifth grade class climate or by the student's selected biographic variables in a large metropolitan school system. Ten elementary schools were selected by experts in the instructional department of a large metropolitan school system. Nine of the selected schools were Project Achievement Schools in which the students scored below the national norms on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). The students and teachers samples consisted of one hundred and seventy-eight regular classroom teachers and four hundred and twenty-five fifth grade students. The instruments used were the Student Perceptions Questionnaire extracted from the Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument developed by the State Department of Education and the Instructional Supervisory/Behavior Questionnaire developed by Dr. Ganga Persaud. The student achievement test used was the 1985 Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (Level 10) mean reading scores of individual students and mean school reading score for each of the selected schools. In a regression analysis of the data, teachers’ degree qualifications, experiences, and perceptions of principals’ supervisory behaviors, in that order, predict the school mean reading score. The principals’ supervisory behaviors correlated inversely with the mean reading score of the school. The overall variance, however, is small - approximately 7 percent. In a regression analysis of the data, students' perceptions of the class climate and the principals' supervisory behaviors, in that order, predict students' reading scores. The relationships are inverse for both variables with reading scores indicating consistency between the teachers and students' perceptions. The selected biographic variables make smaller but insignificant contributions to the students' reading scores. The overall variance, however, predicted for all variables is small just over 15 percent. The results support the Edmonds' and Lezotte's Schools for low achievers. Support was not found for the Coleman studies that socio-economic and environmental variables were more important than the school variables for student achievement. This was probably due to the bias of the sample in favor of low socio-economic status (SES).

No description available.

Following survey of the literature on the subject of internship, this study reports the findings on a Canadian-wide survey of organizations providing internship to cooperating educational institutions. The findings point clearly to the high degree of importance these organizations attach to internship and the high level of attention and resources that they commit to supervision of interns. They also point to an absence of full understanding of the role of internship and what it can potentially accomplish for both the interns and the participating organizations. In order to fully realize these potentials, the study proposes suggestions to coordinate internship amongst the cooperating institutions as well as interns.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

ABSTRACT This research study examines the supervision of paraprofessionals in the human services using a qualitative methodology. It focuses on the views of the paraprofessionals, who were all women, with the central research question: What are paraprofessionals’ views of supervision in the human service field? The literature on this topic is scarce and the goal of this research is to improve our understanding of the most effective supervisory practices for paraprofessionals and ultimately to improve practice in this area. The qualitative methodology was based on a phenomenological approach and used one on one interviews to capture the views and experiences of the participants. The findings indicated that women paraprofessionals clearly value and benefit from supervision and respond best to approaches that are highly supportive, empowering and collaborative in nature, and use a variety of formats including one on one sessions, group meetings and peer support. It is important to ensure adequate job orientation and relevant training. The supervisory relationship is key to the success of supervision and should include ongoing feedback and validation. Concerns regarding safety in the workplace as well as burnout need to be addressed to improve working conditions and job satisfaction for the paraprofessional. Issues related to oppression and culture are important in understanding the unique experience of the paraprofessional and need to be addressed by both supervisors and the agencies that employ them. Further research on this topic is recommended.

No description available.