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The purpose of this study was to identify how closely evaluations of professional development programs provided at the district level in public school districts in Virginia are congruent with the National Staff Development Council Standards for Evaluation. The author also sought to identify the types of professional development programs offered at the district level in Virginia public schools.;Professional Development directors or supervisors in all Virginia public schools were asked to complete an online survey that would describe the types of professional development programs offered and how they evaluated those programs.;Fifty-three districts responded to the survey. Most of the responding districts described professional development programs that were content and strategy based and lasted up to one full day. In addition, most districts reported completing an initial survey evaluating initial reaction to the program. However, less than 20% of the responding districts reported completing follow-up evaluations that assessed whether teachers had acquired new knowledge or content, whether teachers were applying new knowledge or content in their instruction, what impact the training had on student achievement or district climate. Further study is needed to determine how districts are using evaluations, and how evaluations are determining impact of training on student achievement.

Purpose. This study was undertaken to investigate the following major questions: (1) Is there a significant difference in the organizational climate of IGE and non-IGE schools in an eastern Virginia city school division? (2) Do IGE and non-IGE schools differ significantly on each of the eight subtests identified by Halpin and Croft (1963) in the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire--Disengagement, Hindrance, Esprit and Intimacy (teacher behavior), Aloofness, Production Emphasis, Thrust, and Consideration (principal behavior)?;Scope of the Study. The Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (Halpin and Croft, 1963) was selected as the research tool for use in collecting the data for the study. In addition, information regarding teacher absenteeism and turnover was analyzed. All faculty members in the six schools sampled (100 percent) participated by completing the OCDQ. The t-test was performed to test for significance at the .05 level of confidence. A one-way analysis of variance was employed across schools. When significant f ratios were produced, the Scheffe test was used to probe the difference between the mean scores of the eight subtests of the OCDQ.;Findings. An analysis of the data revealed: (1) No significant differences in teacher perceptions of organizational climate in IGE and non-IGE schools were found. (2) A significant difference was observed for subtest eight, Consideration, with IGE schools achieving a higher score. (3) The one-way analysis of variance produced an f ratio significant at the .01 level of confidence for seven of the eight subtests of the OCDQ. (4) Using the Scheffe test to compare all pairs of means of the seven subtests with significant f scores, it was found that the IGE school implementing the greatest number of the thirty-five outcomes of the IGE process achieved a climate which tended to be more open than any of the other five schools. (5) Information collected on teacher absenteeism showed a significant difference in teacher attendance in IGE schools.;Conclusions. Consistent with the findings of this study, the following conclusions appear to be warranted: (1) The expressed willingness to become involved in the IGE process does not appear to affect teacher perceptions of school climate. (2) High implementation involvement in the IGE process appears to produce more favorable teacher perceptions of school climate. (3) Teachers employed in IGE schools in this sample had better attendance records than did teachers in non-IGE schools. (5) Neither IGE nor non-IGE schools as a group could be characterized as one of the six climate types described by Halpin and Croft (1963).

The purpose of this study was to determine whether certain variables, utilized as a group, discriminated between black middle school children from father-absent homes and black middle school children from father-present homes. The selected variables used were ability, achievement, grade point average, attendance, number of siblings, sex, age, the level of agression and the level of anxiety. The theoretical rationale was based primarily on the conflict between Coleman's (1966) and Moynihan's (1965) findings. Coleman (1966) asserted "contrary to much that has been written, the structural integrity of the home (principally the father's presence or absence) shows very little relationship to achievement for Negroes" (p. 302). Moynihan (1965) reported "the matrifocal black family is a hindrance to success striving" (p. 1).;It was hypothesized that selected variables (ability, achievement, grade point average, attendance, number of siblings, sex, age, the level of aggression and the level of anxiety) utilized in combination will discriminate between black middle school children from father-present homes and father-absent homes.;It was found that two of the variables discriminated between black middle school students from father-absent homes and black middle school students from father-present homes. It was also found that some of the variables discriminated between boys and girls within the father-absent group.;Further study is needed to determine why the father-absent students scored 7.07 percentile points lower than the father-present students on the STEA, an ability test.

The importance of participation in budgeting for managers and its relevance to job satisfaction has been the subject of a number of studies over the last several decades. In addition, the belief systems of such managers appear to constitute a significant influence on the attitudes they hold in various social situations. Specifically, the personality variable, locus of control, utilized in this study and first introduced by Rotter, refers to the individual's perceptions of events in his/her life as the result of his/her own actions (internal control), or the consequences of such forces as fate, luck, or powerful others (external control).;The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between principals' extent of participation in budgeting, locus of control, and job satisfaction. Subjects were 191 K-12 Virginia principals from a stratified random sample of 250 who responded to a 4-part mail survey consisting of a Budgeting Participation Questionnaire, Rotter's I-E Scale, the short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction (MSQ) Questionnaire, and a demographics section.;The evidence garnered from factor analysis and multiple regression analysis in this investigation supported the following conclusions: (1) that there were no relationships found in the level of job satisfaction due to the interaction of locus of control and extent of budget participation; (2) decision influence was the only budget-related variable found to have a statistically significant relationship to job satisfaction; (3) locus of control was also found to have a statistically significant relationship to job satisfaction.;The practical significance of the findings is that only the two variables associated with how a person feels about his/her ability to influence outcomes (decision influence and locus of control) were the ones which related to job satisfaction. Perceptions and beliefs may account more for how satisfied a person is than job facets. In order to confirm this, it is recommended that future researchers should replicate this study by substituting other job facets (in place of budgeting participation) which may be deemed critical to the performance of school principals.

Since the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, educational theorists and practitioners have begun to reevaluate the business of schooling in America. In Virginia, the Department of Education has instituted World Class Education (WCE), Common Core of Learning, and Outcome Accountability Project (OAP) initiatives in producing an educational system on par with systems internationally by developing curricula based upon perceived twenty-first century needs and by measuring school and division productivity based on student outcomes. It is likely that innovative school scheduling practices will play a critical role as school districts and individual schools begin to restructure their programs within the framework of these initiatives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between scheduling practices and selected Outcome Accountability Project indicators in Virginia high schools. Subjects were 212 high school principals from a total of 265 high school principals in Virginia who responded to a mail survey consisting of a Scheduling Practices Questionnaire.;The evidence attained from a simple analysis of variance in this investigation supported the conclusions that there were no relationships found to exist between scheduling type and the four OAP indicators. Additionally, descriptive data revealed that since 1983 a large majority (83%) of respondents reported changes in their school schedule and that a significant number (33%) of principals reported that consideration is being given to future changes in schedule type. While it was not the primary intent of this study to investigate the relationship between location-specific factors and scheduling type, principals reported that two factors (school bus schedules and school board regulations) were deemed to be important influences on schedule development.;The practical significance of the findings is that although there tends to be little variation in present scheduling type in Virginia, there is an interest expressed by principals to change schedule type in the future. For this reason, though no relationship can presently be seen between scheduling type and student productivity, future changes may affect that finding. Also, the high rate of return and high rate of request for results of the study indicate a high degree of interest by principals in the scheduling topic.

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Purpose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the job satisfaction of secondary assistant principals and their perception of their principal's leader behavior. Two major hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis predicted a significant relationship between the leader behavior variables, consideration and initiating structure and the job satisfaction variables, supervision and work. The second hypothesis predicted a significant relationship between the leader behavior variables, consideration and initiating structure and the job satisfaction variables, supervision and work while controlling for the effects of the demographic variables age, sex, race, educational level and length of service. The theoretical rationale for the study was the Path Goal Theory of Leadership.;Method. Assistant principals completed the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire which was used to measure the two dimensions of perceived leader behavior and the Job Descriptive Index which was used to measure the two components of job satisfaction. A demographic data form was also completed by assistant principals. Hypotheses were tested by using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis.;Findings and conclusions. Results supported a significant relationship between consideration and work, consideration and supervision, and initiating structure and supervision. No significant relationship was found between initiating structure and work. Analysis of data using multiple regression indicated that the demographic variables age, sex, race, educational level, and length of service had an insignificant effect upon the relationship between the leader behavior variables and the job satisfaction variables.;It was concluded that the leader behavior of the principal does impact the job satisfaction of the secondary assistant principal. This study suggests that principals need to recognize that their leader behavior is an important factor in assessing the level of job satisfaction experienced by assistant principals.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between regional accreditation status and selected achievement test scores in public elementary schools in Virginia. In this study the author translated the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' (SACS) goal of school improvement into a measurable indicator of goal achievement, achievement test scores.;The process of SACS elementary accreditation involves a considerable investment of school resources. The process has three distinctive features which should enable school improvement: (1) comprehensive assessment through self-evaluation, (2) goal direction by long- and short-range plans, and (3) collaboration or participation by the school and community.;Forty-six regionally accredited schools which gained their status is 1975, 1976, and 1977 and 265 non-regionally accredited elementary schools were identified for inclusion in the study. Virginia was selected as the site for this research because of the popularity of SACS accreditation and because of the availability of achievement test scores from the annual statewide testing program.;Data from 1977 which included a student ability score, achievement test scores, a measure of school SES, expenditure per pupil, and school size were analyzed using a cluster procedure designed to help classify schools with similar attributes. An option was employed which allowed the formation of 50 optimally homogeneous clusters of schools. Following cluster analysis, 22 clusters of schools were dropped from further analysis because they contained solely non-accredited schools, and 1 was dropped because it contained a single accredited school. Achievement test data from schools in the remaining 27 clusters were subjected to discriminant analysis.;It was hypothesized that 1978, 1979, and 1980 achievement test scores from accredited elementary schools would be significantly higher than 1978, 1979 and 1980 scores from non-accredited elementary schools.;In the first analysis, all achievement scores for all three years were utilized. The results showed that scores from accredited schools were consistently though not significantly higher than scores from non-accredited schools. Histograms depicted considerable overlap of groups. In the second analysis scores from each year were entered separately and the results were similar to the analysis for all years. Accredited school mean scores were consistently though not significantly higher than non-accredited school mean scores.