No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Donald Schon (1979) in his article, "Generative Metaphor: A Perspective on Problem-Setting on Social Policy," noted that the main difficulty of analyzing social policy was defining how the problem was "set." By "set" he meant the depiction of "what needs fixing" in the metaphors generated from a troublesome situation. Consequently, for Schon, evaluating social policy meant evaluating not the answer but the question. This dissertation, likewise, has focused on the question, the metaphors which underlay the setting of problems concerning the public policy of schools of choice.;Using the work of cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, I identified and analyzed metaphorical expressions culled from three different groups of academicians who favor schools of choice. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of the dissertation are divided respectively into representative writings by advocates of (1) public-private schools of choice; (2) private only schools of choice; and (3) public only schools of choice.;Metaphors, according to Lakoff and Johnson "play a constitutive role in the structuring of our experience." They are a link, according to Lakoff and Johnson, to the construction and reproduction of our culture. to understand the conceptions underlying the metaphorical expressions used by schools of choice advocates, the metaphors were grouped into larger categories. These larger categories included "life is a game," "systems are containers," "causation is emerging," "systems are hierarchies," "market competition is a success story," "systems are balancing machines," "education is a structure," "controlled choice is a rational argument," and "choice schools are a link to the community".;The advocates of schools of choice advanced their doctrines within their metaphors. Isolating the metaphors from the debate led to the conclusion that all three groups used the marketplace as their foundational metaphor. Even when the advocates for public schools of choice directly rejected the marketplace as an analogy for education, their metaphors highlighted competition and supply and demand as solutions to the problem of improving the educational system.

The purpose of this single site case study was to examine administrators', teachers', and guidance counselors' perceptions of site-based management components and school improvement. The study addressed the following three questions: (1) What are the perceptions of experienced teachers toward key aspects of site-based management (shared decision making, school climate, and student success)? (2) What factors do experienced educators identify with promoting the successful implementation of site-based management components (shared decision making, school climate, and student success)? (3) What factors do experienced educators identify with hindering the successful implementation of site-based management components (shared decision making, school climate, and student success)?;The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Administered to only experienced teachers with three or more years of teaching, a questionnaire was used to collect data for three sub-scales: shared decision making, school climate, and student success. to answer question one, descriptive statistics were reported, and an ANOVA was used, resulting in no significant difference among the sub-scales. Qualitative data were collected from a focus group comprised of the School Improvement Team and from semi-structured interviews to identify factors promoting and hindering the successful implementation of site-based management components.;Results indicate that the implementation of SBM strategies was overall positive. Participants' responses revealed that shared decision making is an effective strategy for improving the school. Furthermore, the school climate is conducive to teaching and learning, and students are successful at this recently recognized Blue Ribbon School. as a professional community, the administrators and teachers collaborated to develop the vision, mission, and school improvement plan, especially with a focus on student achievement. Although the results were positive overall, participants also identified barriers, such as time, funding, and lack of technological assistance, sometimes hindering improvement efforts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the written student control policies established by Virginia school boards and the principles of law found in recent federal court decisions related to student conduct. The researcher also examined the number of student control policies in relation to school division size and location. A further purpose was to relate such policies to school laws contained in the Code of Virginia.;The population for the study consisted of all the school divisions in Virginia, one hundred thirty-seven (137) at the time of this study. of this number, one hundred thirty-one (131) divisions had usable policy manuals since some divisions were combined under one school board. These manuals were made available to the researcher through the Virginia State Department of Education.;All the policy manuals were examined by the researcher through a method known as content analysis. Essentially, hypotheses are formulated; a sample of content is selected; categories are defined; documents are read and coded, using the categories as a guide; content data are tabulated; data are scaled or otherwise statistically treated; and interpretations are made in light of the hypotheses posed.;It was hypothesized that (1) the content of Virginia school board policy manuals matched the categories of student control policies chosen for the study; (2) the content of the manuals agreed with the principles of law found in selected student control federal court decisions, 1965 to 1979; (3) the number of written student control policies varied with school division size and location; and (4) the content of the manuals reflected student control statutes in the Code of Virginia.;It was concluded that most board manuals did not contain all categories of student control policies. The categories which appeared more frequently were health and safety standards, weapons and drugs, and student records. Nor were the board student control policies in agreement with recent court decisions except in areas such as suspension and expulsion, drugs, due process procedures, and corporal punishment. Policy manuals did vary in content according to the size and location of the school division. It was also determined that Virginia statutes for student control did not agree with the content of the manuals except in areas such as civil rights, health and safety standards, administrative standards, and weapons and drugs.

The relationship between the job preview and the job related behaviors of absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction was investigated. The objective of the study was to attempt to determine if a job preview booklet that contained information about teaching would have a statistically significant effect on the three job-related behaviors of absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction. Data were gathered by examining absenteeism and turnover information from 103 newly hired teachers in the seven school divisions participating in the study. Job satisfaction of control and experimental groups was measured by administering the Job Descriptive Index and the Job in General measure. Results of the multiple analysis of variance indicated that none of the eight control variables were statistically significant. Several possible limitations of the present study were discussed. Future job preview studies might include video-tapes of actual work settings. to avoid contamination problems, entire school divisions could be matched with comparable samples, with each being entirely control or experimental. The job preview could be provided after the interview, but before the contract was signed. The potential benefits of reduction in absenteeism and turnover, and improved satisfaction might justify additional job preview research.

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the Virginia system of school finance from 1979 through 1986 to determine the degree of comprehensive resource equity and funding adequacy for pupils and public school divisions. The study extends prior research by assessing the effectiveness of the current finance system on the basis of three principles of equity and two measures of funding adequacy. Five different years of financial data were analyzed and 13 different variables of educational resource inputs, outputs, wealth, and effort were gathered and measured. The financial data included in this study were drawn from 133 public school divisions and approximately one million pupils in Virginia public schools.;Three principles of equity were examined: horizontal equity, equal opportunity, and vertical equity. Adequacy was measured by examining the equal opportunity principle for school divisions and pupils grouped by local characteristics on a scale of urbanization and by comparing state funding efforts to ensure a sufficient educational program for all pupils. A unique application of discriminant analysis was used to isolate differences among urban, suburban and rural school divisions. The findings of these analyses produced the following conclusions: (1) that Virginia has not achieved a reasonable level of horizontal equity. Marginal, but consistent, progress was noted from 1983 to 1986 as state funding increased. (2) that Virginia does not provide equal opportunity in its funding efforts. The link between local wealth and educational expenditures, although declining, is still unreasonably high. (3) that Virginia has a particularly poor record in providing appropriate support for special need pupils. Vertical equity for disadvantaged and vocational pupils represents a serious deficiency in the state funding scheme. (4) that the legislative policy of encouraging teacher salary increases has triggered a decline in equity among school divisions. (5) that significant differences exist in educational resources between school divisions classified by urbanization. (6) that future studies concerning Virginia school finance should utilize the pupil unit of analysis in order to reflect more accurately the impact of financial alternatives.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the degree of principal leadership style adaptability and teacher use of effective teaching skills in schools where a staff development program in effective teaching skills has been institutionalized.;The null hypothesis to be tested was: In a school division where a staff development program in effective teaching skills has become institutionalized, teacher use of effective teaching skills will not be significantly different in schools with significantly different degrees of principal leadership style adaptability.;Method. The population of the study included elementary principals and teachers in a large urban school division in Virginia. This school division was selected because the staff development program in effective teaching skills was ten years old and met the requirements for institutionalization. The principals had been assigned to their schools for a year or more and teachers had been trained in the division-wide staff development program in effective teaching skills.;Teachers at three schools completed Hersey and Blanchard's Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description which measured the principal's leadership style adaptability. The adaptability scores were analyzed using t-tests. Teachers who had completed teacher effectiveness training were observed and rated using the Instructional Skills Observation Instrument by Wolfe, which measured use of effective teaching skills. These scores were analyzed by using one-way analysis of variance.;Findings and Conclusions. The t-test revealed a significant difference in principal leadership style adaptability in School A and B and School A and C. Analysis of data collected by observers by using analysis of variance showed a significant difference between School A and B and School A and C in use of effective teaching skills. This led to the rejection of the null hypothesis.;The null hypothesis was rejected at high levels of confidence. It was concluded that the leadership style adaptability of school principals has an effect on whether a teacher uses effective teaching skills learned through a staff development program. This study suggests that when undertaking a staff development program principal leadership style adaptability may be considered an important contributing factor.