<p> The Role of Research Consortia through the Eyes of Principals No Child Left Behind legislation calls for educational leaders to use evidence to inform practice. Principals are charged with improving student achievement by adjusting resources and policies based on most recent evidence and research available to them. A research consortium is an institution that partners with a school district to engage in ongoing research for the purpose of improving practice. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to understand principals' perceptions of research consortia associated with their district and to discover how principals used evidence produced by consortia. The overarching question of the study was "How do principals learn about and utilize evidence produced by research consortia associated with their district." </p><p> To address my research question, I interviewed 22 principals in two school districts that work with research consortia. The participants included 10 Baltimore City Public School principals and 12 Chicago Public School principals. The Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) is associated with Baltimore City Public Schools. The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) is associated with Chicago Public Schools. </p><p> Using an interpretivist interview design, four major findings emerged from this study: (1) principals, who are aware of the evidence produced by research consortia, use it to inform practice and decision-making, (2) principals do not have many direct interactions with researchers in the consortia and do not see a pathway to connect with researchers in the consortia, (3) principals who knew about the research consortium in their district have positive perceptions of it, however some principals are skeptical of survey data regardless of the source, and (4) principals in this study explained that consortia do address the evidence to practice gap, but principals did not see an opportunity to contribute to research design.</p>

<p> Most research concludes that corporal punishment in schools does not lead to better student behavior, more respect for teachers, or higher scores on the Achievement Composite Test (ACT). In addition, some research points to the conclusion that corporal punishment of children is associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which can include such symptoms as depression, and anxiety. One researcher has even identified a medical condition entitled Educationally Induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which, I concluded, was brought about by excessive corporal punishment. </p><p> This research study is a comprehensive analysis of corporal punishment practices in the state of Georgia. The research approach adopted in this comprehensive analysis of corporal punishment in Georgia includes the use of online literature, print literature, legal databases, and research database sites. </p><p> The findings from this research provide evidence that Georgia currently has many districts reporting high incidences of corporal punishment while other districts have either abolished corporal punishment by local policy or simply do not practice it. The main conclusions drawn from this study are that corporal punishment in Georgia schools is largely a nonurban phenomenon and that its use is not evenly distributed among districts but rather concentrated in smaller districts. Although overall incidents of corporal punishment have gone down in Georgia over the last several years, its use has actually increased in some districts.</p>

<p> Louisiana is currently one of the 19 states in the United States that still allow the use of corporal punishment in public schools. The research questions that drove this study explored Louisiana-published court cases involving corporal punishment in public schools, district policies regarding the use of corporal punishment, reported instances of corporal punishment in public schools, and potential relationships between whether or not a district allows corporal punishment and its enrollment size. </p><p> As a result of this study, it was discovered that Louisiana has an unusually large body of published court cases involving corporal punishment in public schools. Of those cases, three categories were defined including: cases filed by an employee, cases filed by a parent on behalf of a student, and criminal cases regarding excessive amounts of corporal punishment. It was concluded that the courts will generally uphold a School Board's decision in regards to disciplining teachers for excessive corporal punishment. Furthermore, School Boards and teachers also won a majority of the cases that were filed by a parent on behalf of a student. </p><p> After examining Louisiana district's policy regarding the use of corporal punishment in public schools, it was concluded that the majority of Louisiana's public school students attend schools that allow the use of corporal punishment. From the number of instances recorded it was discovered that the majority of Louisiana districts that still use corporal punishment are experiencing a decline in the number of instances recorded. Finally, corporal punishment is still being practiced is some of the largest districts according to student enrollment. A chi-square test was performed and a statistical significance between a district's policy regarding corporal punishment and its size was not found. </p><p> In conclusion, this study revealed that Louisiana is still one of the 19 predominately Southern states that still allow corporal punishment in public schools. In order for Louisiana to join the other states in abolishing corporal punishment, it is important that Louisiana School Board members and others who are involved in deciding whether or not corporal punishment is allowed know where Louisiana currently stands on this issue.</p>

<p> The focus of this research mainly centers on a quantitative descriptive overview of corporal punishment practices in the state of Mississippi, but this study also includes a legal document analysis component. This study forms the Mississippi portion of a comprehensive analysis of the demographics of corporal punishment in the public schools of the South and follows in the path of dissertation research completed at the University of North Texas on the demographics of corporal punishment in Florida and Texas.</p><p> The research approach adopted in this analysis of corporal punishment in Mississippi includes the use of online literature, print literature, legal database, and research database sites. The findings from this research identify patterns of corporal punishment practiced in the public schools in the state of Mississippi, the state that has historically reported the highest rates of school-based corporal punishment in the United States. One of the main assumptions surrounding this study is that Mississippi's corporal punishment is a rural and small district phenomenon, most commonly practiced in Mississippi's smaller school towns. The data reveals that some districts administer excessive amounts of corporal punishment, with some districts paddling three times as many as the total state average percent or more of their students on an annual basis. Finally, the study found some Mississippi school districts have actually increased the amount of corporal punishment being administered in recent years, a pattern contrary to the national trend, which has been to reduce the amount of corporal punishment being administered in the public schools.</p>

<p> Most populous school districts operate using a bureaucratic hierarchical organizational structure developed primarily for industry, a system structure that has remained intact for a century despite evolving from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy. Although strong for efficiency, this system structure is resistant to change and promotes worker isolation, not ideal for a collective educational approach desired in the 21st century. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to investigate the relationship among a bureaucratic hierarchical school system structure, principal leadership, and school culture to determine if and how the three variables relate through the collective lens provided by the integral leadership theory (K&uuml;pers &amp; Weibler, 2008) and the Full-Range Leadership Theory, or FRLT (Bass &amp; Avolio, 2004). Thirty principals from three urban districts in North Carolina responded to items on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Form 5X (MLQ Form 5X) and the School Culture Survey (SCS) and four demographic questions. The study&rsquo;s results revealed that the administrators appear to combine aspects of both transformational and transactional leadership in the urban schools. Each of the six culture factors on the SCS was significant with transformational leadership, and three of the six culture factors, learning partnership, collaborative leadership, and teacher collaboration, were also significant with transactional leadership. A holistic analysis shows that the principals are demonstrating effective leadership with corresponding positive school cultures despite the constraints a bureaucratic hierarchical school district structure presents. The results suggest that the principals are successfully integrating structural context, cultural elements, and leadership in an organizational form not necessarily designed to promote teamwork and collaboration essential for educational success. </p>

<p> Research has shown a disconnect between the behaviors of some school boards and the behaviors identified in the literature as critical in this era of accountability reform. The literature has specified best practices for effective school board governance behaviors in this accountability era and its accompanying emphasis of college and career readiness. These best practices are primarily focused on the traditional governance roles for school boards and include: Policy-making, goal-setting, planning, establishing the focus of curriculum, prioritizing resources, achievement data review, and holding administrators accountable - all aimed at improving student achievement (Danzberger, Kirst &amp; Usdan, 1992; Iowa Association of School Boards, 2001). These best practices are particularly aimed at producing students who can meet the goals of college and career preparedness (2001). However, some board members report role confusion, with some exhibiting behaviors that might be considered micro-managing and parochial and along the lines of board members' personal or special interests (Danzberger, Kirst, &amp; Usdan, 1992; Mountford &amp; Brunner, 1999; Mountford, 2004; Kwalwasser, 2012). The study of individual school board members' motivations for board service has been found to give promising insight into school board governance practices (Mountford, 2004; Mountford &amp; Brunner, 1999).</p><p> This phenomenological study was conducted using qualitative methods. Eleven individual school board members from three Midwestern school boards were each interviewed, as well as two of those three district's superintendents. The interviews were designed to discover their motivations for school board service and to identify specific behaviors, in order to help inform governance practices of school boards in this accountability era.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to identify the extent that specific research based skill sets and areas of knowledge emerged as highly important, moderately important, and less important from the perspective of school board leadership as it pertains to 21st century superintendents. The study further disaggregated the data by specific school district demographics. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the extent that demographics influenced the prioritization of requisite skill sets and areas of knowledge from the perspective of board leadership in regards to a 21st century superintendent. </p><p> The study survey also determined to what extent the type of certification to be a superintendent in Illinois mattered to board leadership. The survey found that the type of certification was of less importance than previous work experience based on the data. </p><p> This quantitative study was conducted via the ubiquitous electronic survey. The sample population was the presidents and vice-presidents of the eight hundred and sixty eight school districts in Illinois. The research was facilitated with assistance from two state agencies including the Illinois Association of School Boards and the Illinois Association of School Administrators.</p>

<p> This dissertation focuses on the influence of the No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB), one of the most influential educational reform acts in the U.S. and the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) upon the role of principals in elementary schools throughout Massachusetts. The thesis covered the leadership practices pre- and post- NCLB Federal Law of 2001, the leadership roles of principals, their decision making, and the types of practices they developed as a consequence of NCLB. In addition, principal's backgrounds and cultural influences on their leadership were specifically highlighted in the role of mainstream and non-mainstream principals of ethnic groups including Asian American, African American, Latinos and European whites. How Asian American principals responded and reacted to NCLB was critically analyzed since this was the focus of the dissertation. </p><p> Using a quantitative survey sent out to 1,350 principals but with a return of 137 elementary school principals (K-8) in Massachusetts as a sample, and 36 in-depth interviews conducted with equal numbers of principals who were Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos and European whites in the Boston metropolitan area, and other parts of Massachusetts, the findings indicate that the more assimilated the principals are and in this case, Asian Americans, the more they act and respond like European white principals in their accountability, decision making, and practices. Moreover, acting upon the recommendations made from these findings can serve principals best and provide for future research of within group ethnic and cultural variations on the outcomes of NCLB and its future.</p>

<p> Organizational role theory's role conflict states that those within boundary spanning positions experience role conflict as they try to satisfy the needs and expectations of various stakeholders (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, &amp; Rosenthal, 1964; Rizzo, House, and &amp; Lirtzman, 1970; Rogers &amp; Molnar, 1976). This basic qualitative research study glimpsed into the evolving role of principal and how the principal's role has influenced his or her participation in socializing novice teachers. This study was conducted in two school districts in Virginia. With the use of purposeful sampling, 14 elementary and secondary principals responded to a questionnaire and participated in semistructured interviews. Memoing was used to collect data, and follow-up questions were used to clarify understanding or to fill any holes in the data. </p><p> Themes emerged, and connections to the literature and theory were created. As principals discussed their role in novice teachers' lives, principals described their roles as providing instructional leadership, creating a culture of support, and being a limited supporter. As principals discussed how their evolving role has influenced their ability to participate in socializing novice teachers, the themes reflected two types of role conflict present in my theoretical framework. The principals expressed experiencing intrasender conflict&mdash;they do not have the time or capabilities to be as present and active in the process. The principals also expressed experiencing interrole conflict&mdash;they have to contend with various roles within their role as principal. Although they are constantly balancing their roles and workload, these principals understand the importance of their role in novice teachers' lives. They desire and try to be mentors, coaches, and supporters; however, because they are also evaluators, they have observed how this role has hindered the building of a trusting relationship between them and their novice teachers.</p>

<p> Framed in the critical race theory of structuration (CRTS), this sequential explanatory mixed methods study seeks to identify the socialization practices by examining the realities of practices of assistant principals and the ways in which they impact the disciplinary actions of assistant principals at middle and high schools. The mixed methods design was used to explore and understand: (1) the realities of practice within the school organization; (2) the socialization processes of assistant principals within the realities of practice; and (3) the ways in which those socialization processes influence their disciplinary practices. </p><p> Fifty-one percent of the assistant principals invited to participate in this study completed the online survey. The survey responses led to a focused sample and in-depth interviews with three Black female assistant principals supervised by White male principals. The data from both portions of this study revealed that the structure of the realities of practice and the dimensions of the CRTS coexist and correlate within the school organization. This combination creates a Socialization Paradox Cloud that dictates assistant principals' unwillingness and/or inability to change policy adversely affecting students. </p>