<p> The implementation of the Malaysian National Education Blueprint 20062010 (NEB) expanded headmasters' responsibilities and roles in managing schools. One of the NEB goals is to stabilize and strengthen the primary school education system, which brings tremendous pressure to bear on the headmasters charged with managing schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the problems and challenges confronting primary school headmasters in Selangor, Malaysia. This study is grounded in the pragmatic worldview and concerned with applications and solutions that face educational leaders today.</p><p> This study addresses the leadership of primary school headmasters. Data was collected from nine sample schools, involving nine participants in the state of Selangor, through interviews, observations and document reviews. Triangulation of data and member checks were used to establish the validity of data.</p><p> The analysis of qualitative data from nine public primary school headmasters yielded the following findings: (a) the empowerment of Malaysian education focuses on the public school and emphasis was given to the primary level of education; (b) headmasters felt prepared and able to manage their school curriculum and finances following the guidelines from the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010; (c) credibility, ability, vision and visibility were identified as the most effective leadership traits of a successful school leader and instructional, charismatic, transactional and transformational leadership styles were identified as leadership styles that could be used in managing the school; (d) the NEB requires headmasters to follow standard guidelines and achieve the goals listed in the national plan; (e) the headmasters indicated the implementation of the NEB put pressure on their roles and responsibilities: (f) headmasters expressed their disappointment regarding the lack of training provided by the Ministry of Education to the teachers and support staffs; (g) headmasters felt that they need to allocate some time to discussing and implementing the school strategic plan, to taking a recess or break to recharge themselves, and to collaborating with teachers and students' families regarding student improvement plans.</p><p> The findings will make a significant contribution to educational leadership by providing a general understanding of headmasters' roles, leadership and challenges in managing primary schools.</p>

<p>In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, principals are often ill prepared for the demands of the job. According to Baxter (2012), every year in the Archdiocese approximately 30 principal vacancies are filled. Many of the Pastors who hire for these vacancies do not have an educational background, nor do they have much experience in hiring practices. With the increase of lay educators leading Catholic schools, not only are competent principals needed, but principals who can be Pastoral, educational, and managerial leaders (Manno, 1985). To increase the probability of hiring strong candidates for the principal vacancies in schools across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a hiring protocol is needed to standardize the process, while encouraging collaboration and input from multiple stakeholders. This case study implemented and evaluated a hiring protocol at one school site within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The protocol was designed to help Catholic schools hire qualified principals, and its development was guided by previous research on effective hiring procedures for such positions. The case-study data collected provides insight into the benefits and of using this specialized hiring protocol while also identifying potential changes to further strengthen the protocol. The results of the case study will be shared with the Department of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to provide a framework for a principal hiring protocol that can be used at all school sites.

<p> Teacher turnover is a perennial problem in K-12 education, and is particularly salient for urban schools. An estimated 45% of teachers leave the teaching profession during their first five years of teaching. This quantitative study set out to examine the role of the school principal in buffering teacher turnover intentions directly and indirectly through the teachers' perception of influence and challenging student behavior. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of elementary school principals' supportive leadership on urban, elementary school beginning teachers' intent to leave.</p><p> A conceptual model was developed utilizing aspects of two main theories: the theory of planned behavior and the 2-factor theory of motivation. Ajzen's theory of planned behavior describes the processes that influence intent and Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman's 2-factor theory of motivation describes intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to satisfaction or to dissatisfaction, respectively. These theories informed the placement of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which influence the outcome variable of beginning teacher intent to leave. Supportive leadership is grounded in Kouzes and Posner's transformational leadership dimension of encouraging the heart.</p><p> Restricted-use data were obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The sample of interest in this study consists of 430 teachers in urban elementary schools across the United States, including 80 males and 350 females with up to 5 years of teaching experience. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on selected 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Survey items and the results indicated they reflected valid and reliable latent factors. Structural equation modeling was used to test the direct and indirect effects among the latent factors, and the results revealed that supportive leadership had a negative and strong direct effect on urban elementary school beginning teachers' intent to leave. The results also revealed that perception of influence and challenging student behavior did not mediate the effects of supportive leadership on teachers' intent to leave.</p><p> The findings underscore the significance of school principals' supportive leadership for beginning teachers in urban elementary schools. Based on the results of this study, recommendations were made for school principal practices, development of separate leadership standards that focus attention on the support of beginning teachers, and future research.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative multiple regression study was to examine the relationship between per capita giving and church size, annual stewardship emphasis, stewardship training, offering envelope distribution method, time of receiving offering, frequency of distributing contribution statements, membership orientation, and electronic options of giving among churches affiliated with the Baptist Missionary Association (BMA) of America. Through a simple random sample, 600 BMA of America churches were chosen to participate in the study. Data collection involved a survey instrument validated through an expert panel and pilot study. The data was analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The study found none of the independent variables to be statistically significant predictors of per capita giving, <i> R²</i> = .06, <i>F</i>(8, 164) = 1.33, <i> p</i> = .234. Through an exploratory measure, the researcher replaced per capita giving with total undesignated receipts. The church size variable was omitted due to high correlation with the criterion variable. The exploratory measure testing the relationship between total undesignated receipts and the seven congregational practices resulted in a valid regression model, <i> R²</i> = .34, <i>F</i>(7, 163) = 11.71, <i> p</i> &lt; .005. Individual predictors that were statistically significant included stewardship training, offering envelope distribution method, and frequency of distributing contribution statements. Three primary conclusions evolved from the study. First, per capita giving is not a good standard of measurement when comparing across churches. Second, there is a relationship between congregational stewardship practices and increased income. Third, unidentified factors beyond stewardship practices serve as a major impetus to giving among members of BMA of America churches. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> Baptist, determinants, giving, leadership, stewardship.</p>

<p> Across state lines, budget cuts in education are a reality, especially for those in remote and rural areas. With less financial support, some districts are looking to their state departments to be models of good practice for how to leverage and work within budgetary means, while also keeping up with the advancement in education seen around the world. The history of American schools has defined itself by keeping up globally to ensure its students can be global competitors. In order to continue on the path of educational excellence, there is a need to find innovative ways to continue to be supportive of one another through embedded, professional development and systemic thinking. This concurrent mixed-methods research study looked to one state's coaching project over the last seven years. This state utilized its own coaches as a means to grow and develop leadership capacity for system improvement, even when budget woes were at an all-time high. This study found three key findings: (a) all participants demonstrated positive levels of agreement that the coaches had the skill-set identified by the researcher, engaged in actions that align to effective professional development, and that coaches were perceived to have an impact on leadership; (b) administrators and administrative coaches had the highest levels of agreement with all survey items, and their views were consistently in agreement with no statistical difference; and (c) school staff who were further removed from formal leadership roles were less aware of the skill-set, actions, and effects of the coach, and although they had positive levels of agreement, the levels of agreement were statistically lower than that of the administrators and coaches. Essentially, staff members who served in some type of leadership capacity perceived to benefit from the administration receiving state coaching support, than those who did not. These findings will help this rural state to reexamine its structure not only to strengthen the project, but to be the model for other divisions within the department attempting to utilize state coaches throughout the state. Themes presented will also allow other state agencies to better assess their needs of implementing a statewide coaching project, especially for those from rural states.</p>

<p> Bridging the achievement gap for elementary students living in poverty can be accomplished by creating relationships with community partnerships. It is also reasonable to believe that the role of the elementary principal has the potential for building capacity with community partners, while also improving student achievement for young readers through advocating these partnerships. For the purpose of this case study, mixed-methods afforded an in-depth investigation of this role. The theoretical framework of community partnership expert, Joyce Epstein, was woven into this study to explore the three research questions guiding this study. A focus group meeting with ten community partners and parents highlighted the importance of the principal having compassion and a non-judgemental, welcoming demeanor, especially when families and partners visit the school. The information gleaned from the focus group can be used for schools desiring to start, or improve upon community partnership activities. The online, Likert scale survey distributed statewide to 169 rural elementary principals leading in high poverty populations, revealed four, primary themes of importance to the role of the principal: 1) one who advocates partnerships, 2) one who offers volunteer opportunities in the school, 3) one who effectively communicates, and 4) one who takes time to meet with partners. Analysis of reading test scores provided evidence of a strong correlation relationship between reading proficiency and rural students who are identified as economically disadvantaged (.663). A welcomed discovery in the findings revealed that the state reading literacy proficiency scores for the third graders at the target school (91%) were actually higher than the state reading proficiency for all third graders by two percentage points. This study fills the gap that exists in literature concerning the role of the rural, elementary principal and the impact this role has on community partnerships in high poverty, rural schools. Implications for educational policy can be made as a result of this study, but only if policymakers are willing to endorse school and community partnerships as a proven strategy to improve educational outcomes for students living in high poverty.</p>

<p> The multiage classroom design that has its origin in the rural, single-age classroom that blanketed the United States in the 1800s is returning as a viable alternative to the single-age classroom. The author looked at the perceptions of the parents and teachers that were impacted during two rural elementary schools' transition away from the single-age classroom to a multiage classroom design. The study specifically looked at the school-wide transition to the multiage design in grades kindergarten through fifth grade by examining the overall effect the multiage design had on these two groups, the value of the components of the multiage that were thought to be appealing by the administration, and the impact the change had on student academic achievement. Overall, there was positive support of the transition to the multiage design by parents in all of the areas studied, but the teachers, even though they demonstrated support, were significantly less supportive than the parents in a few of the areas examined. It was also found that this study supported earlier research stating the academic impact of the multiage design was not significantly different either positively or negatively. This author provided information that will allow future districts to better identify what will gain the support of the parents and teachers when transitioning to the multiage classroom design. </p>

<p> Students' performance on standardized tests continues to dominate the discourse in the educational arena as it reflects student growth and teacher performance. The low performance index scores of 5^th grade students at 2 elementary charter schools in urban southwestern Ohio has been a major concern of the school district. Guided by social constructivism, the purpose of this research study was to identify curricular practices that influence student academic achievement. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 4 reading teachers and 2 administrators; curriculum maps, tests scores, and lesson plan documents were also reviewed. Interview, test score, and lesson plan documents were analyzed through an open-coding process and constant comparison of data to ensure trustworthiness. The findings revealed that 5^th grade reading teachers and principals used teacher-centered instructional practices that did not connect with students' backgrounds. Based on the findings, a capstone project was developed that provided a content-specific professional development training for reading teachers that would expose them to student-centered instructional practices related to students' backgrounds. The implications for positive social change include engaged classrooms with student-centered instructional practices that could increase student achievement in urban schools. </p>

<p> Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a hot topic in higher education and have undergone rapid growth. More than 800 MOOCs have been offered to the public from more than 200 of the most well known universities in the world, with millions of learners taking them. While many elite universities have developed MOOCs, their motivations have not been entirely clear. This qualitative case study research explores what three early adopter universities, Columbia University, Duke University, and Harvard University, hope to achieve by becoming involved and investing in MOOCs, how they are assessing progress toward goals, and what value proposition they seek as a return on their investment. The findings of this research suggest that the studied universities have several goals in common and a few that differ, and importantly, that several of their goals do not directly align with the public narrative around MOOCs in the press. In particular, while the goals of the studied universities do include expanded access to education, their goals may have even more to do with promoting teaching innovation and providing benefits for their residential education. None of the studied universities were focused on improvements to higher education completion challenges through pursuit of MOOC credit, or the use of MOOCs as a way to control higher education costs&mdash;both of which are major elements of the public dialogue on MOOCs. Other goals of the early adopters studied included providing more visibility for some of their educational programs and their faculty, and enabling more evidence-based education research. This study concludes that the value proposition for early adopter universities is the ability to simultaneously pursue the goal of improving on-campus teaching and learning while also promoting the university and its faculty and connecting through educational outreach with the public&mdash;all while showing leadership in an emerging higher education learning technology.</p>

<p> School administrators struggle with an emerging threat to school safety-cyberbullying. When does a school administrator have authority to punish a student for off-campus, online speech? When does a student cross the line from protected speech to punishable act? The Supreme Court of the United States has yet to decide such a case that would provide school administrators with a standard to utilize when faced with cyberbullying on campus. This dissertation will examine current research, case law, state statutes, and current cyberbullying frameworks put forth by Williams (2008), and King (2010), and Willard (2011) to provide guidance to school administrators on how to approach cyberbullying incidences. In addition, an interview with Assistant United States Attorney Luke Walker will be employed in an effort to bring to light how timely research, such as this dissertation, is needed for school administrators. A repeated concept stemming from this research study is the idea that while no Supreme Court standard currently exists, school administrators should not punish students for merely content alone, but make a strong connection to the student speech causing a substantial disruption to the learning environment. School administrators should also work to promote, not stifle, student speech as they create a safe learning environment.</p>