Cyberbullying is an alarming phenomenon affecting the lives of adolescents across the country. Traditional bullying has moved from the playground to cyberspace. This online environment allows perpetrators to attack their victims beyond the walls of school, twenty-four hours a day. Advancements in and access to technology have made electronic communication the preferred method for adolescents to socialize. Although email, texts, social media sites, and websites were created to ease communication, some adolescents are using these tools to harass and harm their peers. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the existence and prevalence of Cyberbullying in middle schools across Region VII in southwest Virginia. Cyberbullying policies and strategies used to address Cyberbullying were examined. The experiences of middle school principals with Cyberbullying incidents were explored. The aim of this study was to address the following three research questions: 1. What is the status of Cyberbullying in Region VII of southwest Virginia? 2. What are middle school principals' perspectives regarding their schools' effectiveness in responding to Cyberbullying? 3. What are middle school principals' recommendations to strengthen Cyberbullying policies and procedures? A quantitative method was chosen and a survey was conducted with the goal of adding to the literature that existed on Cyberbullying in public schools. Through the development and administration of a survey, quantitative data was collected. A quantitative analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics. The study adds to the current empirical research base on Cyberbullying in middle schools, especially in the rural area of a state. The perceptions of principals working in middle schools are valuable. This study tapped into this knowledge base and added to the literature on Cyberbullying by providing insights into the feelings and perceptions of administrators. Analyzing the experiences of the participants provided valuable information for those interested in learning more about Cyberbullying in middle schools in southwest Virginia. Findings of the study include information for Region VII of southwest Virginia on the status of Cyberbullying, middle-level schools' effectiveness in responding to Cyberbullying, and principals' recommendations to strengthen Cyberbullying policies and procedures. Based on the survey results, it is clear that Cyberbullying existed within the school systems in the region. Cyberbullying incidents occurred both at school and away from school. The largest percentage of these incidents occurred in the seventh and eighth-grades. Survey data indicated gender played a role in Cyberbullying with female students having the most reported incidents. Bullying prevention programs were being implemented in most school systems and schools in this region, and, in some cases, Cyberbullying was specifically addressed. In school systems and schools where no bullying or Cyberbullying prevention programs were implemented, overwhelmingly, principals felt they should be. Data revealed most principals found it difficult to identify Cyberbullying instances but believed they did report Cyberbullying incidents consistently. Most principals felt their school system's Cyberbullying policies were effective in dealing with Cyberbullying incidents, that the policies did not need revision, and that no additional policies were needed. Most principals felt Cyberbullying consequences implemented at their school effectively deterred Cyberbullying. Three strategies were identified by more than fifty percent of principals that would help in deterring Cyberbullying incidents. These strategies were increased parental involvement, encouraging students to report Cyberbullying, and anti-bullying education. / Ed. D.

Research on principals' perceptions and responses to school bullying is scarce. This study investigated the perceptions of seven middle school principals and their responses to six hypothetical vignettes depicting incidents of physical, verbal, or relational bullying. During interviews, respondents were asked to rate the seriousness of each incident and describe how they would respond. Respondents rated all the incidents, regardless of the form of bullying, as moderately serious, serious, or very serious. When asked to describe how they would respond to incidents, all responded they would take action (e.g., consequences for the instigator, interventions to change the behavior of the instigator, support for the target). State statute on bullying, school anti-bullying policies, past experience with bullying, and a belief that students deserve to feel safe were key to guiding their responses. The principals recognized that bullying occurred on their campuses but indicated that incidents were minimized as a result of their strong school anti-bullying polices and a belief that no form of bullying was to be tolerated on their campuses.

Throughout the 1980's, the notion of standards came to the forefront throughout the education world. Groups questioned how to define quality teaching. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was developed to meet this need providing a voluntary national certification to identify accomplished teachers. Since its inception, researchers have explored NBPTS. Yet, few studies sought the perspective of critical stakeholders, building principals, in evaluating the effectiveness of the NBPTS process. This study seeks to gain the perspective of those key administrators by comparing their perceptions of the National Board Certified Teachers and non-National Board Certified Teachers on their instructional staff. <br>A portion of this study replicates a study originally conducted by Dr. Robert Alvin Griffin of Auburn University. The current researcher added components exploring the leadership roles of NBCTs and the influence of school location. This study is important in Pennsylvania due to the focus on teacher effectiveness and the link between principal leadership and student achievement. <br>The study revealed a significant difference between principal perceptions of NBCTs and non-NBCTs when considering characteristics connected to the Five Core Propositions of NBPTS: Commitment to Student Learning, Knowledge of Subject Matter and How to Teach It, Management and Assessment of Student Learning, Systematic Thought about Practice, and Membership in Learning Communities. These findings are similar to those in Griffin's study. In terms of leadership, mixed reviews were noted. The majority of respondents indicated that there is no difference in leadership between NBCTs and non-NBCTs on their staff. There were no significant differences noted based upon school location of rural, urban, and suburban. <br>Findings suggest the National Board Certification process is effective and NBCTs are perceived to be more effective than their non-NBCT counterparts in all of the areas assessed on the core survey. However, the leadership piece remains unclear. Most principals perceived NBCTs as engaging in a variety of leadership activities but in generally the same ways and roles as non-NBCTs. There is work to be done by both principals and NBCTs to cultivate the leadership potential of NBCTs and increase the collective expertise of NBCTs in schools. / School of Education / Instructional Leadership Excellence (ILEAD) / EdD / Dissertation

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of analyzing elementary school principals' perceptions of the Individually Guided Education process of staff development. A survey is made of 100 randomly selected principals from 18 states of the United States with regard to the problems of implementing the process in their schools.

Texas public high schools induct beginning science teachers each year; yet, little is known about how schools induct beginning teachers. The three studies included in this dissertation use a mixed methods approach to explore data collected by the Policy Research Initiative in Science Education (PRISE) Research Group during the 2007-2008 academic year. The first study focused on principals' perceptions of teacher induction. A content analysis of interviews collected from 50 principals examined principals' perceptions of teacher induction. Analyses indicated that high school principals had an overwhelmingly narrow focus of mentoring and provided mentor teachers with little support or training. Findings indicated that induction activities for beginning teachers were front-loaded before the school year began and were left in the hands of unprepared mentors during the school year. Further analyses indicated that the primary purpose of mentoring and induction for beginning teachers in Texas high schools revolved around orientation to campus policies and procedures. Beginning teachers' instructional needs appeared to be an afterthought. The second study explored beginning high school science teachers' evaluations of their induction experiences. Beginning teachers identified the best school-level induction supports received and recommended improvements for school-level induction. Teachers identified mentoring as one of the best received supports, yet also made recommendations for more structure in the mentoring experience. A comparison of beginning teachers' responses with teacher turnover found that: (a) Stayers (i.e., teachers retained at a campus) were most likely to report that they received induction support from other science teachers; (b) Movers (i.e., teachers who transferred to another campus) less frequently reported working conditions as a positive induction support; and (c) Leavers, (i.e., teachers not retained in the profession) most frequently did not identify induction support from the school. The final study compared principals' perceptions of induction and beginning teacher Movers and Leavers' evaluations of their induction experiences. Findings from this study indicated that principals were aware of induction components that were considered helpful by both Movers and Leavers. However, principals did not acknowledge what Movers and Leavers recommended for improvements to current induction practices. The final chapter provides a summary of all three studies. Recommendations are made for improving induction practices for high school science teachers. In particular, high school principals should discard their current "hands-off" approach to teacher induction and become more active in their induction experiences. Additionally, types of induction practices should increase to include more than mentoring. Moreover, policy makers should reform mentoring policies so that current practices, which have a narrow focus on school policies and procedures, are abandoned.

The purpose of this study was to identify the existing relationships of the elementary school principals' and teachers' perceptions of the elementary school principal's role behavior in Ubon Province, Thailand. This study answers four questions: Are there significant differences in perceptions of teachers in each of the thirty-four surveyed schools of the principal's role behavior; Are there significant differences in perceptions of all teachers among the thirty-four surveyed schools of the principal's role behavior; Are there significant differences in perceptions of all principals of the principal's role behavior; Are there significant differences in perceptions of all teachers and principals of the principal's role behavior?

A safe school is defined as a physically and emotionally safe environment where faculty and staff, members of the community, and students perceive that they are safe. School safety is an important topic for both school administrators and architects who design schools. Previous research into the physical environment of a school has explored its impact on student achievement and, to a lesser extent, school climate and school safety. Overall, research into the relationship between a physical environment of a school and its influence on the perception of safety is inadequate. The study sought to determine what were the design elements that principals and architects believed promoted a safe elementary school. The main research question for the study was, "What are the design elements that principals and architects believe influence a safe elementary school?" The study replicated the methodology of Walton's study (2011) called Physical Design for Safe Schools. Walton focused on perceptions of high school principals and architects who were involved in designing and building schools. Walton's study concluded that safety was an important issue to principals and architects. Specifically, each group identified supervision, technology and cameras, and controlling access to school buildings as important to school safety. The groups also identified restrooms and locker rooms as the two most problematic areas of a school building due to inability to supervise. Data for the study were gathered through qualitative methods and utilized a phenomenological approach to exploring data. Principals from elementary schools built before 1999, principals from elementary schools built since 2011, and architects with experience designing elementary schools were included as participants in the study. Participants were asked five to nine semi-structured and open-ended questions relevant to the design elements and physical features associated with school buildings. Results of the study found that the physical design of a school building was viewed as having an influence on safety in schools. The two common themes from all three groups were access control and visibility. Sub-themes were the importance of preparation for emergencies, perceptions of inequality in funding for school safety measures, the prevalence of technology that has created greater opportunities to keep schools safe, and the need for balance between safety and aesthetics when designing schools. / Ed. D.

The purpose was to investigate the relationship between Canadian and Saskatchewan PISA 2009 reading performance and organizational learning (OL) conditions as perceived by students and principals when selected student and school characteristics were taken into consideration. Gender, Aboriginal status, and socioeconomic status were the student characteristics that were considered. School size, urban versus rural school community, proportion of students self-identified as Aboriginal, and school average socioeconomic status were school characteristics taken into consideration. A nationally represented sample of 978 schools and 23,207 15-year-old students across the ten Canadian provinces participated in the PISA 2009. Within this sample, 1,997 students and 99 schools were from Saskatchewan. Principal components analyses were conducted to produce components for the calculation of two composite (OL) indices: a Student OL Index based on the Canada and OECD PISA student questionnaires and a School OL Index based on OECD PISA school questionnaire. Subsequently, two hierarchal linear modelling analyses were employed to examine the association of student-level OL index and school-level OL index with reading performance. Across Canadian and Saskatchewan schools, students’ perspective of OL conditions was positively associated with reading performance in the presence of the selected student and school characteristics. Except for one school-level OL component (i.e., principal’s perspective of school culture/environment) in the Canadian model, school-level OL conditions were not significantly associated to reading performance in the presence of student and school characteristics. With the adjustment of student and contextual characteristics incorporated in the modelling, the average reading performance was comparable across Canadian and Saskatchewan schools, 528 and 523 respectively. Variance decomposition of final models indicated that 55% of the Canadian school-level variance in reading achievement and 68% of the Saskatchewan school-level variance were explained by the selected student and school characteristics along with student perspective of OL conditions. The findings from this study supported the hypothesis that OL conditions are associated with student achievement. Additionally, it was noted that the effect of OL conditions was of similar magnitude to that of the socioeconomic status effect. Furthermore, the findings from this study further emphasized the importance of the student voice within the school OL framework.

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