Thesis (E.Ed.)--The Sage Colleges, 2009. / "A Doctoral Research Project presented to Associate Professor Daniel Alemu, Doctoral Research Committee Chair, School of Education, Sage Graduate School." Suggested keywords: superintendent shortage; job satisfaction; leadership capacity; pathways to leadership; knowledge of superintendency; mentoring. Includes bibliographical references: (p. 67-71).

Thesis (E. Ed.) -- The Sage Colleges, 2009. / "A Doctoral Research Project presented to Associate Professor Ann Myers, Doctoral Research Committee Chair, School of Education, The Sage Colleges." Suggested keywords: succession; succession planning; superintendent succession; leadership succession; superintendent turnover; passive absorption; transition planning; internal candidate; external candidate; superintendent search; vertical preparation; horizontal preparation. Includes bibliographical references: (p. 84-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1981. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-193).

Dissertations (Ed. D.)--Rowan University, 2008. / Typescript. "UMI Number: 3307277"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-173).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-108). Also available on the Internet.

In principal component analysis (PCA), the principal components (PC) are linear combinations of the variables that minimize some objective function. In the classical setup the objective function is the variance of the PC's. The variance of the PC's can be easily upset by outlying observations; hence, Chen and Li (1985) proposed a robust alternative for the PC's obtained by replacing the variance with an M-estimate of scale. This approach cannot achieve a high breakdown point (BP) and efficiency at the same time. To obtain both high BP and efficiency, we propose to use MM- and τ-estimates in place of the M-estimate. Although outliers may cause bias in both the direction and the size of the PC's, Chen and Li looked at the scale bias only, whereas we consider both. All proposed robust methods are based on the minimization of a non-convex objective function; hence, a good initial starting point is required. With this in mind, we propose an orthogonal version of the least median of squares (Rousseeuw and Leroy, 1987) and a new method that is orthogonal equivariant, robust and easy to compute. Extensive Monte Carlo study shows promising results for the proposed method. Orthogonal regression and detection of multivariate outliers are discussed as possible applications of PCA. / Science, Faculty of / Statistics, Department of / Graduate

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration, University of Zululand, 1997. / This research examines the transformation leadership role of principals during the current transitional period. This study makes use of interviews and questionnaires to determine whether principals themselves as facilitators of transformation and whether it has an effect on transformation as seen by members of the governing body, teachers and students. Based on the opinions of respondents, the study concludes that principals in the areas where the study took place viewed as leaders in the transformation process, especially regarding school policy, school vision and curriculum. The research project as undertaken in various regions, found that although the majority of teachers and students principals as leaders in the transformation process saw a significant high proportion of these respondents who are unsure or disagreed that principals transformation export.

Motivated by dimension reduction in regression analysis and signal detection, we investigate order determination for large dimensional matrices with spiked structures in which the dimensions of the matrices are proportional to the sample sizes. Because the asymptotic behaviors of the estimated eigenvalues differ completely from those in fixed dimension scenarios, we then discuss the largest possible order, say q, we can identify and introduce criteria for different settings of q. When q is assumed to be fixed, we propose a "valley-cliff" criterion with two versions - one based on the original differences of eigenvalues and the other based on the transformed differences - to reduce the effect of ridge selection in the criterion. This generic method is very easy to implement and computationally inexpensive, and it can be applied to various matrices. As examples, we focus on spiked population models, spiked Fisher matrices and factor models with auto-covariance matrices. For the case of divergent q, we propose a scale-adjusted truncated double ridge ratio (STDRR) criterion, where a scale adjustment is implemented to deal with the bias in scale parameter for large q. Again, examples include spiked population models, spiked Fisher matrices. Numerical studies are conducted to examine the finite sample performances of the method and to compare it with existing methods. As for theoretical contributions, we investigate the limiting properties, including convergence in probability and central limit theorems, for spiked eigenvalues of spiked Fisher matrices with divergent q. Keywords: Auto-covariance matrix, factor model, finite-rank perturbation, Fisher matrix, principal component analysis (PCA), phase transition, random matrix theory (RMT), ridge ratio, spiked population model.

This study explored how socio-cultural and contextual factors influence construction of identity of self-as-principal. Bakhtin's theories of intertextuality, self and other, and utterance and the theories of Mead, Dewey, Bruner, and Cherryholmes regarding the social construction of the self provided a context for examining self-as-principal as described through retrospective narratives. Discourse analysis was used to examine transcripts of 83 oral history interviews with retired Virginia principals whose careers spanned the 1920;s to the 1990's.(see footnote) Focus was on construction of the identity of self-as-principal through examination of structural metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), descriptions of others, storying of self as protagonist, storying of conflict situations and how stated opinions and philosophy are reinforced/contradicted by examples provided within the texts (Potter & Wetherill, 1987). Certain socio-cultural factors such as race, gender, and religion, and certain contextual factors, such as level of school (i.e., elementary, middle school, high school), era, school size, open space schools, career track, special education, school district emerged as determiners of cohorts sharing discourse features about self-as-principal. The most profound discourse contrasts about self-as-principal resulted when the cohorts analyzed took into account both race and gender. Very different structural metaphors for each cohort by level and race/gender regarding self-as-principal emerged during the analysis. Age, years of tenure as principal, educational background, rural vs. urban locations, and areas of the state did not seem to generate defined discourse cohorts. The findings of this narrative/discourse analysis provide insight into how self-as-principal is constructed, understood and primarily influenced and confirm that this is a rich approach to better understanding how socio-cultural and contextual factors influence role definition for educators. Footnote: These interviews were collected as part of the Oral History of the Principalship project, directed by Dr. Patrick Carlton, here at Virginia Tech. / Ph. D.