The major purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the changes involved in the planning and establishment of a child development institution, the John E. Boyd Center for Child Care and Development, and the role of administrative leadership required to establish it. The study includes a description of the context of historical, political, social, and educational factors asociated with the Center, the changing needs of society, conflicts with local church authorities over the former day nursery that preceded it, and the ensuing litigation that resulted in a commitment to build a new institution. The period studied was from 1960 to 1980, with the actual process of organizational change taking place between 1969 and 1978. Effecting change while studying change was the central focus of the author's study. As administrator of the organization, the author sought to put into practice, and then evaluate, the theories of organizational change and organizational dynamics of Ronald G. Havelock and Kurt Lewin. The study documents a dynamic process of organizational change that was, in fact, successful, and concludes that the theories in question are empirically valid and useful, even when modified, as in this case.

In public schools the majority of teaching positions are filled by women, and the majority of school administrative positions are filled by men. The purpose of this study was to identify and examine teachers' personal perceptions and attitudes which continue the tradition of few women in school administration and to determine what factors contribute to keeping women from pursuing careers in education administration. More specifically, the questions that guided this study are: (1) Do women want to be in education administration? (2) Are teachers willing to support women administrators? (3) Do teachers believe that women have as equal an opportunity as men in acquiring an administrative position? (4) What factors would inhibit women from pursuing positions in school administration? (5) What traits do teachers feel most important for administrators to possess? The significance of the study was to provide a better understanding of the issues and problems confronting women who wish to, or attempt to, pursue careers in education administration. A two-page, four-sided, mail questionnaire was designed and mailed to a sampling of 251 teachers, members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Seventy-three percent of the surveys were returned and sixty-five percent were considered usable returns. Conclusions drawn from the study were: (1) Male and female teachers shared an equal past interest in school administration and indicated that no specific factors inhibited them from pursuing such careers. (2) More male than female teachers indicated having a future interest in school administration, actively applied for administrative positions, and took more courses in education administration. (3) The majority of teachers indicated a willingness to support female administrators. (4) The majority of teachers were uncertain if their school system would hire female administrators. (5) Male teachers listed as the three most important administrative traits: the ability to deal with conflicts, communication skills, and being objective. Female teachers listed communication skills, ability to deal with conflicts, and self-confidence. Three least important traits for both genders were being aggressive, competitive, and authoritarian.

This study examines the perceptions of ten experts on the way participation effects developmental relationships (i.e., mentoring) in organizations. Each subject interviewed was an expert on either mentoring or participation, and had recently conducted research on either mentoring relationships or management theory in the past ten years. The ten experts were: Ken Blanchard, Arthur Eve, Grant Ingle, Kathy Kram, Daniel Levinson, Harry Levinson, Agnes Missirian, William Ouci, Edgar Schein and Peter Senge. The principal outcomes of this research were: (a) summary and analysis of expert opinion on the relationship between mentoring and participation, and (b) a two-stage model for understanding the relationship between mentoring and participation. The data is presented highlighting the subjects' response to nine speculations on the relationship between mentoring and participation. The speculations focused on peer versus hierarchical relationships, the importance of communication and networking abilities, changes in the nature of teaching and learning in mentoring relationships, multiple relationships versus single relationships, differences for men and women, and cross-gender relationships. Stage One of the model presents the Mentoring and Participation Matrix, which integrates Rensis Likert's four system modal on organizational characteristics and Kathy Kram's model on functions of mentoring relationships. The matrix suggests a categorization of the types of mentoring functions likely to occur in each of the four systems, which exist on a scale from highly autocratic to highly participative. Stage Two of the model presents the Intentional Management typology of managerial styles. The model, based on the Mentoring and Participation Matrix and the data analysis, presents four different managerial approaches, Manager as Proprietor, Manager as Director, Manager as Facilitator, and Manager as Nurturer, each reflecting a different level of participation and a different extent of employee development. The model suggests that a key to effective management is the assessment of extent of employee participation required and extent of people development desired to achieve a given managerial task. Implications for management, education and future research are provided.

This study was intended to provide administrators; elementary, middle/junior high and high school principals with an awareness of rights and responsibilities and to help motivate principals to translate basic legal concepts into actual practice. The study involved educational law as it was directly applicable and involved elementary, middle/junior high and high school principals. It presented specific legal principles that have been established and can be relied on for direction in many school areas. The research was intended to provide information about how education practice can be improved, so that it comports with the objectives of legal policy. It was meant to assist elementary, middle and high school principals to become more responsive to the realities of the education organization in relation to the legal policies of education. A survey questionnaire was developed and validated by a pilot-study committee. The population consisted of individuals in similar situations to those for whom the final instrument was intended. The final instrument was mailed to three hundred principals at the elementary, middle and high school levels, in both urban and rural school systems, who had been selected from the twelve counties in Massachusetts. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Computer Program was employed, utilizing FREQUENCIES, CROSSTABS and CHI SQUARE sub-programs. The findings indicated school administrators; principals at the elementary, middle and high school levels do not feel they are adequately informed about the laws that affect them and their schools. They also reveal that administrators themselves feel that information regarding education law would assist them, for they feel that there is a definite need for them to be informed about the laws that affect them in their positions as principals. It was also implied by the results of the study that knowledge of fundamental legal principles regarding education law would assist them in making administrative decisions. The findings of the study indicated that administrative training of principals at all levels, in both urban and rural school systems should include courses, seminars or workshops on educational law and policy.

A study was conducted to examine the private sector involvement in the federal job training and employment system since the inception of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) of 1982. The problem was to ascertain whether the innovative involvement of the private sector in the management and oversight of federal job training programs had achieved the explicit and implicit goals of the JTPA legislation. The methodology used included a combination of qualitative and quantitative strategies. A literature review was first conducted followed by a series of unstructured interviews with Private Industry Council (PIC) members. This led to the development of a three part survey instrument: questionnaire, attitudinal survey, and open ended question format. The survey instrument was pilot tested, refined, and mailed to a random sample of 300 public and private sector members of PICs within New England. The data was put into a computer and analyzed using the App-Stat analysis program. The study indicated that private sector involvement in job training has a positive impact on the management and operation of the local training and employment system, including improved public sector program management, increased responsiveness of training to local labor market needs, and improved operational effectiveness based on measured performance. Commitment to PIC goals, leadership ability, company support of efforts, and time availability were cited as the most important characteristics of effective PIC members. The study cited several areas of need including the lack of an adequate orientation and familiarization program for members, the need for more local autonomy and flexibility in order to address local problems, and the need to reverse the continued decline in the availability of funding resources for staff and programs. Recommendations were made for improving private sector utilization in the federal job training system. Suggested changes to legislation included broadening program eligibility requirements, altering performance standards, and establishing a stable funding base. Recommendations for future research and for using the data emanating from the study were also made.

This study uses focus group discussions as a means for understanding the role of ethics in the decision making processes of student affairs professionals. A second purpose of the study is to consider the method of the focus group discussion itself as a means to enable dialogue and conversation among student affairs professionals about ethical issues. The problem is explored through four research questions: (1) Do ethical considerations enter into the decision making processes utilized by student affairs professionals? (2) How do actual decision making processes as described by the student affairs professionals relate to prescriptions for ethical decision making in the literature? (3) To what extent is an ethic of caring exhibited? (4) Does the focus group forum itself contribute to developing a campus environment which promotes dialogue on ethical decision making? In this study, 26 staff at the University of Southern Maine participated in three focus group discussions. The participants were grouped according to position level: entry-level, mid-level, and director level. The discussion topics designed for the moderator's outline included two hypothetical case situations, as well as opportunities to discuss real work situations. Data were gathered from the transcription of the audio tapes of the discussions, and analyzed in relation to the research questions. Data specific to research question four were also gathered from responses to a follow-up questionnaire administered one month after the focus group interviews. The findings suggest that ethical considerations do enter into the decision making processes of the student affairs staff. The focus group discussions were shown to be a valuable intervention for a campus. The method can help produce an environment which is conducive to dialogue on important matters and in which considerations of ethics are perceived as valuable. Additional findings suggest that organizational considerations are an important part of the decision making processes of the student affairs participants. Regularized focus group discussion among student affairs staff can serve to promote such dialogue in the larger campus community, and therefore is an important step towards the development of an appropriate institutional environment for ethical decision making.

Abstract not available

Although there has been much research on school mergers, there has not been a strong focus on the way in which heads of departments (hereafter HoDs) in the North West province experience school mergers. This qualitative case study, which used an interpretative paradigm, built on and contributed to understanding successful strategies used by displaced HoDs from middle to primary or secondary schools in performing their roles and responsibilities after the school mergers, the challenges they experienced and how they approached such challenges. Semi-structured interviews and a document analysis with purposive sampling of nine (9) participants, comprising six (6) female HoDs and six (3) male HoDs, were used to collect the requisite data. The study was underpinned by a conceptual framework, to identify and construct my views as a researcher, on the HoDs experiences of school mergers in North West province (Adom, Hussein & Agyem, 2018) as a lens for data analysis. The study findings indicated that there had been a significant change in the roles and responsibilities performed by the displaced HoDs. The HoDs had also demonstrated resistance to the school mergers as they had not been prepared for handling tensions and opposition (Pinheiro, Geschwind & Aarrevaara, 2016). It was also found that the HoDs had different understandings and interpretations of the concept of a school merger, and that the NWDoE had undermined them and had also not prepared them adequately enough for both the school merged and to cope in their new roles. The findings also indicated that the NWDoE had done very little to involve the HoDs in the entire school merger process. In addition, the findings also revealed that generally teaching and administering curriculum was a challenge for some of the expatriate HoDs due content gap in the subject areas allocated to them in their new roles. Accordingly, the study pointed out the need for retraining and workshopping the displaced HoDs, as well as placement in line with their areas of specialisation and proficiency. It was hoped that this might help them to handle the tensions they were experiencing and to decrease their opposition, diminish their resistance and, finally, assist them in performing their hugely changed roles and responsibilities in their new schools. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

This research tested the application of organizational behavior management (OBM) procedures in order to improve principals' effectiveness and teachers' and students' performance. After establishing baseline rates for: (1) principal and teachers' verbal praise, non-verbal feedback and goal setting and, (2) academic performance of students, in three classes in two schools (one, elementary school, the other, secondary), treatment conditions were introduced in two different experimental designs: single-subject reversal design and multiple-baseline across-subjects design. During the intervention phases, the rates of praise, feedback and goal setting increased, as well as the academic performance of the students. The principals' effectiveness with an important instructional leadership skill was demonstrated. The results suggest that the behavior of principals and teachers may change positively after the application of OBM procedures and may positively impact upon students' performance.

This study examined three high schools in a large urban school district in Texas that achieved an academically acceptable rating after being sanctioned to reconstitute by state agencies. Texas state accountability standards are a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2011 (NCLB). Texas state law requires schools to design a reconstitution plan after the second year of receiving an academically unacceptable school rating for failing to meet the required standards on state assessments, dropout rates, and graduation rates. The plan must be implemented by the third year. A mixed methods approach was used to uncover the strategies that were successful during the restructuring initiative. Data was obtained from three sources: interviews, document analysis and surveys. Interviews were conducted with district administrators, campus based administrators and teachers of the three high schools. A sample of core content teachers were surveyed using questions from the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Collaborating for Student Success. Results revealed that each school chose to engage in a major form of restructuring that included the formation of a themed based magnet school. A team approach was used to devise, implement, and monitor the reconstitution plan. Common strategies unveiled in the study included the use of common assessments, collaborative planning among core teachers, professional development, continuous monitoring of student absences, extended learning times for students, and a focus on college readiness. Survey data revealed that the majority of teachers believed that collaboration positively impacted student achievement. It is recommended that schools undergoing restructuring choose a reconstitution option that allows for flexibility, use multiple resources to foster school improvement, and develop restructuring plans that serve as living documents. Further research is needed to study the principal's role in achieving an academically acceptable rating. This study could also be expanded to compare restructuring strategies of high schools across the country that has been forced by federal mandates to reconstitute.