M.Ed. / In Chapter One, light was shed on the description of the problem, the outline of the problem, the methodology used and clarification of some of the concepts that were used in this research. The problem that the Department of Education faced after 1994 was that there had been no system of evaluating the performance of schools or comprehensive data on the quality of teaching and learning or standards achieved in South African schools. These problems led to the introduction of the policy on Whole School Evaluation, which aims at analyzing the performance of schools, and also to help schools improve. This study therefore investigated the way in which this policy is implemented and the role-played by school districts. A focused literature review was conducted and a structured questionnaire was used. Chapter Two focused on the review of literature based on THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WHOLE SCHOOL EVALUATION. The main aim of the research project was to see how school district teams provide support to schools in the implementation of WSE, which would lead to improvements at schools, and the enhancement of education. Against this background, the question is: How will schools benefit from the implementation of WSE? The study supports the view that schools, educators and school districts need to be accountable to their clients, and the department must ensure that all learners receive quality education. To achieve this, schools need to be evaluated and supported so that suitable strategies are put in place and a suitable range of management information is made available to enhance performance. From the literature review, it became clear that, in countries where WSE has been implemented, the accountability of stakeholders has increased and the performance of schools has improved with the help of recommendations that translate into School Improvement Plans (SIP). The design of the research was explained in Chapter Three. A description of the empirical investigation was provided. The questionnaire was discussed and the course of the research was briefly outlined. The items (questions) were arranged into three factors and ranked according to their mean scores. One of the questions that ranked high was the question that aimed at finding out if respondents thought that WSE should be conducted at all schools. This question had a mean score of 5,08, which means the majority of respondents (81,5%) agreed or strongly agreed that WSE should be conducted in all schools, probably because it is mandated. The analysis and interpretation of the empirical data were discussed in Chapter Four. The construction validity of the research instrument was investigated by means of two successive factor analytical procedures that reduce the 50 items to just three factors namely: • The extent to which educators feel positive about WSE (FB) 25 items with a Gronbach-alpha-reliability coefficient of 0,9202. • The general support (indirect) provided by school districts to schools (FC 1): 17 items with a Gronbach-alpha-reliability coefficient of 0,9202. • The specific (direct) support provided by school districts to school (FC 2): 7 items with a Gronbach-alpha-reliability coefficient of 0,8802. The three factors could thus serve as a basis for evaluating the role of school districts in the implementation of WSE. The detailed statistical analysis of the research was confined to a comparison of one example of two independent groups and one example of three or more independent groups. Hypotheses were set and multivariate statistics were used to analyse and interpret the data. The Hotelling T² test was used to examine the difference in the vector means if the two factors were taken together. Where significant differences were found at multivariate level, they were further investigated by means of the Student t-test. For three or more groups, the multivariate hypothesis on, for example, age was investigated, using the MANOVA. Where there was a statistically significant differences, the researcher investigated further by means of Scheffe and Dunnett T3 tests. After this summary of the aspects discussed during the research, findings emanating from the research are made. These findings are now briefly examined and recommendations for the role of the school district in the implementation of WSE are made.

D.Phil. / In the Republic of South Africa, higher education institutions today are challenged with the need to address a number of pressing demands. In a new democratic dispensation and following the imperatives set out in the National Plan for Higher Education in South Africa (2001), universities have widened participation to students from all population groups. With the ultimate goal of successful throughput, equal opportunity and access must be provided to all prospective students. However, already in 1996 it was acknowledged that equity of access needs to be combined with equity of success. The White paper (1997, clause 1.18) underlines that the principle of equity requires “fair opportunities both to enter higher education programmes and to succeed in them.” Though equity of access, and hence a more representative student body has been greatly achieved, present statistics and national research findings still confirm ignificant challenges in the retention and successful throughput of students. These results suggest that challenges in this regard remain unresolved. A less contradictory relationship between access to university education and academic success at university level needs to be cultivated. More effective admission and selection decisions, together with the identification of accurate predictors of academic success, can make a positive contribution in solving this dilemma. In the past, selection and placement decisions for studying at a university were made primarily on the basis of performance-related criteria and other cognitive variables. In this study the researcher wanted to determine whether the non-cognitive factor of personality, more particularly as it is represented in the Big Five model of personality (Digman,1990; McCrae & Costa,1987; Goldberg,1990), can be used as predictor of academic achievement (and consequently as a proposed instrument of selection and placement) in a multicultural South African context. The Big Five model of personality represents a hierarchical organisation of personality traits in terms of five basic dimensions called Extraversion, Neuroticism, conscientiousness, Openness to Experience and Agreeableness (McCrae & John, 1992). Although the predictive validity of the Big Five factors in academic achievement has often been researched internationally, less research in this area has been completed in South Africa. Recent work in South Africa showed that measurement equivalence across population groups can be established for South African samples; less work had been done on the equivalence across population groups of the predictive validity of the Big Five factors with reference to academic performance. The overarching aim of the present study was therefore to investigate the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and the academic achievement of first-year B Com university students in South Africa, as well as to examine whether these relationships are equivalent for African and white students. In order to achieve this goal the incremental predictive validity of the Big Five personality factors, compared to cognitive ability, in the academic achievement of students was explored. In addition, the predictive value of Population group above and beyond that of intelligence and personality traits was researched. The possible interaction between the Big Five personality factors and Population group was explored in the final step.

Schools are essentially concerned with people and the development of knowledge and skills. Schools require leadership in order to achieve their goals. Furthermore, schools are tasked with being relevant in their contemporary societal contexts as well as for society in the future. Regarding the type of leadership in schools, Sergiovanni contends that schools need special leadership because they are special places, because they are lifeworld intensive and because “school professionals don’t react warmly to the kind of hierarchically based command leadership or hero leadership that characterizes other kinds of institutions” (2000:165 - 166). Against the backdrop of this commonly held belief, this research project undertook to investigate a school where the new curriculum had been successfully implemented in a context where there was absent leadership. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, the school type and context, the human interventions and the school culture were considered. The qualitative approach was selected for this research with a grounded case study as the relevant research design. Epistemologically, this research is located in the constructionist paradigm and an interpretivist theoretical perspective will be employed in the research project. Interpretivist philosophies promote the notion that human action can be distinguished from physical objects by virtue of the fact that they are inherently meaningful. The data were collected by means of some semi structured interviews and a dyad interview. Both convergent and divergent questions were posed to the participants in the data collection strategies. The process of data analysis was approached from a grounded theory perspective. This approach requires that a theory should emerge from the data rather than the data proving or disproving an existing theory. Six themes were identified through the process of data analysis. These themes were then processed into five findings which collectively developed and compiled a substantive theory. The findings of this study revealed that schools require leadership. Leadership should be considered in its broadest sense with all educators possessing the potential to lead. In addition, the appropriate use of power and authority were identified as essential ingredients for successful leadership. School culture was also found to be an essential component of successful schools. Not only is school culture essential for the successful daily functioning of schools, but an appropriate school culture is imperative for dealing with change and the successful implementation of new policies, curriculum and school reform initiatives. A collaborative school culture was identified as the type of school culture that is appropriate and that would support and facilitate the management of change. In light of the findings, implications for policy and practice are presented and suggestions for future research are made. Lastly, the limitations of the study are noted and the conclusions of the study discussed. It is hoped that this study will assist policy makers and school principals to seriously consider their leadership style in terms of sharing power and authority and in the creation of school culture that are empowering and positive, one that considers individual potential as well as group cohesiveness. / Prof. B. Smit

This study inquires how the idea of districts came into being in the South African education system in the absence of official policy. It questions why there is no explicit government policy on education districts, particularly in view of the ubiquity of districts in South African education policy discourse. In doing so, the study elucidates the character of South African local education, and illuminates the niche that districts occupy in the education system. Additionally, by invoking Sutton and Levinson’s (2001:4) thesis that ‘people make policy through practice’, the study brings to light practical meanings assigned to districts by schools, and by national, provincial and district officials. The study argues that the central dilemma of education districts in South Africa is their structural condition. It concludes that districts operate at the intersection of the dual, related dichotomies of support and pressure, centralisation and decentralisation. Districts persistently endeavour to coalesce the dichotomy of support and pressure in their work with schools; at the same time, they struggle to straddle their role as deconcentrated field units of provincial head offices and as school support centres. The study proposes that only conscious engagement with these dichotomies, as well as active agency on district-school relationships, will districts manage the tensions between the policy, support and management roles expected of them. The dominant discourse on the role of districts in South Africa places districts as support centres for schools (Mphahlele, 1999; DoE, 2000). While districts post-1994 do not reflect the authoritarian and controlling features of the apartheid era, the study found that policy transmission, policy compliance and ‘policy alleviation’ (a process where district officials attempt to ‘soften’ the rough edges of policy effects on schools), tend to dominate district functions. Even the ‘support’ provided by districts to schools reflects that which is intended by government, rather than that experienced by schools. District agendas are set from the top down rather than the bottom up; hence schools rarely experience district support as a response to their own problems and needs. In reflecting on the character of districts, the study concludes that there is no system of local education in South Africa since there are no common norms and standards governing it. Local education in South Africa does not function as a single organism but comprises disparate structures that vary considerably in organisational design and nomenclature. Despite these differences though, the all-encompassing concept of ‘districts’ to describe local education in South Africa remains ubiquitous in education discourse. An explanation for the homogenisation of the discourse on local education resides with the observation that as deconcentrated units of provincial education departments, districts reflect a common rationale for their existence, namely to serve as field units of government. The reasons for the absence of a policy on districts are rooted in constitutional, legal, historical and political influences. The Interim Constitution (RSA, 1993), for example, shaped government thinking on local education by concentrating government’s attention on school-level rather than local-level governance. Moreover, interpretations of the Constitution (RSA 1996) by key legal experts suggest that national government cannot develop policy on provincial organisation, as this is a provincial competence. However, the establishment of the district health system created by the National Health Act, 2003, stands in contradiction to this line of reasoning, and reinforces the conclusion of the study – that national education authorities have not established a statutory district education system because there is no South African precedent for it and no political incentive to create it. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

This study is aimed at investigating the role of the School Management Team (SMT) in school improvement. The investigation was carried out using the qualitative approach and the study is underpinned by the interpretive paradigm. The declining performance of some schools academically as reflected by the end of year results, as well as the confusion that engulfed me on assuming duty on my appointment as a head of department of Science and, therefore, becoming part of the SMT in my school, encouraged me to investigate the role of the SMT in school improvement. The study covers, among others, the following areas: § Functions performed by the SMT members. § Challenges faced by the SMT members in their management practice. § Ways of addressing these challenges. Methods of data collection used in this study were interviews, questionnaires, own observations as well as the analysis of documents. The main recommendations emanating from the study are that SMT members should be better equipped for their roles through workshops and in-service training and that the respective roles of SMT and School Governing Body (SGB) members should be better demarcated by the Department of Education.

This thesis examines some of the recent literature on school improvement: namely, teacher effectiveness research, school effectiveness research, and four of the commissioned reports on education that were published in the United States during 1983. The analysis relies on a number of central concepts from the social theory of Michel Foucault, in particular his notions of power/knowledge and discipline. It is argued that these bodies of educational research are in themselves either inadequate or inappropriately employed in policy discussions, and that as a result the manipulation of students and teachers seems reasonable and necessary. It is further argued that the teaching practices and educational policies called for in this research are likely to produce unintended, and undesirable consequences which are completely at odds with the stated goals of school improvement. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This paper concerns the development of the instructional program in Broward County, Florida, from 1941 to the present. The purposes of the paper are, briefly, as follows: (1) to give the reader a general knowledge of the manner in which the instructional program has developed, (2) to trace the history and functions of the supervisory program since its initiation in the county, (3) to give a statement of the philosophy underlying the instructional program, (4) to reveal county-wide practices as these affect the improvement of instruction, ( 5 ) partially, to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional program in the light of prevailing nation-wide practices, and (6) to make recommendations for next steps in the improvement. / Typescript. / "Aug., 1949." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts under Plan II." / Advisor: W. Edwards, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-51).

The paper reports progress in the Millville Elementary School, Panama City, Florida, in the three year period from July 1, 1949 to July 1, 1952. During this time the faculty attempted to secure information relative to the situation, discover their most significant problems, develop a common point of view, and set about, with the help of all concerned to build a better program. In this effort, the Evaluative Criteria for Elementary Schools served as a general guide. Consultative help from Florida State University was available to the faculty during the entire period. In taking stock of the situation, the types of problems discovered might well be discussed under four categories: (1) the situation from the viewpoint of the pupils; (2) the situation from the viewpoint of the faculty; (3) the situation from the viewpoint of the community; and, (4) the situation as reflected by the general conditions of the building. / Typescript. / "August, 1952." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: W. Edwards, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).

"The ultimate goal involved in the construction of this paper is to create a desirable plan of activities for an extended school program in the Richmond Hill Community. To reach this goal it is necessary to gain a clear understanding of all elements pertinent to the success of such a program. The problem with which this paper deals, then, will unfold thus: the development of extended school services in Georgia will be traced, with attention to the results of the 1952 program. Then a geographic, social and economic picture of the Richmond Hill School Community will be presented, the existing needs of the community will be cited and a suggested program of activities that might meet those needs outlined"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1953." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Eugene S. Lawler, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84).

Implementing the principles of a professional learning community (PLC) in public schools has become a popular strategy for meeting school quality and accountability expectations. Whether PLC implementation results in improved school ratings represents a gap in the literature. Three out of the 4 elementary schools in the participating school district experienced a significant drop in state ratings. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship between the perceived depth of implementaiton of PLCs and a school's performance in terms of state ratingsGuided by the theory of the learning organization, this quantitative study was designed to identify the extent to which participants believed their schools operate as PLCs and to determine whether there is a significant difference in results between the participating schools. Participant perceptions of PLC implementation were measured through the Professional Learning Communities Assessment-Revised survey instrument. A total of 77 teachers across the 4 schools participated, and descriptive statistics were used to measure the level of PLC implementation. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine if there was significant differences in responses from the schools. The ANOVA revealed no significant differences in the responses between the school that did not experience a drop in ratings and the other schools. The results of this study could provide a framework to aid teachers and administrators to improve student learning by providing improved instruction. Quality instruction can lead to improved student learnings, and when student outcomes are improved, more students graduate and become productive members of their communities.