Research on the development of management strategies for the establishment of an effective organizational culture in schools was conducted in the following phases. In the first place, an. attempt is made to determine the nature of organizational culture, the context in which organizational culture functions, and the transformation and establishment of an effective organizational culture. as well as to describe the characteristics and advantages of an effective organizational culture. Secondly the aspects of organizational culture are discussed on the basis of a theoretical model that has been developed from literature. In so doing, every aspect of organizational culture is spell out, the role and place of each aspect of the culture is explained, as is the contribution of every aspect of organizational culture to the efficacy of such a culture. In the third place, the degree to which aspects of the organizational culture are emphasized in schools has been empirically determined by means of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Fourthly, research results have indicated that the intangible fundamentals and the concrete manifestations of organizational culture are emphasized at good schools while this happens to a lesser degree at average and poor schools. It becomes clear that certain basic aspects are present in the intangible fundamentals and the concrete manifestations of the organizational culture of schools. The successful functioning of these aspects Is essential for the establishment of an efficient organizational culture In schools. Finally these primary aspects of organizational culture form the basis for the development of management strategies which can be used to establish an effective culture of organization in schools. Special mention is made of general points of departure and guidelines for developing action plans and putting them to effect. The actual plans of action are not addressed, as schools should develop their own plans according to their unique composition, requirements and environment. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

Research on the development of management strategies for the establishment of an effective organizational culture in schools was conducted in the following phases. In the first place, an. attempt is made to determine the nature of organizational culture, the context in which organizational culture functions, and the transformation and establishment of an effective organizational culture. as well as to describe the characteristics and advantages of an effective organizational culture. Secondly the aspects of organizational culture are discussed on the basis of a theoretical model that has been developed from literature. In so doing, every aspect of organizational culture is spell out, the role and place of each aspect of the culture is explained, as is the contribution of every aspect of organizational culture to the efficacy of such a culture. In the third place, the degree to which aspects of the organizational culture are emphasized in schools has been empirically determined by means of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Fourthly, research results have indicated that the intangible fundamentals and the concrete manifestations of organizational culture are emphasized at good schools while this happens to a lesser degree at average and poor schools. It becomes clear that certain basic aspects are present in the intangible fundamentals and the concrete manifestations of the organizational culture of schools. The successful functioning of these aspects Is essential for the establishment of an efficient organizational culture In schools. Finally these primary aspects of organizational culture form the basis for the development of management strategies which can be used to establish an effective culture of organization in schools. Special mention is made of general points of departure and guidelines for developing action plans and putting them to effect. The actual plans of action are not addressed, as schools should develop their own plans according to their unique composition, requirements and environment. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

Parental involvement is considered important to a child’s education, whether it is working closely with the teacher to aid student learning or volunteering for participation in after school activities. This grounded theory study focuses on stakeholders’ perceptions of requisite parental involvement in a magnet middle school. The three tenets of grounded theory include: the emergent theory from the categories of data; the premise that participants’ behavior has an underlying pattern that will emerge; and assurance that the participants, not the researcher, are the focus of the study. Data was collected from document analysis, interviews with administrators, teachers, a staff member, a community volunteer, and parents; as well as data collected from surveys of parents and teachers from the school. The survey data is both quantitative and qualitative. The data set for this research was comprehensive: 301 pages of correspondence, 48 pages of transcribed interviews, and 18 surveys. The surveys were submitted by both parents and teachers. The 6 teacher surveys submitted represent a return rate of 33.3%; the 12 parent surveys yielded a return rate of 5%. The five concepts that emerged from the data are: Regard, Team, Volunteer Opportunities, Propinquity, and Needs. The results indicate that social and economic capital informs requisite parental involvement in a magnet middle school, and its perceived impact upon student achievement and school climate.

abstract: Student behavior problems continue to be a nationwide concern, despite decades of practice with a myriad of disciplinary systems. Students who frequently engage in problematic behaviors are at-risk for a variety of negative life outcomes. School-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based system of school-wide reinforcement and disciplinary procedures that relies on a problem-solving model from a systems perspective. Research based on the implementation of PBIS in schools has found positive effects pertaining to decreases in problem behaviors, increases in academics and attendance, and improved school safety and staff satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of PBIS systems change at varying years of implementation in three middle schools using a cross-sectional design on student outcome variables including office discipline referrals, major disciplinary actions, attendance rates, and academic achievement, along with school climate factors related to teacher burnout. Analysis of variance, non-parametric analysis of variance, and visual analyses were used to evaluate the effects of PBIS at varying years of PBIS implementation. The number of ODRs and major disciplinary decisions issued were greatly decreased with each year of PBIS implementation. Analyses of student academic performance and attendance varied by school and level of PBIS implementation and appeared to be influenced by additional variables, such as socioeconomic status. The length of PBIS implementation was associated with lower teacher ratings of emotional exhaustion and higher school climate ratings. Implications for research and educational practice are addressed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Psychology 2014

Racial disparities in educational achievement have been a persistent phenomenon in the United States. This inequity has been described as educational "opportunity gaps", "education debts", and "achievement gaps". Education debt refers to the year after year amassed racial and ethnic achievement gaps that result in a debt for most minoritized groups in comparison to White and Asian students. Despite the repeated significance of focusing on education inequalities concerning race and ethnicity, there is a paucity of research that examines the interrelatedness of school climate and academic achievement specifically with respect to racial and ethnic differences. The ecology of human development framework provides a complex lens to better understand the students' experiences in the environment of the school. For this quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional study descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to answer the research questions about the extent that high school students' perceptions of school climate predicted their self-reported grades, whether they differed as a function of students' race and ethnicity, and whether the magnitude between race/ethnicity groups was substantial. Overall, evidence was found for the unceasing and persisting education debt for minoritized groups regarding their grades, but also in connection to the influence of school aspects on their academic achievement. For Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students the results indicated an intensification of the education debt through the considerably lower impact of school climate characteristics on grades than for White and Asian. For Mixed, Latin@, and Other the debt appeared to be unchanging due to similarly small impacts as for White and Asian, yet, not lessening due to their lower grades.

In the current atmosphere of intense concern over school violence, steps are often hastily taken to “fortify” schools without forethought for how such actions may adversely impact the school environment and students’ psychological wellbeing. Given the paucity of evidence that unequivocally demonstrates the effectiveness of metal detectors, security cameras, and other security features (NASP, 2013; Addington, 2009), this study investigates a potentially more sound approach toward enhancing school safety initiatives. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is one philosophy that is commonly used in the design of safe schools, and—consistent with this philosophy—the present study investigates whether schools designed around CPTED principles are perceived as being safer and/or more psychologically comfortable when they are compared to schools that do not adhere to CPTED design elements. In the current study, the researcher visited three middle schools and four high schools across southern Arizona where students used their school laptops or computer labs to complete an online survey via Qualtrics survey software. Nine hundred students in grades 7 through 12 completed the survey, which included preexisting measures of risk behavior, previous exposure to violence, and school climate, as well as a novel instrument entitled the Preferable School Design Measure (PSDM). The PSDM presented pairs of photographs featuring a CPTED school design and a non-CPTED school design, then asked respondents in which school they would feel safer and more psychologically comfortable, respectively. Results indicate that students had a significantly greater preference for CPTED versus non-CPTED school designs (p <.001), both in terms of perceived psychological comfort (d = .70) and physical safety (d = .84). No significant differences were found in preferences for CPTED schools based on age, race/ethnicity, self-reported academic achievement, levels of previous exposure to violence, or socio-economic status, which suggests that identified preferences are generally robust to many common between-group demographic differences. Overall, study results suggest that implementing CPTED designs may be an effective approach to engender feelings of both safety and comfort among students. Moreover, it is conceivable that by changing the current landscape of mediocre school facilities, the academic and psychosocial outcomes of students inhabiting these facilities might be greatly enhanced.

The climate of a school can be defined as the set of internal characteristics that distinguishes one school from another and influences the behavior of its members (Hoy & Hannum, 1997). Schools with a positive climate have been shown to positively impact students (Hoy, 1972). A principal’s leadership style influences the climate that, in turn, impacts student performance. In this work, the researcher investigated Miami-Dade County Public Schools in order to determine if there was a relationship between instructional staff members’ perceptions of their school’s principals, a derivative of the district’s school climate studies, and their schools’ grades. Eight School Climate Survey items were inter-correlated. The smallest intercorrelation was .83, which is still a large intercorrelation, and the largest intercorrelation was .96. Pearson’s correlation analysis (Healey, 2004) was run to determine the relationship between schools’ earned points and averaged survey responses. Survey items 8, 9, 12 and 13 had weak (less than .30) positive correlations to schools’ earned points. Survey items 7, 10, 11 and 14 had moderate (above .30) positive correlations to schools’ earned points. The researcher created a composite variable (Pallant, 2007) from all the School Climate Survey responses. This composite variable, titled Principal Leadership Score, allowed the researcher to determine that approximately 9% of the variance in the points earned by schools in 2009 can be accounted for by how teachers in this study perceived the leadership of their principals. This study’s findings of a moderate positive correlation between teachers’ perceptions of principal leadership and school performance supports earlier research linking school climate and school performance. Due to the fact that the leadership of the principal affects, either positively or negatively, the learning and working environment of students and teachers, it is recommended that principals use the eight School Climate Survey items examined within this study as guides (Pepper & Thomas, 2002). Through focusing on these survey items, principals may be propelled to self-identify their leadership strengths as well as leadership weaknesses.

This study focused on the perceptions of 16 Latina students regarding their cultural school climate as well as the thoughts of two administrators and six teachers at an all-female Catholic high school. Students revealed that, while they felt very supported by the school’s faculty and administration, they revealed that their culture was not fully embraced and/or represented in their educational curriculum and school’s practices. Students also alluded to deliberately choosing and valuing to spend their free time with their family over their classmates. Further, they felt disconnected from their school’s mission, which emphasized sisterhood among students. Furthermore, bicultural students provided a unique perspective often not fitting the Latina and/or dominant culture at the school.

There is a growing body of research that indicates that effective management of school resources influences learning and teaching (Chiu & Khoo, 2005; Murtin, 2013). Arguably, schools with better management tend to have better performance on a wide range of dimensions; they are more productive, grow faster and achieve better academic achievement result (Williams, Kirst & Haertel, 2005). It is, therefore, crucial to have effective leaders who will manage the education system towards national goals. According to the Department of Basic Education (2016), all learners have the right to have access to relevant and meaningful learning experiences and opportunities. Further to this, the school community has the right to a safe and secure learning environment, otherwise known as good school climate (Kelley, Thornton & Daugherty, 2005). This brings about the importance of the principals of the school who have the responsibility for resource management and the effectiveness of learning in the school. The study on the impact of the principals’ management practices on school climate of public secondary schools in Pretoria is important to understand how to improve the standard of education in South Africa. Relatively little previous research has investigated the mechanisms by which a principal’s management practices pose an effect on the school climate. The current study examined the impact of the principal’s management practices on the school climate by sampling teachers and non-teaching staffs from three schools in Pretoria, Gauteng province. The school climate was measured with the three sub-scale of organisational climate index (collegial leadership, professional and principal’s leadership). Survey data was obtained from school teachers to measure the staff’s perception of their principal’s management practices. This study reveals the effect of the management practices of principals in motivating teachers to perform, remain loyal to their schools and support the principals even when it seems there are several challenges. On the other hand, the management practices of principals create context and some positive school climates for teachers working in these schools. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

Schools are experiencing many reform initiatives, yet creating positive school climates as a way to promote increased student achievement has been omitted from the policy discussion. Whether the professional learning community (PLC) construct can predict school climate is a gap in the current literature. Using change theory and distributed leadership as a framework, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationships between the dimensions of a PLC (shared values and vision, intentional learning and application, supportive and shared leadership, supportive conditions and shared personal practice) and school climate variables (academic emphasis, initiating structure, consideration and morale). Four multiple regression models were used to analyze data collected from the Organizational Health Inventory and School Professional Staff as Learning Community (SPSaLC) survey (n = 131). According to the study results, there is a relationship between the dimensions of a PLC and school climate variables. Based on the regression analysis, shared values and vision significantly predicted academic emphasis, intentional learning and application significantly predicted morale, supportive and shared leadership significantly predicted consideration and initiating structure, supportive conditions significantly predicted consideration and morale, and shared personal practice significantly predicted consideration. The result of distributing leadership through the PLC structure can improve school climate. These findings promote positive social change through the analysis of this relationship, a first of its kind. School leaders looking to create PLCs with the intent of improving both student achievement and school climate will directly benefit from this research.