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The purpose of this study was to determine the nature and process of clinical supervision via the Internet as experienced by participating supervisees. The subjects of this study were four students in a masters level internship course in counseling at Oregon State University. The course was a pass/no pass counseling internship placement which included an Internet-based clinical supervision component. The qualitative design used in this study was based on a Constant Comparative Methodology using coding categories developed manually and through the use of the QSR NUDIST 3.0 Qualitative Data Analysis Software. This design focused on the collection of textual material from participants engaged in distance clinical supervision. This textual material and subsequent analysis served to help create an emergent theory of distance clinical supervision. Participants evidenced a motivation to participate in the distance supervision experience and advanced not only clinical skill use but also were challenged with the technological aspects of course participation. Findings suggest that the attitudes, prior experiences, and social expectations influenced participant meaning-making and subsequent self-construction of their ideal learning environment. In addition, participants' interest in technology and the convenience of the distance venue provided an impetus toward autonomous functioning in spite of supervisee dependency. This struggle appeared consistent with the theoretical constructs of the developmental models of supervisee process. As supported by Stoltenberg's developmental model of supervisee development, more advanced supervisees perform more autonomously. In this distance supervisory environment, supervisees were offered additional opportunities to operate autonomously which may impact overall supervisee development. This research may have implications for the continued development of the distance supervision method especially in experiential courses in the training of counselors. Recommendations and cautions are offered for the further development of distance supervision courses as well as the need for further research to substantiate the posited theoretical foundations. / Graduation date: 1999

The study discussed in this dissertation identified and examined the factors that influence a parent's decision to choose a North Carolina charter school for their children. The study was conducted at 13 North Carolina Charter schools. Questionnaires were distributed to 2,325 parents, and 903 were completed. The questionnaire contained 14 questions that examined 16 factors that might influence parental decision-making. Frequency distributions were tabulated for each of the fourteen survey questions. A principal component and a varimax analysis was conducted. The factors were grouped into three categories: (1) administration, (2) academic/instructional, and (3)student-centered. Folowing this procedure, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied to the data. This tested the three categories against the independent variables of race, parental income, and parent education level. A post hoc test (Tukey's Studentized Range, HSD) was applied when appropriate. The category administration accounted for the greatest variance in the study. Factors in this category included sports program, extracurricular activities, technology program, facilities, transportation, and food service. The category that accounted for the next largest portion of the variance in the study was academic/instructional factors. These factors included curriculum, people running the school, opportunities for parents to participate, the school's expectation of parents, and academic standards. The category that accounted for the third largest protion of the variance in the model was student-centered factors. These factors included school size, class size, and individual attention provided by teachers. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tested the three categories against independent variables of race, parental income level, and education levels of parents. Post hoc testing was conducted when there was a significant main effect. This process led to the conclusion that minority parents place more value on administrative selection factors than majority parents. Futhermore, minority parents tend to place more value on academic/instructional selection factors than majority parents. Finally, parents that had professional or post graduate levels of education value administrative selection factors more than parents with lower levels of education.

A qualitative study using narrative analysis on special program teacher turnover with a focus on the needs of the lateral entry teacher. Both traditionally and lateral entry teachers from four pathways: exiters, switch schools, stay at the same school, and switch into regular education, were interviewed for a total of eight interview participants. Their responses were transcribed and coded in Atlas Ti. The researcher used narrative analysis to look for common themes or âstoriesâ among the participants. The common themes included a description of the job itself and stressors, a description of preparation for the job and personal attributes needed for the job, and support desired from the principal.

The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective practices by school administrators when creating school culture in newly opened schools. Using semi-structured interviews, four principals who opened a new school were interviewed individually and in a focus group. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the data. Two themes emerged from the data. First, principals at new schools should spend a significant amount of time ensuring quality staff members are hired. Additionally, once hired, principals are responsible for providing appropriate professional development activities to better prepare staff members to meet the challenges of opening a new school. Second, principals must find a balance between their role as principal of the school and their personal and family lives. This balance takes three forms: 1) Shared Responsibility, 2) Manager vs. Instructional Leader, and 3) Personal and Family Responsibilities. Limitations to the study included generalization to other studies, personal biases and objectivity on the part of the researcher, small sample size and lack of a high school participant. By applying what has worked, and avoiding what was not successful, administrators are in a better position to ensure a smooth opening, a satisfied school community, and, most importantly, successful students, all which are reflective of the schoolâs culture.

Large school districts face a number of challenges due to their sheer size. One of these challenges involves staffing the role of the principal. With Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, large school districts, especially those experiencing growth, have to fill numerous leadership positions. In order to fill these positions efficiently and effectively, many school districts are beginning to develop and implement succession planning programs to expand their internal pool of leadership candidates. Succession planning strategies have been utilized in the business world for years and the education realm is beginning to realize their value. This study explores three large school districts in a southeastern state and their efforts to implement effective succession planning systems. While all three districts have a variety of strategies in place, none of the districts have a comprehensive, written succession plan and corresponding evaluation. Other similarities across the three districts include administrator certification programs, coaching programs, the predominant use of self-selection into succession planning initiatives, the principal position as the focal point, and the value of utilizing the cohort concept. Some differences across the three districts are the departments and positions responsible for succession planning initiatives, the categorization of some strategies as succession planning, and an additional position as a secondary focal point.

The concept of âvisionâ in the principalship is simultaneously extremely important yet surprisingly vague in its definition and practical application. This phenomenological study investigates the ways that principals understand and use the concept of vision in their daily work and their approach to school leadership. The study examines the ways that principals understand and use vision in the daily work of the principal, considering questions of genesis of vision, cultivation of vision, and frameworks for understanding vision. The researcher conducted interviews with five recent Principals of the Year from an urban school district and concludes with a framework for a phenomenological understanding of vision based upon the metaphors used by these principals.

The time is well past for the American people—especially those that deal with our school aged children on a day-to-day basis—to see what is happening to our children and by extension to our society. If public education is to become truly effective in this time of alienation—both of race and class—then a more caring, nurturing, and trusting approach to the profession of educational administration must be encouraged and engendered. The purpose of this study is to examine the middle school administrator as a caregiver by examining the perceptions of the role by teachers and the principal. This study focused on the perceptions of the principal as a caregiver in a selected East Tennessee school. This exploratory descriptive case study included thematic development and verification based on data obtained through qualitative means: interviews, observations, and document analysis. The research questions posed at the beginning of this study include: (1) How does this East Tennessee middle school principal respond to the developmental needs of middle school students?; How does this East Tennessee middle school principal respond to the developmental needs of the teachers who support learning for middle school students?; and (3) How does this East Tennessee middle school principal respond to the developmental needs of the middle school as an innovating entity? A theoretical framework based on the work of Brown and Anfara (2002) and Anfara, Roney, Smarkola, Ducette, and Gross (2006) was used to focus the study’s design, and the data collection and analysis, and the reporting of the findings. Subsequently, the conclusions that were developed in this study describe the perceptions of the role of the caring middle school principal. The first major conclusion is that the developmentally responsive middle school principal responds to students and staff with care. The second conclusion is that the developmentally responsive middle school principal actively practices caring leadership. The final conclusion affirms that the developmentally responsive middle school principal uses the team concept to develop in staff and students a sense of ownership of the school and its programs.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to analyze collaborations involving three teams of educators participating in a school-university partnership, the "My Place, Your Place, Our Place: Integrating Education for the Neighborhood and the World" project. The three groups of educators included the Tennessee team (a school-university partnership), the Bulgaria team (a school-university partnership), and the setting created by the combination of both (a cross-cultural integration). The conceptual framework for this research was based upon Sarason’s (1972) work, The Creation of Settings and the Future Societies. Due to the intercultural nature of this project, Hofstede and Hofstede’s (2005) five dimensions of national culture were used to understand the challenges to collaboration within the combined team. This qualitative case study focused on two research questions. First, what were the challenges in creating collaborations within the three teams of educators involved in the “My Place, Your Place, Our Place (MYO Place)” project? Second, what were the similarities and differences in challenges across these three teams? Data sources included interviews with nine participants from the Bulgaria team and nine from the Tennessee team, a variety of project documents, and field notes. The qualitative software program, Ethnograph Version 5.0, was used to analyze data using the constant comparative method. The principal investigator served as a participant observer. The challenges to collaboration within and across the three settings of the MYO Place project were consistent with Sarason’s (1972) theory, but differences in findings across the three teams were greater than similarities as a result of national cultural distinctions between Bulgaria and the United States. When comparing the Bulgaria and Tennessee teams, the similarities in challenges included the reality of professional role differences, lack of time, the reluctance to establish norms to deal with inevitable conflict, and the lack of resources. In terms of differences, the unique struggles experience by the Tennessee team included a lack of consensus on values and goals, deficiencies in conceptual understanding, and the challenge of achieving shared leadership and ownership. For the Bulgaria team, their distinctive challenges to collaboration included dependence on their partner, meeting the expectations of a foreign partner, and the language barrier. The challenges to collaboration for the combined team were time, distance, language, and primarily the differences in culture. The most significant findings of this research were the challenges to collaboration created by the cultural differences. This study concludes with recommendations for further research and implications for educators engaged in creating collaborative partnerships. This research supports prior knowledge of the difficulty of creating collaboration within new settings and the multiplied complexity when partnerships involve different national cultures.

With increasing pressures to improve student performance, schools are in need of ways to positively affect student achievement that they can control. The concept of organizational health, which includes academic emphasis, teacher affiliation, collegial leadership, resource influence, and institutional integrity, offers educators an opportunity to gauge the climate of their building and in turn positively affect academic outcomes. Using Hoy and Tarter’s (1997) concept of organizational health in elementary schools as a conceptual framework, this study undertook a mixed method approach to examining the relationship between organizational health and student achievement gains in elementary schools. The Organizational Health Inventory-Elementary Version, a 37 item four-point Likert survey, was given to a sample of 25 elementary schools from a southeastern metropolitan school district. The results of the survey were analyzed with value-added student achievement gains using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Quantitative analysis revealed inverse relationships between organizational health, the subcategory academic emphasis, and student achievement gains. A direct relationship was found between organizational health and institutional integrity. Interviews and observations were performed at four of the schools, which were selected through purposeful sampling. These schools were selected based on their survey results and value-added achievement scores. Data from the interviews and observations were analyzed according to Merriam’s (1998) constant comparative method. Qualitative data served to verify and expand upon the quantitative findings.