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The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between high school teacher job satisfaction, using an instrument that measures Herzberg's Two Factor Theory and principal support, using an adapted instrument from House's theory of administrative support. Data were collected by a team of researchers from 34 self-selected public Virginia high schools and consisted of 1276 teacher participants. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to find the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and principal support. The results showed no significant relationship between principal support and high school teacher job satisfaction. This may be explained in part by the weakness of the Professional Job Satisfaction Survey (PJSS). The data on the Principal Support Scale (PSS) revealed two distinct factors of principal support that related back to House's original theory of administrative support (DiPaola, in press). A significant positive correlation was found between the expressive and instrumental dimensions of principal support (r = .796, p < .01). A significant negative correlation was found between job satisfiers and job dissatisfiers (r = -.421, p < .05). Based on these findings future researchers should continue to explore this topic with a more reliable measurement of job satisfaction. Future researchers should continue to explore the relevance of Herzberg's two factor theory in education and examine the effect of external forces on both job satisfaction and principal support. Continued use of the PSS for measuring principal support in relationships with other school social variables is also strongly supported by this study.

Educators are compelled by federal and state legislation to investigate multiple aspects of the school organization to address factors that may increase student achievement. This study addressed this issue by investigating organizational health and school safety in urban elementary schools and their relationships to student achievement. The study explored elementary school teachers' perceptions regarding organizational health and school safety. These data were correlated to student achievement on the Virginia Standards of Learning Tests in English and mathematics for fifth grade.;The Organizational Health Inventory (OHI) for elementary schools was used to survey teachers' perceptions of institutional integrity, collegial leadership, resource influence, teacher affiliation, and academic emphasis in 24 urban elementary schools in Virginia. The School Safety Survey (SSS) gathered data on teachers' perceptions of school safety. The fifth grade Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in the areas of English and mathematics were the measurement tools for student achievement. This study compared the overall health indices and the subscale scores of organizational health to school safety, achievement in English, and achievement in mathematics. It further investigated the relationship between school safety and achievement in English as well as achievement in mathematics.;The study showed that there was a strong positive relationship between organizational health and safety, organizational health and student achievement in both English and mathematics, and school safety and student achievement in both English and mathematics. Regression analysis of the subscales of organizational health revealed that academic emphasis had a strong independent effect on student achievement in English and mathematics. Correlation and regression analysis with regard to organizational health and safety indicated that organizational health had an independent effect on English, but not mathematics.

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Over the years, school violence has gained attention due to an increase of aggressive behaviors and actions within school systems across the United States. As a result, it has prompted school districts to develop plans that address school violence efficiently to promote safe school environments. There is gap in current literature as it pertains to addressing school violence in the middle school setting. The purpose of this study was to explore the views of teachers and administrators concerning effective ways to implement proactive prevention strategies to attain better approaches to preventing school violence. This case study methodology were framed by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory to determine the association between school violence, students, parents, teachers, administrators, and other middle school staff members. Data were collected through 8 individual, structured, participant interviews with the use of an audio recorder. The resulting data were hand coded to create themes. The results of this study indicated that the middle school administration is failing to administer adequate and proper training to address school violence for their teachers, which has become a major concern. The study findings also indicated that the collaboration of teachers and administrators presented some issues when addressing and managing school violence occurrences. The results of this study could influence positive social change by supplying modernized information concerning the preventions of school violence from the outlook of middle school teachers and administrators.

The relationship between a college and its founding church changed as the college developed its liberal arts programs and leaders sought to create an independent new culture from the church. Using Clark's organizational saga framework, the purpose of this study was to assess the effects of culture change on this institution. The research questions examined strategies that leaders used to transition the campus to its new reality. A formative, qualitative, process-oriented evaluation was used to collect interview data from 22 institutional leaders and other key stakeholders; data were also collected from institutional documents. The data were then coded and analyzed and themes were developed that led to reported outcomes. The results indicated that the institutional identity of the institution is still in transition and cannot be fully defined until the new culture is firmly established. The results also indicated the importance of strong institutional leadership that is prepared to include stakeholders in implementing and sustaining change. Stakeholders provided the following recommendations to solidify the culture change and the identity: maintain community, receive consistent communication, apply institutional dialogue in decision making, continue momentum and maintain balance, and engage the external community. Social benefits from the study include the students themselves, who benefit from an improved institutional culture that leads to better opportunities for educational engagement. These opportunities increase knowledge retention and produce more productive members of society who better influence societal change after graduation. The results of the study are being reported to campus leadership for their use in the continuing development of campus culture.

Students at 3 elementary schools in the southern region of the United States struggled with or failed to meet grade-level expectations in reading comprehension. School district leaders had little understanding regarding the perceptions of educators, care givers, and community supporters on the strategies to increase reading comprehension. To address that gap, the purpose of this study was to explore participants' perceptions regarding reading strategies and comprehension instruction practices in the local setting. The conceptual framework was based on the elements of Fisher's and Frey's work: (a) effective teaching in reading strategies, (b) reading instructional comprehension practices, (c) effective caregiver involvement, and (d) strong community partnerships. The guiding questions examined reading instructional practices that the educator, caregivers, and other stakeholders perceived as the building blocks for supportive collaboration to improve reading comprehension. Using a narrative design, data were collected from 12 educators, 8 caregivers, and 2 community supporters via face-to-face surveys (26 questions) and personal interviews. The data were analyzed using open coding and iterative categorization to identify emerging patterns and themes. The findings suggested a need for improved training and openly communicative collaborative practices between all stakeholders. The implication for social change is that improved collaboration in reading comprehension instruction between educator, caregiver, and community supporter will help improve reading comprehension skills and will position the educator to better instruct struggling learners.

Web-based education is an important method of instruction across multiple higher education contexts due to its convenience, accessibility, and flexibility. A local college faces demand for online teaching that exceeds the availability of willing faculty. This study investigated instructors' perceptions of online teaching versus traditional classroom instruction to ascertain whether there were systematic differences between online teaching and face-to-face classroom instruction. Transformational learning theory was the conceptual foundation of this study. The study's guiding questions were designed to determine how faculty regarded their experiences teaching online classes and the reasons for their opinions, as well as what limitations faculty thought online education possessed. The qualitative, descriptive study investigated faculty attitudes and beliefs about distance education. The program director sent out 10 emails recruiting voluntary participants; six responded, met criteria, and participated. Criteria included at least 3 years of online teaching experience, where at least 1 class took place using an online format, over the course of 2 semesters. Data collected were coded and analyzed for emerging themes. Findings indicated that participants think distance education is beneficial; however, classroom instruction has strengths online teaching does not. To address the findings, a workshop series aimed at educating stakeholders about distance education was designed and developed. The implementation of the workshop series has the potential to change educators' attitudes and teaching practices at the local college to the benefit of all stakeholders. Further, this study has the potential to inform change at other colleges facing similar challenges. In addition, future studies should explore differences in student satisfaction levels between online education and traditional courses, if any.

In the target district, instructional rounds (IR), were implemented to reform district-wide educational practices to increase student problem-solving skills over time. This evaluative case study investigated the perceived efficacy of IRs as a model to address student problem-solving. Specifically, the study examined the influences, if any, that the IR process has had on problem-solving, academics, and pedagogy since implementation. The study was framed by Bandura's social learning theory as it states that behavior is learned from one's environment through the process of observation. Qualitative data were collected from 86 stakeholders through a district-wide questionnaire, semi-structured interviews with 8 administrators, and a review of IR feedback notes and fundamental instructional practices. Data were analyzed and open coded to identify common themes and assess if there was perceived efficacy of the IR process. Findings showed that participants perceived the implementation of IRs as effective in improving academic, social, and pedagogical processes throughout the district. Participants shared the opinion that IR improved critical thinking among students, though there was no formal measure for this. A white paper was generated to inform the district of these changes, with recommendations for improvement in instructional rounds implementation. The project will promote social change by improving the teaching and learning process for students, teachers, and administrators at the target district. Based on what was reported about IR, continuing to improve the IR process can bring improvements to the teaching and learning process which will support stronger problem- solving, collaboration, and critical thinking among students.

The primary purpose of the study was to determine whether there was a significant relationship among perceptions of university supervisors, cooperating teachers, student teachers, and building principals regarding characteristics required to become an effective university supervisor of student teachers.In order to examine the research questions, data were collected from each of the four population groups with a questionnaire consisting of twenty-three supervisory characteristics. Twenty-three null hypotheses were tested by using the Chi square test of independence. The .05 level of significance was established as the critical probability level for the rejection of hypotheses.Findings1. There was a statistically significant difference among university supervisors, cooperating teachers, student teachers, and building principals in their perceptions regarding nineteen of the supervisory characteristics.2. There was no significant difference among university supervisors, cooperating teachers, student teachers, and building principals in their perceptions regarding four of the supervisory characteristics.3. The average number of years teaching experience was 18.4 for university supervisors, 13.5 for cooperating teachers, and 17.6 for building principals.4. The average number of years of supervising student teachers was 9.9 for university supervisors, 5.2 for cooperating teachers, and 8.1 for building principals.5. There were 46.4 percent of university supervisors, 7.8 percent of cooperating teachers, and 22.2 percent of building principals who possessed supervisory training.6. Reflecting a positive professional attitude and a real liking and respect for teaching are the most important characteristics needed by university supervisors.7. There was an observable difference in the perceptions of practitioners regarding characteristics required to be an effective university supervisor of student teachers, when compared to reports in related literature.Conclusions1. Subjects tend to agree in their perceptions regarding the importance of personal qualities and professional skills.2. Subjects tend not to agree in their perceptions regarding the importance of managerial skills and general qualities.3. Cooperating teachers tend to have fewer years of teaching experience.4. Cooperating teachers have considerably less supervisory experience.5. A high percentage of the subjects was not properly trained in student teaching supervision.