The purpose of this study was to review the historical origins and chronology of the student assessment movement in the United States and to describe and analyze the development of Virginia's higher education student assessment policy within that movement. "Student assessment," the process of determining whether or not students have met educational goals set by their programs of study, institutions of higher education, or the state is a relatively new event in Virginia. Major participants involved in the passage and implementation of Virginia's policy were identified from historical documents and interviewed based on their specific areas of knowledge.;From the interviews and document analysis it was found that the historical origins for Virginia's student assessment policy were synonymous with the history of accrediting agencies. A second possible origin for student assessment was the response to periods of expansion and curriculum development that occurred from 1918-1928 and again from 1952-1983.;The recent push for student assessment was spurred in the mid-1980's by the release of several national studies on the condition of the curriculum, instruction, and student achievement in higher education in the United States. These reports caused the states to question the credibility of regional accrediting agencies as a means of ensuring educational quality. as a result, at least two-thirds of the states have instituted some form of student assessment legislation since 1984.;The state of Virginia's student assessment policy began in 1985 with the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 125 which called on the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to investigate means by which student achievement could be measured to assure the citizens of Virginia of the continuing high quality of higher education in the state. The study was conducted and presented to the 1986 General Assembly of Virginia as Senate Document No. 14 and was accepted in Senate Joint Resolution 83. This resolution requested the state-supported institutions of higher education to establish student assessment programs in consultation with SCHEV. In 1989, Senate Bill 534 amended The Code of Virginia giving SCHEV formal authority to oversee student assessment activities.;After completing the case study, the study was compared for fit with six models of policy formulation (elite, rational, incremental, group, systems, and institutional) as proposed by Thomas Dye in his 1972 book, Understanding Public Policy. It was found that the systems model was the best fit of the six models. However, since vestiges of the other models existed within Virginia's student assessment policy formulation process the study proposed a revised systems model that included each of Dye's six models.

Articulation was the topic of some educational leaders within Virginia over twenty years ago. More recently, however, the Commonwealth developed statewide articulation.;The procedure used in this research to present the findings of this study involved an examination of various documents. Some of these documents were produced by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the State Board of Education, Minutes of State Council meetings, as well as Minutes of Board of Education meetings. Interviews were another source of data. Interviews were obtained from persons involved in educational articulation in the Commonwealth. A few of the persons interviewed included a former Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, a former Secretary of Education for Virginia, a former State Superintendent for Public Instruction, college presidents and many other individuals involved in educational articulation between 1966 and 1990.;In order to conduct this research in a scholarly way, the years covered, 1966 through 1990, were examined in a systematic way. The entire span of years was broken down into five time periods. Then each period was examined by searching the three educational segments--the secondary school, the community college and the senior college. Within each agency, the key persons involved in articulation, if any, were noted together with any significant influence of the agency. If articulation policy was developed, it was noted also. at the end of each period under discussion, the key forces which were found to influence educational articulation during that time were summarized. However, the period between 1988 and 1990 was discussed first to give insight as to where articulation is now in the Commonwealth.;The Commonwealth made tremendous strides between 1988 to 1990. During this time, statewide articulation policy was developed in the form of Dual Enrollment Agreement.;Many of the public secondary schools have developed articulation agreements with community colleges, and some four-year institutions have articulation agreements with community colleges. Many factors can influence the development of articulation policy. Yet, articulation policy can be developed between educational agencies; however, it requires the support of educational leaders and the actual work of faculty. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).

The major purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between the perceptions of self-efficacy of a school's teachers, the job satisfaction of a school's teachers, the academic achievement of a school's students, and a school's socioeconomic status.;The theoretical base for this study centers around the work of Bandura (1982, 1995) in the area of teacher self efficacy. Additionally, Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman's (1959) Motivation/Hygiene Theory and Maslow's (1968) Motivation Theory provide the theoretical base for the area of teacher job satisfaction.;Teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction data were collected through teacher completion of paper/pencil questionnaires. Student academic achievement was measured using schools' scores on the May 2000 5th grade Virginia Standards of Learning assessments in the areas of math, science, social studies, and English (reading/literature/writing). A school's socioeconomic status was measured by the number of students receiving free or reduced lunch. Data on student academic success on the 5th grade Standards of Learning tests and the schools' socioeconomic status were gathered from the Director of Research and Planning of the targeted county and from the Virginia Department of Education's website. Analysis was made by computing correlation coefficients using the Pearson r, computing several t-tests, and by comparing the means of the subscales on the Teacher Job Satisfaction.;The relationships between teacher efficacy and all other variables were found to be not significant, and there was not a significant difference between at-risk and non at-risk schools in the area of teacher efficacy. Student achievement and socioeconomic status were significantly related. A curvilinear relationship was observed between teacher job satisfaction and socioeconomic status with the subscales of "supervision" and "pay" accounting for this relationship. Further, at-risk and non at-risk schools differed significantly in the area of job satisfaction.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine if race is an influencing factor in the way women school administrators described themselves or in the way they perceived an effective administrator. The researcher examined the effects of race on sex-role identity and examined the relationship between sex-role identity and perceptions of an effective administrator in terms of sex-role characteristics among black and white women school administrators.;Method. A sample of 105 black and 129 white female school administrators from eight urban school divisions was selected to complete the Bem Sex Role Inventory either for themselves or for an effective administrator. Half of the administrators in each racial group were asked to describe themselves and half were asked to describe an effective administrator. Results from a 76 percent mail return were subjected to analysis. It was hypothesized that self-perceptions of female administrators are influenced by race as are their perceptions of an effective administrator.;Results. Results of analysis of variance showed that black and white women administrators' perceptions of self are not significantly different, though black women tended to score higher on the masculinity scale. Both black and white women described the effective administrator as unlike themselves in terms of feminine traits. In terms of masculine traits white women administrators described an effective administrator unlike the way they described themselves, though there was no difference between self-scores and effective-administrator scores for black women administrators. as hypothesized, results of cross tabulation analysis indicated a significant relationship between race and sex-role with proportionately more black than white women administrators classified as androgynous, and proportionately more white than black women classified as feminine. Results indicated that black and white women administrators overwhelmingly perceive an effective administrator as masculine. When controlling for age, there was a greater percentage of both black and white women administrators classified as androgynous in the under 50 age group as opposed to 50 and over, with no significant relationship found between sex-role and race in either age group. A discriminant analysis showed that a number of items in the Bem Inventory were effective in determining the race of the individual who completed the instrument. Implications for future research were discussed.

Research has documented a plethora of evidence that children's perceptions of their relationships with caregivers, specifically teachers, impacts learning outcomes, including academic engagement and achievement (Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Owens & Johnson, in press; Stipek, 2002; Wentzel, 1997), identification with school (anderman, 2003; Bonich, 2007; Goodenow, 1993; McGannon, 2003; Meloro, 2006; Mitchell, 2004;) and academic press (Bonich, 2007; Lee & Smith, 1999; Middleton & Midgley, 2002). Yet the research base from the student perspective on the pertinent elements that influence meaningful relationships between students and teachers, namely trust, is largely missing.;The purpose of this study was to examine the construct of student trust in teachers and its relationship to student identification with school, student perceptions of academic press, and achievement in math and reading in an urban elementary school district. An additional aim of this reserach was to add to the research base on trust in schools from the student perspective.;In this study of 4,700 ethnically and economically diverse students in 35 urban elementary schools, a number of significant relationships were found between student trust in teachers, identification with school, student perceptions of academic press, and achievement. Although all independent variables indicated a moderate and significant correlation with achievement in both reading and math, the strongest relationship was between student trust in teachers and achievement.

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge of United States Supreme Court decisions affecting education possessed by public school teachers, principals, superintendents, and board members; to determine if significant differences existed among these groups in their knowledge of Supreme Court decisions affecting education; and to determine if significant differences existed within each group depending on years of experience in education and level of education. Five hundred randomly selected subjects from the public school systems in Tennessee were asked to indicate their knowledge of Supreme Court decisions affecting education by completing the survey instrument, Supreme Court Decisions Impacting on Education. This instrument measured respondents' knowledge of Supreme Court decisions in five areas: (1) student rights; (2) employee rights; (3) church-state relationships; (4) race, language, and sex discrimination; and (5) school finance and organization. A total of 241 (48.2%) usable responses were returned. The data revealed that there was a general lack of knowledge of Supreme Court decisions affecting education. Significant differences were found to exist among the four groups in all areas except that of race, language, and sex discrimination. Superintendents scored significantly higher than teachers and board members in knowledge of Supreme Court decisions in the area of student rights. Superintendents and principals scored significantly higher than teachers in the area of employee rights. Superintendents scored significantly higher than all other groups in the area of church-state relationships. In the area of school finance and organization, superintendents and principals scored significantly higher than teachers. On overall knowledge of Supreme Court decisions affecting education, superintendents and principals scored significantly higher than teachers and board members. Years of experience in education was not found to be a significant factor within any of the four groups. Level of education was found to be a significant factor among superintendents. Superintendents with either a doctoral degree or a Master's degree plus additional coursework scored significantly higher than those with a Master's degree or an Education Specialist degree. Level of education was not found to be a significant factor within any other group.

The purpose of this study was the description of the instructional supervisory role in the state of Tennessee as perceived by county public school instructional supervisors. The description constituted a determination of differences which exist between the actual and ideal role perceptions of county instructional supervisors. The determination was thought to be essential for movement toward role congruency, enhancement of instructional supervisory behavior, and the heightening of teacher-student engagement opportunities.

The problem of the study was to measure how much students from other countries were satisfied with American education. The purposes of the study were to ascertain the extent to which international students perceived American education as satisfying their educational goals; to determine if any relationship existed between their perceptions of American education before and during their actual experiences with it; and to compare the perceptions of American education by students from one continent to those of other continents. A questionnaire which contained Part A and B was used in collecting the data. The contents of Part A included initial steps, communication, students' educational goals, orientation and the students' reactions toward their orientation and communication. Part B was concerned with textbooks, use of the library, classroom activities, public relations and international students' opinions concerning American education. Questionnaires were mailed to a random sample of 280 international students who were enrolled at regional universities in Tennessee during the Winter/Spring session of 1982. The students came from five continents. Completed questionnaires were received from 154 students, and this represents 55 percent return on the sample. When the data were analyzed, the results were as follows: Of those who participated in the study, 71 percent communicated with officials of their respective institutions before they entered the United States for an education which was a major goal for 93 percent. Forty-four percent were satisfied with their orientation, an 60 percent were satisfied with information they received about American education. Seventy-seven percent found American education to be what they wanted, and 83 percent were satisfied. American education would enable 83 percent of the participants to achieve their educational goals of being employed in their countries, and their employment would relate to what they studied in the United States according to 79 percent. Comments made by the participants were analyzed separately to show their positive and negative opinions about American education. Some of the negative comments were: high cost of tuition fee, non-disclosure of full information about the university and community at the time they were applying for admission, isolating foreign students by Americans, poorly organized orientation, discrimination and unfriendly attitudes by some American students. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI

The primary purposes of this study were three-fold. First, the reputational methodology for studying community power structures was to be enhanced with computer assisted data analysis techniques to produce a tool that educational leaders could use in the quest for understanding the community power structure. Second, the method was to be altered to produce a tool for assessing the degree to which groups of educators understand the power structure. Third, the methodology was to be applied to a selected community in order to produce a model of the power structure that could be used to gauge the effectiveness of the methodology. The findings based on the data generated from the interviews with the influential people (influentials) revealed that the power structure in the selected community closely resembled the type that Kimbrough called "segmented pluralistic." No distinct power groups were revealed. The influentials apparently formed temporary alliances based on the issues. A ruling faction that always worked together to control decisions in the community did not emerge from the study. Educators ranked seven persons in the top ten identified by the influentials; however, educators tended to overlook the behind-the-scenes people identified by the influentials themselves. Educators agreed with influentials on the top two community issues; however, they tended to rank educational issues much higher than did the influentials. Strong agreement between the two groups was evident with regard to the influential organizations in the community. The variables used to characterize the influentials appeared to yield a distinct model of the community power structure. The methods used seem to be suitable for comparing the perceptions of educators with those of the influentials. Cluster analysis proved to be a useful technique for exploring relationships between variables and for discovering clusters in communication networks.

The problem of this study was to determine whether principals' perceptions of their superintendents' leadership ability were affected by selected demographic variables. This study followed the ex-post facto design. Twelve dimensions of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, Form 12 (LBDQ-XII) were selected to assess the perceptions of principals of the leadership behavior of superintendents in Tennessee. Four hundred principals were randomly selected to participate in this study. One hundred sixty-one principals responded and the findings reflect their responses. The unpaired t-test and Analysis of Variance were applied to the data for Hypotheses 1 through 15. The statistical analysis was intended to determine significant differences in the ratings by principals of the leadership behavior of superintendents in Tennessee. The differences showing significance in the study warranted the following conclusions. (1) Male principals rate the leadership behavior of their superintendents higher than female principals when assessing twelve dimensions of leadership behavior. (2) Black and white principals perceive a difference in the leadership behavior of their superintendents when assessing twelve dimensions of leadership behavior. (3) Principals from city and county school systems do perceive a difference in the leadership behavior of their superintendents when assessing twelve dimensions of leadership behavior. (4) Principals with an elected or appointed superintendent perceive a difference in the leadership behavior of their superintendents when assessing twelve dimensions of leadership behavior. (5) Principals with different last dates of attendance of graduate school do perceive a difference in the leadership behavior of their superintendents when assessing twelve dimensions of leadership behavior.