The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the mandatory in-service training in Tennessee for all local board of education members. The primary focus of this study was to determine if the board members' or superintendents' responses about the training agencies, content, or applicability of any Academy indicated any continuing (long-term) impact on the actions of board members when they returned to their local boards of education. The secondary concern of this study was to determine if the responses were significantly differentiated between the positions of board member and superintendent or among the demographic characteristics defined in the study. All 959 board of education members and 136 superintendents of schools were mailed a questionnaire to return anonymously to evaluate the legislatively mandated School Board Training Academies conducted over the past 4 years. Six research questions were answered and 23 null hypotheses were tested at the.05 level of significance. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-Sample Test or the Chi-Square Comparison was used to analyze the comparison between board members' and superintendents' scores or among the demographic strata. All nine Academies were compared according to each of the nine demographic characteristics. The average demographic characteristics of Tennessee board members are very similar to the average demographic characteristics of board members in the nation as a whole. There are significant differences among board members' evaluation scores stratified by six of the demographic characteristics. There were only two demographic characteristics for which there were any significant rating differences among superintendents. The Academies were rated positively for their effectiveness and their continuance was recommended. Specific improvements, expansion, and enhancement of the process were suggested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-4347 |
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| Creators | Payne, John D. |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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