By 2014, Indiana public schools are required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Public Law 221, the state's K-12 comprehensive accountability system, to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) by assuring that all students achieve proficiency in mathematics and language arts, demonstrate high attendance and graduation rates, and under the direction of a broad-based school/community steering committee submit an improvement plan to the Indiana Department of Education and a state-approved accrediting agency. According to various school improvement models, the school/community steering committee should include all stakeholder groups: administrators, licensed and non-instructional staff, parents, community members, and when appropriate students. However, non-instruction staff members are many times excluded or under-represented in the school's efforts to improve.
This descriptive study was conducted to investigate the extent to which non-instructional public school employees are included in school improvement efforts. A survey was emailed to randomly selected public elementary, middle, and high school principals in Indiana. The researcher sought to understand the degree to which non-instructional staff participate in school improvement groups and activities, the tasks assigned and completed by non-instructional staff that participate, factors that limit participation in school improvement activities, and principals' perceptions regarding the value added by non-instructional staff to school improvement efforts.
Responses from the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The researcher found few studies in the current literature that investigated the role non-instructional staff play in school improvement. The findings from this study were discussed and used to establish new understanding in the area of stakeholder involvement, specifically with non-instructional employees, in the school improvement process. Recommendations were made to administrators and school improvement teams for ways to include non-instructional staff in efforts to achieve the school's goals as well as a recommendation for additional research in this area. / Department of Educational Leadership
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:123456789/193270 |
| Date | 24 July 2010 |
| Creators | Fredericks, Jeanne |
| Contributors | Sharp, William L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
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