Browsing by Subject "schools"
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Item A case study of the perceptions of current and former school board members of a recently annexed, rural, impoverished, South Texas, Latino school district in a high stakes accountability system(2009-05-15) Rodriguez, Claudia G.This research study was a qualitative study involving eight current or former school board members of a recently annexed, rural, impoverished, Latino school district in South Texas. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to highlight the plight of rural education, specifically the plight of a poor school district by examining the perceptions of the school board members. This study was organized around the following sensitizing concerns (Blumer, 1969; Patton, 2002; Schwandt, 2001): What were the school board members? perceptions about the school district prior to the annexation? What were the school board members? perceptions of the factors that contributed to the annexation? What were the school board members? perceptions of the effect of the annexation on the community? The method of inquiry was conversational information interviews (Patton, 2002), two unstructured interviews with each school board member, going where the interviews took me (Fontana & Frey, 2005). The themes revealed in the research included (1) power dynamics, with three sub-themes, (a) trusting those in power, (b) deferring to those in power, and (c) becoming those in power; (2) denial of the obvious, and (3) unspoken paternalism?the Anglo patron system. This study offers implications for policy, practice, and additional research in the areas of rural communities and rural school districts, but most importantly, it provides evidence that rural colonias located along the U.S.-Mexico border have unique educational needs. Rural school districts located along this border need strong school leaders with ?a critical leadership of place that support community as a context for learning, understand that schools and their local communities are inextricably linked and that the ability of each to thrive is dependent upon the other? (Budge, 2006, p.8).Item Applying the modified quadriform to measure efficiency in Texas public schools(Texas A&M University, 2007-04-25) Stevens, Chad AaronThe purpose of this study was to identify school districts in the state of Texas that would be considered efficient based on the modified quadriform model, and to identify alterable school characteristics most associated with those efficient schools. The researcher used data from the 2003-2004 Texas Academic Excellence Indicator System in this analysis. Texas school districts that had low expenditures with high student output were classified as efficient. There were two stages to the modified quadriform analysis. In stage one the relationship between input and output was evaluated by two separate linear regressions. The input regression modeled total per pupil expenditure for the district regressed against unalterable school characteristics such as total district enrollment, percentage of economically disadvantaged students, percentage of special education students, percentage of minority students, and local tax base value per pupil. In the output regression six different measures of student outcomes were regressed against the same unalterable characteristics. The measures of student achievement used were the percentage of all students passing the math and reading Texas Assessments of Knowledge and Skills, graduation completion rate, percentage of students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the ACT Test, and the mean scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and/or ACT Test. Once the efficient school districts were identified using the positive and negative residuals from the regressions, a discriminant analysis was conducted to determine what alterable characteristics had the most significant relationship with the different student outcome measures. Just over 32% of Texas School Districts would be considered efficient in this model, and the number of students per teacher has a significant relationship with the output measures of mean SAT and ACT scores, district completion rate, and Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores in both math and reading. The data also showed that the percentage of expenditures at central administration was least associated with mean Scholastic Aptitude Test and ACT scores along with district completion rate. This study was intended to be a descriptive ??????bird??????s eye?????? view of efficiency in the Texas system, the researcher believes that this initial study will be a catalyst for more focused research using this production function method of measuring efficiency, and that one day it may lead to an operational definition of efficiency in the Texas system.Item Teachers' perceptions of their experiences with including students with special needs in the general education classroom setting throughout public and private schools in Texas(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Finegan, Jane ElizabethThe purpose of this study was to identify teacher perceptions about educating students with special needs in the general education setting, to examine relationships between teacher perceptions and years of teaching experience, grade level, and type of institution in which the teachers were employed, and to identify beliefs about the critical issues involved in implementing inclusion. A total of 1341 general and career and technology educators in grade levels PreKindergarten through grade 12 were surveyed regarding (a) the extent of previous training received in working with students with disabilities and perceived needs for additional training, (b) the frequency of communication between special and general education teachers, (c) the perceived helpfulness of suggestions given to general educators by special educators, (d) teacher participation in IEP team meetings and parent involvement in such meetings, (e) the provision of related services, and (f) teacher perceptions of their personal experiences with including students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Semistructured interviews were conducted with an additional 25 teachers selected from the entire sample as well. Results indicated that teachers in Texas public schools generally favor traditional special education service delivery models over full inclusive practices. However, results also indicated that teachers perceive additional training, support from special education personnel and administrators, teacher communication and collaboration, and access to related services are necessary in order to meet the needs of their students with disabilities in the general education setting.