Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'District administration'

This study examines the organizational structures and decision-making processes used by school districts to recruit and hire school librarians. For students to acquire the information and technology literacy education they need, school libraries must be staffed with qualified individuals who can fulfill the librarian’s role as leader, teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. Principals are typically given decision rights for hiring staff, including school librarians. Research shows that principals have limited knowledge of the skills and abilities of the school librarian or the specific needs and functions of the library program. Research also indicates that those with specific knowledge of school library programs, namely school district library supervisors, are only consulted on recruiting and hiring about half the time. School districts entrust library supervisors with responsibilities such as professional development of school librarians only after they are hired.

This study uses a theoretical lens from research on IT governance, which focuses on the use of knowledge-fit in applying decision rights in an organization. This framework is appropriate because of its incorporation of a specialist with a specific knowledge set in determining the placement of input and decision rights in the decision-making processes. The method used in this research was a multiple-case study design using five school districts as cases, varying by the involvement of the supervisors and other individuals in the hiring process. The data collected from each school district were interviews about the district’s recruiting and hiring practices with principals, an individual in HR, library supervisors, and recently hired school librarians. Data analysis was conducted through iterative coding from themes in the research questions, with continuous adjustments as new themes developed.

Results from the study indicate that governance framework is applicable to evaluating the decision-making processes used in recruiting and hiring school librarians. However, a district’s use of governance did not consistently use knowledge-fit in the determination of input and decision rights. In the hiring process, governance was more likely to be based on placing decision rights at a certain level of the district hierarchy rather than the location of specific knowledge, most often resulting in site-based governance for decision rights at the school-building level. The governance of the recruiting process was most affected by the shortage or surplus of candidates available to the district to fill positions. Districts struggling with a shortage of candidates typically placed governance for the decision-making process on recruiting at the district level, giving the library supervisor more opportunity for input and collaboration with human resources. In districts that use site-based governance and that place all input and decision rights at the building level, some principals use their autonomy to eliminate the school library position in the allotment phase or hire librarians that, while certified through testing, do not have the same level of expertise as those who achieve certification through LIS programs. The principals in districts who use site-based governance for decision rights but call on the library supervisor for advisement stated how valuable they found the supervisor’s expertise in evaluating candidates for hire. In no district was a principal or school required to involve the library supervisor in the hiring of school librarians. With a better understanding of the tasks involved, the effect of district governance on decision-making, and the use of knowledge to assign input and decision rights, it is possible to look at how all of these factors affect the outcome in the quality of the hire. A next step is to look at the hiring process that school librarians went through and connect those with the measurable outcomes of hiring: school librarian success, retention, and attrition; the quality of school library program services, outreach, and involvement in a school; and the perceptions of the success of the school librarian and the library program as seen from students, teachers, administrators, parents, and other community stakeholders.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine considerations that a sample of parents identified as influential when deciding to open enroll their children into a specific Wisconsin school district. Under Wisconsin Act 27, parents have the right to choose their children's public school through so-called open enrollment. This act also provides for state funding of public schools based in part on student enrollment. If a public school district's student enrollment increases, state funding increases. In recent years the district in this study experienced significant net loss in student enrollment and funding. As a result, programming, salaries, curriculum, facilities, and more were adversely affected. A survey was administered to a convenience sample of 64 families out of a target population of 117. Results indicated school culture and relationships were reportedly primary influences on parents' decisions to open enroll into the study district. Additionally, quality of academics was reported as an influential consideration. Stakeholders may incorporate these considerations when planning marketing and public relations strategies. Findings from this study may provide stakeholders with ways to attract and maintain students in the study district, and may also assist policymakers.

Cairo School District has a chronic truancy rate that far exceeds the State of Illinois’ average. The purpose of the study was to understand the reasons for truancy at Cairo School District. Through data review and semi-structured interviews, the researcher was able understand recent graduates attitudes and perceptions regarding school attendance. Based on the finding of this research study, implications for practice emerged, and will provide the foundation to establish the necessary structures to improve educational and social emotional practices to improve student attendance.

Abstract of Dissertation Principal Socialization in One Virginia School District: A Phenomenological Investigation This phenomenological investigation examines the lived experiences of school principals to discover how principals hired from within their school division perceive and make meaning of their organizational socialization experiences—their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, and assumptive worlds. Nineteen public school principals participated in the study. All of the principals worked within the same school district, a school district that historically hires 99% of its school principals from within the division. Principals in the study not only served as assistant principals within the division, but they also served in other roles such as teacher, specialist, and coordinator, thus experiencing spiral socialization.

The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews lasting 90 minutes over a 3-month period. Moustakas' (1994) phenomenological research model was used to analyze data, allowing the researcher to examine what and how the phenomenon was experienced by each participant. Additionally, it allowed the researcher to uncover essential themes and describe the total essence of the phenomenon.

Results revealed two themes that emerged from the analysis about how principals who were hired from within their school division perceive and make meaning of their organizational socialization experience: (a) A Sense of Family and Familiarity and (b) A Sense of Preparation and Continuous Training. The essence of the experience presented a summary of the participants' stories. Being hired to the principalship within their school division presented feelings of being connected, groomed, and supported. For the 19 principals in this study, principal socialization begins with leaders who are ready, willing, and able to build relationships and pour into those who desire to lead and those in whom they recognize leadership potential.

While most socialization research seeks to offer recommendations, this study provides possibilities for awareness regarding the organizational socialization of school principals. This awareness may prove beneficial to organizations that prepare school administrators and school divisions as they consider recruiting, hiring, retaining, and training school principals for an ever changing, demanding role.

The dissertation, "Perceptions Of The Leadership Practices Of Principals In A High Performing School District," explores the understandings of leadership practices from the perspective of parents, teachers, and principals in one high performing school district. The study addressed the leadership practices deemed important by the stakeholder groups, the external factors that influence the leadership practices, and the amount of time the practices require. The study revealed that the three stakeholder groups agree on six specific practices as being very important to school leadership in the district. In addition, external factors focused on relationships between stakeholder groups were found to have impact on the leadership practices. The principals also perceived three specific practices as taking much time and attention.

The state of Missouri has recently adopted new standards for educators. This study examines the perceptions of teachers in one Midwest school district relative to the current teacher evaluation system used in the district as well as a new model of teacher evaluation connected to Missouri's educator standards. To fully understand the perspective of the teachers, this study incorporates a mixed-methods approach which provides a variety of quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. Using survey data and focus group interview data, this study revealed that teachers perceive limitations associated with the current, more traditional evaluation process. Teachers also understand benefits to the new Missouri model, but also have reservations about its impending implementation. This study provides a number of implications for the district as it moves forward with changing its teacher evaluation process.

The history of public education in America is a history of school district mergers. Population growth and improvements in transportation and communication brought isolated communities together. Financial pressures and promises of economies of scale overcame reluctance to merger. In more recent times, federal and state legislation has provided impetus for school district consolidation. The merger that formed Twin Rivers Unified School District delivers a current view of the complexity of merging school districts. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to examine the merger that formed Twin Rivers Unified School District (Twin Rivers). The passage of Measure B in November 2007 formed Twin Rivers by joining three elementary districts and one high school district in Northern Sacramento County California. This qualitative multiple-case study was designed to explore what worked well and what detracted from the merger process. Six board members and seven district office administrators participated in semi-structured interviews designed to examine the merger that formed Twin Rivers. The study participants all served from the election or before the establishment of the district on July 1, 2008. The findings from the study indicate a need for a review of California laws related to school district mergers, personnel, and finance. The findings also indicate a need for those involved in school district mergers to be aware of possible pitfalls and resistance.

Humanitarian aid, while useful in the short run, sometimes has the effect of contributing to poverty and poor economic conditions in the long run. This occurs when recipients of relief aid lose their initiative to fend for themselves and become reliant on external aid. The purpose of this mixed method study was to evaluate the degree to which dependency on long term aid has contributed to chronic poverty in the Moroto district of Uganda. This study was grounded on Harvey & Lind’s conceptualization of the dependency syndrome. The research questions addressed the relationship between household production and investment pattern with number of year as aid beneficiary, while exploring the beneficiaries’ perceptions on the roles of relief aid in their livelihood. Survey data were acquired from 75 participants from five sampled villages in Moroto District; qualitative data were acquired from the same villages involving five focus group discussions with 15 key informants per village. Quantitative data were analyzed using multivariate regression analysis and resulted in a finding of a statistically significant negative relationship between household production and investment with number of years spent as aid beneficiary. Qualitative data were inductively coded, and then organized around key themes. These findings suggest that many rural Ugandans believe that if aid were to cease, they would either migrate to an area where aid was available, or die of starvation. Implications for positive social change are connected to a recommendation to organizations offering humanitarian aid to package relief aid with other programs that support the recipients’ resilience building capacity in order to save lives and reduce chronic poverty that is common in disaster-prone areas around the world.

In this autoethnography, I examine the challenges I faced as a private-to-public-sector novice CFO entering a resource-constrained 41-thousand-student K-12 urban school district in Colorado. This study chronicles how I deliberately slowed down my interactions within a complex adaptive system (CAS) through ethnographic interviewing to identify the relationships, processes, and tools; and create the conditions necessary to align and optimize resources at the district level to improve student outcomes. There is scant research on how a new K-12 education CFO transitions from a traditional budget-manager approach toward one that promotes inquiry and cost-effectiveness.

Unlike CFOs in the private sector, oftentimes I was estranged from strategic and capital-allocation decisions, particularly around instruction. I lacked the time, skilled staff, and resources to perform fundamental cost-benefit analyses.

I had come to work in a school system after obtaining an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and working in Wall Street for 20 years. Having no experience working in the public sector more generally or education more specifically, I came with a particular mindset and approach not altogether suited for this environment. Consequently, my transition to this new milieu was quite chaotic. I intentionally embraced entry planning as a way to make sense of a CAS that oftentimes defied comprehensive analysis.

I learned, slowly, that successful entry required intellectual rigor and emotional sensitivity. I repeatedly found that interventions based on adaptive change that fundamentally shifts how works gets done increased employees’ anxiety. I assumed the roles of researcher, learner, and knower in evolving an induction approach that recognized entry never stopped because the CAS never rested.

I explore entry through three case studies. The first of these pertains to my participation in Teachers’ Master Agreement Negotiations; the second centers on my engagement with Nutrition Services, a low-status but high-value allocator of resources; and the third analyzes how I merged the roles of CFO and educator to increase my district’s understanding of municipal-bond finance in preparation for a general-obligation bond offering.

Keywords: CFO entry; entry planning; complex adaptive systems; teachers’ negotiations; nutrition services; school finance