Education Commons^™

Secondary School Principals' Perceptions Of The Value And Impact Of High-Stakes Tests On Content And Mode Of Instruction, Clifford Davis Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Critics of government policies that expand the use of high-stakes tests in public schools claim that these tests have a negative impact on student learning. At the building level, these policies have resulted in a great deal of pressure for educators to raise student performance on these tests.

The purpose of this study was to explore secondary school principals' perceptions of the value and impact of state-mandated tests on content and mode of instruction. The entire population of 541 middle and high school principals from public schools in Tennessee was selected to participate in this study.

Secondary school principals reported …

Instructional Leadership And Academic Performance In Tennessee High Schools, Denise Minton Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

During this era of high academic accountability, principals are expected to be learning leaders and to orchestrate their schools' academic improvement. Despite these high expectations, few studies have linked principal instructional leadership behavior with student academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences in instructional leadership behavior existed between principals of high-achieving, high-performing, low-achieving, and low-performing schools.

The population of this study was public high school principals in Tennessee. Two hundred seventy-six (276) principals whose schools' State of Tennessee Report Cards contained three years of academic achievement and academic performance data were surveyed using the Principal …

Administrators' Perceptions Of Corporal Punishment In Hamilton County Elementary Schools, Kathryn Hunt Hawkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Corporal punishment is probably one of the single most controversial and enduring issues in American education. Though more and more states continue to outlaw the practice, it still continues in certain regions of the country, primarily in the South is used most frequently in the elementary grades and used on black males more than on any other students.

Some teachers believe corporal punishment is the only deterrent in an overcrowded, chaotic classroom. Studies show, however, that the use of corporal punishment in the school has steadily declined.

Opponents of corporal punishment have linked the term to child abuse. Such means …

A Case Study Of Successful Small School Reform: The Construction Academy As A Fundamentally Different Enterprise, Alison E. Buehler

Doctoral Dissertations

In order to move successful school restructuring from the margins of educational dialogue to the center of the debate requires a detailed investigation into how these school reforms are created and sustained within the larger, current and historical educational context. This qualitative case study sought to understand how the small schools movement of school reform, as it was realized at the East Ridge Construction Academy, was able to overcome historical school reform barriers by engaging in systems thinking and forming and maintaining true learning organizations. This study was also designed to examine how remaining inside an existing system, rather than …