This non-experimental study examines the relationship between teachers' perceptions of their principals' use of transformational leadership styles and teachers' commitments and turnover intentions. The convenience sample consisted of participants from elementary teachers in Texas public school districts, as well as teachers from the researcher's…

Quality leadership in a school district is critical to school improvement (Dunlap, Li, & Kladifko, 2015; Kersten, 2009; Leithwood, Seashore, Anderson, & Wahlstom, 2004). School leaders must be capable of providing vision, focus, and support to their staff, in order to facilitate a positive working culture, and achieve sustainable academic…

The School Improvement Division of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) identifies, monitors, and supports low-performing schools. To identify low-performing schools, TEA assigns annual academic accountability ratings to its districts and schools, but these ratings are provided only once per year and are vulnerable to disruptions in the assessment…

The School Improvement Division of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) identifies, monitors, and supports low-performing schools. To identify low-performing schools, TEA assigns annual academic accountability ratings to its districts and schools, but these ratings are provided only once per year and are vulnerable to disruptions in the assessment…

Accountability policies in education play a significant role for the principals tasked with facilitating the implementation of these reforms at the school-level. While these policies are most often intended to improve student outcomes, this is not always the case. In some instances, these policies can prove detrimental to schools, yet principals…

The impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas is estimated. It was found that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically…

Substantial teacher turnover poses a challenge to staffing public schools with effective teachers. The scope of the teacher retention challenge across school districts, however, remains poorly defined. Applying consistent data practices and analytical techniques to administrative data sets from 16 urban districts, we document substantial…

This quantitative correlational study examined administrator and faculty perspectives regarding factors that may have contributed to the development of community college baccalaureate degrees in Texas. It was hypothesized that factors such as student need, workforce need, college relations, and college mission were linearly and positively…

Purpose: Purpose of this research was to investigate utilization of labor productivity standards and variables that affect productivity in Texas school foodservice operations. Methods: A questionnaire was developed, validated, and pilot tested, then mailed to 200 randomly selected Texas school foodservice directors. Descriptive statistics for…

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the degree to which teachers' age, perceptions of fair pay, receipt of employer-sponsored health insurance, and administrative support, as operationalized by the Competing Values Framework, predicted antecedents of turnover. Teachers' thoughts of leaving their current job and commitment to a center…

To stay competitive in the knowledge-based global economy, businesses in the United States need access to employees with bachelor's degrees. However, there is a growing gap between employers' demand and the supply of baccalaureate graduates from four-year colleges and universities. To expand access to bachelor's degrees, legislators in 18 states…

Child welfare systems throughout the United States are being closely scrutinized as sensational cases appear in the media in nearly every state. At the federal level, with the Child and Family Service Review process, the government is documenting that states across the country are not conforming to federal child welfare requirements (DHHS, 2007)…