This dissertation examined the differences in school board activities between high-achieving and low-achieving districts across urban, suburban, and rural settings in Pennsylvania. The focus was on understanding the disparities in official behaviors contributing to academic outcomes. This study addressed a critical gap in educational governance…

Public school board elections have become cultural battlegrounds as groups with opposing views on education, politics, religion, and social and cultural issues vie to shape public education, their communities, and the nation. To date, little research has examined White Christian nationalism as a political force shaping these elections. This paper…

The purpose of this sequential exploratory mixed-method study was to discover the factors that lead to a school board hiring a non-traditional superintendent qualified through a Commission Qualification Letter over a superintendent qualified through a traditional Letter of Eligibility in Pennsylvania. The researcher used surveys and interviews to…

This phenomenological study provides insight into the experiences of public-school board directors as they experience, cognitively process, and respond to religious-based reasoning during deliberations on controversial issues while serving in their elected role at school board meetings. Understanding how elected public-school district directors…

Rural school districts, educating just over 25% of all public school students across the country, play an important role in the nation's educational landscape. At the heart of the success of rural school districts are the superintendents who run these rural and often small districts. Superintendents of rural schools throughout the United States,…

A Pennsylvania high school newspaper published an editorial in Fall 2013 announcing its decision to cease using the name of the school's sports teams, Redskins. That decision prompted the local school board to institute a policy giving administrators more editorial control over the newspaper. The controversy resonated with U.S. professional…

The purpose of this study was to examine rulings of Pennsylvania hearing officers in cases that addressed procedural denials of a FAPE and provide recommendations to school districts. In order to develop recommendations, an examination of the 50 most recent due process cases occurred. The study examined the procedural regulation mentioned in the…

Often considered harmonious places, rural communities are in reality spaces often fragmented along class lines, with political factions promoting competing values and interests regarding the purpose of schooling. Using an exemplar case, this study affords us a new interpretation of rural school-community relations in times of conflict. It…

This article examines the legal and political significance of teacher unionization in rural and suburban school districts between 1960 and 1975. While most historians focus on the growth of unions in urban areas, strikes in outlying districts played a determinative role in the development of public sector labor law, particularly in the arbitration…

The state of Pennsylvania comprises 500 school districts. Each district is required to have a superintendent of schools. Now, more than ever, the work portfolio of U.S. school superintendents is increasingly diverse. In an occupation enjoying very little security, having fewer benefits than similar jobs in the private sector, and facing increased…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the typical terms and conditions of employment in 2012-2013 negotiated agreements in Pennsylvania school districts, and to determine if there was a relationship between enrollment size and 5 selected terms and conditions of employment: base salary; highest salary; teacher contribution for one…

Social capital refers to the nature of ties within a social unit, as well as the unit's external relationships. We draw from organizational sociology and political science, and also build upon existing insights in school board research, to offer an approach that address the effects of "bonding" (internal ties) and "bridging"…

As the United States has struggled to answer the question of what education for the 21st century must look like, most states have now responded by signing onto the Common Core Standards. Drawn from lessons learned from a generation of standards-based education and research on what high-performing countries do to enable young people to prosper, it…

The purpose of this article was to present the results of a study that analyzed Pennsylvania local school boards' taxing authority, pre- and post-enactment of Special Session Act 1, "The Taxpayer Relief Act," in 2006, in terms of its percent share of school districts' total budget in order to better understand the impact of the new…

Charter school boards enter into a critical bargain: autonomy for accountability. Compared with their traditional district counterparts, they operate with relative freedom in curriculum, hiring, budgeting, and other operational decisions. In exchange, they are held accountable for student performance in ways that traditional district schools are…