The results indicate that in Flanders secondary schools of different denomination and of different school type (based on their curriculum offerings) differ with respect to several characteristics. With respect to the educational framework, learning environment and learning climate differences between schools are small and differences are more…

This study was concerned with the relationship between school enrollment and elementary student academic achievement in a large urban school district. The Stanford 9 NCE (Normal Curve Equivalent) reading, math, language, science, and social science achievement scores for fifth-grade students in K-5 schools with enrollments of less than 200,…

The proportion of variance in student achievement that is explained by student SES--"poverty's power rating," as some call it--tends to be lower among smaller schools than among larger schools. Smaller schools, many claim, are able to somehow disrupt the seemingly axiomatic association between SES and student achievement. Using…

The present study surveyed high school personnel regarding high school start times, factors influencing school start times, and decision making around school schedules. Surveys were analyzed from 345 secondary schools selected at random from the National Center for Educational Statistics database. Factors affecting reported start times included…

Young children's learning--and how their learning is distributed by social background--may be influenced by the structural and organizational properties of their school. This study focuses on one important structural dimension of these educational contexts: "size." This study differs from extant studies linking size to student outcomes in four…

Using longitudinal data from a cohort of middle school students from a large school district, we estimate separate "value-added" teacher effects for two subscales of a mathematics assessment under a variety of statistical models varying in form and degree of control for student background characteristics. We find that the variation in…

In order to examine effective behaviors and efficacy, this study examined the relationships between the self-reflection of effective practices by principals and teachers, as assessed by self-efficacy scales, and student achievement, as evaluated by the state assessment program. Other studies determined that effective behaviors preceded and…

As a result of the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, school systems are required to provide a free and appropriate education for all children with disabilities. This legislation was further supported by The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), which guarantees all students with…

This descriptive analysis updates an earlier study of California's Title I school districts in program improvement (July 2008 "Characteristics of California School Districts in Program Improvement. Issues & Answers"), which was based on performance data for 2005/06, with another year of data. By 2006/07 more school districts were in…

This qualitative case study sought to understand the experiences of a group of parents residing in the Novato Unified School District, Marin County, CA., as they engaged in the process of deciding where to send their children to school as the students matriculated from eighth to ninth grade, or middle school to high school. The four major…

This study examined the extent to which Texas school boards of education made efforts to locally modify student speech policy. Using online policy manuals provided by the Texas Association of School Boards, speech policies for 91 school districts were gathered using a purposive stratified sampling procedure and examined for local modifications to…

Recent national reports reinforce the growing perception that small schools are good schools. This may seem a revolution or the latest fad in schooling; however, issues of size cannot be captured in universal guidelines. This digest discusses the history of school size dilemmas to demonstrate why this is so. The earliest research literature on…

Educational administration has been shaped by the metaphor of organization. From organizational and management theory, and from economics, the parent of organizational theory, educational administration has borrowed definitions of quality, productivity, and efficiency; strategies to achieve them; and theories of human nature and motivation.…

This handbook examines the relationship between school buildings and educational performance. Following the introductory chapter, chapter 2 presents findings from empirical studies that have examined the building/performance issue. Research has demonstrated that the physical setting has both direct and mediated effects on prosocial and achievement…

The small schools literature began with the large-scale quantitative studies of the late 1980s and early 1990s that firmly established small schools as more productive and effective than large ones. These studies confirmed various benefits of small schools--higher academic achievement, increased student satisfaction, and fewer dropouts and…