The problem of this study was to determine if educationally, politically, and economically viable alternatives to the single salary schedule for teachers exist in the eight largest school districts in Texas. After a review of the literature, a questionnaire was developed designed to obtain views of superintendents, school board members, randomly selected principals, teachers, and PTA members in the eight school districts on these issues: whether a multi-factor teacher salary schedule should be developed; which factors should be included in such a system; what amount of monetary compensation should be awarded for each factor; and if teacher job performance is a factor, what criteria should be used to evaluate teachers and who would conduct the evaluations. Analyses of the data were conducted according to the following demographic variables: school district; position, sex, and ethnicity of the respondents; whether the respondents owned homes in the school districts; and whether the respondents had children enrolled in the district schools. The results were presented for the respondents as a whole and according to the various demographic variables.

This study was concerned with the comparative relationship of attendance to grade point average. The first of five purposes was to determine if there was a relationship between adequate attendance and grade point average. The second and third purposes concerned the relationship between attendance and grade point average among students from different localities. The fourth and fifth purposes were to determine if there was a relationship between attendance and grade point average among students of different sex.

This study sought to review the due process appeal cases that came before the Texas State Commissioner of Education from 1970 to 1975 in order to determine the impact of the decision upon school districts' management and operation. Five purposes directed this study and are as follows: (a) to review the cases appealed to the State Commissioner from 1970 to 1975, (b) to develop a cross reference for cataloging these decisions, (c) to develop a handbook on reference materials for local administrative use, (d) to outline a special procedure for orderly due process, and (e) to determine the impact of these decisions rendered to concerning local school district policy. These five purposes were attained through a research design combining historical research methodology with survey research methodology. In conclusion, negligible impact was observed on school districts as a result of due process appeal cases. No school board changed policy as a result of the commissioner's decision. In summary, the five purposes were met. Attaining these five purposes produced the following, which are contained in the report: (a) a Cross-reference Matrix for cataloging decisions, (b) an Administrative Due Process Handbook containing case briefs, (c) a procedure for orderly due process, and (d) …

This study compares present policies and procedures for selection of school board members in districts of The Council of Great City Schools with those advocated by board members, professional educators, and representatives of lay organizations. To determine present selection policies for school board members, a questionnaire was sent to the business manager of each participating district. Replies were received from twenty-one of the districts and presented in tables including number and percentage of respondents for each item. To determine opinions of board members, professional educators, and members of lay organizations, a thirty-five-item questionnaire was mailed to 190 board members, 22 school superintendents, 19 college professors, 19 PTA representatives, 22 NAACP representatives, and 11 chamber of commerce representatives. After a return of 200 usable questionnaires, data were presented in separate tables including number of respondents and percentage of respondents. Using the contingency coefficient technique for statistical analysis, null hypotheses were formulated to test relationships between the opinion of respondent groups and selection policies and procedures actually in use. The chi square test was applied to test the relationships, with the .05 level of significance as the criterion. Results were tabulated collectively. Tabulated results indicate that board members should be elected at …

It has been just over twenty years since the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision was handed down by the Supreme Court. During this period, educators, and in particular, school administrators have found themselves in a unique position between two masters—the public that supports public education through taxes, and the orders of the courts they are legally required to follow. Therefore, school administrators, functioning as social engineers, have devised various practices to provide a smooth transition from segregated to desegregated school systems. This study was designed to determine the practices used by selected school districts to cope with this change and to determine the effectiveness of these practices as perceived by central-staff administrators. Selected large city school districts with enrollments of 30,000 students and above, located in the six southern states under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, were selected for this study. These districts, of which there were thirty-four, also had to be under a federal court desegregation order to be included. The survey data reveal that the most effective desegregation practice for students is the provision of alternative schools and programs to assist students unable to cope with the regular school environment. …

The problem of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the cooperative agreement section of Senate Bill 8 and its impact on the student teaching program in Texas. The purposes of the study are (1) to analyze the data available from the Texas Education Agency concerning the cooperatively developed in-service improvement program for supervising teachers, (2) to survey the public school personnel charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing section three of Senate Bill 8 in order to determine the effectiveness of this bill, and (3) to interview college personnel who are involved in developing and implementing section three of Senate Bill 8.

The problem of this study was to determine competencies which are necessary for effective administration by secondary school principals. The sources of data included a review of the literature and supplemental materials. The survey technique, employing a jury-validated questionnaire, was used to collect the perceptions of superintendents, principals, teachers, and college professors in the State of Texas. A total of 316 educators responded to the questionnaire. The development and findings of this study are presented in five chapters. Chapter I presents an introduction to the study. In Chapter II, a survey of the literature is reported. Chapter III contains details of the procedures employed in collecting data for the study. Chapter IV presents the data gathered through the use of the questionnaire. Chapter V presents the summary, findings, conclusions, and recommendations resulting from the study. The study identified eight general areas of competency for secondary school principals. Those competency areas were (1) organization and administration, (2) curriculum design and improvement, (3) the instructional process, (4) business and financial management, (5) student management, (6) personnel management, (7) facilities, equipment, and supplies, and (8) communications. A total of ninety-five competencies was identified from the literature and from communications with college professors and …

The problem of this study is to determine if school climate perceptions are stable among the departmental subgroups of the high school. In addition, the study seeks to determine if the subject area of the department or patterns of leadership behavior of the department head (as perceived by teachers in the department) have a significant relationship to how teachers within a department perceive the climate of their school.

The problem of this study is to determine the extent to which the Texas Education Agency and selected school districts have implemented the legislative provisions of House Bill 467, enacted by the Sixty-First Texas Legislature. No hypothesis is advanced. The purpose of the study is twofold: first, it describes the sequential development of the crime prevention and drug education program by the Texas Education Agency as mandated through House Bill 467; and second, it determines the current status of the crime prevention and drug education program in selected school districts through the use of a semi-structured personal interview with the individual assigned primary responsibility for coordination of the program in each of the nineteen school districts included in the study. It is the further purpose of this study to determine principal and teacher perceptions toward twenty-two factors related to drug abuse among students. This was accomplished through the use of a perception survey mailed to a random sample of 1,184 teachers and all 149 principals within the nineteen school districts participating in the study. This procedure resulted in the return of usable surveys by 804 teachers and 119 principals.

The problem of this study was to describe inservice education programs for members of local boards of trustees and to assess the knowledge and attitude toward inservice of participating and non-participating board members. The major purposes of this study were to describe training programs carried on in selected school districts, and to assess and compare the knowledge and attitudes toward inservice education of board members who do and do not participate in those training programs. The project involved the identification of skill areas necessary for board members, the development of instruments to measure knowledge and attitudes toward inservice, the selection of boards of trustees from six school districts for an experimental and a control group, the description of inservice education programs in operation in districts comprising the experimental group, and the assessment of knowledge and attitudes of members of the experimental and control groups.

The problem with which this study is concerned was that of developing an understanding of teacher attitudes toward collective bargaining. The investigation was initiated so that members of school boards, administrators, and those associated with professional organizations could have the needed knowledge to permit them to deal realistically with employer-employee relations. There were two purposes for conducting this study. First, an effort was made to determine the specific attitudes these teachers possess toward collective bargaining. The second purpose was to analyze the teachers' background characteristics to determine whether classifications such as sex, academic degree, experience, assignment level, professional memberships, or age have an impact on these attitudes.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of developing a scale for rating a public school superintendent in Texas in terms of his adherence to selected characteristics of administrative leadership. A secondary problem is to verify the hypothesis that very few schools in Texas, if any, use a rating scale to evaluate the performance of the superintendent. The purpose of this study will be to identify a set of administrative leadership characteristics which are accepted by members of Boards of Trustees, professors of educational leadership, and superintendents.

The problem of this study was to determine legal, moral, and social responsibilities and practices of the Texas public school system in dealing with religion. The purposes of the study were (1) to determine the impact of state and federal judicial decisions on religious practices in schools, (2) to review the historical background for trends of religious practices in the public schools of Texas, (3) to determine the social and professional influence on religious practices in public schools, and (4) to survey current religious practices from a select sample of public schools in Texas to determine if schools were basically sectarian. The following conclusions are inferred: I. It is not the intention of the Supreme Court of the United States to deny the existence of a Supreme Being, but rather its intention is to assure each individual freedom from any form of an established religion. 2. School policies do not delineate the role of religion in public school, 3. Through careful planning, progress could be made in developing policies for a study of religion which will complement, not supplement, the religious teachings of the home and of the church. 4. There are many opportunities for public schools to provide religious …

The purpose of this study was three-fold: 1. To determine the amount and direction of changes in sources of funding for the Regional Education Service Centers from 1979 to 1984. 2. To determine the percent of change in programming expenditures of the Regional Education Service Centers from 1979 to 1984. 3. To rate the changes in quality of programming as perceived by the superintendents of the local school districts receiving services from 1979 to 1984. A review of the literature and a brief history of the Regional Education Service Centers of Texas were followed by tabular and narrative descriptions of the findings. Deflated data, to account for inflation, were derived by applying Bureau of Labor statistics formulas to dollar amounts supplied by the Regional Education Service Centers. Each of the five Education Service Centers included in the study experienced a decrease in total funds, due chiefly to a cut in federal and state support. Although local contributions increased in four out of five of the Regions during the five-year period, the net result to the Centers was a decrease in funding ranging from 23.2 percent to 51.8 percent. The impact on programming was severe. Of the nine major services on …

The primary purpose of the study was to determine if the funding and revenue conditions which existed prior to the passage of the Tax Relief Amendment of 1978 continued after the enactment of public school finance legislation by the Sixty-Sixth and Sixty-Seventh Texas Legislatures. Analyses of four research questions were used to accomplish the purpose of the study.

The problem of this study was to analyze the utilization of teacher competency testing in the eleven states that originally enacted legislation requiring teacher competency testing. A questionnaire was developed, validated, pretested, and finally submitted to state and local superintendents in eleven states. Thirty-three questionnaires were returned representing 75 percent of the questionnaires mailed. Responses were reported in percentage tables. An analysis of variance program was conducted on all data to determine whether the perceptions of the state and local superintendents were significantly different on each question. An analysis of the findings of this study led to the following conclusions. 1. The benefits of teacher testing to state agencies, schools of education, school districts, and society outweigh the disadvantages of increased budgets and larger educational bureaucracies and the possibility of teacher shortages. 2. Teacher competency testing procedures are used primarily for entrance to and graduation from teacher education programs and for certification purposes. 3. Characteristics of a comprehensive teacher competency testing program include a written assessment of acquired knowledge, procedures for evaluating an applicant during student teaching, a probationary period prior to permanent certification, additional training or assistance for teachers, and provisions for retaking of failed examinations. 4. Evidence indicates …

The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Texas House Bill 72 on equalization of finances in the public school districts of Texas. House Bill 72 is a finance reform bill which was passed by the Texas Legislature during the Summer of 1984. This study involves basically three steps. First, current criteria for equity as defined by school finance "experts" and recent definitive court decisions were determined. Second, financial data from the Texas Education Agency were statistically analyzed for the 1984-1985 school year. Third, the statistical analysis was used to determine if the current Texas school finance plan meets the current criteria for equity. The population used in the study was 1,068 school districts. Based on the findings of this study the following conclusions were drawn. 1. The use of a per capita flat grant by the Texas Public School Finance System contributes to the unequalizing of financial resources available to school districts. 2. School districts with greater property index values are required to exercise very little effort toward the support of their public schools. 3. School districts with high property index values tend to have lower effective tax rates and high per-pupil expenditures. 4. School …

The problem of this study was to assess and compare selected student and environmental variables in seven open-area elementary schools carefully matched with seven traditionally-constructed elementary schools on eight different criteria. The hypotheses were formulated to carry out the following four purposes of the study: 1. To determine the differences between the achievement test scores in reading, language, and mathematics of students attending open-area elementary schools and scores of similar students attending traditionally-constructed elementary schools, as measured by the California Achievement Test and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills administered in grades one, two, and three. 2. To determine if there was greater individualization of instruction in open-area elementary schools as measured by the Individualization of Instruction Inventory. 3. To determine if students attending open-area elementary schools evidenced a greater number of positive actions toward school, as indicated by attendance, number of acts of vandalism, and number of suspensions from school shown in official records of the school district.

The purpose of this study was to compare per pupil receipts for operation in most school districts in Texas based on the changes in State funding provided for by three major finance bills and to analyze the effects of federal monies provided by Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to determine the degree of equity in the State's school finance structure. The population consisted of 973 public school districts reporting all data for 1974-75, 1976-77, and 1977-78. The districts were grouped into ten wealth deciles based on School Tax Assessment Practices Board assessed property value per student in average daily attendance. A weighted mean value for each decile for each category and year of funding was computed. Correlation coefficients were computed to provide an index of relationship between the categories of dollars available per pupil for operations. Coefficients of variation were determined to express the magnitude of variation relative to the average value for each additive category for each decile.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the procedures and methods elementary school principals in Texas utilized to implement the state-supported kindergarten program. A questionnaire was developed and content validity established by five authorities in the field of early childhood education. The questionnaire was forwarded to 100 randomly selected elementary school principals in Texas, and 94 percent returned the completed form. This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to describe the most frequently used procedures to implement the state-supported kindergarten program. The second is to identify those procedures used that are not educationally beneficial to young children to assist in statewide planning.

Interest in this study was evoked by concern over the small percentage of women employed as school administrators. Despite recent legislation, this situation has not changed markedly. This study was needed to determine the current status, attitudes, and concerns of women certified as administrators in Texas with those of the superintendents of Texas public school districts? and to compare the differences of the two concerning this situation. It was concluded that not only did a larger percentage of the women prefer to be employed as elementary school administrators, but also the superintendents felt they would be more likely to be employed at that level. It was further concluded that a majority of the superintendents were likely to give women substantial consideration for employment as elementary school administrators, but were unlikely to hire them as chief administrators of their secondary schools. Many of the women also perceived that Texas school districts are still "in effect" participating in sexually discriminatory hiring practices whether or not the superintendents are aware of the situation. The attitudes of the women and the superintendents very clearly differed concerning opportunities available for female administrators in Texas.

The findings of this investigation support the following conclusions. 1. The review of published research reports yielded conflicting conclusions as to the value of using minicalculators in teaching mathematics to students. 2. The use of minicalculators does not improve a student's mathematical achievement as measured by the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. 3. The use of minicalculators does not improve a student's attitude as measured by the Likert-Tye Attitude Scale. 4. The use of minicalculators does not improve a student's self-esteem as measured by the Self-Esteem Inventory. 5. There is no significant difference in attitude, selfesteem or mathematical achievement between boys and girls in the area of mathematics.

The purposes of this study were to identify factors commonly used in teacher merit pay plans, to compare perceptions of administrators and teachers concerning these factors, and to determine the elements that should be used in a teacher merit pay plan. A review of the literature was conducted to identify factors commonly used in teacher merit pay plans. A questionnaire was utilized to gather data pertaining to the perceptions of administrators and teachers concerning these factors.

The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the effect upon the arithmetic computation, concepts, and application skills of pupils when the regular instructional program in arithmetic at the fifth- and seventh-grade levels was supplemented with the Cyclo-Teacher (2) programmed materials; 2) to determine the effect upon the arithmetic computation, concepts, and application skills of pupils when the regular instructional program in arithmetic at the fifth- and seventh-grade levels was supplemented with the Mental Computation (6) materials.