States

Relationships Between Student Alienation in the Secondary School and Student Attitudes Toward Selected Factors in the School Environment: An Exploratory Correlational Study (open access)

Relationships Between Student Alienation in the Secondary School and Student Attitudes Toward Selected Factors in the School Environment: An Exploratory Correlational Study

The problem of this study was to identify relationships which might exist between variables measuring alienation feelings in high school students and variables measuring attitudes exhibited by those students toward the school environment. Mackey's Adolescent Alienation Scale was used to obtain student scores on three dimensions of alienation—Personal Incapacity, Cultural Estrangement, and Guidelessness. The Minnesota School Attitude Survey (MSAS) was used to obtain scores on attitudes toward factors in the school environment: School Curriculum, Self at School, Others at School, Support Received at School, Pressure at School, and Personal Development at School. Pearson Product moment correlations were computed for each dimension of alienation and the attitude clusters. Correlations were computed for each of nine statistical subgroups which comprised the sample group of 294 students— ninth-, tenth-, eleventh-, and twelfth-grade subgroups, male and female subgroups, and Anglo, Black, and Hispanic subgroups. Students in the population for the study were enrolled in a traditionally-organized, comprehensive curriculum, racially-integrated urban high school in a large-city public school district. Findings revealed that the single most influential environmental factor related to student alienation in this study was a feeling of pressure in the school setting. Pressure was related directly both to feelings of Personal Incapacity and …
Date: May 1986
Creator: MacQuigg, Georganna
System: The UNT Digital Library
Management Stress: A Correlational Study of Pragmatic Factors Relating to Educational Administrators (open access)

Management Stress: A Correlational Study of Pragmatic Factors Relating to Educational Administrators

This study provided administrators in a large southern metropolitan public school district an opportunity to participate in a stress-related research study. The questionnaire contained such stress-related probe areas as spiritual beliefs, preferred and imposed (perceived) orders of major-life emphasis areas, professional environment, personal-social environment, and probes into the ethical positions held by the administrators. The professional environment section contained subsets of internal (on-the-job) probes, external (political) probes, as well as personal (incentive) probes.The personal-social environment section was sub-divided into five Maslow hierarchy-of-need related probes such as physiological needs, safety-security needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-fulfillment needs. The final section of the instrument sampled the administrators' responses to probes concerning their concepts of God, their concepts of the Bible arid their positions on eight ethical statements.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Lawson, Lewis
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study to Determine the Competencies Needed by Superintendents in the Area of Public Relations (open access)

A Study to Determine the Competencies Needed by Superintendents in the Area of Public Relations

The problem of this study was to determine specific competencies associated with the superintendent's role in public relations and to determine the relationship between school district size and public relations competencies needed by the superintendent. Conclusions of the study were Public relations competencies for superintendents can be identified in seven competency areas with specific competencies within each area. The seventy-seven specific public relations competencies identified in this study are all needed by practicing superintendents. There is a priority of importance among the seventy seven specific competencies with the competency area of "Relations With the Board of Education" receiving top priority and the competency area of "Personality Traits" receiving second priority. Superintendents from differing size school districts generally do not vary in their perceptions of the competency areas. Differences do exist between perceptions of superintendents of different size schools to specific competencies within competency areas.
Date: May 1980
Creator: Daves, Drennon
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Development of an Instrument for Assessing State High School Interscholastic Activities Associations (open access)

The Development of an Instrument for Assessing State High School Interscholastic Activities Associations

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable assessment instrument. This instrument is to be used by school administrators to assess the organizational structure and administrative effectiveness of state high school interscholastic activities associations. This study proceeded through four phases. The first phase was for developing criteria items and included a review of the literature. The second phase was for the purpose of item validation and consisted of submitting a questionnaire to an advisory panel of five persons. The third phase of the study was for the purpose of validation by content validity. The questionnaire was submitted to a randomly selected group of state interscholastic activities associations' directors and presidents of the state superintendents associations and the state high school principals associations. In the fourth phase of the study the reliability of the instrument was established through a questionnaire survey using a similar population as the validity survey.
Date: August 1983
Creator: Thedford, Joe
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Relationship Between Tax Relief Implementation and Public School Finance in the State of Texas (open access)

The Relationship Between Tax Relief Implementation and Public School Finance in the State of Texas

The problem of this study is to determine whether or not Texas public schools lost revenue when constitutionally mandated tax relief measures were implemented. The study also traces the evolution of tax relief legislation in Texas from 1969 to 1980. Superintendents from randomly selected school districts identified educational program adjustments required if revenues were reduced. Superintendents also identified educational and property tax issues of concern to district constituents.
Date: May 1982
Creator: Johnson, Scherry F. (Scherry Faye)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Differences in School Districts' Decision-Making Processes Before and After Tax Limitation Elections: A Case Study (open access)

Differences in School Districts' Decision-Making Processes Before and After Tax Limitation Elections: A Case Study

Using a case study approach, this investigation focused on the decision-making processes involved in developing budgets in two Texas school districts following a tax limitation, or rollback, election. Factors influencing the decision-making processes included the rollback election's outcome in each district, the participants, the perceptions participants held of themselves, the perceptions participants held of others in the district and community, the decisions made, and the factors influencing participants' decisions. Two Texas school districts were selected as subjects of this study which used qualitative data collection methods. In one school district, the rollback election passed. In the other, it failed. Data collection included observations of school board meetings and budget workshops. Structured interviews of school board members and administrators, pro- and antirollback proponents, and newspaper editors were conducted. Questions focused on the budgetary decision-making processes before and after the rollback elections. They also solicited information fromsubjects regarding rollback elections, the factors precipitating the rollback elections and the impact of the rollback election campaign upon each school district. Document analyses were triangulated with the observations and interviews to identify the factors influencing the budgetary decision-making process. Following the rollback elections, school officials in both districts adopted a conservative approach to budgetary decision-making. …
Date: May 1990
Creator: Travis, Rosemary Fechner
System: The UNT Digital Library