In May of 2002, Wichita Falls ISD, a district in Texas with a stagnate enrollment of 14,000 students for multiple years, asked for the community to support a $120 million bond to help cover the cost of four new elementary campuses and to maintain and upgrade aging facilities. The bond failed. Additionally, a 2004 bond failed again. Finally, in 2006, the district is finally able to pass a $60 million bond and only includes two new elementary campuses and no funding to address the aging facilities. At the same time, other districts in fast growing areas of Texas are able to pass school bonds with little to no issues. This begs the question, is there a formula for getting school bonds passed? The purpose of this study is to discover what key factors influence a bond package; to help find those answers, eight districts in Texas were selected, five considered to be a fast-growth district" and three considered to be no-growth district. The study used a qualitative research approach, using semi-structured interviews with 24 participants. After all factors were analyzed, a pattern and recommendation is developed for districts to follow allowing a high degree of success for school bonds.

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine which dimensions, as represented by the Professional Learning Community Assessment – Revised dimensions, are present in the environment of North Texas elementary schools and their impact on student growth. A survey design was utilized in which elementary principals and teachers in a selected school district completed the Professional Learning Community – Revised survey developed by Hipp and Huffman (2009), to gather perceptions of PLC implementation within their school environments as well as reflect strengths and needs regarding each dimension. The results of the survey were analyzed and one-to-one interviews were completed to clarify and support survey results. Bivariate and multiple regression analysis were used to determine correlations between dimensions present in a school’s environment and their impact on student growth. The study found a statistically significant relationship between the dimensions of shared values and vision and shared personal practice and math growth. Although PLCA-R dimensions were not found to be statistically significant in predicting reading and math growth, the effect sizes were notable at 22.4% for reading growth and 15.8% for math growth. This study’s findings provide important information which educators can use to implement practical application of Professional Learning …

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the opinions of chief executive officers (CEOs) and school board chairs of Texas private schools in educational service center (ESC) Regions 10 and 11 toward board training and the potential benefits for the success of their respective roles. Literature regarding private school board training is limited. As a result, most private school boards face challenges regarding school board training expectations, which could affect their roles and the roles of CEOs. The quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional research design examined Texas private school CEOs’ and school board chairs’ perceptions about school board training and the working relationships between Texas school CEOs and school boards. The researcher developed the survey and interview questions used in this study. Responses to a 4-point Likert-type scale instrument, short answer questions, and interviews were solicited from a population of private school CEO and school board chairs within ESC Regions 10 and 11 from schools with an enrollment of at least 100 students and that contained Grades 9 through 12. In-depth Interviews were conducted with 12 private school CEOs and 12 school board chairs with varying levels of school board training. The research findings indicate that board training does make …

Passed in 1985, the Texas Education Code (TEC) §38.003, Screening and Treatment of Dyslexia and Related Disorders, required public school districts and charters to identify and provide remediation services for students with dyslexia. While Texas was the first state to pass such a requirement, the question remains: What is the prevalence and proportionality of dyslexia in Texas public school districts and charters? In Phase 1 of this study, a secondary analysis using point prevalence and disproportionality calculations was conducted to analyze the impact of this more than 30-year-old law. In order to better help understand these findings, semi-structured interviews with district leaders were conducted in Phase 2 to gain insight on how students were identified with dyslexia across the state. The results of Phase 1 showed the estimated prevalence of dyslexia in Texas public school districts and charters to be low in comparison to the literature. Additionally, the findings suggested a discrepancy in identifications between gender and district type (public school versus charter) and across racial and ethnic groups. Meanwhile, the results of Phase 2 revealed that leadership, support, funding, and accountability impact dyslexia identifications. This study emphasizes the need to further explore and analyze how to best identify and …

This study examined student academic optimism in four diverse North Texas school districts. This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to analyze results of an online administration of the survey, and Latinx student responses to a focus group protocol derived from the survey. Quantitative results indicate the individual scales making up the construct align with previous research results. The three scales were found to be strongly and significantly correlated, indicating the potential for validation. Qualitative results indicate Latinx students' perceptions of their academic careers align with four themes. Latinx students are keenly aware of their teachers as a person, their school as a community, the intrusion of the outside world, and students as agents. Qualitative results support the importance of the three components of the construct, student trust in teachers, student academic press, and student identification with school. As a new source of data, combined with existing metrics of instructional effectiveness, student academic optimism could increase the ability of decision makers to improve the overall efficacy of school systems especially when addressing the persistent opportunity gaps for Latinx and other students of color.

This dissertation examines the significance of the Kansas Tort Claims Act of 1979 on state of Kansas court decisions in litigation against Kansas school districts and their employees. Through providing a historical perspective of the adoption and abolishment of the doctrine of sovereign immunity in the United States, which subsequently led to the enactment of the Federal Tort Claims Act, and ultimately led to the Kansas Tort Claims Act, the researcher analyzes pertinent case law and scholarly commentary pertaining to school negligence litigation. The goal of the analysis is to answer the following research question: How have Kansas state courts interpreted the Kansas Tort Claims Act in litigation against state school districts and their employees? Although the KTCA provides citizens with a vehicle for redress against governmental entities by virtue of tort claims, the KTCA also provides immunities from liability for governmental entities and their employees under exceptions to the KTCA. Most notably, the discretionary function exception and the recreational use exception are two exceptions to liability applied in a significant number of tort cases against Kansas school districts and employees. The case law analysis provides explanations for the types of actions of negligence that Kansas courts have qualified for …

This study had three main purposes. The first was to determine the perceptions of public school administrators toward desirability and toward feasibility of accountability items. The second was to determine the perceptions of public school teachers toward desirability and toward feasibility of accountability items. The third was to compare the perceptions of administrators with those of teachers and to indicate areas where they seemed to be in agreement or disagreement.