Browsing by Author "Johnson, Paula A."

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    A descriptive study of teacher time usage and allocation in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
    Draeger, Brad S. (Virginia Tech, 1995-01-05)
    The purpose of this study is to document how much time teachers in a large suburban school district expend on their professional responsibilities at home and at school. The study also documents the time usage and allocation through the relationships of teaching experience and teaching grade level assignment. Fairfax County Public Schools and all school systems are facing increasing demands for educational reform. Teacher responsibilities have continued to increase with many current reform initiatives. Consequently the associated time for reform implementation, with increased demands is not limitless. Current time usage documentation is important data needed in future educational reform decisions. Two hundred and thirty-one randomly selected teachers completed a questionnaire regarding the time spent working in an average week for Fairfax County Public Schools. The results of this study are reported in total time spent on tasks associated with their professional responsibility both at home and school; and time spent specifically on; individual planning, group/team planning, assessment, instructional contact, career and staff development and parent communication. The mean hours per week reported in this survey was fifty-nine hours per week. T-Tests comparisons revealed Significant differences in three categories at the .10 level of confidence; first year teachers spend less time in staff development, middle school teachers spend more time in team planning and elementary teachers spend less time in team planning. There were no significant findings in any other areas of data analysis. T-Tests were utilized to examine Significant differences in time distribution between means in the following demographic areas; years of teaching experience and grade level assignment. Reviews of literature reveal a few studies of teacher time documentation exist in England and West Germany. This study is one of the first in the United States documenting teacher time usage in a large suburban school district. The interpretive results from this study provide data for strategic planning for educational reform and suggest areas for further research in teacher time usage.
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    Forces Affecting Beginning Teacher/Mentor Relationships in a Large Suburban School System
    Smith, Judith (Virginia Tech, 2003-02-26)
    According to the U. S. Department of Education (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996), U.S. public schools will hire an estimated two million teachers within the decade. The experience of the beginning teacher is a stressful one with more than 40% of new teachers choosing to leave the profession during the first three years. One promising practice to address this problem is mentoring, an expert teacher helping the beginner one-on-one. The heart of mentoring is the mentor/mentee relationship. This study investigated the nature of the beginning teacher/mentor relationship and the forces that affected that relationship. The methodology was a cross-case analysis of three pairs of mentor/mentees at the elementary level. The data were collected from focus groups, teacher interviews, observations, email responses, and document review. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method examining emerging themes across all three cases. Trustworthiness of the research was fostered through multiple sources of data, practice interviews, oversight by peers and committee, participant review, and description of themes in the participants' own words. The data revealed that the mentor/mentee pairs developed very strong relationships grounded on reassurance, collaboration, reciprocity, friendship, problem solving, multi-layered support, and informal structures for getting together. Positive forces affecting the relationships included personality of the participants, perception of mentor role, closeness of age, proximity of classrooms, and common teaching assignment. Time constraints acted as a negative force that presented many challenges addressed by mentors and their mentees in very unique ways.
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    The Impact of Technology on Parental Involvement:  Perceptions of teachers and guidance counselors regarding the impact of a parent portal component of a student information system on parental involvement at the high school level
    Johnson, Paula A. (Virginia Tech, 2013-04-03)
    With just a click of a button, individuals from across the world can communicate and share information with ease and efficiency through the internet. Employing similar technology, schools are implementing student information systems with a parent portal component to provide parents, students, teachers and guidance counselors with anytime, real-time avenues of communication regarding attendance, grades and standardized test scores in an effort to increase parental involvement and student achievement. Schools must collect and review data to make sound decisions to guide practice (Mann & Shakeshaft, 2003). Therefore, utilization of parent portals should be evaluated along with the strategies employed to increase parental use. This study is an investigation of the perceptions of high school teachers and guidance counselors on the impact of a parent portal on parental involvement and strategies used to increase parental use. Through descriptive and inferential analyses of survey data, key findings were revealed. Overall, guidance counselors perceived the impact of the parent portal to be positive and indicated more strategies were used in their schools differing from the teachers' perception. However, both indicated a need to partner with the community to improve parental use of the parent portal.  Publishing an annual user guide on the parent portal for all stakeholders (teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, students, parents and the community) was one major implication. Centralizing information distributed regarding the parent portal will strengthen the overall intent of the program and the division's goal of providing opportunities for all to actively engage in student achievement (Longfellow, 2004).
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    An investigation of differences in selected curriculum and student characteristics in regular and gifted English classes in Area I Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia
    Johnson, Paula A. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1987)
    Current research and national studies reflect concerns about the quality of differentiated education that is offered to gifted and talented students. Fairfax County Public Schools, in Virginia, has made a commitment to providing differentiated education to gifted and talented students, as mandated by the Virginia Legislature in the Virginia Standards of Quality. This study investigated differences in selected curriculum and student characteristics in Area I English classes in Fairfax County Public Schools, with a focus on four research questions, as follows: 1. Is there a difference in the instructional objectives of regular and gifted classes? 2. Is there a difference in teacher expectations in regular and gifted classes? 3. Is there a difference in parent expectations in regular and gifted classes? 4. Is there a difference in selected student characteristics and expectations in regular and gifted classes? Classroom observations, using four measures, and surveys of students, teachers, and parents were conducted. In addition, the six subtests of the Biographical Inventory for Creativity, seven subtests of the Scientific Research Associates (SRA) test, two subtests of the Differential Aptitude (DAT) test, and grade point averages (GPA) were used to assess differences. An analysis of twenty-three variables using chi-square, t-tests (one sample and pooled), multivariate tests of significance, and analyses of variance revealed that some differences do exist between regular and gifted English curriculum characteristics and students. Results of classroom observations indicated that there is a difference in two measures of curriculum (content and quality of time spent on content) in gifted and regular English classes. There was no statistical significance in the other two measures, teacher expectation and response to content. Surveys of students, teachers, and parents reflected significant differences in perceptions of the curriculum in regular and gifted classes. Results of the Biographical Inventory indicated that there were differences in five of the six measures: academic performance, creativity, leadership, educational orientation, and vocational maturity. There was no significant difference in the sixth measure, artistic potential. There were statistically significant differences in all seven subtests of the SRA (reading, math, language, reference materials, social studies, science, and ability) and both subtests of the DAT (spatial relations and mechanical reasoning). There were also differences found in GPA.
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    National Survey of the Perceptions of Selected School Board Members Regarding the Quality and Condition, Maintenance, and Improvement and Renovation of Existing Public School Facilities
    Moulton, James C. Jr. (Virginia Tech, 1998-08-31)
    The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of selected school board members across the country regarding the quality and condition, maintenance, and improvement and renovation of existing public school facilities within their district. There were three research questions in this study. The first question examined how selected school board members perceived the quality and condition of existing public school facilities. The second question examined how they perceived the maintenance of these facilities. The third question examined what actions had been taken by the school boards of these selected members to address the improvement and renovation of these facilities. A descriptive research methodology was employed in this study. A nationwide stratified random sample had been selected to receive a coded mailed questionnaire consisting of twenty-one survey items, seven for each of the three research questions. The questionnaire included demographic information designed to allow the researcher to disaggregate the data received according to each of nine geographic regions throughout the country. Two follow-up mailings were made to non-respondents to increase the data collection return rate. Incomplete returns were not included in the data analysis. Frequency tables and descriptive statistics were constructed to display results with respect to each of the three research questions. The researcher found that the results of this study did not support significant recommendations that affirm findings in previous studies. Those findings described a continual pattern in the failure of school districts across the country to properly maintain the quality and condition, maintenance, and improvement and renovation of existing public school facilities. This study surveyed selected school board members nationally for the first time regarding their perceptions on these issues.
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    Parents and Teachers Perceptions of Effective Communication in Two Schools in One Division in Virginia
    Lipscomb, Kecia Ormond (Virginia Tech, 2015-04-22)
    Parents often perceive schools as the sole educator of their child when in actuality the school prefers parents to be involved as partners in the learning process (Comer and Haynes, 1991). Likewise, schools make the assumption that parents realize their role in the learning process, but do not effectively communicate the partnership to parents, and misconceptions about the parents and teachers roles and behaviors arise. Research has shown that both schools and parents have a major influence on children as they develop and that they learn best when schools and parents work together (Comer and Haynes, 1991). The purpose of this study was to examine parent and teacher perceptions of effective communication. This was a non-experimental quantitative study that compared the differences between parents' and teachers' perceptions of effective communication. The study consisted of a survey for parents and teachers on a Likert scale. The survey data were compared through the use of the t-test statistic and a One-Way Analysis of Variance. The information discovered in this study will allow the researcher to bridge the learning gap regarding how parents and teachers can actively participate in the effective communication process to enable both parties to send and receive messages and limit the amount of misunderstanding on educational topics relating to students. This information will be provided to principals and school leaders in order to better manage the communication process between parents and teachers to include the information, attitudes, and perspectives that exist, thus, impacting student achievement and school success. Findings included identified differences between parent and teacher perceptions regarding the effectiveness and frequency of communication, and difference between teachers at the two schools and between parents at the two schools.
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    School Linked Services: A National Study of the Perceptions and Opinions of School Board Members
    Hardiman, Priscilla M. (Virginia Tech, 1998-03-18)
    The purpose of the study was to determine the perceptions and opinions of national school board members concerning the present availability and impact of school-linked services in their school districts. Schools have been asked to act as brokers for a diverse array of social, health, and judicial services to help ameliorate some of the problems of students at risk of educational failure. In response, a growing number of school districts have established many types of school-linked programs which provide services to children and their families through collaborative partnerships among schools, health care providers, social service agencies, and judicial systems. The research questions for this study were: (1) To what extent do school board members perceive that school-linked services are necessary and are available to students in their district, and developed in a collaborative manner? (2) Do school board members perceive changes in governance and in formulating policy to oversee the school district as a result of school-linked services? (3) To what extent do school board members perceive that school-linked services impact on school funding? (4) To what extent do school board members perceive that review procedures are in place to evaluate the effectiveness of school-linked services in their district? (5) What are school board members' opinions of the obstacles and critical issues related to school-linked services in their school district? Descriptive research methodology was utilized in this study. A stratified, random sample of school board member subscribers to The American School Board Journal was identified, and subsequently surveyed through the use of a mailed questionnaire. Thirty percent of the population of 19,723 were surveyed. The response rate was 5.9 percent. A second mailing was sent to 3 percent of the subscriber population. This time a coded survey was utilized. This mailing resulted in a 19.7 percent response rate. The data revealed that the development of school-linked services are supported and are needed in a majority of the school districts that responded. The range of services provided and the variety of approaches of school-linked services is broad and diverse. The majority of board members do not perceive changes in governance or policy formulation as a result of school-linked services in their district. School-linked services do not impact on school district funding; however, inadequate financing is the major obstacle to implementing services. School board members responded that procedures to review the effectiveness of programs are in place and that the services offered are meeting the clients' needs. In addition to funding, another obstacle to successful implementation of services is that some school board members' believe that schools should not get involved in providing social services. Substance abuse services, health services and parenting classes ranked as the three areas where services are most critically needed.